A Day Without Volunteers

Not long ago some people attempted to make a statement by staging a "Day Without Immigrants". As I was sitting in church this past Sunday, I thought about what a "Day Without Volunteers" would look like at the Vine Fellowship. Our volunteers at the Vine would never organize something like this, but I did think about what the service would have looked like on a Day Without Volunteers.

The first thing that would have happened to our guests on a Day Without Volunteers is...nothing! There would be no usher to open the door for them, no greeter to greet them, nobody to hand them a bulletin and nobody to offer them coffee. We serve Starbucks coffee at our church, but it is made each week by volunteers. Sorry, no coffee this week. And how many people would want a bulletin that wasn't folded and had two inserts per page because nobody had cut them? No volunteer to do this.

And if we had guests, it would be easier if they had no children and arrived early because there would be no greeters to tell them where to take their children, and even if they figured it out on their own, there would be nobody in the nursery or helping in the children's department. And if they arrived late, they would probably just turn around in the parking lot and go home because there were no ushers put out cones and a sign showing them where to park after the parking lot filled up.

But supposing they came early, they had no kids and they didn't really care for coffee. I hope they don't mind finding their own seat in a sanctuary full of strangers because there would be no usher to help seat them. Of course, once they found their seat and service started, it would probably be much different than anything else they have ever experienced. Hopefully they know the words to all the worship songs because there are no volunteers to run the worship software and project the words onto the screen. And hopefully they like one-man-bands because Brad is the entire worship team on a Day Without Volunteers. Maybe people can make requests for their favorite instrument: Brad can play guitar this week, drums next and the piano every third Sunday.

Then there would be the offering. I'm not sure if offering would be up or down. After all, there would be no ushers, so Pastor would have to have each row come down front one by one while he held out the offering basket. Would a guest give just because they have to face the pastor and not put money in, or would they withhold what they were going to put in the offering because they were too intimidated to go up front their first Sunday?

I guess communion would have to be served in a similar fashion to how the offering was taken up...everybody come down front to Pastor. Actually, it would be more like "Here, pinch off a piece of this pita bread and take a swig out of this half gallon grape juice jar" because there were no volunteers to prepare the elements for communion.

At least announcements would be short. There would be no Retro, Young Marrieds, Silver Edition, youth or children's ministry announcements because there would be no functioning ministry on a Day Without Volunteers. Actually, people would have a lot more time on their hands...no ministry activities or outreaches and no Life Groups without volunteers.

But maybe the extra time in the service would be good so that there was time at the end of the service for people to wait in line to be prayed for. If only 15 people wanted prayer and Pastor had to pray for each one himself, that might take a while.

I guess the paid staff could have done some of this...they do serve each week. Let's see, Stan is a coffee drinker and a people person. He could have made the coffee and greeted all of the guests. Rob is an organizer, so he could have run ALL the sign up tables (except they would not be needed if there were no volunteers to run the events/outreaches). Tammy could have taken the bulletins home after work during the week and cut, folded and stuffed them. Maybe Brad really could play a different instrument each week. If Eva served communion to everybody, at least she'd make sure no crumbs got dropped on the floor since she's the one to clean it up. Maybe Brooke could have been in 4 classrooms at one time and overseen all the children's ministry, and certainly Shaun can handle 70+ students at one time by himself with the youth ministry. If Jason came to church before the sun came up, he would have time to set up cones in the parking lot before getting all the sound stuff ready for Brad's one-man-band and worship. And I'm sure Pastor could take up the offering, preach, serve communion to everybody AND pray for everybody who needs individual prayer. Sunday is his only work day anyway, right? Oops...who's going to help take up all of the chairs after service? Ah, if the female staff members help, it won't take more than half an hour!

So I have to admit, at various times during the service on Sunday I was distracted. Every time I saw a volunteer doing something, I thought about how the church could not function on a Day Without Volunteers.

- Rob