Deb came to Christ during high school. From there she went to Kutztown for a degree in elementary education. Later she volunteered at Glad Tidings in the preschool/kindergarten age group. When Tom Reese left Glad Tidings they asked Debbie to do children’s ministry on a part-time basis.
Debbie shared with us some of the lessons she learned early on in her ministry. Number one, working with volunteers has to be fun. Trying to have outside activities with the volunteers helps build relationships. After church, taking the volunteers to lunch also helps build relationships and develop the ministry.
Right now, her official title is Director of Leadership Development. Deb says one of the best ways to get volunteers into the pipeline is through the weekend services. Another way is to encourage current volunteers to bring friends with them to serve.
The motto at Glad Tidings for volunteering is SERVE. SERVE stands for “Share one vision, Embrace excellence, Recruit others, Value people and Experience growth”. They developed the idea by taking a look at businesses that have had success in the customer service area and modeling their motto after their example.
To the question “how many volunteers do you have at GT?” Deb answers “not enough”. They estimate that every week it would take about 900 people to get the job done at Glad Tidings. Right now, the children’s ministry alone has about 150 volunteers on any given weekend.
I was very impressed by the amount of organization present in the volunteering program at Glad Tidings. I can tell that a lot of hard work and creativity has gone into it. I think many churches could benefit from learning from the example of Glad Tidings. Their no pressure attitude and structured approach makes it very easy for people to feel comfortable volunteering at the church. I very much appreciated Deb’s time and what she shared with us in class.
