Huntington University

A Grounded Theory Emerging from a Case Study of

Contributing Factors that Lead to Significant Growth in Volunteerism

in Youth For Christ USA Ministry Sites

Jacob D. Bland

YL 651: Culmination Research Project

Terence Linhart, Ph.D.

Monday, March 30, 2015

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In December 2014, Seth Baker, Youth For Christ USA’s vice president of leadership

development, indicated in his presentation that while the number of non-Christian children in

authentic, Christ-sharing relationships with leaders continues to increase, the number of Youth

For Christ (YFC) leaders facilitating those relationships has not increased (see Fig. 1.). Table 1

outlines the following trends for the YFC movement's most central metric.

Youth For Christ believes in relational ministry, and the organization has established an

ideal target ratio of 1:5 (one YFC leader in authentic, Christ-sharing relationships with five lost

children). In three years, their evaluation of that ratio has moved from 1:5 to 1:6. While the

organization is encouraged by the growth in the number of children in relationships, there is

some cause for concern about what the trajectory of this ratio might mean for the strength and

integrity of such ministry relationships. Higher numbers of children per leader would place

taxing loads on the volunteers attempting to build these meaningful relationships. I have long

been interested in the subject of volunteerism, believing that the number of children who come to

Christ through Youth For Christ is directly correlated to the number of volunteers that can be

mobilized to spend time in relationships with teens.

Based on this background, a series of research questions emerged: If the entire Youth For

Christ USA movement remains largely stagnant in the number of leaders, to whom could the

organization look as exemplars? I wanted to find out the contributing factors to ministry sites

that have reported the most significant growth. Certainly, within the thousands of ministry sites

across this country, there must have been ministry site directors who saw growth in their ministry

teams although its largely invisible in the global flatline perspective presented below. Among the

top growing ministry sites, I wanted to know what factors had led to the growing volunteer base

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in a YFC ministry site and then develop a theory that answered this question. While the project is

primarily focused on recruitment growth, instead of the quality of leadership development or

retention of volunteers, it is also designed to consider questions such as “Where did these

volunteer leaders come from?” and “Why do they stay engaged?” However, the primary question

of this study is: What contributing factors are causing the volunteer teams at high-growth

ministry sites to increase in size?

Table 1.

Total number of non-Christian children in authentic, Christ-sharing relationships with YFC

leaders over three years

Source: Seth Baker, What’s Next for the Unified Focus? Youth For Christ/USA, Inc., The

Inverness Hotel & Conference Center, Englewood, CO, 12 Dec. 2014, Keynote Address.

Sept 2012 Sept 2013 Sept 2014 December 2014

Non-Christian Kids in Authentic, Christ-Sharing Relationships

65,000 113,980 132,689 129,381

YFC Leaders 14,000 23,110 22,630 21,560

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�

Fig. 1.

Visual display of the same data: Total number of non-Christian children in authentic, Christ-

sharing relationships with YFC leaders

Source: Seth Baker, What’s Next for the Unified Focus? Youth For Christ/USA, Inc., The

Inverness Hotel & Conference Center, Englewood, CO, 12 Dec. 2014, Keynote Address.

Literature Review

Volunteerism can be defined as “long-term, planned, prosocial behaviors that benefit

strangers and occur within an organizational setting” (Penner 448). Sociologists John Wilson and

Marc Musick, who have both offered extensive contributions to the body of knowledge on

American volunteerism, define volunteer work as “(1) productive work that requires human

capital, (2) collective behavior that requires social capital, and (3) ethically guided work that

requires cultural capital” (“Who Cares…” 694). Overcoming stagnation in the challenge of

finding and forming volunteer leaders is not unique to Youth For Christ. In 2004, a national study

0

35,000

70,000

105,000

140,000

Sept 2012 Sept 2013 Sept 2014 December 2014

Non-Christian Kids in Authentic, Christ-Sharing Relationships Leaders

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of rural youth workers found that four out of the top five challenges reported by youth leaders

had to do with volunteer management. They were (in weighted order):

1. Competing schedules [of children’ activities]

2. Time constraints of adult leaders

3. Cannot find enough leaders

4. Volunteer leaders get burned out

5. Lack of continuity, stability in youth group leadership (Goreham 344; emphasis

mine)

While sources vary slightly, it is widely assumed that 45 to 55 percent of Americans

volunteer in a given year (“Volunteers…” 71; Toppe et al. 36). When the sources are examined

through a lens that compares religious traditions, it is generally understood that mainstream and

liberal Protestants demonstrate higher levels of volunteerism (Driskell et al. 582; Park and Smith

275). Evangelicals, as a religious group, are commonly accused of conducting most of their

volunteer efforts internally—that is, to further the effort of their own local congregation, rather

than reaching out in a way that would have a broader social impact on the community (Bender

44; Wilson and Janoski 138). Several sources indicated that volunteers tend to be more active in

political arenas (Harlow and Cantor 1236), lead healthier lives mentally and physically (Knoke

1,042; Cutler & Hendricks 43; Jirovec & Hyduk, 32; Okun 565), and sometimes even find ways

to convert their volunteerism into income. This occurs either through conversion to employment

within the social cause itself, or through passive income associated with relationships they have

gained through volunteerism (“Doing Good” 434; Oman et al. 303; Wilson 221).

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Some studies indicate that gender plays a significant role—insisting that women are more

likely to volunteer than men are (Penner 452; “Who Cares…” 700)—while others refute this

assertion and see no reliable gender dominance in volunteering (Cutler & Hendricks 44; Hook

102). An equally split debate exists in the research arguing whether age makes any difference in

levels of volunteerism. In this thread of the previous research, free time, health concerns, and

discretionary income are variables that make it very difficult to isolate and study the effects of

aging (Goss 378; Rotolo 1091, Wilson and Musick “Who Cares” 706). The available literature

suggests that couples with at least one volunteer in the home will enjoy a higher degree of

marital satisfaction than those without any volunteers (Smith 131). Finally, in couples who both

volunteer, the husband is more likely to favor traditional gender roles than those with only one

volunteer do (Smith 133).

Those with higher levels of education and higher degrees of affluence are more likely to

be asked to volunteer. For example, the affluent are frequently sought after for non-profit

governance roles, which are typically volunteer positions (Cutler & Hendricks 44; Goss 380;

Penner 453). Several studies suggest a link between personality type and the likelihood to

volunteer (Bowman 248; Hammill and Francis 74; “Who Cares…” 709). Volunteers even

develop friendships in groups that resemble family relationships. Moreover, opportunities to

further develop these growing personal relationships are often encouraged as incentives by the

sponsoring organization (Bowman 248; “Who Cares…” 709).

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Getting Specific: Youth Ministry Volunteers

There is breadth and depth in the academic literature on the motivations of volunteerism

—even religious volunteerism. Studies that focus on the narrow field of youth ministry are much

more sparse. One such contribution is a study by Francis, Nash, Nash, and Craig (2007) that

looked into the psychological characteristics of men and women who were pursuing professional

training for the Irish clergy. In a follow-up study, Francis and Hammill (2014) offered a basis of

understanding for the psychological characteristics of volunteer youth workers in Ireland. These

linked studies were based on the psychological type theory that has been widely accepted

through the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Keirsey Temperament Sorter. Both studies utilize 1

the four commonly known Myers-Briggs psychological characteristics in their framework, which

included the following: Where an individual finds the source of their psychological energy,

perceiving functions of sensing, and how an outside world is approached (Hammill and Francis

74). The original work in 2007 found that the major personality type of professional clergy was

Extraverted Feeling with Introverted Intuition (ENFJ) (Hammill, Peter, and Francis 79):

“The Giver” — ENFJs are people-focused individuals. They live in the world of people

possibilities. More so than any other type, they have excellent people skills. They

understand and care about people, and have a special talent for bringing out the best in

others… They are focused on understanding, supporting, and encouraging others…

ENFJs do not like dealing with impersonal reasoning. They don't understand or

appreciate its merit, and will be unhappy in situations where they're forced to deal with

logic and facts without any connection to a human element. (“Portrait of an ENFJ” 1)

More information is available online and published by the Myers & Briggs Foundation.1

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The subsequent study in 2014 makes a unique contribution to the otherwise scant body of

knowledge about global youth ministry volunteerism. Hamill and Francis determined that the

dominant personality profile for male, youth ministry volunteers in Ireland was Extraverted

Thinking with Introverted Sensing (ESTJ) (Hammill, Peter, and Francis 79):

“The Guardian” — ESTJs live in a world of facts and concrete needs. They live in the

present, with their eye constantly scanning their personal environment to make sure that

everything is running smoothly and systematically. They honor traditions and laws, and

have a clear set of standards and beliefs. They expect the same of others, and have no

patience or understanding of individuals who do not value these systems. If they neglect

their Feeling side, they may have a problem with fulfilling other's needs for intimacy, and

may unknowingly hurt people's feelings by applying logic and reason to demand more

emotional sensitivity. (“Portrait of an ESTJ” 1)

The study of female volunteers introduced a third profile—Extraverted Sensing, Feeling, and

Judging (ESFJ) (Hammill, Peter, and Francis 79):

“The Caregiver” — ESFJs are people persons - they love people. They are warmly

interested in others. They use their Sensing and Judging characteristics to gather specific,

detailed information about others, and turn this information into supportive judgments.

They want to like people, and have a special skill at bringing out the best in others. They

are extremely good at reading others, and understanding their point of view. The ESFJ's

strong desire to be liked and for everything to be pleasant makes them highly supportive

of others. (“Portrait of an ESFJ” 1)

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These three profiles were drawn with some keen insights by Hammill, Peter, and Francis.

For example, the researchers concluded that both staff and volunteers share the preference for

extraversion (80). They took this a step further by claiming that because of this, youth ministry is

often more interested in the social dynamics of church life than in personal reflection and other,

quiet spiritual disciplines (80). If this is true in America, these dynamics might have an impact on

the personality type engaged in youth ministry volunteerism, which begs further inquiry.

Hammill, Peter, and Francis also determined that because female volunteers are less perceptive

than their professional female counterparts are, they will be less flexible and less spontaneous in

youth ministry (Hammill, Peter, and Francis 81). They concluded that volunteers would be more

practical, more matter-of-fact, and show more interest in the “business” side of youth ministry

than the personal care of the soul (Hammill, Peter, and Francis 81).

Many academic studies suggest that the critical predictor in strong volunteer participation

is the strength of one’s religious social network (Beyerlein and Hipp 98; Lam 415; Wilson and

Janoski 138; Wilson and Musick 700; Becker and Dhingra 324; Lewis et al. 332; Wang and

Grady 39; Park and Smith 283). This previous research commonly focuses on wide, pluralistic

religious affiliation, and ultimately suggests that religious affiliation is the key predictor of

volunteerism. However, these studies fail to offer insights into why a religiously oriented

organization may experience widely varying success inside a homogenous religious context,

such as Youth For Christ. In other words, while these studies point religious social networks as a

generic tie to strong volunteer participation, the growth factor being attributed to the strength of

the religious social network is not entirely helpful (Rossi 2001; Wilson and Musick 1997). The

present study attempts to theorize what makes some high performing ministry sites grow within

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the close-knit “family” of same-faith social ties, such as Youth For Christ, whereas the national

YFC movement remains largely stagnant in volunteer growth.

YFC’s Historical Relationship with the Local Church

Although I found no academic study of Youth For Christ and its connection to

volunteerism, YFC’s ongoing relationship with the local church surfaced in an article titled

Historical Origins of Professional Evangelical Youth Work in the Church (Garland and Fortosis).

According to Garland and Fortosis’ historical account, the American church was dragged

“kicking and screaming” into youth ministry, and tension between the church and para-church

movements has existed ever since (278):

For this reason, periodicals like Christianity Today praised the efforts of parachurch [sic]

organizations, such as Youth For Christ and Young Life, which had begun ministry during

the 1940s and 1950s. However, in spite of the praise for the ministry of parachurch [sic]

organizations, CT criticized them for not being sufficiently church related. (Garland and

Fortosis 282; emphasis mine)

In January 1960, Time magazine quoted Young Life’s founder, Jim Rayburn, who responded that

these movements were “not designed to be a teenage church but a recruiting program for the

church” (quoted in Garland 282; emphasis mine).

How Do Volunteer Teams Grow?

In much of the research, being asked to volunteer has been determined the primary, key

factor in volunteering, while the source of the invitation has been deemed unimportant (Musick

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et al. 1560; Bowman 248). This is commonly accepted in the body of knowledge available. It is

also widely understood that those with religious affiliation are more likely to be asked to

volunteer than those without religious affiliation are (Musick et al. 1557; Paik and Navarre-

Jackson 477).

Studies of military volunteerism have emphasized the importance of social norms and the

influence of cultural opinions that are in close relational proximity to the volunteer in the process

of being recruited. One such report suggested that this is why the United States Department of

Defense spent $20 million targeting parents instead of targeting the recruits themselves. By

convincing the parents to support their children’s interest in joining the military, their interest

would become socially normative (Reichert, JooYoung, and Fosu 408). The same study cited the

decrease in the number of veterans as influencers as the primary factor that negatively affected

military volunteer levels in the early 2000s (Reichert, JooYoung, and Fosu 408). They concluded

that important others have a stronger influence on recruitment than advertising does. There is,

however, one exception in which advertising proved to be more effective: that is, when the

advertising was targeted at the influencers of the recruits, rather than the recruits themselves

(Reichert, JooYoung, and Fosu 409). This offers an interesting marketing concept, which should

be explored by Youth For Christ and other youth ministries everywhere. A 2002 longitudinal

study by Peter Padilla further confirmed Reichert, JooYoung, and Fosu by researching military

recruitment campaigns over a span of five decades. Padilla determined that no central marketing

theme was the most effective, that the motivator must be beyond monetary compensation, and

that outside forces were present, which had a more dramatic effect on the response (Padilla 128).

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Stephen Merino’s work, sub-titled Examining Recruitment via Close Ties, begins with a

discussion of the previous research, which suggests that religious social ties are a predictor of

volunteering, and it then probes the role of recruitment in personal networks (Merino 509). His

work focused primarily on the practical aspects of recruitment, such as the frequency of

recruitment efforts.

Unlike other authors, Merino studied a sample of close personal relationships with same-

faith sociological ties. In Merino’s study, only nine percent of his subjects responded positively

and actively to volunteer recruitment in relationships absent of religious discussion. That number

increased to seventeen percent when the conversations between parties actively included

religious discussion. Moreover, it increased even further to thirty-five percent when both parties

belonged to the same congregation (Merino 518). Merino found that “being asked by a fellow

congregation member increases the odds of volunteering by 95 percent” (522). In his conclusion,

Merino asserted “that same-faith friends and family members vary widely in their propensity to

make volunteer requests, depending on whether religion is a salient aspect of the relationship

and whether the relationship is connected to congregational social networks” (Merino 510;

emphasis mine). According to Merino, therefore, recruitment efforts cannot simply be attributed

to the frequency of the request; the quality of the relationship and depth of faith also must be

considered. Moreover, religion must be a salient aspect of the relationship, and the recruiting

relationship must be connected to congregational social networks in order for volunteer

recruitment to be effective.

Merino’s study included non-religious volunteers, which is admittedly outside the scope

of the present inquiry. When this limitation is taken into consideration, an interesting conflict

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emerges between Merino’s work and the study at hand. Merino suggests that the volunteer does

not need to be religious to be counted among those likely to be active volunteers, provided they

are connected to a recruiter who is highly active in a religious congregation (524). This places

the religious significance of Merino’s conclusions on the recruiters themselves. Since Youth For

Christ recruits and deploys only Christians in their leadership ranks, I did not pursue this

component any further. Making additional connections or arguments would require additional

inquiry. While Merino’s work offered some key insights into the work at hand, it certainly

begged further study. Merino himself suggested that “future research should examine what

makes some requests more effective than others” (524). If previous research suggests

that religious involvement is a key link to volunteer involvement, then why is it that not all

religiously based groups grow significantly in their ranks of volunteers? Why does a subset of

high-growth ministry sites routinely add new volunteers, while Youth For Christ’s national

volunteer base remains largely stagnant? These questions led to further study on what motivates

individuals to volunteer.

Why do Volunteers … Volunteer?

Regardless of whether the literature concerns military, healthcare, environmental

activism, or religious volunteering, a key theory that is widely accepted and must be referenced

as the baseline of this study is the Theory of Reasoned Action (see Fig. 2). The theory, originally

developed by Aizen and Fishbein in 1980, holds that “behavior is predicted by behavioral

intention with pertinent beliefs and social norms as antecedents” (Reichert, JooYoung, and Fosu

401). The theory emphasizes that beliefs and social norms are important, and that they must

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precede recruitment (shown below as interest) and subsequent enlistment (shown below as

intention). It is important to understand, however, that beliefs and social norms are not equally

influential. Beliefs are significantly more influential than social norms are on the intention to

volunteer (Reichert, JooYoung, and Fosu 406). Presumably, then this is why lost children who

come to Christ may enlist in dedicated volunteer service even though it is not normative in their

family or home environment. In this case, beliefs have won the day over social norms.

!

Fig. 2.

Theory of Reasoned Action: Model of Military Enlistment Intention

Source: Reichert, Tom, Kim JooYoung, and Ignatius Fosu; “Assessing The Efficacy of Armed-

Forces Recruitment Advertising: A Reasoned-Action Approach.” Journal of Promotion

Management 13.3/4 (2007): 401. Web; 18 Oct. 2014.

Research Methods

I chose grounded theory as the theoretical framework for this project. Grounded theory

was first introduced in 1967 by Barney Glaser and Anselm Stauss. The key distinction of their

inductive method is that the comprehensive data collection and analysis result in a theory, unlike

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other research methods that test an existing hypothesis (Glaser 6). According to Patton

“Inductive analysis means that the patterns, themes, and categories of analysis come from the

data; they emerge out of the data rather than being imposed on them prior to data collection and

analysis” (306). Throughout the project, I coded the data collected and grouped the codes into

concepts and categories until a grounded theory of the contributing factors to the growth of

volunteer teams emerged (Patton 125). Through the data, which were collected in a case study of

the top ten percent of growing YFC ministry sites, and the comparison analysis, a theory

emerged that I believe explains the factors that have contributed to the growth of these volunteer

teams. I consulted some of the comparative methods described by Glaser and Strauss (Strauss

90), but in the end I found their tool kit to be too prescriptive and mechanical. Consistent with

the classic Glaserian approach, I constantly reviewed and compared new data, allowing

hypotheses to surface throughout the process (Hays and Wood 288). This project utilized a

mixed-method approach, including two layers of online surveys and one round of recorded,

semi-structured phone interviews. The interviews and surveys were primarily qualitative in

nature, but they included some quantitative questions that helped to reveal influential

demographics. According to Glaser’s grounded theory framework, all pieces of data must be

“brought into relation to” the final theory through constant comparison analysis (Glaser 28).

Therefore, the literature review provided above was part of my discovery process. It was

conducted concurrently with the surveys and interviews, which will be further explained in the

pages that follow. Even informal conversations throughout the data collection were useful,

including two youth ministry observations I participated in that happened to overlap with this

study. The comprehensive nature of this data collection phase is consistent with the mixed

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methods approach, which suggests that a single source of information cannot be trusted

(Cresswell 16; Patton 306).

In an article published in the Journal of Youth Ministry in 2003, Terence Linhart

suggested that grounded theory is a useful theoretical framework for researchers attempting to

study the effectiveness of youth ministry. Linhart deviated from the classic Glaserian approach in

his recommendation that youth ministry researchers consider pairing grounded theory “in careful

sequence” with other qualitative methods (Linhart 31). Linhart offered that a researcher could

“initially conduct a ‘pure’ grounded theory study while collecting all possible data along the

way. After the theory emerges, then a more descriptive approach … would help readers

understand how the theory becomes evident” (Linhart 31). In the present study, a theory began to

emerge through the data collection and the comparison analysis. The emerging theory was

subsequently illustrated and supported by a basic conceptual content analysis, in an effort to

further explain how the theory became evident.

Thirty-one site directors (Youth For Christ’s name for local ministry leaders who oversee

teams of volunteers) were invited by email to participate in a sixty-minute phone interview. The

site directors were told that they were being interviewed in association with their role at a

particular ministry site, but no reference was made to the subject of volunteers or to the

qualifications of the sample data provided by YFC’s sampling tool (see Appendix B). When a

site director confirmed participation, he or she was sent a short eight-question, pre-interview

survey (built and distributed via Survey Monkey) in preparation for the phone interview (see

Appendix C).

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Questions one through four were purely biographical in nature and were intended to

gather contact information and confirm that the participant was over eighteen. Question five

sought to gain a deeper understanding of the scope of the director’s work, that is, whether it was

isolated to a given community or part of a wider multi-community ministry. Question six asked

about longevity. I wanted to make sure that the site director I was about to interview had the

historical context of the ministry site’s growth over the last three years. Questions seven and

eight were redundant to what the site director had already answered through the data collected in

YFC’s sampling tool (the number of adult volunteers over three years). By asking the question

again, I was able to validate the accuracy of the numbers of volunteers provided by the site

director through the sampling tool.

I started collecting data and scheduling phone interviews in October 2014 and finished

collection in January 2015. Eleven of the thirty-one site directors responded to my first email. Of

the eleven first responders, eight site directors were qualified against the pre-qualification

instrument. During the sixty-minute phone interviews, I worked through a series of questions in a

semi-structured format (for the entire interview guide, see Appendix D). Prior to the interviews,

permission was gained to record the phone call.

Question one asked about the length of time it took to experience the stated growth.

Question two aimed to discover the catalyst of growth. For example, was it a person, an event, or

an opportunity? Questions three and four allowed us to discuss recruitment practices. Questions

five and six formed the most significant portion of the interview because they were designed to

discover the contributing factors that led to the growth of their volunteer team and the single

most important factor, in the opinion of the site director. Question seven was intended to get to

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know the volunteer culture. I asked the director to avoid describing their best volunteers, and

instead to give me a sense of the average volunteer that I might find on their team. Questions

eight and nine were designed to yield information about the psychological approach of the site

director. For example, who is their ideal volunteer? This also gave me a sense of how the director

intended to place volunteers into service and the general value assigned to these volunteers in

their ministry service. Question ten was asked in order to determine how missional community

may contribute value to their volunteer team. Youth For Christ’s definition of missional

community is as follows: “A group of Christians who have made a commitment to grow together

in Christ while pursuing a mission together” (Bland et al. 5). Knowing that this concept has been

used for the last several years in leadership development environments, I admittedly wanted to

see if this value had any impact on the growth of the volunteer team. I intentionally did not use

the words missional community in order to not to bias my interview participants. Question eleven

was posed to gain an understanding of the volunteer’s motivation for serving in Youth For Christ.

Obviously, it would serve the research better to ask this question of the volunteers themselves,

which is exactly what I did. Asking this question of both groups aided in the constant comparison

analysis. This will be explained in the findings that follow.

The questions above were explored for about fifty minutes. The final ten minutes of the

phone interview transitioned to a rapid-fire, quick-response format of twelve more questions. In

the quick-response section, the participants were encouraged to give whatever instinctive

response first came to mind, instead of spending an exhaustive amount of time contemplating the

exact answer. Most of the quick-response questions were demographic or sociological in nature.

Keyword notes were taken and the phone conversations were recorded. The recordings were

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reviewed immediately following the interview and compared to the keyword notes. I then began

the process of coding the notes for emerging themes.

Following the sixty-minute phone interviews with the site directors, I sent an email

requesting they send a special Survey Monkey link to their volunteers (see Appendix E). This

approach provided me with sixty-three survey responses from all eight ministry sites, as well as

an entirely new data set to explore. Question one filtered out underage volunteers who might be

serving in a middle-school ministry. Their responses were removed in compliance with my

application to Huntington University's Internal Review Board (IRB). Questions two and three

asked how the volunteer first discovered Youth For Christ and why they first decided to get

involved. By asking these questions, I wanted to compare the director’s assumptions of

successful motivators and recruitment tactics (from the previous data set) with the volunteers’

actual responses. Questions four and five probed deeper into the volunteer’s role in ministry

service. This gave them the opportunity to describe their role, and it also gave me a sense of how

many hours they committed each week. Questions six, seven, and eight asked about the

volunteer’s relationship with the children.

As previously mentioned, Youth For Christ trains staff to embrace the national 1:5 ratio,

that is, one volunteer is in authentic, Christ-sharing relationships with five children. YFC’s

particular interest is in relationships with lost children—those who do not have a relationship

with Jesus Christ, which is tested for in question eight. Questions nine, ten, and eleven explored

the longevity of volunteers and gauged their long-term commitment. Admittedly, these data

points offered too much for the scope of this growth-focused research, but I included them in the

event that they could prove useful for future researchers.

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After contacting thirty-one site directors, I successfully scheduled and conducted eleven

phone interviews with them. Three of the eleven site directors were eliminated because of

inconsistencies between the sampling data and my pre-qualification instrument, or because they

disclosed that they were leading a uniquely local ministry model that was not used nationally.

Therefore, a final group of eight qualitative interviews with site directors were included in the

data collection. The follow-up volunteer electronic survey request resulted in the responses of

sixty-three volunteers distributed across the eight high-growth ministry sites. This data collection

phase was finished in January 2015.

Obtaining a Sample of High-Growth Ministry Sites

For the last decade, Youth For Christ USA has utilized a custom-built sampling tool,

referred to by the organization as YFC Impact, to collect standardized, statistical, and

longitudinal data. Local ministry site directors are asked to input statistical data at least once

each quarter, but they may optionally report as many times as they would like throughout the

year. Many local executive directors require more frequent reporting than is requested.

The YFC Impact software begins each new fiscal year (July 1) by asking for a baseline

number for twelve unique data points (see Appendix A). Each subsequent quarterly reporting

period is additive, in which the site director records only the “net additions” to each of the twelve

data points. The standardized questions are further clarified by carefully worded explanations

and on-screen video tutorials that prompt a reminder of the scope and limitations of the data

being collected. Some confusion has been expressed locally about the inability of a site director

to record the net loss of volunteers between quarterly reporting periods. The answer to this issue

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lies in the desired resolution of a national data analysis. Put simply, national leaders who

designed the data collection mechanism were more interested in a high level, year-over-year

trend line analysis, which can be successfully obtained by the built-in “reset” baseline number

introduced at the beginning of each fiscal year.

This research project focuses on question 1B of YFC Impact (see Appendix A): “Enter

the number of YFC Adult Volunteers who have engaged in authentic, Christ-sharing

relationships with young people through this ministry site.” Since full understanding of the

source data is required to understand this project’s sampling strategy, I will attempt to clarify the

additive data collection method used in the software with a fictional example:

North Side Campus Life’s site director completed the minimal quarterly reporting

requirements for YFC Impact question 1B for three years in a row. On July 1 of the first

year, the site director began by reporting a baseline of four adult volunteers and

subsequently reported the addition of one uniquely new adult volunteer per quarter.

Therefore, by the conclusion of the fiscal year, we know that eight unique adult volunteers

were engaged at this ministry site throughout the year.

However, at the start of year two, the site director answered the baseline reset question by

indicating that a total of five adult volunteers would begin year two. Subsequent, the

quarterly reports in year two revealed the same growth pattern as in the year before—one

uniquely new adult volunteer per quarter. By the end of year two, therefore, in this

ministry site, nine unique adults were engaged throughout the year.

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Finally, at the start of year three, the site director answered the baseline reset question by

indicating that a total of seven adult volunteers would begin year three. In this year, the

site director reported adding two new, unique adult volunteers per quarter, thus ending the

third fiscal year with a total of fifteen adult volunteers that were engaged at some point

throughout the year.

Therefore, the fictional example above would be shown as follows:

Table 2

Number of Adult Volunteers at North Side Campus Life: A Fictional Example

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

Base Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Base Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Base Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Reported Actual

(By User)4 1 1 1 1 5 1 1 1 1 7 2 2 2 2

Calculated Running

Total (By System)

4 5 6 7 8 5 6 7 8 9 7 9 11 13 15

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�

Fig. 3.

Trend-line Analysis of Adult Volunteers at North Side Campus Life: A Fictional Example

This additive data collection process is useful primarily in providing a year-over-year

trend line. Attempting to study the retention or longevity of unique, individual adult volunteers is

futile. In the fictional example above, YFC has no ability to determine whether the original four

volunteers from year one are still engaged in year three. This is simply a limitation of the

otherwise useful standardized data set. Although an inquiry at this level would be possible

elsewhere in YFC Impact system, it is simply not within the scope of this research. Nevertheless,

by using the provided data set based on YFC Impact question 1b, it is possible to infer the net

0

4

8

12

16

Base Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Base Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Base Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

y = 3.1937x0.5289

R² = 0.7731

Data Points Used for this Project Data Reported by Site Director

Bland !24

total and net change in the quantity of adult volunteers at the local ministry site year-over-year.

These raw data are extremely helpful to the project at-hand, given that this qualitative study

concerns itself only with the factors contributing to growth in adult volunteers’ teams.

Youth For Christ’s director of technology provided a raw spreadsheet export of the data

available for YFC Impact question 1b, which included responses from all ministry sites over the

last three fiscal years. In its original form, the spreadsheet contained data from 1,658 local 2

ministry sites in the USA. To achieve the ultimate sample, I filtered the data according the

following parameters in order to identify high-growth ministry sites:

• Ministry sites that did not report data in year one were removed. This immediately

reduced the available sample size to 828. Ministry sites reporting “zero” adult

volunteers in year one were intentionally left in the sample pool. Presumably, this

removed newer ministry sites that had launched in the previous two years, but

intentionally included ministry sites who began three years before with zero adult

volunteers.

• Ministry sites that did not report data in year three were also removed. This further

reduced the available sample size to 631. Ministry sites reporting zero adult volunteers

in year three were left in the pool, just as before. My assumption is that this removed

ministry sites that had recently closed, but left those who had lost all their adult

volunteers in the sample.

• For each row of data, the number of adult volunteers reported in year one was

subtracted by the number of adult volunteers reported in year three. The result was a

This spreadsheet is available upon request.2

Bland !25

positive number for ministry sites posting net growth in the number of adult volunteers

over the last three years. Those that posted a net loss resulted in a negative number.

• The data from year two were not factored into the scope of this study. It is possible that

some sites reported significant growth in year two and were not interviewed. Their

disqualification in this study, however, would have been due to their insignificant

three-year growth pattern. Similarly, there may be ministry sites that decreased

significantly in year two, but posted a heroic growth rate in year three. These unique

stories will unfortunately not be told within the scope of this research, but may be

worthy of further inquiry.

The filtered sample of 631 ministry sites was sorted according to net three-year growth/

loss to obtain a visual sense of the distribution (see Fig. 4.). The growth and loss of total

volunteers at YFC ministry sites followed a bell curve:

�

Fig. 4.

Visual display of the same data: Total number of non-Christian children in authentic, Christ-

sharing relationships with YFC leaders

Num

ber o

f Min

istry

Si

tes R

epor

ting

0

45

90

135

180

Net Growth/Loss in Number of Adult Volunteers-60 to -63-52 to -55-44 to -47-36 to -39-28 to -31-20 to -23 -12-15 -4 to -7 0 4-7 12-15 20-23 28-31 36-39 44-47 52-55 60-63

Bland !26

This distribution provided an immediate revelation: The largest group of ministry sites showing

growth did so by a one-to-three person net increase of adult volunteers over the course of three

years (see Fig. 5.). This was consistent with the global flatline that Youth For Christ is

experiencing in the number of volunteers, and it is discouraging given YFC’s desire to empower

volunteer leaders in authentic, Christ-sharing relationships with lost children. A growth of one

net new volunteer over three years is essentially flat.

!

Fig. 5.

The Percentage of Growing Ministry Sites (Left), Compared to the Significance of Their Growth

(Right)

Bland !27

These percentages exposed two realities:

1. 62% of ministry sites in the sample size of 631 reported a net increase (394).

2. Half of those that reported a net increase (394) grew by only 1-3 adult volunteers over

three years (188 Ministry Sites).

To complete the ultimate sample of the exemplar ministry sites, the top 10% of growing

sites were isolated. In this case, the top 10% of ministry sites were those who reported an

increase of twelve or more net gain in adult volunteers in the last three years. This resulted in a

realistic sample size of 39 high-growth ministry sites. Four ministry sites that labeled their

ministry as a non-national ministry model in YFC Impact were removed from the sample pool.

Although these were credible ministries that were organized according to YFC’s Five Essentials

for Fruitful and Sustainable Ministry Sites (Rahn 1), they did so under their uniquely created

model and not according to the nationally equipped and resourced ministry models. Because I

was only one researcher working within a limited time frame, these four were removed strictly

because there would not be time in a sixty-minute interview to understand the unique context of

their locally crafted ministry model. I came to this research project with only the intrinsic

knowledge of Youth For Christ’s nationally-equipped models.

Finally, the ultimate sample of thirty-five high growth ministry sites was presented to

Youth For Christ’s vice president for national ministries, David Todd Ramseyer, who validated

the integrity of the sample. Mr. Ramseyer removed four more sites because they were

conglomerates of multiple ministry sites—such as area-wide super clubs, which combine

multiple ministry sites for occasional, collective youth ministry programming. The remaining

thirty-five ministry sites, therefore, were issued invitations to participate in this study. The site

Bland !28

directors were promised anonymity. Their names have been removed and the names of ministry

sites have been masked herein to promote honesty and transparency in the interviews.

Analyzing the Data

The most significant portion of the qualitative data analysis comprised questions five and

six of the phone interviews:

5. What factors contributed to your teams’ growth? Let’s take our time here. Tell me

about as many as you can.

6. In everything you just mentioned, what do you think is the single most important

contributing factor to growing your number of volunteers?

Immediately following each interview, datum in the field notes were labeled as open or

substantive codes—as many as possible as they emerged. The phone recordings were played

many times as one or two sentences occurring alongside the labeled, coded statements were

transcribed verbatim. Participant statements that emerged from the open coding were each given

a virtual “notecard” in the web-based software trello.com, which proved to be very useful in the

emergence of key themes and categories in the data. In the second round of selective coding, the

virtual notecards were organized by question, with one “bulletin board” per question, and

stacked in an unsorted pile of notecards. The cards were also labeled with the participant’s

initials, which allowed me to cross-reference the notecard back to the original interview when

necessary.

Consistent with the grounded theory approach of constant comparison analysis, I moved

a new set of virtual notecards (containing the codes alongside actual participant words) to the

Bland !29

virtual board after every two interviews, which allowed me to begin identifying key themes and

categories in the data. Throughout this constant comparative process, I watched intently for

subtle nuances in the angle or posture in which a phrase was constructed (for example, a

response of “God is doing the work with these kids” expressed in humility and glory-deflection

was sorted as such. Similar phrases were notably different than “I love God and He’s asked me to

work with His kids,” which was recorded as an abiding relationship that leads to fruit-bearing

work). With the software, the next step in viewing emerging themes according to these categories

was as simple as “click-and-drag” with the mouse. I re-arranged the cards freely and across

multiple study sessions to ensure that my mind was fresh with each comparison. New columns

were created, edited, merged, and removed flexibly as each card was compared to previous

cards, categories, themes, and literature.

It was through this process that two tentative cores began to emerge. The first was

associated with the interviewee’s healthy relationship with local churches. Responses in this

category included statements such as:

• “We meet with different churches… then we ask: Do you care about kids and want to

get involved?”

• “All of our growth has come through the local church.”

• “I suppose it’s because of the college ministries we are blessed to be connected

with… you know, and local church relationships.”

• “I would say the church is our primary source. I meet with them personally and

regularly.”

• “We give presentations to churches…and the people come!”

Bland !30

The second was the obvious spiritual health and contagious humility of the participants. The

respondents were quick to deflect glory and attribute the growth to the work of the Holy Spirit.

Unique phrases in this emerging core included:

• “This has been Jesus’ plan all along…our growth has been Holy Spirit given.”

• “We emphasize the discipleship process—and pray for the need. Jesus is the one who

provides the growth!”

• “People are gifted by the Spirit. The Spirit is the one compelling these people to come

and use their gift.”

• “We just work hard at making disciples and giving them opportunities to serve.”

• “Jesus guides, directs, and the Holy Spirit matches.”

Each phone interview with a site director was compared to previous interviews, and these two

tentative cores were strengthened. Several additional categories of responses emerged, but these

two threads clearly dominated and ultimately wove together to form a tentative core—even prior

to conducting the electronic surveys with the volunteers themselves.

Much of the literature review was conducted after the initial round of phone interviews

with site directors while I waited for the results of my electronic surveys with the volunteers

themselves. Because grounded theory suggests that the literature review is part of the data

collection process, I coded articles as well, comparing them to the categories and themes that

were already emerging, which allowed for new insights into the comparison analysis. This also

influenced the sources that were uncovered in the literature review. The tentative core swirled

around spiritual health and humility, which led me to Stephen Merino’s work. Merino’s strongest

theoretical contribution to the present study is his determination “that same-faith friends and

Bland !31

family members vary widely in their propensity to make volunteer requests, depending on

whether religion is a salient aspect of the relationship and whether the relationship is connected

to congregational social networks” (Merino 510; emphasis mine). According to Merino,

therefore, recruitment efforts cannot simply be attributed to frequency of the request; the quality

of the relationship must be considered. In his words, religion must be a salient aspect of the

relationship in order for volunteer recruitment to be effective. This is consistent with the

contributing growth factors that emerged through the phone interviews with the ministry site

directors. It was quite obvious that a deeply personal, yet absolutely publicly demonstrated

relationship with Christ was present among the leadership in growing ministry sites. I also found

a theoretical contribution from Merino’s work to other significant components of the core.

Merino insists that the recruiting relationship be connected to congregational social networks.

This is consistent with my second major emerging theme that healthy relationships with local

churches are an absolutely critical component for the growing ministry sites. Merino uses the

word belonging, suggesting that recruiters must belong to the same congregation. My findings

suggest that the relationship with a local church needs to be healthy enough that the Youth For

Christ recruiter is known naturally, such as an informally accepted ex-officio member of the

congregation. The tentative core also led me to theoretical grounding in the published Theory of

Reasoned Action (see Fig. 2), which may explain why lost children who come to Christ enlist in

the dedicated volunteer service even though it is not normative in their family or home

environment (a common statement suggested in the interviews). Therefore, my findings are

consistent that beliefs are more influential than social norms are.

Bland !32

Not all sources in the literature compared cleanly or agreed with my data collection.

Most of the literature available agrees that, in general, the majority of volunteers are likely to be

married (Smith 132). Interestingly enough, this was not necessarily true in the Youth For Christ

sites sampled in this study, which will be discussed in the findings section (however, site director

responses responses were admittedly an approximation of the number of volunteers who were

married).

To test my grounded theory as it was emerging, I conducted a supplementary sub-set of

basic conceptual-content analysis, which was accomplished easily using the trello.com software.

I further analyzed the columns of cards and merged any cards originally labeled by the same

initials, since these would have come from the stream of consciousness of the same participant.

The phone-interview participants had unlimited abilities to create new themes in my original

coding, but in the process of generating categories, I prevented the possibility of a single

interview participant from over-influencing my board with their own opinions. In the final step, I

sifted back through the entire pile, and labeled in red any card in which a participant had

indicated that it was the most important contributing growth factor. This step of comparison only

further emphasized the two themes that made up the tentative core. After this process was

complete, I was left with a quantitative view of the qualitative data, which could easily be

presented visually in a way that would further illustrate my emerging theory. The red cards were

used to weight the quantitative picture, since the directors themselves declared these factors to be

most important.

Bland !33

Comparison Analysis with Electronic Survey Data

Questions two and three of the site director interviews asked the directors to assume how

their volunteers first discovered Youth For Christ, and asked them to project why their volunteers

first decided to get involved. By asking these questions, I wanted to draw comparisons between

the director’s assumptions of successful motivators and the volunteers’ actual responses. To

accomplish this, a constant comparative analysis approach was continued for the volunteer

electronic survey questions seven, eight, nine, and ten (each with their own virtual trello.com

board and stacks of virtual notecards). The additional qualitative analysis centered around these

specific volunteer questions:

7. YFC is growing in the numbers of volunteers! From your perspective, what

contributing factors do you think are leading to this growth? Please list as many

factors as you can.

8. Of all the factors you just listed above, which one do you think is the MOST

IMPORTANT contributing factor to YFC's growth in number of volunteers?

9. Think back to the first moment you were invited to serve as a volunteer with Youth

For Christ. Where and how did that happen?

10.What made you FIRST DECIDE to get involved with Youth For Christ?

The free responses to these open-ended questions were compared individually to the responses

projected by the site director phone interviews. This approach continued to strengthen the

tentative core.

Bland !34

Mixed Methods and Cross-Validation

At the inception of this project, I considered making the volunteer survey questions

multiple choice with selectable options based on the common themes that emerged from the first

round of phone interviews with the site directors. Certainly, this would have provided for a

simpler analysis. In hindsight, I am pleased that I did not take this shortcut. I did not want the

volunteers to be biased by the themes they saw emerging from their site directors. The integrity

of the volunteers submitting their own themes blindly, without being led, cannot be under-valued

in the creation of the grounded theory based on this research. In choosing to do an entirely new

round of free-response fields on sixty-three surveys, I significantly increased the amount of

qualitative analysis required. However, when I subsequently compared the two sets of data, what

emerged is undeniably valuable: The volunteers, unknowingly and by their own process,

confirmed the same contributing growth factors as their site directors did in the previous phone

interviews!

Results and Discussion

Demographic Findings

The site directors interviewed by phone became eligible for the sample group because of

their high-growth performance in the area of volunteer recruitment. It is important to report what

I learned about the demographics of these site directors:

1. Notable longevity in youth work

Seven of the eight site directors interviewed had an impressive eight to twenty years

of youth work. Even the one outlier had over three years in youth work. Collectively,

Bland !35

the sample group had 128 years of experience in youth work. This is striking because

it exceeds widely known national averages.

2. Long-standing consistency at the same ministry site

All eight site directors interviewed had three years or more at the same ministry site.

Five of eight site directors claimed five to twelve years at the same ministry site. Even

one significant outlier had logged twenty-seven years at the same ministry site!

3. Ministering to varying ages of children

The most common school grade ranges ministered to by the interviewed site directors

(five out of eight) were grades six through twelve. One site director continued

ministry to young adults in their early twenties. The overlap of their expertise in grade

ranges is plotted on the following chart:

!

Fig. 6.

Grade Ranges Served by Ministry Site Sample Group

4. Ministering in varying contextual environments

Most of the site directors interviewed (six out of eight) said they ministered in a rural

Bland !36

or suburban context. Only one indicated working in an urban environment. One site

director claimed ministry to children from all of the above, but declared that the

children were universally high risk. Interestingly enough, two additional site directors

voluntarily qualified their answer (without prompting) to my question by adding an at-

risk tag to their rural and suburban designations (see Fig. 7.)

!

Fig. 7.

Pictogram of target children reached by ministry site (red indicates the site director used an at-

risk or high-risk tag in response)

5. Ministering to primarily “non-Christian” children

Seven of the eight site directors responded that they work with primarily non-

Christian children. The eighth answered primarily Christian but qualified the answer

with “at least [the children] think they are Christian.”

6. Varying academic standings of children

The site directors were split evenly regarding their opinion of the academic status of

the children with whom they work. Half of the group responded average

academically, while the other half responded struggling academically. One site

director offered his own description: Apathetic.

Bland !37

7. Varying levels of indigenous leaders among volunteer ranks

The site directors estimated the percentage of their volunteers who were indigenous,

that is, they grew up in the same territory where they now minister to children. The

responses varied widely; only half reported an indigenous leader volunteer base that

was fifty percent or higher.

8. Volunteers, for the most part, now live among the children

The number of volunteers who now live in the same community where they minister

was reported to be much higher: Six out of eight site directors estimated that between

eighty and one hundred percent of volunteers lived in the same community as the

ministry site. The average number of local volunteers calculated over eight ministry

sites was 70.3 percent.

Growth Catalysts According to Site Directors

I asked the site directors if any people, relationships, or events catalyzed the growth in

their volunteer base. They could list as many factors as they chose. Twenty-six themes emerged

in the coding, which were subsequently compared (see Table 3). While the site directors varied

widely in their belief in growth catalysts, only one growth catalyst emerged as a clear choice:

strong relationships with local churches catalyze the growth of their volunteer base (see Fig. 8.).

Bland !38

Table 3

Site Director Phone Interviews - Factors Contributing to Volunteer Team Growth

Unique Votes Cast for Factor

Unique Votes Cast as Most Significant Factor

God is the One who is Leading the Growth 8 4

Vision Casting: YFC has an attractive vision that is being lived out 5 2

Healthy ministry that’s contagious: Vols see and are drawn in 6

Solid Back office Systems 5

Leaders Live and Function in Loving Community - Attractive to Others 5

Care for Leaders / Express Gratitude 3 1

Responsibility / Expectations / Ownership are Kept High by Empowering Leaders

3 1

Intrigue of YFC’s Access to Locked Domain (School, Institution) 3

The Need is Communicated Clearly and they want to Help 3

Repeated Humility of the Staff Leader (Inferred by Interviewer) 2

They Have a Passion and Come Looking 2

There’s a level of Convenience to this Service Opportunity 2

Strong / Improving Staff Leadership 1

College Volunteer Service Mandate 1

Longevity in Staff Ranks 1

Partnerships with other Agencies 1

TOTAL 51 8

Bland !39

!

Fig. 8

Site Director Phone Interviews - Factors Contributing to Volunteer Team Growth

Recruitment Sources According to Site Directors

When the site directors were asked where they originally found these volunteers, six

themes emerged. Since six out of the eight directors clearly referenced a relational strategy in

recruiting new volunteers, I reviewed the interviews again; this time listening for the property or

source of the relationship (compare Tables 4 and 5). This allowed for a strong connection to be

made between the site director interviews and the volunteer surveys. Despite a myriad of well-

crafted “point of entry” events, radio ads, public marketing campaigns, and so on, a strong

majority—75 percent—of the volunteers began their service with Youth For Christ because an

individual asked them to volunteer. When I analyzed the codes of the source of the relationship, I

confirmed that the source was less relevant and widely distributed (this theme was later

researched, compared, and found to be consistent with Musick et al. 1557; Paik and Navarre-

Jackson 477). The source of the invitation is shown as distributed widely in Table 5.

Bland !40

Table 4

Source of Recruitment by Strategy

I did not intentionally group the category of Pastors Networks with the category of

Relationships. A further review of the notes determined that the site directors who referenced

Pastor Networks in this question were suggesting that pastor networks are good recruitment

pools for recruiting the pastor personally to become a volunteer.

Table 5

Relational Recruiting: The Sources of Relationship

Votes % of 8 possible

Relationships - Word of Mouth 6 75%

Church - presentation or pitch 5 63%

Hosting Point of Entry Events 3 38%

Pastor networks (themselves specifically as volunteers) 3 38%

Christian colleges 2 25%

Public marketing campaigns 2 25%

Votes % of 6 possible

Relationships we have with people in Churches 3 50%

Relationships (Generic, unanswered) 2 33%

Referrals through Existing Volunteers 2 33%

Friends of my Kids 1 17%

Bland !41

There is, therefore, a strong connection to the local church in these growing ministry sites, and

there is a deeper understanding that the recruitment process is tied to building relationships and

utilizing that relational network to spread the word about Youth For Christ.

Contributing Growth Factors According to the Site Directors

The site directors were given plenty of time to list as many contributing growth factors as

they could (see Table 6). After generating as many factors as possible, the site directors were

asked to pick the most significant factor contributing to growth from among their list (they did

not see the categories generated by other site directors). After the comparison analysis was

complete, sixteen unique categories that contributed to site growth emerged:

Table 6

Themes that Contributed to the Growth of Volunteers on the Sites

Friends I went to YFC (when I was a kid) 1 17%

Family - or Friends of Family 1 17%

Votes % of 6 possible

Factor Votes

Most Important

% of 16 possible votes

God is the One who is Leading the Growth 8 4 75%

Vision Casting - Attractive Vision that’s being Lived Out 5 2 44%

Healthy Ministry That’s Contagious - Drawn In 6 38%

Solid Back office Systems 5 31%

Leaders Live and Function in Loving Community - Attractive to Others

5 31%

Bland !42

Table 6 shows that only one category was unanimously mentioned. They all differed on credit and glory, referring to the fact that it was God Himself who was leading the growth. The responses included the following:

• “God is great — it’s all Him… Our growth is a reflection of God’s providence and a

lot of good sowing, but mostly... it’s God’s providence.”

• “Let me be clear about this: Our growth has been because what God has done. I know

this sounds like a generic answer but I want to emphasize that. I really attribute all the

other factors to this.”

• “I really think it’s just God working in people.”

• “Not a business model… it’s the Holy Spirit. We’ve seen fallout of the business model

approach.”

Care for Leaders / Express Gratitude 3 1 25%

Responsibility / Expectations / Ownership are Kept High by Empowering Leaders

3 1 25%

Intrigue of YFC’s Access to Locked Domain (School, Institution)

3 19%

The Need is Communicated Clearly and they want to Help 3 19%

Repeated Humility of the Staff Leader (Inferred by Interviewer) 2 13%

They Have a Passion and Come Looking 2 13%

There’s a level of Convenience to this Service Opportunity 2 13%

Strong / Improving Staff Leadership 1 6%

College Volunteer Service Mandate 1 6%

Longevity in Staff Ranks 1 6%

Partnerships with other Agencies 1 6%

TOTAL 51 8

Factor Votes

Most Important

% of 16 possible votes

Bland !43

This category emerged into a theme when the site directors were asked to select only the most

significant contributing growth factor from their list. The dramatic emphasis of this emerging

theme is shown in Fig. 9.

!

Fig. 9.

Factors that Contributed to Site Volunteer Growth

According to the responses of the site directors, the top three themes contributing to growth were

as follows:

1. God is the one who is leading the growth.

2. Vision casting: YFC has an attractive vision that is being lived out.

3. Healthy ministry that’s contagious: leaders see and are drawn in.

Motivation for Volunteering

The site directors were also asked why they thought their volunteers served with Youth For

Christ (see Fig. 10.). Most site directors assumed that their volunteers served because (1) Christ

Bland !44

is missing in these children’ lives, and that their volunteers were (2) on a mission to reach

children with the Gospel of Jesus Christ:

Fig. 10.

Visual Display of Emerging Themes — Volunteer Motivation for Serving

The site Directors responded with the following top three perceived motivations for volunteers

who the ranks:

1. Christ is missing in these children’ lives: Our volunteers are on a mission to reach

children for Christ.

2. God is the one who is calling or leading them.

3. They see the need, and are responding to broken children in today’s society.

The volunteers were given corresponding open-ended questions. Their responses were

qualitatively compared to the responses of the site directors in the phone interviews. They had

not seen any of the site directors’ responses. Similar to the interviews with the site directors, the

Bland !45

volunteers could suggest as many factors as they liked. Most volunteers chose to write only one

factor presumably because the electronic surveys were completed hastily and without space for

comments, unlike the site directors’ phone interviews. Not all volunteers listed only one factor:

of the sixty-three volunteers, seventeen categories emerged from the factors given (see Table 8),

which allowed for the constant comparison analysis.

Table 8

Themes of Volunteer Motivation

Selected Factor

% of 63 possible votes

1. Mission to reach children for Christ 9 14.3%

2. See the need / Desire to help 9 14.3%

3. Personal abiding relationship with God / and what He expects of me

8 12.7%

4. It’s God 6 9.5%

5. Attracted to the staff leader 6 9.5%

6. Reflection on my own teenage years / testimony 4 6.3%

7. We Give a personal appeal for help / Realize I’m needed here 4 6.3%

8. Care about my local community / Want to make a difference 4 6.3%

9. My friend or family 3 4.8%

10. Sense of belonging / Missional Community 3 4.8%

11. I have free time / Want to make a difference 3 4.8%

12. Unclear 3 4.8%

13. Saw the ministry impact / Contagious 2 3.2%

14. Convenience over other volunteer options 2 3.2%

15. Love the organization 1 1.6%

16. Understanding of children’ issues / Past / Sin in World 1 1.6%

Bland !46

These responses are important primarily because even though they were generated

blindly through open-ended questions, they matched almost exactly the responses of the site

directors. To provide nuance, I intentionally separated category three from category four. I did

this because volunteer submitted category four ("It's God”) was the most closely matched with

site director’s “God is the One who is leading the growth” theme. When the volunteers expressed

theme four they used the same properties—glory deflection and humility.

Volunteer submitted category three (“Personal abiding relationship with God and what He

expects of me”) was only slightly different, but it originally appeared to have different properties

in the coding process. Namely, the volunteers who responded with category three included

themselves in part of the growth equation, but from the perspective that it was God working

through them; through an abiding relationship with Christ. Upon further comparison, I combined

volunteer submitted categories three and four in the alternate view table (see Table 9), to see how

it would change my perspective on the volunteer’s responses:

17. Other organizations didn’t work out 1 1.6%

TOTAL 69

Selected Factor

% of 63 possible votes

Bland !47

Table 9

Alternate View: Combined Themes of Volunteer Motivation

These volunteer categories compare directly to site director categories when analyzed through

the lens of motivation, namely, why their volunteers are compelled to get involved. Table 9 above

(generated by volunteer responses) is nearly identical to the top three projected motivations

assumed by their site directors:

1. Christ is missing in these children’ lives: Our volunteers are on a mission to reach

children for Christ

2. God is the one who is calling or leading them

3. They see the need, and are responding to broken children in today’s society

These two groups submitted strikingly similar categories, particularly when they were allowed to

generate these responses from completely open-ended questions.

Volunteer Participation and Longevity

A total of sixty-three volunteer surveys were collected with varying levels of participation

distributed across all eight of the originally phone-interviewed ministry sites (see Fig. 11.):

Selected Factor

% of 63 possible votes

1. It’s God — He’s Leading (or He’s Leading through Me) 14 22.2%

2. Mission to reach children for Christ 9 14.3%

3. See the need / Desire to help 9 14.3%

Bland !48

!

Fig. 11.

Sixty-three Volunteer Surveys Distributed by Ministry Site Location

The volunteers that responded had significant longevity at the ministry site: forty-five percent of

the surveys collected were from volunteers who had more than three years of service at the

ministry site (see Fig. 12.). Although I did not rule out responses based on longevity, I was

encouraged that these volunteers would be able to answer my questions with a degree of

historical knowledge and hands-on experience.

Bland !49

!

Fig. 12.

Survey Participation by Longevity at Ministry Site

First Introduction to YFC

When the volunteers were asked about the source of their first introduction to YFC, the

common response was by personal invitation (or, in some cases, a personal referral that led to a

subsequent personal invitation. See Table 7 and Fig. 13.).

Table 7

Volunteer’s Introduction to YFC

Votes % of 63 Possible

Personal Invitation or Referral which led to Invitation 40 63%

Church - Generic Presentation or Appeal 5 8%

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!

Fig. 13.

Volunteer’s Introduction to YFC

Unclear 5 8%

Responded at Banquet or Recruitment Meeting 3 5%

Invitation to One-Time Service / Got Hooked 2 3%

Responded to YFC Recruitment Booth 2 3%

Don’t Remember 2 3%

Intentional Introduction to Someone who Could Make Invitation 1 2%

God Called me before any person 1 2%

Responded to Radio Ad 1 2%

No response 1 2%

TOTAL 63

Votes % of 63 Possible

Bland !51

This finding is important in two ways:

1. When the electronic survey data were compared to the data from the site director

interviews, they further supported and even confirmed the finding that seventy-five

percent of site directors agreed that their volunteers were found through relationships.

2. When compared to the sources uncovered in the literature review, a relational

recruitment method was supported by previous research. Simply being asked to

volunteer is one of the strongest predictors of volunteerism, while the source of the

invitation remains largely irrelevant (Musick et al. 1560; Bowman 248).

As theorized by the available literature, the sources of these personal invitations or referrals were

widely distributed (see Fig. 14.).

!

Fig. 14.

Volunteer’s Invitation: By Source

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Seventy-five percent of the invitations or referrals came from someone who is already serving in

Youth For Christ ministry. This makes sense because in these healthy, growing ministry sites,

eighty-four percent of volunteers responded that they have referred Youth For Christ ministry to

someone else who might be interested in volunteering. Of the minority (sixteen percent) of

volunteers who had never referred anyone to the YFC ministry, almost all had been serving for

less than three years (fourteen percent). Only one outlier had served for longer than three years

and had never invited someone else. Presumably, the volunteers themselves were involved in the

relational recruitment process of finding new volunteers. The ones who were not yet involved in

the recruitment culture were the ones that did not have significant tenure with the organization.

Flight Risk—Retention Among Volunteers

Although my study is primarily concerned with growth, retention is an important part of

that equation. It is assumed that the ministry sites in the sample pool have some degree of

retention since they were selected for their net increase in the number of participating volunteers.

It is conceivable, however, that their recruitment strategies are so strong that they lose all of their

volunteers every year and recruit a larger group in the next year. A retention study is outside the

scope of this project, but it begs further inquiry. However, because I was curious, I did ask the

volunteers if they had ever considered ending their service with Youth For Christ; fifty-eight

percent had thought about leaving. As might be expected, a little over half of the volunteers who

had thought about leaving had been serving in Youth For Christ for three years or more.

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Have you thought about leaving? “Yes” Answers, by Longevity

! !

Fig. 15.

Volunteer Flight Risks (Left), Sorted by Longevity (Right)

The open ended follow-up question asked why the fifty-eight percent had thought about leading

(qualitative: coded, compared, and merged into categories). Answers were startling and require

further research. The twenty-seven volunteers who answered yes to their consideration of leaving

the organization generated twelve reasons, and each one cited only one reason. Just over half the

volunteers who had considered leaving had considered it because of the difficulties of balancing

the time commitment with their life responsibilities (see Table 10):

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Table 10

Themes Emerging from “Why” Volunteers might Leave

This finding is a clear cry for another project by another researcher on another day. Fifty-eight

percent of the volunteers at growing ministry sites had considered leaving! Most of them had

considered leaving because of the time commitment required to serve in ministry and the

difficulty in balancing life responsibilities with their commitment. What will YFC learn from

these findings? What action will YFC take, if any?

% of 27 Possible Responses

Juggling Time/Life Balance 14 51.9%

Weary with Kids / Kids are Frustrating

2 7.4%

Lack of Seeing Progress 2 7.4%

Church Leadership Disagreements 1 3.7%

Fundraising Requirements are Daunting

1 3.7%

Poor YFC Executive Leadership 1 3.7%

Not Enough Help - Overwhelming 1 3.7%

Not Called to this Age Group 1 3.7%

Hard to Relate My Story to Their Story

1 3.7%

Prefer YFC Employment Instead 1 3.7%

Too Much Help - Not Needed 1 3.7%

Unclear 1 3.7%

TOTAL 27

Bland !55

Conclusions

I set out to develop a grounded theory that explains how high-growth ministry sites

increase their volunteer ranks, whereas the majority of Youth For Christ ministry sites remain

largely stagnant or have a high turnover. The grounded theory that emerged from this study has

two primary components:

1. The ministry sites are led by site directors and volunteers who concentrate more on

their own healthy, abiding relationship with Jesus Christ than on developing strong

marketing or recruitment tactics. When asked, they routinely and authentically deflect

glory to God, who is primarily responsible for the “unexplainable” growth. This

posture (and more importantly, the heart behind it) honors God and He is indeed

rewarding their work.

2. Tactically, it is obvious that these leaders prioritize their time in building healthy

relationships with area local churches and leveraging the local church as their

cooperative base and primary recruitment pool. Whether these same healthy church

relationships exist in stagnant ministry sites requires further research. My hypothesis

is that they do not.

My grounded theory is that these primary components are sufficient to grow a volunteer team.

However, I include four secondary themes in this theory, which may contribute tangibly, but only

when supplemental to the two primary components described above:

• Longevity in ministry: A site director with at least six to eight years in youth work is

more likely to grow a volunteer team.

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• Longevity at the same ministry site: A site director with at least three years at the

same ministry site is more likely to have success in growing the team.

• The site directors (and existing volunteer teams) who routinely present the “needs of

children” to prospective volunteers are more likely to grow their volunteer ranks

(Most importantly, they present this need in local church contexts or at least to

audiences whose primary inclination for solution to the “need” includes a desire reach

children with the Gospel of Christ, instead of presenting the “need” in non-religious

settings where the response is generically to “help children.”).

• Successful site directors (and a strong majority of their volunteers) regularly engage

in direct, one-on-one “personal invitations and follow through” to prospective

volunteers. Similar to naturally skilled salespersons, they are adept at “closing the

deal” individually and directly. They do not rely on mass recruitment events,

advertising campaigns, or public relations tactics.

Limitations

One limitation of my demographic study is that I did not consider the effects of race,

ethnicity, or age on volunteering in the literature review, the interviews, or the surveys. Another

limitation is that all interviews and surveys, and most of my academic sources were from US-

based contexts, unless otherwise noted, so it should be assumed that any statements or claims

should not be generalized to an international application. However, for the sake of clarity, please

note that the organizational setting of this study—Youth For Christ USA—is one of over one

hundred autonomous, chartered nations of the parent organization, Youth For Christ

Bland !57

International. I have made no such claims on either limitation and suggest that further research

needs to be conducted.

Certainly, the findings of the present study also raise the question of retention. However,

that question will left for exploration by another researcher. The raw source data from YFC did

not provide adequate resources for me to accomplish a retention study within the parameters and

scope of this assignment. Furthermore, this is the work of one researcher conducted alone over

the course of five months. In the last fifteen years, I have functioned as both a volunteer and a

site director, so admittedly, I bring my own biases to the discussion, as well as and my own lens

through which the qualitative themes may have been selected and interpreted. I have discussed

changes to the project with my colleagues whenever possible: For example, I did not eliminate

any ministry site from the data sample without first consulting Youth For Christ’s vice president

of national ministries.

The volunteers were offered an incentive to participate in the electronic survey. Their

names were entered into a draw in which the winners would receive a gift box of free Youth For

Christ branded merchandise. I have no reason to believe that this altered my sampling pool or

data collection. Finally, my own role in the organization should be disclosed. The site directors

who participated in the study would have recognized early that the invitation to participate in this

research came from a vice president of the organization. In the USA, Youth For Christ has a

federated, autonomous leadership structure, which often positions the role of officer as one of

influence rather than authority. Because of this culture, I highly doubt that the site directors

altered their responses for any perception of career or professional gain (or avoided it in fear of

assessment or evaluation). However, I chose not to mask my identify or sub-contract the

Bland !58

interviews, so full transparency is required here. I did note one phone interview where the

respondent frequently asked “Is this what you wanted to hear?” I did my best—both in my

posture and in the tone of the interviews, as well as in the carefully conducted coding process—

to eliminate this potential bias as much as possible.

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to my advisor, Terence Linhart, Ph.D. not only for

his oversight and critical insight into the design of this project but also for first exposing me to

qualitative methods, especially grounded theory.

Furthermore, I am grateful for the encouragement and moral support in the cohort of

Youth For Christ colleagues who have completed graduate work concurrently, particularly

Allison Johnson, Eric Kelly, Guy LeCompte, and Dave Ramseyer. Much laughter has sustained

us in the midst of our studies, and much life has passed, including one changed name and two

babies born! The opportunity to experience this together has been invaluable.

Each of us is indebted to Dave Rahn, Ph.D. who is not only the founder of the graduate

program but also the one who made it possible for each of us to participate while carrying full-

time employment in various capacities of national leadership in Youth For Christ.

Finally, I am indebted to my beautiful bride, Alison Joy Bland, whose tolerance of the

various stressors and workload was outpaced only by her encouragement, which led to the

completion of my project. Together, we submit this work within thirty days of the birth of our

first child, eagerly believing that our most important days lie ahead.

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Summary

Huntington University’s Master of Arts in Youth Ministry Leadership program offers a

curricular emphasis in three critical areas: theological faithfulness, professional and leadership

expertise, and adolescent specialization. While many of my classmates are offering important

research projects that further the body of knowledge in adolescent specialization, my hope is that

the present study will benefit the professional leadership of youth ministry movements

everywhere. As Youth For Christ seeks to unleash armies of volunteers who care for children, I

believe that we can now be more educated in the way we train for recruitment and team-building

strategies.

It is fascinating to me that, while I did not set out to contribute to the theological

faithfulness agenda, the respondents themselves led the project in this direction through their

emphasis on abiding in Christ, their notable humility, and their tireless insistence on Spirit-

directed growth. The research itself has been a refreshing labor of love, and in turn, has reminded

me of my first Love.

In my final reflection, I suppose that Jesus Himself negated the need for this entire study

by directing us towards his own grounded theory: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are

few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his

harvest” (ESV Study Bible, Mat. 9:37-38). No further inquiry is required. Faithful obedience is

enough.

Bland !60

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Appendix A

YFC Impact 2.0 Standardized Reporting Questions

0. [Asked Only Once Per Year] Total number of young people who could potentially be engaged through this site: (a)

________

Our team is continuing from last year ___(b) authentic, Christ-sharing relationships with non-Christians ___ (c) authentic, Christ-sharing relationships with Christians.

1. Enter the number of all YFC leaders who have engaged in authentic Christ-sharing relationships with young people through this ministry site...

(a) Young Leaders: __________ (b) Volunteers: __________ (c) Part-Time Employees: __________ (d) Full-Time Employees: __________

2. How many new young people have connected to YFC through relationships and/or programs of this ministry site?

3. How many of those unique young people have initially engaged in Christ-sharing relationships where you know them to be either Christians or non-Christians?

4. Since [July 1, or the last time you were here]... (a) __________ kids have made decisions to become followers of Jesus (b) __________ have completed an initial (relational & Biblical) follow-up/

discipleship program (c) __________ have become involved in an ongoing fellowship where they can

grow as disciples (d) __________ have become one of the YFC young leaders in Question #1

A full explanation of each question is available online at: http://www.yfc.net/resources/yfc-impact-new-4-questions-explanation/

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Appendix B

Site Director Invitation to Participate

Dear [Site Director Name],

Congrats! Your name has been selected as part of a very small group (about 35 YFC ministries) — specifically associated with your role at [Ministry Site Name].

I’m doing a school research project for Huntington University (to finish my graduate degree). As part of the research project, I need to interview YFC ministry directors from across the country.

Would you be willing to participate in a 60-minute interview as part of my research? Specifically, I want to learn about your volunteer team at [Ministry Site Name] and the great ministry you’re leading there.

You won't need to prepare anything, and there are no right or wrong answers… it’s just getting to know the story of your ministry. Any research presented in my report will be in “summary form” and will mask the names of the actual ministry sites.

Thanks for considering this. My hope is that it would be more than a school project. I hope my research ultimately benefits the YFC movement so that more children can be reached.

Please let me know if you’re available, and I’ll send you some dates/times for a 60-minute interview.

Thanks again!

Jake

— JACOB D. BLAND Vice President Development & Marketing

Youth For Christ® Give life to your story.™ www.yfc.org

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Appendix C

Pre-Qualification Instrument

!

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Appendix D

Semi-Structured Interview Guide Phone Interviews with Site Directors

You indicated that you began your local ministry with x number of volunteers. Now you have y.

1. How long did the growth take? 2. Were there any particular people, events, or opportunities that accelerated the growth? 3. Where did you find these people originally? 4. How did you get them to join you? 5. What factors contributed to your teams’ growth? Let’s take our time here. Tell me about as many as

you can… 6. In everything you just mentioned, what do you think is the single most important contributing factor to

growing your number of volunteers? 7. Describe the typical, average volunteer on your team. 7a. What are they like? 7b. What do they do in your ministry in a typical week? 8. Describe for me the ideal volunteer on your team. 8a. What are they like? 8b. What do they do in your ministry in a typical week 9. How would you describe your role, in relationship to your volunteers? 10. Tell me about how the volunteers interact with each other. 11. Why do you think they volunteer?

QUICK RESPONSE (Estimations)

Leadership and Organization 12. How many years have you been in youth work? 13. of those years, how many have you been at this location?

Kids 14. What is the age or school grade range of the children you work with? 15. Would you classify your community as urban, suburban, rural, or other? 16. Would you classify the children you work with as affluent, middle-class, low-income, mixed income,

or other? 17. Would you classify the children you work with as primarily Christian, or primarily not Christian? 18. Would you classify the children you work with as generally academically successful, average, or

generally struggling academically?

Leaders 19. What percentage of your volunteers’ team are male? 20. What percentage of your volunteers are married? 21. On average, how long does a typical volunteer serve in your program? 22. What percentage of your volunteers grew up in the same community as your ministry site? 23. What percentage of your volunteers live now in the same community as your ministry site?

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Appendix E

Volunteer Electronic Survey

!

(Continued)

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Appendix E - Continued

Volunteer Electronic Survey