Every responsible church leader is thrilled when an enthusiastic volunteer falls into his or her lap as if a gift from heaven.
Congregations rise and fall based on the passion and persistence of volunteers. Yes, a God-hearted pastor and other staff members are very important to the work of congregational ministry.
But a church without volunteers is like a general with no soldiers.
Success for the sake of the Lord requires laypeople living, loving and striving for the Lord.
And enthusiasm is the energy behind that initiative.
When a congregation has a healthy contingent of motivated volunteers, SO many good things result.
There is the obvious presence of spiritual life, both that flowing into the volunteers from the Lord and from one another.
There is the flow of possibility thinking among the volunteers who are looking for ways to funnel the faith pouring into them from above.
And there is mutual motivation that occurs between staff members and laypersons as each experiences the joy of participation in a holy cause far greater than self.
A number of Morning Devotion readers are highly active in their congregations and the Lord is blessing those efforts, I’m sure.
For those of you who have withdrawn from active, motivated volunteerism in your congregation, though, I want to encourage you to ask God to pour out His Spirit’s power into your life in new measure.
Some of you might have been wounded by the words of another member of your congregation. But we both know that our call to serve is to transcend the complaints of those not serving by our side.
Some of you might have lost enthusiasm for serving simply because of multiple distractions that eroded your focus on pleasing God first in all things.
No Christian can throw stones in this regard since we’ve all had times when our volunteerism flame didn’t burn as brightly as it should have.
What matters most in this topic of motivation is knowing how to regain it. That’s why I was so glad when I read 2 Corinthians 8 in the One-Year Bible today. Verse 16 of that chapter told me that enthusiasm for serving the Church is a gift from God.
Wow! I’ve been looking for years in the wrong place for the key to motivating others toward fervent, faithful volunteerism in the Church.
Yes, it’s important to list volunteer ministry needs and cite good role models for volunteerism. It’s even important to point out the negative consequences of when too few of volunteers are available for the local church.
But it’s clear from verse 16 that the horizontally oriented reasons for volunteering listed above are not the key to gaining the volunteers needed for ministry.
Instead, praying for God’s infusion of zeal and vision and purpose — in the form of enthusiasm — is what compels and propels believers into life-changing service to God through the church.
Enthusiasm for the Church is a gift from God, pure and simple. That’s why we need to pray for this outpouring into our lives so that we might serve the Church more fully.
This is also why we need to pray for such an outpouring into the lives of other members so that they can enthusiastically share their faith.
Enthusiasm among church volunteers changed the world in the First Century. And it changed our communities in days gone by. It can do the same again.
We just need to pray for the humility and vision to receive it.
As always, I love you
Martin
