Guest Blogger: Brian Holt

{This is a guest blog post by our Technical Director, Brian Holt.  Brian has a passion for helping people serve in church according to their gifts and passions as an act of worship to bring God glory.}

I came to Rock Bridge almost a year ago to help our worship team with audio, video and lighting. It’s been a great year and I wanted to share with you one of my hopes for the people Northwest Georgia. My passion in this church is to see people truly get involved and plugged in to ministry. You might remember several months ago Matt when talked about our church being volunteer-driven. I can’t say enough how important this is for us, as a church, and for every Christ-follower.

Typically, when people think about the importance of volunteering, thoughts immediately go to the benefit for the organization or the people who are being served. But when it comes to volunteering, it’s as much about your heart as it is about the people you’re serving.

In the book of Jonah we see a man who is running from what God has asked him to do. You might remember that Jonah was thrown into the sea and swallowed by a giant fish. You might remember that Jonah was spit up onto the beach and finally complied with God’s command (although rather reluctantly). But look through the book and tell me the name of one Ninevite. You can’t do it, because we’re never told any of their names. Revival goes through the whole city (120,000 people and much cattle) and we don’t even know the name of the king. In this story, God was focusing on the servant as much as he was on the served. Jonah was just as important to God as the Ninevites. His attitude (see chapter 4) was as important to God as revival in the city.

I’d like you to consider a few things about volunteering and then consider taking that next step in faith (if you’re not already doing so). 

1.      Volunteering builds community. Despite our always-on technology that connects us to others like ever before, people are more lonely than they’ve ever been. God has created us to connect to other believers. Connecting in service, behind a common vision, often helps create deep, lasting relationship.

2.      Volunteering creates a sense of ownership. It’s too easy in modern Christianity to simply come to church for what you can get out of it. It’s a natural extension of our culture. But the church is not a place to get something, it’s a place to be a part of something. When you volunteer, you join in the mission of that organization and become a real part of it.

3.      Volunteering requires sacrifice. Volunteering requires you to give your time. It may require you to do something with which you’re not completely comfortable. It causes you to give of yourself in order to meet somebody else’s need. Jesus sets the ultimate example for this, sacrificing everything for us. We can follow that example by giving our time (or resources) in sacrificially for others.

4.      Volunteering is an act of worship. Or at least it can be. Putting others first and making a sacrifice of your time or resources is a great way to worship the God that gave them to you. I pray that all of my volunteers think about (and worship) the God that created them every time they serve. 

You may not see or feel these things when you volunteer. Maybe you only feel one or two of them. Focus on them and give it time. My hope and prayer is that when you volunteer, you do so out of a love for God and a love for people. In the same breath, volunteering is all about your heart and not about you at all.