While most youth workers say volunteers are an important part of their youth ministry, many struggle with actual recruitment and development of them. Having experienced these struggles firsthand, youth ministry veterans Mark Oestreicher, Heather Flies and David Chow wholeheartedly agree no one should do youth ministry alone.

A 25-year youth ministry veteran, Marko is now president of Youth Specialties. As an author, trainer and frequent speaker, each year Marko equips thousands of youth workers to build healthy volunteer teams and effective youth ministries.

As someone who began her youth ministry career alone, Heather knows from personal experience just how important volunteers are. As the junior high pastor at Wooddale Church in Minnesota, Heather now loves and values her 65-member volunteer staff. As a trainer and speaker, she frequently challenges others to be more serious and intentional about volunteers.

David’s passion for developing volunteers was evident in his book No More Lone Rangers and has since led him into his new role as the founder of Leading Together, a ministry that provides coaching and consulting for churches and Christian leaders in leadership development.

Here’s what these experts told us.

YouthWorker Journal: Is the issue of volunteers a big deal in youth ministry? Why does this issue matter?

Mark Oestreicher: Hah! It’s a huge issue. It’s impossible to ignore because effective youth ministries are not built on paid youth workers. Effective youth ministries are ones in which a wide variety of youth workers are investing in specific groups of kids whom they get to know and care for. I don’t know of a way that good youth ministry can be done without a team of volunteers.

Heather Flies: I honestly think volunteers make or break a ministry. I spent four years at a church plant where I was the first paid youth director. For the first couple of months, I basically did it myself, and it just wasn’t working. It wasn’t fair to me or the kids. Now, I’m looking constantly for more volunteers.

David Chow: It’s a big deal for a lot of reasons. Volunteers are really the key for youth ministries to reach more students for Christ. It’s a big deal because it’s a clear expression of the body of Christ. It’s a big deal because when leaders learn how to utilize volunteers they’re forced to depend on God by depending on others. Volunteers are essential—not just biblically but practically.

YWJ: What would you say to the youth worker convinced he can do it alone?

Heather: They’re being selfish and not modeling the body of Christ. We all play different parts, and God is putting us in different places on purpose. If they’re doing it alone, they very well could be taking up a part in the body that could be done better by someone else.

Marko: I’d say they’re seriously mistaken and have a Messiah complex. They will discover the reality of that within a few years if they don’t burn out first.

YWJ: What does a successful volunteer ministry look like?

David: Success is seeing volunteers loving students and finding great satisfaction in it. It’s when volunteers are living out the values and the vision of the ministry. It’s having a diversity of volunteers with different ethnicities and ages because only then do we reach a variety of students. Success is when volunteers remain long-term and recruit other volunteers. It’s seeing the leadership develop and expand.

YWJ: How should a youth worker go about recruiting volunteers?

Heather: My best recruiters are my volunteer staff. If one of my staff is talking about how much he loves being with junior high students, that’s more powerful than me going, “Hey, wanna come work with the junior highers?” When I’m equipping and encouraging my staff, it’s going to change their lives, so they’re going to talk about it. Exposure is also important. The more exposure I have as the junior high pastor, the better.

YWJ: How can a youth worker begin building a volunteer team?

Heather: Make it hard to get in and easy to get out. The first thing I do is “name clearing” where I submit names of people who want to be involved in the ministry to the pastoral staff. It allows us to see if there have been issues in the past or if someone has a significant problem. Then I send out an application, including a background check and three reference forms. I set up an interview one-on-one where I lay out my expectations. If that all goes well, then we bring them aboard to start in our overall ministry. We do a three-month trial period, then check in with each other to make sure it’s a good fit for everyone.

Marko: Volunteer youth workers can burn out really quickly, just like paid youth workers can if they’re not coached on how to last for a long time. That involves making sure their souls are being taken care of and they’re not carrying too much responsibility. When I was a full-time youth pastor I found that when I invested a lot of my small budget in the care of my volunteers, rather than into flashy programs, it actually had a much deeper impact on my ministry, because those volunteers were the ones who really understood what they were doing. They were more effective. They better understood their calling. They stuck around and got better, rather than me having to train a whole new crew of volunteers every single year.

YWJ: How can youth workers develop and disciple their volunteer teams?

David: One of the challenges for pastors and leaders is that a lot of us have not been developed ourselves. Before you develop others, get developed. In terms of building the team, think outside the box. What are those developmental relationships and experiences that we can provide to stretch them as leaders? Help your volunteers discover their strengths. Strengths are talents, skills and knowledge. Strengths aren’t just things you’re good at; they’re things that energize you. When people serve out of their strengths, it’s addictive!

YWJ: What should youth workers train volunteers on?

Marko: A lot of paid and lead youth workers cognitively agree on the value of training their volunteers but don’t have a whole lot of follow-through in that area. There are a variety of things you can do. Buy books for the volunteer team and agree together to read and have discussions about them. Accessing some of the training resources Youth Specialties, Group and other publishers provide can be a really helpful way to train  people without a massive expense. I’ve also found that bringing in a youth worker from another nearby church, who has expertise in youth ministry I don’t have, can be extremely valuable to my volunteers and very light-lifting for me.

Heather: I used to think I just couldn’t ask my staff to do any more than they already were doing. I’d schedule a training session and then feel bad and cancel. Then I realized it’s not that I’m asking them to do more; I’m equipping them to do ministry. I get feedback from my leaders about topics. This year, I took my cue from Doug Fields and talked about issues of the heart. I talked about taking care of your own soul and about jealousy.

YWJ: How can youth workers form community among their volunteers?

Marko: Community is essential. It’s not just about having volunteers who feel equipped. That’s important, but it’s essential they feel like they’re a part of a community of people who are hearing the same calling and struggling with the same things. In a lot of ways, this is easier today than it ever has been because there are so many on-line tools to help facilitate that. There has to be a regular time of meeting together—super-formalized with a very tight agenda where the paid youth worker is the only one talking. There also have to be times of eating together, hanging out, playing and praying together, and collaborative problem solving. Those kinds of things build community.

YWJ: How can youth workers encourage their volunteers?

Heather: We have a staff budget line allocated for appreciating our leaders. Appreciation always involves food, an activity and personal affirmation. I write a note to every person, then read it in front of everyone. Sometimes I have kids write things they appreciate about the staff, and I read those in front of people, too.

YWJ: How would you recommend a youth worker handle conflict between leaders?

David: Remember—not all conflict is bad. The best teams have lots of conflict, but they have conflict based on trust and respect and allows people to move forward. In terms of resolving conflict, it’s ideal if the parties involved will do it on their own. Don’t jump in too soon. Encourage them to work it out and see if they can follow Matthew 18. If things persist, then a leader has a responsibility to step in.

Heather: The quicker you deal with conflict, the better. We want to deescalate rather than escalate things. I will not handle conflict via email. When my volunteers have conflicts with one another, I won’t get involved until they’ve talked to one another about it. We’ve got to train our students in conflict management, so we’ve got be living it out, as well.

YWJ: Final thoughts?

David: Don’t put all your energy into recruiting volunteers and leave nothing for development. Development is where it all happens. This is where volunteers stick around and develop others. Focus on building strengths in your volunteers rather than on fixing weaknesses. When you focus on strengths, everyone wins. When you fix weaknesses, it’s pretty draining for everyone.

Heather: The view often is that we need to get something out of our volunteers. It’s so much more beneficial if we view them as our partners and team. I believe kids deserve better than the bottom of the barrel, so I’ll do what it takes to get quality people for my kids.