How to be good stewards of our volunteers

This week at Church Committee, we had a very engaging and though-provoking conversation about volunteerism in the Church. Over the past few months, certain ministries and long-standing events have struggled to find some key volunteers. At the same time, there are a great number of volunteers involved at St Philip's every week. As a group, we wondered why this was the case.

As a part of our Stewardship campaign, we often speak of people giving gifts of time, talent and treasure. The one we take the most time to quantify, however, is how we give treasure and how important these contributions are to the continuing life of St Philip's.

In our discussion at Church Committee, we wondered about how we could quantify the gifts of time and talent that are equally integral to parish life. How many people contribute time and talent to each Sunday service? How many hours of work are put in each week? How can we ask people to pledge their time and talent as well as their treasure?

Volunteers selling donuts at the rummage sale are engaged in ministry.

Volunteers are a very important part of life at St Philip's and we also discussed ways that we can commission, honour and thank people for their ministry in the parish. Whether you are volunteering in the office, preparing the Church for worship or participating in the Street Ministry, all of these things are a part of our common ministry. As the marks of mission remind us, we are called by God to do many different things and in all of these things we are being the Church in the world. How can we as a parish celebrate all these gifts as a part of our offering? In every celebration of the Eucharist, we gather offerings of many kinds - money, bread, wine and as we pray, our souls and bodies as well. We give thanks for all of these gifts and we dedicate them to God. So how can we as a parish ensure that we are being good stewards of all these gifts?

Over the next few weeks, as we prayerfully discern how God is calling each of us to use our gifts for ministry, I would ask you to consider not only pledging gifts of money, but also gifts of time and talent which are vital to Church life. As Church Committee, we hope to do more to share how important these gifts are and celebrate those who give so generously as a response to God's call to be good stewards of all we have been given.