I remember from my church staff days that it was all hands on deck for Christmas Eve services. I see the staff at my church today all working together to cover volunteer spots for these services just like we did. Because it is such a special time for families, I doubt this stretch for volunteers on Christmas Eve will ever change. But, we can help.
Within Churchteams, create a registration that you can link to your website, social media pages and elsewhere. Or use the same link to email or text multiple groups of your most invested people. The registration will show them the volunteer needs and invite them to sign up for whatever roles are left.
Internally, we call it "Spots". It is designed to fill the spots needed for things like gathering supplies for mission projects, getting the right balance of food categories for potlucks, or any other type of registration that requires limiting the number needed of each dropdown response. For Christmas Eve volunteers that might mean:
- Parking lot attendants (6)
- Greeters (6)
- Ushers (8)
- Hot chocolate hospitality (10)
- Nursery (5)
- Preschool care (12)
If you're a Churchteams client and want to use this feature, go to Groups & Events > Settings > Registration Attributes.
- Click the New Attribute button.
- Select Dropdown for type of attribute, then give it a name and description. It will default the sort order number to the bottom of the list of attributes. Click Save.
- On the next page put in the Attribute responses (values) and find the Registration Limit column to set the limit of number needed.
- When Saved, the attribute looks like this. Note the Registration Limit column.
- Add this registration attribute to the registration form.
- When someone tries to register they will see the number still available from the question drop down. Notice there is no longer a need for Ushers in this example.
For those of you reading this who are staff. Thank you for your investment in the church and for your part in making Christmas Eve such a valuable part of so many families' celebration of the coming of the promised light of the world.
