Volunteers - Communicating the Need

One of the most interesting comments in what has been a most interesting week so far (can't believe it's only Wednesday as the week so far has been crammed full of so much!) has bee that of a stressed cleric regarding the needs in their place of worship.

"I can't get them (the congregation) to understand what needs to be done or get them to do it!"

There was this church with loads of opportunities for people to get involved and yet they not only didn't want tio but (apparently) didn't seem to understand why they should be doing it anyway! A nightmare scenario indeed.

So I asked questions (as I do) and got answers (which often I don't) and it went like this:

So what needs doing? The answer to this covered the areas of outreach, children's work, music and doing general tasks in and around the service. It appeared that there were always people who were willing to have the jobs on the stage but when it came to being out of sight or engaged with people who were not church the volunteers all cried off. Many of those asked had done various roles when they'd first come to the church and were reticent to pick them up again. "Done that before" and "Don't have the time' were the top two responses.

In a time when we are looking at reducing clergy numbers the clergy are being blessed with the opportunity of engaging, equipping and releasing the laity (you know - God's people) to fulfil their baptismal calling and become the evangelistic, church-maintaining, church-growing people that they are meant to be. This is our (those who have been 'collared') opportunity to raise up a generation who will engage the world and take (and make) the Gospel real in it. To set people on fire for God such that others will come to watch them burn!

But of course there's the problem with volunteers in that whilst they can be enlisted and tasked with various aspects of being Church, many will submissively take the roles and produce little fruit ("I'm sorry it hasn't been done but I'VE been busy Vicar"). Some of my suggestions had been tried and when whatever it was hadn't happened the response was something along the lines of, "But at the end of the day that's your job isn't it?"

The person in question had come up with an amazing strategy for the church and its problems; They were going to leave! The intended destination was a flourishing church with teams for everything and a life where they, the minister, could spend time reading the Bible, praying and writing sermons. The problem is that they weren't opting out for an easy life but were opting in for a place which would see them establish some security of mind, body and spirit and have them working shoulder-to-shoulder with those who were seeking to build the Church.

A really lovely person came up to me recently and pointed out some areas that 'we' could be engaged in. My response was to applaud the fact that they were open and aware to the needs of the community and I asked how I might help them engage with this. The response was: "Oh, I'm not looking to do it, but I thought you ought to know so that you could!"

The problem before us is one of communicating the needs and helping those around us to understand that the needs exist and the solution stares at them in the mirror every morning. Older congregations are a great resource and newer members (give me twenty new believers and we can take the world) are a blessing but the job is there for all of us. But we can't try the 'embarrass the members' model (which some do) and we can no longer merely assign jobs (as in the 'Father knows best' model) but we can take someone and show them the needs and point them in areas where their passion is (or perhaps once was) and rekindle a fire within them.

So the answer to this? I don't have a clue!

I meet more and more clergy who are doing more with less and they are, generally, responding by closing stuff. Youth groups that were twice weekly now happen once a week. Coffee mornings have ceased and cloth is being cut accordingly. Where we had a church which was engaged with the outside world we are seeing the congregations huddle nearer and nearer the fire to escape the chill winds of mission and engagement outside.

But the future is bright - just wish this cleric was for all I have is a Bible and a desire to reach those outside and and use those inside tho be the vehicles of evangelism, social action and engagement.

As I say - been a long and exhausting week so far - still two hundred plus children are before me today as I engage with 'Open Door' in the parish church and the opportunities for conversation and the sowing of seeds with teachers, parents and the general populace outside the doors of the building has me buzzing and expectant.

Hallelujah!