The heart of volunteering

“I think He put me here” Nic shares, as we start to discuss volunteering. Nic and Amanda are regular volunteers for a range of activities at the church I also attend.[1] They are involved with big community events such as our summer extravaganza on the green, the baby and toddler group, coffee mornings, a new women’s group which they’ve been involved with starting up and much more. Often they bring their children along to help out as well, and Nic’s teenage son is also a young volunteer at the fortnightly community youth club run by the church. Nic and Amanda didn’t come to church when they started volunteering, but both are now regulars on a Sunday and were recently baptised. Nic’s comment makes it clear that she now sees that even before she was fully able to appreciate it, God was part of her volunteering journey.

The journey which Nic and Amanda have taken from volunteering for church activities to baptism reflects a pattern which is increasingly recognised and valued within the UK Church. The recent Growing Good report recognised that “participation in social action can also offer a practical route into faith for people who weren’t previously part of the church community and might not have considered exploring faith before.”[2] However, whether or not volunteers take visible steps of faith, volunteering can reflect aspects of God’s character and heart.

One of the ways in which this is most obvious, is that volunteering is an act of grace. Christians believe that any work, paid or unpaid can be for the glory of God (Colossians 3:23). However there is a special significance to giving time without any financial gain, mirroring God’s unconditional gifts to us. This chimes with Jesus’s mandate in Matthew 10 to respond to His grace by giving freely to others. Amanda expressed this as we chatted, saying: “I go to work at work because I get a pay packet at the end of it. I come here because I want to be here and I want to give to other people.”

However, although financial rewards might not be a motivation for volunteering, that is not to say that those involved don’t benefit from their experiences. Amanda and Nic both spoke about the positive impact which volunteering had had on their mental health, and the transferrable skills they had learned. Nic reported: “it's certainly helped my mental health, interacting with people a lot more, not keeping myself stuck indoors.”

It reminds me that God’s healing can be found in unexpected places, through unexpected experiences and by way of unexpected people, like Namaan’s healing in 2 Kings 5. In particular, when we set out with giving hearts, God often enables us to receive, as promised in Luke 6:38. This highlights a precious paradox at the heart of volunteering, that whilst time and energy are given freely, they are often given with a heart willing to receive. Frequently the community in which volunteers find themselves, with other volunteers and visitors, can be a vehicle for healing and growth. Nic and Amanda talk about having “shared experiences” with other people as an antidote to the isolation they felt previously. When this works well it can create an environment where reciprocity and mutuality between volunteers and those who are visitors replaces the power imbalance and transactional approach which can accompany relationships with a paid professional.

However discussing volunteering in this way runs the risk of reducing its beauty and complexity. Volunteering is not just a scheduled activity but an attitude which is to be embraced by every believer. It’s the attitude of generosity in the widest sense, willingness (in keeping with the original meaning of the word ‘volunteer’), empowerment and of learning from each other. Cotterill writes a definition of mission which could be applied equally to volunteering “not that we magnanimously do for others but is about what we become together, bringing the kingdom into being. This is the reality of ‘heaven on earth.’”[3] I believe it is this which made coming from volunteering to church and faith a “natural progression” for Nic and Amanda. This is the heart of volunteering.

[1] St Mary Magdalene Church, Gorleston, Norfolk

[2] Growing Good: Growth, Social Action and Discipleship in the Church of England, Hannah Rich

[3] Understanding the Social Realm, Gordon Cotterill in Mission in Marginal Places, Paul Cloke & Mike Pears (eds)