May use to be my favorite month. The weather is nice, the trees are all out in bloom and the golf course is looking tasty! However, once I got into vocational ministry I quickly discovered May to be the month I dread!

One of my old Pastors once told me, “Alex, expect your volunteers to try to quit in May so take them out to lunch before hand, give them a gift certificate, keep telling them how much you appreciate them”. I thought this was strange until I came to my first May in ministry and found that my head Usher and my Elementary director tried to quit in May. What! Did this Pastor predict the future? No, he just had experience of May in ministry.

In January volunteers are pumped up and ready to go. The new year brings with it a new lease of life, people want to get involved. Over the next five months a lot happens in peoples lives and in ministry. Winter takes it toil (unless your in Arizona), Easter preparations stress people out and then the nice weather emerges. This means vacations!. People start to think of what they want to do in the summer, all the weekend trips they want to take and all the cookouts they will attend. Volunteers start to realize they need a rest and don’t have time to serve at church, this is when they come to their ministry leader or Pastor and say, “I need a rest!”

I’ve seen this phenomena every year I have been in ministry and I believe there is a solution and I don’t believe it is buttering them up in late April. I do believe we as leaders need to take care of our volunteers. We need to shepherd them. The following is a list of ways I have discovered to stop the May quitting syndrome:

• Make sure when people volunteer they know exactly what is involved. Give role descriptions if necessary
• Don’t schedule people every week, even if they want to, they will eventually burn on you
• Recognize that everyone needs to feel they are playing a part, give them a say in how their role functions
• Some people go the extra mile in everything they do, make sure they are only going the mile that is needed
• Have lots of social ‘get togethers’ for your team members that are relaxing, fun and creates authentic community
• Take the summers off! Use the summer to train, plan and strategize. If you are in a vital ministry that needs volunteers every week, re-structure your program in the summer so you can schedule volunteers less.
• Don’t schedule as many meetings! Instead take your volunteers out to lunch or have them over for dinner. Meetings drain people and are hated by the general public! Sorry Pastors I know this one hits you hard!
• Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate. Show your volunteers on a regular (not once a year) basis what they have achieved, the ministry has achieved and why because of them lives have been changed.
• Read, ‘Simply Strategic Volunteers’ by Tony Morgan & Tim Stevens

This is a list of things I have found useful. Some of these things may work for you, some may not. However, start to think what you can do to create an environment where volunteers thrive and love to be part of your ministry and church.

Have you experienced times when volunteers quit? Let me know I’d love to hear the thoughts and insights of others on this subject.