Most churches have more help than they need in the form of volunteers. But to leverage their gifts effectively, your church needs to have a clear process in place regarding how church volunteers engage and participate in the Information Technology ministry. The Bible states in 1 Peter 4:10, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”

Church members bring the gifts but you must train them on how to best utilize their talents and gifts to support your IT infrastructure. This is the key to ensuring a stable, secure, and scalable environment capable of supporting the growth of your organization. The following steps will help you build that foundation and have a strong technical volunteer group.

Have a plan in place for what volunteers will do and how much time you require of them. This plan will act as a volunteer “job description” that clearly states everything you expect from them and how the job is to be carried out.

Since they will have access to potential confidential and restricted areas, they need to sign a Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure agreement to protect your organization’s data and infrastructure. This ensures that all your volunteers understand the importance and the criticality of the roles and functions they are performing.

Put a process in place to validate their expertise and knowledge. This can be done with a quick knowledge test or exam to see where they are and to help fill any gaps that may be present for the volunteer assignment.

Have regular meetings with the team to discuss how things are going and what needs to be changed. Get their opinions and recommendations on how and what to do next. It is highly important to keep the volunteers involved throughout these processes so there is a sense of ownership. Volunteers like to help and not just be told what to do. Regular meetings will help ensure everyone is on the same page.

Develop a clear list of tools to train and advance the volunteer team on a consistent basis.

Source: Ministry Tech

 

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