Recruiting (Part 1): Why Volunteer Recruiting Always Lands on Your Desk
- Tony Kensinger
- Feb 17
- 3 min read
What’s the biggest challenge you’re facing in kids ministry?
I don’t even need to wait for the answer.
At every church I’ve served, in every interview I’ve had, the first thing I was told was the same:“We need more volunteers.”
If that sentence feels familiar, you’re not alone. And you’re not failing.
I still remember stepping into a kids ministry where the volunteer list was thin and the people on it were exhausted. They were faithful, committed, and worn out. Over the next six months, we rebuilt the team and more than doubled our volunteer base. Momentum returned. The ministry felt healthy again. I was proud of what God was doing.
Then my phone rang.
I was on vacation visiting family when our lead pastor called to let me know we were adding a third service... in five weeks. And yes, kids ministry needed to be fully staffed.
After the panic wore off, I had a moment of clarity that changed how I lead to this day. I stopped spiraling, stopped making excuses, and reminded myself of something simple but true:
I am a kids pastor. And recruiting is part of my calling.
That shift mattered.
Instead of waiting for people to come to me, I went to them. We recruited from the stage, in groups, and through face-to-face conversations. We moved people into new roles, empowered emerging leaders, and cast vision everywhere we could. Five weeks later, we added 48 volunteers and successfully launched that third service.
Here’s what I’ve learned since then, church after church:
Recruiting doesn’t fail because people don’t care. It fails because leaders don’t have a framework.
Most kids ministry leaders carry the weight of recruiting like a burden instead of leading it like a responsibility. We treat it like an emergency instead of a system. And when recruiting becomes reactive, it always feels exhausting.
Over the years, I’ve noticed something interesting about people who serve in kids ministry. Most of them are motivated by one of three things:
Process – they love structure, systems, and consistency
Performance – they thrive on results, excellence, and improvement
People – they’re relational, empathetic, and drawn to connection
A healthy kids ministry needs all three. The problem is that most leaders recruit without understanding which of these drives them -or the people they’re talking to.
That’s why recruiting often feels hit-or-miss.
There really is a place for everyone. But leaders have to help people see it.
Before we ever talk about who to recruit or how to recruit, we have to answer a deeper question:
Why does kids ministry need volunteers in the first place?
At FRESH Ministries, we talk about this through five core values:Family. Relationships. Experience. Safety. Hope.
Volunteers strengthen families. They create meaningful relationships. They bring diverse gifts and experiences to the table. They help us keep kids safe. And often without realizing it, they become conduits of hope -not just for kids, but for parents and even for their own spiritual growth.
Here’s the part leaders sometimes forget: More than we need people to serve, people need a place to serve.
Recruiting isn’t about filling holes in a schedule. It’s about inviting people into purpose.
If recruiting feels overwhelming right now, that doesn’t mean you’re bad at leadership. It usually means you’ve been trying to solve a systems problem with announcements and urgency.
That’s exactly why we created the Recruiting Lab—to help kids and family ministry leaders move from panic-driven recruiting to a clear, repeatable process that actually works.
In the next post, we’ll take a closer look at why people really volunteer—and why understanding that changes everything.
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