Any Volunteers

[Terry Tieman]

Any Volunteers??
Suzie Superintendent was so frustrated. How was she going to get anyone to help with Vacation Bible School? She had to beg and plead just to get enough warm bodies to fill the slots each week for the Sunday School classes and now pastor wanted her to recruit volunteers for Vacation Bible School. Didn’t he understand that people were just too busy for these kinds of commitments now days? Everyone wants church to fit into a convenient hour time slot on Sunday morning. Then they can check it off the list and get on with our lives. Please don’t schedule meetings after church or ask anyone to come during the week. We are all over-scheduled enough the way it is with sports, cheerleading, dance class, piano lessons…..
These were Suzie’s thoughts as she pulled into the parking lot on Saturday morning for the “Net Fishing” event. What was “Net Fishing” anyway? Probably just some mumbo jumbo pastor had created to make more work for her.
Wait a minute. Was something else scheduled for today? There sure were a lot of cars. Some of these cars didn’t even look familiar. That wasn’t a Hot Springs license plate. That van was from Little Rock. What was going on here? There were nearly 50 people inside for the presentation on outreach. Suzie expected everyone to take off after lunch, but then they divided up for servant evangelism events. Everyone seemed excited.
Suzie joined the group that was “Prayer Walking” at a nearby apartment complex. What was “Prayer Walking” anyway? Suzie wasn’t sure she wanted to walk around with her eyes closed and hands folded – a person could get hurt that way! On the way there, one of the team members told about a friend that lived in the apartment complex. She had been looking for ways to invite him to church. When they got to the complex, pastor divided them up into two groups. Suzie joined the ladies in the second group. They turned around the first corner. They had a stack of fliers about VBS to hang on the doors. A young man came down the steps. It was the friend!
He asked them what they were doing and they told him about “Prayer Walking”. He seemed interested. They talked about other things too, like the dance class he and his friend had taken together. They asked him if he had any prayer requests, he didn’t, but he seemed pleased that they asked. Next, the group met a man and his young son. They told him about VBS – he was really interested. He had even heard of the church. The group continued around the apartment complex, hanging fliers, praying for the residents, and talking to people they met along the way. Suzie had to admit – this was fun. They ran out of fliers – they should have brought more!
When they got back to church they couldn’t wait to tell everyone about their experiences. The other groups were already there – talking and laughing. The group that handed out water and church T-shirts at the soap box derby couldn’t believe it. People were running up to them and asking for T-shirts. They put them on immediately.
Later that month more than 300 children attended Vacation Bible School at First Lutheran in Hot Springs, Arkansas. That was amazing, but what Suzie couldn’t believe was that more volunteers were involved than ever before.

[Terry Tieman]

Thanks, Penney, I will check it out.

Have a wonderful New Year!

Terry

[Penney Winiarski]

Terry,
I was trying to share a link, "The Sticky Church", by Larry Osbourne. Wasn't sure if you read it yet, but we've found this to be a very valuable resource for structuring a church. We are finding that deeper more relational cells, small groups, ect. are becoming wonderful testimonies. Not that we don't still do events, but they are becoming less as our focus begins to change.

Here's the link: http://stickychurch.com/