The process of building a new church facility is exciting, exhausting, and even overwhelming. I have never been involved in the actual construction of a house or church facility before, so it has been interesting to gain an elementary understanding of the construction process.
Time and again, I have been greatly impressed with our General Contractor. I cannot imagine how he can balance all of the demands of his job, yet he continues to show an amazing level of commitment to our project.
There is another group of individuals I have also been greatly impressed with - our volunteers. Almost every night of the week, there are volunteers in the new facility preparing various areas for future ministry. On Saturdays, we have had a handful of extremely dedicated volunteers working on the landscaping and other similar projects.
The past two nights, we have had a number of volunteers in our "old" facility cleaning out storage rooms, sorting through all of the stuff that a church accumulates in 35 years of doing church, and packing it all up for the move next week.
All of this volunteer involvement and commitment has proven what Bill Hybels once said, "The church is the most volunteer-intensive organization in the world." My hope and prayer is that this commitment to volunteerism will act as a catalyst for those individuals who remain seated in the stands and haven't yet figured out that they are supposed to be on the playing field.
Let's all come together to eliminate the 80/20 rule - 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. Imagine if we accomplished 100/100 - 100% of the work is done by 100% of the people. This almost sounds Biblical (see Ephesians 4:16 and 1 Peter 4:10).
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Volunteer Appreciation
Posted by Chris Genders at 9:50 AM
3 comments:
I like the 80/20 rule. I always hope that 20 percent of the congregation is too new in the faith, or seekers themselves... or for some valid reason are the recipients of volunteerism instead of the volunteers.
But of course, when we refer to the 80/20 rule, sadly it is only the 20 who are doing 80 percent.
My fear is that w/ the backwards 80/20 that is meant in that saying, that 100% of the work simply isn't getting done. If 80 were doing, how much more would get done?
Is this to say that seekers and those new in their faith shouldn't be volunteers (which is simply a "code word" for ministry)? I would like to think that we have opportunities for everyone in the church to volunteer in some capacity. In fact, volunteering can become one of the best avenues for getting new people connected with others in the church and assimilated into the life of the church. Not sure who posted the comment, but would love to hear your thoughts...this is what this site is for. (See explanation on main page about Paul in Acts 17)
Not that they couldn't be, but that the same expectation (or requirement, maybe commandment) isn't on them. Certainly there are places for such, and the opportunity for connection in that way is definitely there. But seekers do not have the same motivation for service, or the same rewards as those whose motivation is to further God's kingdom - to follow the command to "...go into all the world... teaching them to obey..." When the motivation is something other, I think it's something lesser, and at that point it's differentiated between "volunteer" and "ministry".
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