How to List Church Volunteer Work on Resume

Volunteering with your local church has a lot of benefits. You meet community members and develop skills that can help you for years to come. Volunteering to help others within your church can be especially rewarding because you can often see the fruits of your labor right away.

In some instances, it can be difficult to convey the full value of your volunteer experience to others, especially when it comes to sharing that information on a resume. However, listing your volunteer work properly can show potential employers (and anyone else that sees your resume) your passions. It also shows that you are dependable and motivated to better yourself and those around you.

Here, we will provide a helpful guide that gives suggestions on how you can effectively list your church volunteer experience on a resume, application, or another experience listing. First, however, you should understand the reasons for providing this information on your resume.

Why Is It Important to Include Volunteer Work on Your Resume?

Your volunteer work says a lot about you. It conveys to others what is important to you - and your priorities say a great deal about you as a person! It also conveys information to potential employers about how motivated you will be as an employee.

Including your volunteer experience on a resume can help you stand out among many applicants. For example, listing volunteer experience with the Chicago Church of Christ might make a connection with hiring managers who are members of the church or who know about the church. With seven locations throughout the Chicagoland area, the name “Chicago Church” is bound to ring a bell with a few human resource managers.

Listing volunteer experience is also a great way to convey specific skills that you have learned through that experience.

Examples of skills that you may have developed include:

• Compassion
• Leadership
• Organization
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Dependability
• Problem-solving
• Event coordination and planning

For some, including volunteer experience is even more important because they might not have a lot of relevant work experience. This might occur if you are just entering the world of professional work or making a career change.

Properly listing volunteer work shows a willingness to work, learn, and grow—and those are all traits that are appealing to a wide variety of employers.

How to Include Church Volunteer Work on a Resume

1. Decide on Formatting for Your Volunteer Work

Ultimately, there is no wrong way to list your church volunteer service on a resume. However, there are a couple of methods that are generally more effective compared to others.

Include Your Volunteer Experience in the “Work History” Section

If you do not have a lot of prior work experience or the work experience you have is not particularly relevant to the position you want, you might consider putting your volunteer experience in your work history section. To do this, you include your volunteer information just as you would list out any other prior job. Be sure to include it in chronological order and include vital information about the position, such as the tasks you completed and how often you volunteered.

Including your volunteer experience along with your work history shows an employer that you are very passionate about this volunteer work. Because you are ranking it “on par” with another job, it will clearly convey that the work is important to you.

Create a Separate Volunteer Experience Section

Many job seekers separate their work experience and their volunteer work into two sections. You can title this section “Volunteer Experience” or “Additional Activities.” This split works well for volunteer experience that might not be as relevant to the job you are seeking or you want to list several unrelated volunteer experiences.

This section can be very short, sometimes just a bulleted list. However, if you want to emphasize specific skills you learned while volunteering, you could include more descriptions than a simple list.

2. Describe Your Church Volunteer Work

If you want to emphasize your volunteer work, you should include a description of what you did, when you did it, and why it matters. In general, list your most recent positions first. If you are currently volunteering at more than one place, start with the position that you have held the longest.

The basics of each listing should include:

• The organization where you volunteered
• The dates you volunteered
• Any titles that you held
• Location of the church
• Key responsibilities for the position or work that you did

Having bullet points to describe your work can be a good way to get your point across in an easy-to-read way that won’t be too wordy. Be sure to list any achievements that you might have accomplished through your work as well.

If you won any awards or had any successful events, consider adding those to the description of your activities.

You should also include a description of the skills that you gained in each position. Plan to include skills that you know will be important to the specific job or position you are applying for.

3. Consider Adding References

You might also want to include a contact person who is knowledgeable about your church volunteer experience. That person should be able to discuss what you did for the church as well as your general dependability and integrity.

Typically, references are listed in a separate section of your resume or even as a completely different document. Some positions don’t need references, so having more than one document with this information can be helpful in separating the data.

A Quick Example

Below is a brief example of a method you could use to describe your church volunteer experience:

Chicago Church of Christ, City Ministry Chicago, IL

- Volunteer Dec. 2010 to Present -

• Successfully headed organization for Midwest Teen Prom from 2014 to 2016
• Developed activities for Experience Camp, Grades 8-9 from 2019, forward
• Lead weekly youth group activities for local group middle school group, including organized readings and activities
• Work with quarterly clothing drive and monthly soup kitchen efforts from 2010, forward
• Improved and fostered leadership, organizational, problem-solving, and communication skills

This example is more extensive than a simple listing of volunteer work. It showcases the variety of activities that this person has done and the skills they have developed. Using action words and brief, powerful descriptions will set your volunteer experience apart.

Learn more about volunteering with Chicago Church. Our events and event planning offer great opportunities to not only serve your community but help you grow as an individual as well.