The Delight of Being of Use - Together
Congregational ministers, in my experience, spend a lot of time talking about how to attract and keep members. Way more time than we’d like to spend on that topic–for many reasons, both valid and questionable, all a subject for another sermon. Today I mention it only to say that in recent years one of the bits of wisdom we pass around in those conversations–with anecdotes from personal experience, or hearsay, or data points from organizations that study church growth–is that people come to faith communities looking for ways to be of service to the world. In the words of Marge Piercy, they want to be of use, they want work that is real. And, just as importantly, they want to be with other people people who submerge in the task…who move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
Many of the traditional impetuses for belonging to a local bricks and mortar or multiplatform church or other faith community have disappeared, or at least lost urgency, even among many mainstream denominations (fear of God’s wrath or eternal damnation, for example). Others dwindled in significance because the needs they fulfill–spiritual direction, inspiration, even religious instruction–can now easily be met through reading or online groups or virtual engagement with gurus, yogis, meditation leaders. Yet another impetus for joining a faith community hasn’t waned or gone completely do-it-yourself so much as it has and is shifting and changing shape–that is, seeking answers to questions about existence and life and the universe. In the age of space exploration, daily advances in medicine, and mind-boggling discoveries in physics and chemistry and biology, in the 21st century, the theological guidance of a church or faith community has come to be regarded as adding nuance to those eternal questions and attempts to answer them, rather than as the sole source of truth regarding the answers.
Yet for all these changes and others, another traditional impetus for participation in churches and other faith communities persists–that is, a desire for a home base for doing God’s work in the world. As Unitarian Universalists many of us probably use other language, saying we want to give back or serve the less fortunate or, again, be of use. On the other hand, many Unitarian Universalists believe that we–all of humanity and each of us individually–are the Love’s hands and voice in this world, so to say that people come to church looking to do God’s work isn’t overstretching the point or a completely theologically discordant way of putting it.
A random guy on an airplane, upon learning that I’m a minister, once asked me for suggestions of where and how he and his family could volunteer. I wasn’t his minister–as I recall it, he wasn’t active in a faith community–but even he believed a minister was the appropriate person to ask. Savannah–and any other city–is filled with opportunities for its residents to give back to the community. From schools to Scouts to beach and road clean-up, from Citizens Advocacy to First City Pride Center, to name just a few. And some of you, many of you, probably volunteer on your own with these organizations and for any number of other causes, but there is something it seems, that calls people to marry their good works with their faith life.
Increasing numbers of people from Boomers to Gen Z-ers, if they are going to join a faith community at all, want to join one that will equip them–spiritually, materially, and with guidance and companions–for the task of healing the world or our little patch of it. We strive to do just that here at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah, to offer our members and friends a home base for doing the Divine’s work in the world with our hands and our voices.
Some of the volunteers we’ll recognize in just a moment work primarily to keep up our physical plant and to tend to internal functioning–the buildings and grounds folks, for example, and the finance committee and Fund Trustees; RE volunteers and covenant group leaders; the ushers, worship associates and A/V team; hospitality volunteers and the pastoral care committee–but even these volunteers, in enabling us to keep our doors open and allowing us to care for our members and tend to our spiritual lives, even these groups ready us to go forth from here to serve the larger community.
Other volunteers primarily serve the greater Savannah area–the social justice team, for example, through meals for Strengthening Families and the Backpack food program, and our JUST representatives and volunteers.
Still others of our volunteers function in a space between the internal life of the church and community around us–the Green Team and the Anti-Racism Committee. Together all these groups of volunteers, along with the board, the nominating committee, the membership committee, the choir and the Music Alliance, pretty much guarantee that if someone comes to our church looking to jump head first into work, they will find a place to do it and people to do it with, and will soon know the delight of being of use, as so many of us have already discovered here.
Some churches conclude Sunday mornings with the words “the service has ended, now our service begins.” I say at our best it is all of a piece. The Sunday service, our service in and to the world, RE lessons and covenant group meetings, building and grounds workday and all our committee meetings–it’s all part of the work of the world, common as mud, worth doing. May we continue doing it well, crafting of our time and our efforts a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Amen.