Tips for volunteering as a family

Since family is our most important ministry, we don't want you to leave them at home while you spend time volunteering at church.  Why not involve them from time to time and volunteer as a family?  Spend quality time together while you all help to build God's Kingdom!

Here is a compilation of tips from different sources.  Feel free to add any of your own in the comments section!

• Planning fun and successful family activities shouldn't be a chore for busy parents.  Most just require a little fore thought and a little planning to be successful.  So don't get bogged down in the details or overwhelmed with the planning.  The first thing to spoil family activities is a stressed parent, so go slow and ease into your routine. Families With Purpose, LLC
• Be flexible.  Sometimes family activities don't go as planned.  The baby is tired, the car had a flat tire or it rained when it was supposed to be sunny and hot. Families With Purpose, LLC
• Make sure the family activity is something everyone will enjoy or at least tolerate.  Talk over the family activities ahead of time and get everyone's input.  This will help prevent resistance later on.
• Schedule your family activities on the family calendar.  Plan out for a month when the family will be together and schedule the family activities accordingly. Families With Purpose, LLC
• Make them a priority.  Kids know when parents don't follow through with their promises and are often more hurt than they are willing to let us know.  Take the time for the family activities.  Your kids will thank you for those little things later. Families With Purpose, LLC
• Choose hands-on projects that offer children an opportunity to feel ownership in the giving process.  If Mom buys a toy and Joey drops it in the box at school, the giving ownership is mostly Mom's. But if Joey chooses the gift, wraps it and perhaps even makes a card to go with it, the giving ownership is mostly Joey's.  FamilyCares
• Ensure success by using projects that are simple and short-term.  Complicated projects that require long-term commitment often run short on enthusiasm with children. Choose projects that require skills your child is capable of managing and that can be accomplished in a short period of time.  FamilyCares
• Maximize teachable moments by following your child's charitable interests. The most successful family projects respond to an interest on the part of the child. Listen for clues about issues that concern your child. Watch the news together and ask for his/her opinion on current events. Find easy-to-read stories on social issues such as homelessness, hunger and aging to share during family meals.  FamilyCares
• Build self-esteem by creating caring memories to last a lifetime.  Use a scrapbook to keep photos of your caring projects, thank you notes, cute quotes from your children and your own responses to each project. This memory book will become a wonderful source of esteem development as your child grows older.  FamilyCares
• Keep the tone fun and rewarding.  Doing charity projects should be an experience your child remembers as uplifting and fun. Tell jokes, give compliments, and laugh often as you work together to help others. Children will remember the “mood” more than the labor.  FamilyCares
• Join forces with other families who want to volunteer together.  The more the merrier! Charity projects are even more fulfilling when you work on them with your family friends. FamilyCares
• Be a good example of caring behaviors.  Let your children see you volunteering. Talk about ways to help others with adults and in your children's presence. Avoid complaining about your volunteer work. Tell your kids how good it feels to care.  FamilyCares
• Remember caring is a process, not a product.  It is the thought that counts. Highlight your child's intentions and efforts in charity activities. Try to ignore those times when the final product is less than perfect. If necessary, you can repair the product secretly before delivering it.  FamilyCares
• Reinforce your child's compassion after each project.  Have an informal family meeting, perhaps over ice cream, to discuss the project, what you learned, what you felt, and what you will do next. Talking about the project will put words to the feelings and give the experience more power.  FamilyCares

Mays Family, Ministry Appreciation Party, April 2010

Family is your most important ministry

The Giammona Family

Many folks think the Church wants them to volunteer in as many ministries as possible, spending all their free time up in their parishes, giving generously of themselves in every way.  As a matter of fact, that's the opposite of what we want you to do!  While we want you to be good stewards of your time and talents and give of yourselves to your parish community, we also recognize that your most important ministry is at home -- with your family.

"One of the most important things we will ever do is tend to our family. Our families are far more important than our occupation, service and personal ambition. As a husband, a wife and a parent, God does not want us to be ignorant of His instructions on how to fulfill His will in these important roles as His disciples."
~ Pastor Craig Castor, Founder of Family Discipleship Ministries


If you spend countless hours volunteering or getting programs started at your parish and start to sacrifice quality time spent with your loved ones, you will eventually begin to feel the effects of being away from your family.  Some of your family members might even begin to resent your being away so much and, in turn, start to see the Church negatively instead of appreciating how it is that you try to give all that you have back to the Lord.

So what's the solution?  Find a balance.

Greg Leith, part of a national speaking team for Family Life Ministries, offered the following tips to balance family and ministry in a 2006 article of the journal, "Enrichment."

• Plan time for your family each week in advance, and stick to those plans.
• Learn to say, "no," to some ministry opportunities when needed.  Discern what you believe God is calling you to, not what others are calling you to do for them.
• If your ministry requires constant, excessive hours, consider other ways to accomplish the task.  Ask the Lord to send others to help and then watch Him go to work.  Pray for extraordinary results from the time you put into your ministry, then go home and minister to the other ministry God gave you -- your family.

Read more of Leith's tips here.

If you have suggestions to add to this list, please share them in the comments section below!