Buggins Turn and Grim Duty?

1. Buggins Turn and Grim Duty? How can we improve how we look after volunteers and nurture their gifts?

2. Volunteering • My experience with volunteering • How do volunteers support your parish/mission community? • Are people in your church volunteers with other organisations? • What proportion of the congregation actively participate in the life of the church? • Value of volunteering

3. Do you have any difficulties with volunteers? • Not enough? • Not the right ones? • Troublesome volunteers? • People who can’t let go? • Those who would like to let go, but can’t? • Is it better to fill all the posts in the parish, even if the people aren’t suitable or want to do them; or to leave them unfilled and either cease the activity or see if a new person steps forward?

4. Fewer and fewer volunteers? • 58% of people volunteered in the past year, 69% in past 5 years (2007 Cabinet Office survey) • Average volunteer gave 11 hours in past month • 95% said they were appreciated, 90% had chance to do activities they liked • Benefits included: satisfaction from seeing results, personal achievement, meet people and make new friends • 35-44, 55-64 ages, women, employed and religious are most likely to volunteer • What strikes you in relation to your church?

5. How volunteer-friendly is your parish? • See question sheet • What do your answers tell you about volunteering in your church?

6. Why volunteer in church? (1) • Do you say “I was baptised, or I am baptised”? = a way of life • Responsibility to be active: “will you continue in the apostles teaching and fellowship, breaking of the bread, in the prayers” • Will you persevere in resisting evil….proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ?....seek and serve Christ in all people?...acknowledge Christ’s authority over human society….by prayer…by defending the weak…by seeking peace and justice? • How do you celebrate Baptism in your church?

7. Why volunteer in church? (2) • Baptism • Collaborative ministry – 1 Corinthians 12: “now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit….to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good…all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ”. • Mission - Moving from being a “guest” to a “host”. • A Royal Priesthood - not about “helping the vicar” or compensating for the lack of a parish priest…. • Gifts: “we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us”. Romans 12. Start with gifts….not jobs to do

8. How do we discern the gifts of potential volunteers? • “the particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose” – for what purpose has the Spirit been given to you? 1 Cor 12:7 • Role of priest and leadership in prayerful discernment : identify, call out, affirm, combine with gifts of the community • Biblical models – the reluctant, such as Moses, and the accepting, such as Mary

9. What are we asking volunteers to do? • Role description - ask existing volunteers to write down what they do • Does this job really need doing? • Time involved • Term of office • Working with, and responsible to who? • Support given • Safeguarding issues • Gifts and talents needed • Link to Mission Action Plan

10. How do we find volunteers? • The problem of the general appeal for help • The danger of comprehensive “time and talents” surveys • Widen the pool…. • Application form • A “structured conversation” • References & checks • Team fit (next slide) – are there gaps in your PCC/other teams?

12. Team roles - Belbin • Chair – calm, good at guiding and co-ordinating team • Shaper – task leader; dynamic & energetic; can be impatient • Plant – ideas person; imaginative, sensitive, not a details person; can lose interest • Monitor/evaluator – analytical, critical/detached; can put a dampener on things • Resource investigator – networker, extrovert, enthusiastic, but may lose interest in routine tasks • Company worker – practical, organised, • Team worker – mediator, positive, likeable, good listener • Finisher – progress chaser, wants to meet deadlines, can be over-anxious

13. How do we look after volunteers? • Who supports them? • Training available in church • Training through diocese, CVS or other • Date to review how things are going – see ministry review sheet • Succession planning – can role be split up? Can someone shadow/deputise? Celebrate those now moving on from a long standing role

14. A parish/mission community volunteer handbook • Welcome/intro from priest/leadership team • Short reflection on theology of volunteering • Vision and Mission Action Plan summary • Different volunteering roles • Review and support • Practical: safeguarding, insurance, health & safety, expenses • Thank you note, and prayer

15. Celebrating volunteers • How are volunteers thanked and their work celebrated? – worship & liturgical year, publicity, events, personal thanks • Are some volunteers formally commissioned? • Sharing our stories of volunteering • How did Jesus encourage his disciples?

16. Follow up • www.volunteeringinparishes.org.uk • Parish Officer roles: http://www.exeter.anglican.org/index.cfm?page=church.content&cmid=19 • http://www.parishresources.org.uk/