I get it.
It’s frustrating and discouraging to serve while other people walk in and walk out of church every week.
I've heard the grumbling of volunteers. To be honest, I've felt the bitterness myself.
Time to get your steel toes shoes on, this might hurt.
I decided to write this after recently hearing (and it’s not the first time) a comment, from the platform, addressing the issue of serving, or rather not serving. When I heard it years ago, it stung because I heard all the stories from people who were not serving and I understood, as usual, that circumstance and life cannot be put into simple black-and-white scenarios or labels.
Many people are coming to church struggling with so much pain, and yet, here we were, asking something FROM them instead of being there FOR them.
Now, I say this knowing, teaching and believing wholeheartedly that serving is one of the best avenues toward healing from the inside out. God is clear about that. Jesus came to serve not to be served.
But when I look at Jesus’ time on earth, his death and resurrection, I see reconciliation.
I see grace.
I see love.
Christ is our refuge, not our gym. We work out and prove our strength at the gym but Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Christ must be the goal and when the realization of His love and unconditional acceptance begins to rise above the horizon of strife, worry, guilt, and shame, we are propelled to love back. To give back as our lives become an overflow of grace toward others. Serving.
Yet, the message we send is to either serve and be awesome or not serve and be a loser. Or worse, a “consumer.” I’m not discounting that consumerism is a real challenge. I’m suggesting we look at it from Jesus’ perspective.
Recently, after over 20 years since that heartbreaking season, I heard the same words and label those not serving as “just watching the show”…I’m slamming the brakes on this one.
Why do we look to blame instead of seeking to understand?
Back then, the average time it took someone from our church to go from “just attending” to signing up to serve was two and a half years. I would share this statistic with church leaders, get that baffling stare, and get asked, “How do you know?”
“Because I asked them.” I wanted to know why. Not to judge but to really understand what keeps people away from serving since I loved it so much.
I learned that some people started attending a few weeks and immediately wanted to volunteer because “it’s just what we do.”
Others would hang their heads with shame, “I’ve been here for years and am just now showing up.” My response would always be, “Please don’t feel guilty. You were not ready, for whatever reason. And that’s okay. You are here now. Let’s make this the best experience FOR YOU!”
Church, yes, we need volunteers.
But we must remember that volunteers are not serving just to further your mission, volunteers are the mission.
More than serving, we need people to be healed, to know and love God and see Jesus as their Lord.
When that process begins, the rest will follow.