Words Have Meaning

8 Trends that Were Forecasted

Trend #7 is very sobering for any non-profit work that relies heavily on volunteers.

The Volunteer Crisis Will Move From Acute to Chronic

Wise church leaders will stop making the volunteer ask about what they want FROM volunteers and make it about what they want FOR them instead. So many church leaders struggled to recruit volunteers as churches re-opened post-COVID. In 2023 and beyond that challenge will move from acute to a chronic crisis. Consider a few factors that will make this more difficult.

• First, the return to church meant different people returned to church, and much slower than expected(Click the link for a great article)
• More significantly, as Trend #1 outlined, Boomers are aging out and are the least likely group to return to church. This makes the volunteer backbone of most churches and nonprofit organizations less robust than it used to be. That will only get more challenging as boomers continue to age. 
• Plus, the next generations (primarily Millennials and GenZ) attend church less often and have more options on the weekend. And that makes getting them to commit harder. 

The volunteer crisis is a vision crisis. A vision requires that you recapture the Biblical sense that volunteering is more about the growth of the individual than the needs of the church will help to solve this crisis.

Reflection

The truth of the matter is that when people feel seen and appreciated and when they realize that serving in the church is one of the next expressions of their spiritual gifts, they will sign up faster and stay long.

The crisis is very real at the end of 2023. Effective solutions and messaging is woefully lacking.