vol·un·teer

 a person who freely offers to take part

Whether you have a church of 200 or 2,000, your ministry’s impact can be directly related to your volunteer culture. Volunteers do more than just hold doors open or play with toddlers, they can reflect God’s goodness as they interact with people. Greeters are really telling each person who comes in the door he or she is wanted, and that can make people more receptive to the life-changing message of Jesus. Those volunteers playing with toddlers are showing these kids that church is safe and fun, and that Jesus loves them. We could not do church without an army of volunteers that serve every week.

There is great value in celebrating! Too often we find ourselves too busy to celebrate. It seems like the reasonable thing to take off our always growing schedule. “There are more important things to do.” “Surely that time, money and effort can be spent more effectively.” Maybe these thoughts have crossed your mind a time or two. Celebrating needs to be in the regular rhythm of life. Why? Because we see God tell His people to celebrate time and time again. Andy Stanley says “What’s celebrated is repeated.” If we take time to celebrate volunteers, then our volunteers will know how much they are valued. They won’t feel overlooked or forgotten. If we truly believe that volunteers directly impact the effectiveness of our churches – we need to be on purpose to build a healthy and vibrant volunteer culture.

There are many aspects to building a healthy volunteer culture. You can read an article I wrote about that HERE. This website, however, is to share one of the ways to keep celebrating volunteers at the forefront of your church. Here is the story of how THE VOLEES began nearly a decade ago.

My name is Tiffany Lyons. One of my first jobs in ministry was at High Street Baptist Church as the Volunteer Coordinator. When I first starting working at High Street one of the first things I wanted to do was throw a big party for all of our wonderful volunteers who make church happen every week. I began to talk to friends who had done an events for volunteers. I began to dream of something that the people of our church would look be excited about. I didn’t want it to be just one more thing they felt obligated to come to, but that they looked forward to all year.

I decided to make an event that was as exciting the award shows we watch every year, like The Grammys or The Emmys. I loved the red carpet feel. I loved that people dressed up and that they were going to an event where what they had done all year was going to be celebrated. So I decided to call my event The Volees: A combination of the words “Volunteer” and “Grammys” or “Emmys.” I was going to roll out the red carpet for all of our volunteers and for an entire evening they would be able to come and celebrate what God had done through them all year. Our very first Volees was in 2008 and High Street has been rolling out the red carpet for volunteers for almost a decade.

I have friends who work in churches all over the world who have asked me what we do for The Volees. I wanted to create thevolees.com as a resource for anyone who is interested in doing something similar at their church. So feel free to check out what we have done throughout the years.