Like I have said in some previous posts, one of my goals about running a successful service is making sure everything goes as smooth as possible with no dead time. Usually to make that happen you need to have people who are comfortable on stage and know how to work the crowd, someone who feels natural up there and not awkward. But that also means the same people will be up on stage all of the time and that can get real boring. So you have to sacrifice smoothness (until volunteers are used to being on stage) for the development of leaders.

One of the things I try to do is trying to get as many people on stage as possible. If you were on stage the week before, you wont be on stage the next week. New faces, fresh dialogue. Some people are more natural than others but the only way to get better up there is actually be up there.

Having volunteers up on stage can be the best thing for them and the ministry overall, and here is why:

  • The volunteer, even though might stumble through the whole intro or welcome (at first) will get them up on stage and confident that they are apart of the ministry. It will give them ownership of the ministry.
  • Students will see them up there, and know that they are apart of the ministry and it can break down any walls that were there before. I know for me, being on stage makes students feel they can come up and talk to me because they feel like they know me, because I show who I am on stage and it breaks down some barriers. It will do the same for your volunteers their relationships with the students.
  • The students will see you are not the only one they can talk to and that there are other people involved in ministry here.
  • It will give the volunteer more confidence to talk to students who they do not know. They know they were on stage and they were seen by the students so they wont be the “creeper” coming up to them.
  • You will develop confidence in leadership and ownership within that volunteer.

All of these reasons are why I want to get our adult volunteers some stage time to get some face time in front of the students. I think this is important and does some amazing work when it comes to them and ministry.