One of the most common frustrations encountered by the person seeking to enlist volunteers is to receive what appears to be a categorical "No!" in response to a request for help. There are at least five productive responses to that two-letter word.

First, the person really may be saying, "No, not now." Therefore, one response is to affirm the negative response and the individual's right to say no and to come back another time.

Second, some people really mean "Who? Me? I could never do that!" Therefore a useful response may be to offer a confidence-building alternative role such as assistant teacher or vice-chairperson or some other introductory beginning point.

Third, some people are not interested in long-term or open-ended commitments; therefore, renegotiate the original request by building in a specific terminal date.

Fourth, many people are far more willing to volunteer as part of a team than to accept total responsibility. Therefore, consider enlisting two or three or four persons to team-teach that high school Sunday school class or two persons to serve as co-presidents of that organization or seven or eight adults to serve as a team of counselors with that youth group.

Finally, many positions, tasks, and responsibilities appear to be far more complicated and demanding to the potential volunteer than they do to the person seeking volunteers. Therefore it often is wise to recruit several persons for a training experience or a workshop or a series of instructional classes. Later, from among those persons who completed the training programs, the volunteers can be found for that particular program. This is an especially useful approach in those congregations that are seeking volunteers from that huge number of energetic, committed, highly educated, enthusiastic, inexperienced, eager, active, and creative adults born during the late 1940s and the 1950s. Many of these young adults are accustomed to some type of formal training experience before taking on a new responsibility.