The non-children Children’s Ministry volunteer. You know the type. They volunteer for VBS, Kids Church, Sunday School, Camp, almost everything. Then they stand in the back of the room, talk with other volunteers, and the kids are left alone. No relationships are formed with kids, just with other adults.

I feel like this is one of the greatest atrocities in modern children’s ministry. These people feel an obligation to volunteer, a sort of “duty”, and so they do. And that is honorable. But their downfall is in that they ignore the very people they volunteered to help! Could you imagine if those people volunteered to serve lunch at a homeless shelter, then stood in the back of the room while the people remained hungry? It would never happen! But for some reason people think that kids are “too low for them” and “not worthy of their presence”. These kids are a lot like those homeless people. They are hungry for the word of God, and we’re standing in the back of the room chatting, while they starve to death.

OK, so here is my brave statement of the day: You are better off not volunteering at all, than volunteering then not working. That does two things:

1. It says to the kids: “I don’t care about you, I’m here for the adults.”
2. The event director doesn’t have enough help. When they say they need 25 volunteers, they mean working volunteers, not 10 workers and 15 “hang-outers”.

I know no one likes to “fire” volunteers per say, but sometimes it is necessary. If a volunteer can’t get the idea that Children’s Ministry, uh, um, involves real live children, maybe they should be working elsewhere in the church. As leaders, we need to set an example for the other leaders, not join in! Don’t do it just because it’s “cool”. Peer pressure is as much pushed on adults as kids and teens. So make sure that you set an example, then enforce the idea, rather than simply letting it slide.

So what do you think?

Update 10:32 AM-6/14/07: Hey, this is Evan here.  A commenter named Laura made a good point in the comments about the volunteers who do things like snacks and sets.  I responded to her here. I would encourage you to check it out. Thanks!