I have been a kids pastor for more than 9 years now, and I've been here at Hope Fellowship for almost 3 years. I feel like I finally have landed on a system for placing volunteers in classes. Here are the steps we take:

1. Potential Volunteer fills out a Ministry Application and turns it in.

2. My Assistant runs the background check and passes the application on to our Volunteer Director (more on this position in my next post).

3. Our Volunteer Director checks the references of the individual and makes the initial contact from us to them.

4. An interview is set with the Potential Volunteer and Me (I personally interview every volunteer who works with kids at Hope Fellowship, more on this in a future post).

5. The interview takes place and the New Volunteer is assigned a ministry position (they are then introduced to their direct supervisor in that new position).

6. The New Volunteer attends an Orientation meeting (we hold one of these the first Wednesday night of every month).

7. The New Volunteer begins their ministry assignment and the Volunteer director checks up with them (usually via email/phone) the following week to find out how they like it.

8. After 3 months, the New Volunteer is reinterviewed by the Children's Pastor to confirm their desire to stay in that class or to find out if another role might bette suit their giftings/interests.

This system is not perfect, we are still looking to develop it further, but so far it is working great!