Monday 30 January 2012

If in doubt ... LOVE

It had been a busy morning in the drop in. People to train, lots of visitors, lack of staff on site, lots of demands on my time and energy. So I did what Jesus did after feeding the 5000 and withdrew to a quiet place. It is possible to get to a point where one more person, with one more demand will be one too many. It is no bad thing to learn the warning signs, know your limits and take time out away from the crowd to get restored.


Then the phone rang. Nothing in me wanted to answer it but I knew I was the only member of staff available. 


"Can you help my friend?" Nothing in me wanted to but then I remembered a line that had struck me during the preach on Sunday night "If in doubt... love".... sometimes it's right to love ourselves enough to take a break from the demands of the crowd. However, most of Jesus' ministry seems to have centred around being interrupted by people and he still managed to love them and be available to meet their needs. I took a deep breath, said a quick prayer and listened... within the first 30 seconds I knew it was not going to be simple & straight forward and I felt very tempted to stop loving and listening and tell her I couldn't help. But the words in the back of my mind wouldn't go away "If in doubt... love"


Love is so often inconvenient, a sacrificial giving of our time and ourselves that frequently costs us. Right now it was costing me the list of things I had to do but that was all. All she needed was a listening ear and a bit of my time to find out the information she needed to help her friend. Information I would have to search for and contact a colleague about all of which would take more time. 


An hour later I rang her back. She was very appreciative for the tiny bit of help and information I could give her. "God bless you" she ended the call... and I realised he had. 

Courageous faith in action - Volunteer teams- being church during the week.

So what's been happening since the start of the year when the members of our congregation pledged themselves to a year of courageous faith & action.. to boldly go where we have never gone before, to step out of our comfort zones & dare to believe that through us God can and will do things we never though possible? 
Well 8 of them have taken the step of faith to carve some time out of their busy work lives to make themselves available during the working day to volunteer at the Jesus Centre in a range of roles from drop in, welcome/security, cafe counter, reception, site deputy & maintenance... or whatever needs doing. Why is this courageous faith in action? Because they are all busy people, with demanding jobs who have dared to believe that in faith God will honour them if they re-assess their work life balance & priorities and make time to volunteer during the working day.


What is the benefit to us at the Jesus Centre? It enables us to be more effective in being & presenting 'church' to our visitors as it brings in a different type of volunteer (most of them are under 50 unlike the majority of our weekday volunteers), with different skills, who will have the potential to  attract and relate to different types of visitors. In time, if we can continue to increase our pool of volunteers during the day we will be able to release key staff for service development and new initiatives and ensure that we better connect with visitors. We will all be a lot less frayed at the edges which will also a better witness to our visitors and give us more capacity to love and serve them.


Why is it important to have the Jesus Centre open during the day? Jesus Centres enable us to be available to share the love of Jesus with people all day, every day in a much wider range of activities and practical help than would be available should they simply come to church. It reaches the people that our traditional church programme that runs evenings and weekends doesn't reach (people who work shifts, people who don't like to come out in the dark, people in need, people who 'don't DO church'). 


What is the benefit to those who take up work release? They have the opportunity to use skills and gifts for reaching people with the love of Jesus. They can learn new skills and try things outside of their work skills or experience. In having a change from their normal work routine I believe they can go back to work refreshed and re-charged. There's opportunities for character training and taking responsibility outside of their sphere of work. Some discover new gifts, ministries and abilities. 


In 2012 we are believing to triple the amount of young people under 30 years old volunteering and double the amount of volunteers overall. We'd like a large proportion of that to be on our week day shifts . That will hopefully mean we can double the amount of visitors we connect with, the outcomes they achieve and help more people connect with more church households, experience the love of God and find freedom in Jesus... 
Could you be part of the Courageous faith in action Volunteer team?