From Volunteers to Partners in Ministry

 

            I’m watching a learning module series on volunteering (part of The Small Church Academy…oh my gosh, if you haven’t heard of it GO LOOK IT UP. It’s amazing.). Volunteering is such a huge part of church life. I confess as a pastor, I often have to remind myself that my expectations of volunteers need to be based on the volunteers expectations and not my own. By that, I mean I can give extra time to church because the church literally gives me a pay check. I do volunteer extra time outside of my work schedule, but this is my livelihood. For others, giving time and talent to the church is in addition to a full time job as an employee or a parent/spouse, or both.

            In other words, church is not the only place people give their time and talent, and as church leaders we must do better celebrating the folks who do give their time and talents to church.

            I’ve also had to rethink how I think of “church” when we think about how people give time and talents to “church” If the church is the body of Christ (as we believe it is), we also have to recognize the time and talents people give to the body of Christ outside of the institution of church. In a conference on stewardship (stewardship is how we care for the resources God gives us, including how we care for our planet and one another) a few years ago, a speaker reminded us the time someone gives to an animal shelter, or a homeless shelter, is still a way that someone is sharing time and talents in the body of Christ. Therefore, we have to be careful before we say that someone isn’t willing to volunteer at church – if church is more than the building, we have to see the church in more places than just our geographic footprint!

            The Small Church Academy also teaches that the word volunteer isn’t in the Bible. The organization leader says often that volunteers don’t exist to do the ministry; they are the ministry!     

            Another reminder the academy is giving me is that there are volunteers who have negative experiences that impact their willingness to share their time and talents in the future. I so get that. When I was a teenager, I was asked to play the piano for Vacation Bible School. I played the piano and the kids sang along. I only played in the beginning. At the end of the Bible school day, the “professional” would come in and play the songs on the piano and it was understood that he would play the piano at the end of the week program. He came to me and told me I was playing the songs wrong and made his work more difficult. Perhaps he wanted to teach me something about piano, but it really soured me on helping with Vacation Bible School (there were some other things that happened, but that is the story I’m comfortable sharing). It took me a long time to be willing to help with VBS again because of that experience.

            Today, that experience reminds me that others have negative experiences sharing their time and talents, too. And while they aren’t always comfortable sharing specifics, the specifics don’t ultimately matter. What matters is that there was an uncomfortable experience and it’s an opportunity for the church to minister to someone who has been hurt. It’s a reminder that a “no” is not always (or usually) just because someone isn’t interested in a particular ministry.

            Churches across the globe (as well as other non-profit organizations) are struggling to find people willing to share time and talents. I know in my own church right now, it’s making us rethink how we do things and I believe that’s what God is calling us to do. God doesn’t call us to stay exactly the same all the time. Like the clay on the potter’s wheel, we’re called to adapt and pivot when we need to. We’re in a time when God is inviting us to adapt and pivot how we minister to people who can share time and talents (I’m trying to pivot from saying “volunteer” as much!). We’re in a time when God is inviting us to find new ways to partner in the church family to do God’s work in the community and we’re invited to find new ways to celebrate how people are already sharing their time and talents in the body of Christ (again, the body of Christ is so much bigger than just an institution!). It’s a necessary paradigm shift, and the good news is that Jesus is an expert in paradigm shifts.

            Isn’t that the hope of Easter after all?

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