How to Honor and Appreciate Your Volunteers this Christmas

Christmas time is here, so how are you going to honor your volunteers during this season? That's what we're going to talk about today. Are you ready? Because it's time.

You're listening to the Church Digital Sidekick Podcast, part of the TCD Podcast Network.

Hello, heroes. My name is Tom Pounder, and this is the Church Digital Sidekick Podcast. This is the podcast where we bring on ministry leaders and we talk about how you can do ministry more effectively in this very digital and online world. And today I'm bringing back my friend Corey Sullivan, and Corey and I are talking about Christmas. We both love Christmas, but what is the way that you can honor and appreciate your volunteers this Christmas season? We talk about a few different things that you can do that you can do at any time. Time sensitive. You can do this really at any time. And these are really practical steps and applications you can do for your volunteers, no matter what team you're leading, whether it's an online team, a student ministry team, a hospitality team. It doesn't matter. These are ways that you can honor and appreciate them this Christmas season. So we're going to talk about that. But first, I want to highlight TheChurch.Digital. At TheChurch.Digital, we've got tons of coaching, cohorts, blogs and podcasts, all with the intention of helping you in your online, digital or metaverse ministry. So if you've never checked it out, make sure you check it out today. And if you have checked out, keep checking it out because the blogs and the podcasts are coming every single week with new ideas, fresh ideas that will help you in your ministry be more effective in today's world. So go to TheChurch.Digital today. all right now we're going to talk about honoring and appreciating your volunteers during the christmas season we get into that right now all right with me right now is corey sullivan corey how are you what's up guys how are you guys doing how are you tom i'm doing good you can talk to the people who are listening too they can't answer you right now but i don't know i hope everyone's doing good as you listen to this yeah no i i hope everyone's doing good as well uh corey we're going to talk about christmas and in particular we're going to talk about honoring our volunteers and appreciating our volunteers during this christmas season but before we get into that let's Give everyone an idea of who you are. You've been on the podcast the most, but yeah, I'm the number one guy for those new to Tom's world.

My name is Corey Sullivan. I spent a long time of my life helping programs and nonprofits just maximize their efforts to impact the lives of kids and the outliers of youth. Right now, it looks like me personally running a nonprofit organization, but I also do a lot of training and coaching for programs and for kids one on one as well. So a lot of busyness, but really trying to think how can we help youth and their families to thrive?

That's cool. Good. That's great. And that didn't even seem scripted. No, I just made it up. I'm kidding. But it wasn't scripted. But anyways. OK, well, we're going to talk about Christmas. And as we get into the topic, I have to ask you, what is your favorite part of Christmas?

All right. Two things. All right. Well, first off, I love, I remember mochas from Starbucks. That is going to be my little treat that I'll give myself. I had one this morning. But then the big thing I love about Christmas is giving presents. Like I love to give presents. I love giving presents more than I like getting presents. So I'm that person that'll like go hunting for like that perfect gift or that one idea that I have for people. So yeah, I really enjoy giving gifts.

I can personally attest to that, that you do love giving gifts because when you lived in the same area as I did, you're a great gift giver. You're very thoughtful like that. So that's good. I'm kind of very similar to you. I like to give gifts more than I like to get gifts. I like to see the smile on their faces. I like to see the joy. So I like to do that as well. And I can't, for me personally, I can't narrow down everything I love about Christmas because I love Christmas so much. I mean, look, I even got a little Christmas wristband. If you're watching the video, my Apple Watch, I switched it out to a Christmas wristband. I love Christmas. I love the movies. Do you have a favorite Christmas movie?

No, but what jumped to my head is that you got me into it as part of your tradition, which I don't want to steal your thunder on it, but it is to watch a Christmas story on Christmas Eve. I actually didn't get into it.

It's a wonderful life. It's a wonderful life.

A wonderful life. That's what I meant. A wonderful life. Christmas story, wonderful life. I'll just blend into one thing. One of those two. Christmas story. Christmas story is on like for like every hour for like seven days straight winning big Christmas. And they have a sequel out on HBO. I don't know if you knew that. I did.

I did see a preview for that.

it's like a christmas story christmas but uh no it's a wonderful life you're right uh but you told me that's one of your traditions so i started doing that and actually like i never watched the movie until probably a couple years ago so and i'm in my 30s so there you go there's that go watch a wonderful life yeah it was actually on tv the other day and i watched some of it it was just great that's a little a little early no no

No, it's not. Listen, I watch it around Christmas. I don't watch It's a Wonderful Life any other time other than the Christmas season.

Here's a question for you. One of the things I've tried to do, and I don't know if I'll do it this year, but I've tried to see how many times I can watch the movie Elf between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Yeah, that's cool.

How many times do you think you could probably watch that movie in that month? I think I've watched it like 20 times.

Well, I don't know if you knew this, but the other day on TBS, they had 24 hours of Elf. You know how they usually do 24 hours of the Christmas story. They did 24 hours of Elf. And so I watched that once or twice or whenever. But OK, so actually, if you're if you're listening to the podcast, you're watching this on YouTube. Corey and I want to know what your favorite Christmas movie is. So give us a comment on the comment section.

Actually, it's actually Die Hard.

Yeah, Die Hard. Well, here's the other thing. I mean, if Die Hard's a Christmas movie, which I believe it is, Lethal Weapon is a Christmas movie because it happens around Christmas. There's Christmas trees. There's Christmas singing. So I think I'm putting a plan for Lethal Weapon to be a Christmas movie, too. We're starting to reach here.

We're starting to reach.

Okay, okay, okay. Let's rein it in a little bit. Let's rein it in. We're going to talk about Christmas, obviously, but we're going to talk about how you can honor and appreciate your volunteers during this time. It's a very busy time. It's a very stressful time, not just for ministry stuff, but personally. There's lots going on with our volunteer leaders. And so I wanted just to bat around for a few minutes about different ways that people can honor and appreciate their volunteers right now. So kick us off, Corey.

well i think this time you said it's busy you know it's a busy time for the program for them so i think it's taking the scheduling of program efforts into consideration of personal time right and what does that look like to help allow your volunteers to not feel torn between personal time and what your ministry and your program is trying to accomplish right so thinking thinking taking those considerations into this season will help you to not just your volunteers feel honored because you're not making them choose between these couple things but it also is going to allow them to make your program a priority during those times, right? Because now they're not torn and they're going to make the choice to serve. They're going to make the choice to volunteer. They've been with you for the whole year already. So you want to think about the time and when are we scheduling things and what are we doing to really help them as well?

So are you saying if you say, let's just take it because you and I have been youth ministers before. If you're saying, should we be programming our youth ministry events all the way up until Christmas Eve?

no you probably should take a couple weeks off like a couple days before christmas like christmas is on a sunday this year in 2022 and so maybe the week before christmas should be your last event last thing if you do it and have nothing that week and then some are a toss-up right some of you guys will want to do stuff for new year some of you don't But I think it's a great way to rethink how do we minimize big and think small to really help your volunteers not feel burdened by and torn between your program and their personal time.

Yeah. Listen, the holiday season is a very magical time of year. It's a very festive time of year. and while people sacrifice a lot or your leaders sacrifice a lot for the ministry now is the time that you really need to be thinking about them i think as you program because again there's nothing wrong with doing a new year's eve party nothing wrong at all with doing something like that But you may want to not do that because, again, people are adults are traveling. They're going to visit family and all this kind of stuff. It may be a lot to do that. So if you want to honor them and you want to appreciate them, maybe it's not doing that Christmas, New Year's Eve event. And so that they have that time that they can recharge and refresh. So I think that's really important.

Yeah. then i'd say another one i was thinking about it and maybe to cut you your legs out from under you tom was just the idea i guess the first thing i honestly was just thinking about and i'll let you kind of dive into this more but the idea of like if you guys are running small groups how do you help your small groups and you connect with the parents of your small group students to honor their leaders right and so how do you help them and and do something for the kids to get involved to really honor leaders whether it's christmas cards or something like that something small but meaningful to allow the kids in your program and the youth in your ministry to really honor your volunteers as well

Yeah, I mean, let's just be honest. If you're in youth ministry, it's a very taxing job. And kids don't always say thank you. And they don't always say how much they appreciate you as a leader. And so thinking of the mindset of how can you encourage the students and the families that they're serving to honor and appreciate them, I think that would go a really long way. do that some some families some students are natural they'll do that but if you can be helping you as the main leader can be helping and encouraging i think that that would go a really long way uh and even just sending out to the parents like here's your small group leader here's some of their favorite things they we know small little gifts can go a long way in helping motivate them and i always know like

like expect them to show up expect the parents expect the youth to show up when you give them a cue right when you give them an easy step you'd be surprised at how much people enjoy doing that especially this time of year yeah

Well, that's a great one. I didn't even think about that one. But on that line, though, you as the main leader, whatever ministry you're in, whether it's online ministry, student ministry, or any hospitality or whatnot, I think a great way for you to honor and appreciate them is to give them something, give them a gift. Again, it's a natural time for you to give gifts. And this is where, again, kind of like what you were talking about, like, you know what your leaders like. Hopefully, you know what your leaders like. So not everyone's going to want a Starbucks card, but somebody may. They may want a card to a nice restaurant or to Michael's or some home goods store. But you thinking through that, I think would be really great for you to appreciate them and that they know that you really value them because you're paying attention. to what their likes are and what their interests are. So I think that's good.

Yeah. It can be small things. It can be big things. But if you don't know what your leadership things are, maybe that's a goal for your 2023 going in. How do you think through that a little bit more? It can be small things, big things. I thought about not just gifts and giving them stuff. Maybe you got some swag that you have as a ministry, give it to them for free, buy them that kind of stuff to set them up for success. But just the idea of honor and like showing appreciation to them, you know, as you think about the end of year and Christmas time, how are you boosting them up, right? Do you have end of the year reports that you do? And how do you really help your volunteers to shine through some of those like more business, more administrative stuff for... your church your elders or for the congregation as a whole and the rest of the program right how do you help kind of shine some of the stories of how they've helped the program grow and help them impact the lives of kids throughout that year give them that opportunity by giving them those shout outs by giving them that praise and some of those things as well you said praise not raise right They're volunteers, Tom.

Oh, I thought you said raise at first. I was waiting to say no. But on those lines, too, not only that, highlighting them. But I think this is something that you're really good at, Corey, is writing notes to them, a handwritten note saying how much you appreciate them, how much you value them, what they mean to you, what they mean to the ministry, what they mean to who they're serving. So I think you taking time, a handwritten note. is is undervalued now underappreciated now we don't do that we send an email i like to send emails like hey man i really appreciate you but that the handwritten note takes an extra effort and i think it really shows how much you really care about them and really appreciate them

And throw in that time that you noticed them this past year, that little memory of them, what they did or how they showed up. And again, like you said earlier, time helps them realize that they're noticed, right? And they're not just showing up, but the people and the kids especially are paying attention to them.

Yeah, I agree. Well, one thing I like to do every year when I'm a ministry lead is I like to celebrate as a group. Like we've been talking about celebrating and honoring as individuals, but I like to celebrate and honor as a group and I like to do a Christmas party. And I know it's like, oh, stressful Christmas party, whatever. But this is very low key. Everyone bring a dish to share. I like to do a bacon wrapped turkey or something like that. And I like to have a time where we bring a white elephant gift. We celebrate with each other. We laugh together. We have fun. And I like to do it early in December so that it doesn't cause stress later on in the month. when people are already juggling a thousand different things. I like to really just use that time as an opportunity to celebrate, but then I also use it as an opportunity to vision cast as well. Hey, where are we going into the next year? What are we doing? What are we working on? So I like to do a celebration dinner as a way to honor and appreciate them.

Yeah, I thought of like end of the year awards like the Dundee's like there's ways you can make this a thing for them to do that if you really want to think it and that's how you want to do it right there's always do it.

Yeah. And again, it's just a way for you guys to celebrate and reflect as a group, but have it very low key. Like, again, it's not like this huge thing where, you know, obviously you want all the people to come, but it's not like this mandatory leaders meeting. No, it's a celebration. We're celebrating Christmas. We're having fun together. And the more that you can have fun together, you and I've seen this in the ministries we've led. The more you can have fun together, the more they feel like they're part of a team rather than them doing something for you. They're part of. this team together and at the end of you see that like they see the the fun and that their leaders are having fun and they want to be a part of that as well yeah that's good well we're getting close to wrapping up here so any final thoughts any any more comments or appreciation honoring things

there's there's a lot of ways to think about it but i think in the end you want to be able to honor your leaders whether it's a small thing a big thing a text message whatever it is like have that be part of this season to end well over this next month it doesn't have to be big and extravagant or hundreds of dollars to be honest youth ministry is often the forgotten ministry when it comes to budget season and so don't think giant like that but think how can we set this up to help show honor and respect to our volunteers who have given so much this past year and what can we do to do that

And I can't stress enough, I know we already hit on it earlier, but I really can't stress enough, time off. Honor them by giving them time off. You know, even if you have to do something over the course of the Christmas holiday season, you know, see if you can give some people time off and let them embrace it. Or... Don't give them a hard time if they have to cancel out of something last minute because something came up in their personal life in some way. So honor them with the time off so that they're recharged and they're refreshed and they felt honored and cared for. So I think that's really, again, the very bare minimum. Just let them have that time.

Yeah. So stop texting them all the time. Stop texting them.

Well, Corey, as always, it's always great to have you on. How can people connect with you?

Rallyyouth.com is the best way to find me, some ideas, and some bunch of free resources for you to help connect with kids. You can follow me on Instagram at rallyyouth as well. And my personal one at big underscore sully55. Not on Twitter. Got out of there.

Tom, are you still on Twitter? Of course I'm still on Twitter. Why wouldn't you? All the cool kids are on Twitter. yeah yeah all right cory i know we'll talk but have a merry christmas for you and your family merry christmas to you All right. So what did you think about the interview with Corey? What stood out to you? What encouraged you? What's an idea that you've tried and that's been successful? Or what's an idea that we didn't mention that you want to mention? Definitely put it in the comments section below. Or you can also hit us up on Twitter at TAPounders, my Twitter handle. I would love to carry this conversation online so that we can encourage even more people in honoring and appreciate our volunteers. Because let's just be honest. Our volunteers are so important and vital to the success of the ministry. And so without them, and without them feeling appreciated and honored, they're going to leave sometime. We don't want them to leave. We want them to still stay invested and cared for. And we have a big part to play during this Christmas season to do that. So what would you add? What have you done that's been successful? Or what are some new ideas that you can share along with us? Again, hit me up on Twitter or you can put them in the comment section below. All right, heroes. Well, thanks so much for being with me today. I hope you're having a great Christmas season. But as always, if you've enjoyed this podcast, go and subscribe to it. Rate it. We'd love for you to do it. It's on YouTube. It's on Apple Podcasts. It's on Spotify. It's on all the different platforms around. So go and subscribe to it today so you can get these every time they come out. All right, heroes. Well, I hope you have a great rest of your day, a great rest of your week, a great Christmas season. And I'll see you next time.