Having spent many years recruiting volunteers as a pastor and lay leader in the church, I have learned that adopting a long-term approach to recruitment is essential. It may not produce results immediately, but over time, it will help you develop a ministry that attracts volunteers. After you have developed a volunteer-friendly culture, these short-term recruitment strategies will be much more effective.

Here are 10 long-term strategies for recruiting volunteers:

1. Pray for God to raise up workers

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of prayer in the recruitment process. When God begins to tug on someone’s heart to serve, it’s pretty hard to resist.

2. Help people discern their calling and strengths

A long-term approach to recruitment moves away from filling spots to helping volunteers understand their God-given calling. When people serve in their areas of passion, they're often much more satisfied and productive (check out my blog on personal calling to explore this further).

3. Serve your current volunteers well

If your current volunteers feel appreciated and supported, word will get out to others that your ministry is a great place to serve.

4. Build a strong sense of team

One of the primary reasons why people volunteer is to experience community. Strengthen your existing team of volunteers and the team dynamic will draw in others.

5. Start mobilizing early

One of the most successful high school basketball teams in British Columbia, Canada is from a small private school. They play at the very highest level in their age category and consistently win. One of the reasons for their success is that the coach starts training players for the team when they are as young as seven-years-old. His long-term success is based on his commitment to mobilize early. If we can mobilize children and youth to serve, we are much more likely to have capable adult volunteers in 5-10 years.

Throughout Scripture, we see examples of individuals and groups who engaged in fasting. Even though fasting today often includes refraining from activities besides eating (e.g. fasting from technology), the main type of fasting describing in the Bible involved abstaining from food. This does not diminish the importance of other types of fasting, but simply puts the following three biblical reasons to fast in their proper context.

Fasting Sometimes Accompanies Repentance

Because fasting is a time of denying ourselves and focusing more on God, we are often more open to the work of the Holy Spirit during times of fasting. This is one reason why people fast from something during the Lent season.

In Scripture, we see that the Israelites confessed their sins at Mizpah as they fasted (1 Sam. 7:6). Later on in their history, the Israelites fasted as they confessed their sin of marrying foreigners (Neh. 9:1-2). Daniel fasted as he confessed the sins of his people (Dan. 9:1-6).

Fasting sometimes precedes repentance, which opens us up to the Spirit’s work. However, fasting may also come after repentance, as we see in King Ahab’s life when he fasted after becoming aware of his sin (1 Kings 21:27). In this case, fasting is a response to the Spirit’s convicting work.

Fasting Sometimes Accompanies Urgent Prayer

Every group, whether it’s a ministry team, church, or organization needs a mission. Why are we here? A sense of mission binds people together and helps them be more intentional and strategic in their use of group resources.

The following is a proven method for helping groups create a dynamic mission statement in 30 minutes or less (the method works best with 3-12 participants, although you can modify it for larger groups):

Step #1 – Describe the current group

Have group members brainstorm on their own three to five adjectives that currently describe the group and write them on separate post-it notes. For example, as I think about ACTS Seminaries where I teach, three adjectives that come to mind are practical, personal and collaborative. This time of individual reflection is important. As group members contribute their personal perceptions to the process, they are much more likely to own the product (i.e. the mission statement) at the end.

Step #2 – Categorize adjectives describing the current group

Working together, group the adjectives into categories. For example, someone in my group describing ACTS Seminaries may have used the word “applied,” which we could place in the same category as my contribution of “practical.” Even as you categorize adjectives, don’t minimize the importance of isolated adjectives. The outliers may have an important role to play later on.

Step #3 – Describe a dream version of the group

Have individual group members think about what they would love their group to be like in five years. Invite them to write down three to five adjectives on post-it notes that describe this dream group. As I think about my seminary, I would love it to be innovative, responsive and context-based. Once again, this is a solo exercise (like step #1), which helps everyone express their voice in a meaningful way.

Step #4 – Categorize the adjectives describing the dream group

Group the new post-it notes into categories. Some may fit into the categories from step #2 while others may lead to the creation of new categories. If an adjective does not seem to fit with any of the other descriptions, allow it to stand by itself as its own category.

Step #5 – Create a mission statement