Three Volunteer Recruitment Mistakes

Aug 26, 2026

Every church knows the panic of scrambling for volunteers at the last minute, but reactive recruiting is just one of the mistakes that keeps your bench thin and your team burned out. In this episode, Scott and A.J. walk through three of the most common volunteer recruitment mistakes churches make and, more importantly, how to fix them with practical systems you can put in place right away. If your church is tired of guilt-tripping people from the pulpit, this conversation is for you.

Scott Ball and A.J. Mathieu are the co-hosts of the Church Revitalization Podcast, produced by the Malphurs Group, a ministry dedicated to helping churches develop healthy strategies for growth and renewal. Together, Scott and A.J. bring practical, field-tested insight to church leaders each week, covering topics from leadership development to volunteer management to organizational health. Whether you are a senior pastor or a ministry director, their goal is to give you tools you can actually use.

• [4:47] Mistake 1: Recruiting Reactively Instead of Proactively
• [6:42] Building a Volunteer Pipeline to Replace Last-Minute Scrambling
• [8:54] Mistake 2: Relying on Gut Instinct Instead of Objective Information
• [16:13] Mistake 3: No Follow-Up After a Volunteer Says Yes
• [20:41] Using the Healthy Churches Toolkit to Systematize Your Pipeline

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