Our local newspaper ran a front page story that examined a local church’s financial turmoil. Faced with a steep drop in giving that began years ago, the article detailed how leadership made changes to cope with this crisis in order to keep the doors open and serve those who attend.
One of their changes deserves more than glancing consideration. Specifically, the church has eliminated staff positions and covers important tasks with volunteers. Not a groundbreaking strategy, I know. But cut and paste this situation outside the church walls and you’ll see a timely opportunity to make a difference in others’ lives—an idea worth a second look for any church.
To start, consider this prediction: Your state has cut the K-12 education budget and further cuts appear in the budget currently under consideration. Like the church in the news, local administration will need to make changes to cope with these steep drops while keeping doors open and serving the children who attend school.
I make no claims to understand the particulars of state and local education budgets. But I do claim to care about the impact on children.
More safe predictions: As your local schools deal with budget cuts, services will begin to dwindle and disappear. Support staff positions will face elimination. Class sizes will increase. Programs will go away. Activities will stop—especially as the number of adults serving children decreases.
Can you see the opportunity?
Your church can provide much-needed, sure-to-be-appreciated volunteer assistance to a school. Imagine the impact of a school, and the community it serves, recognizing your church as a solution to problems. The greatest resource a church can share with a community is love, as delivered through the active involvement of those who attend.
“Do people really notice?” you ask.
Yes. A church in our community partners with a local elementary school by providing mentors (and prayer partners) for at-risk students—a Kids Hope USA program. In a recent e-mail to the church, the school’s principal wrote: “It has been great having so much help. … I am not sure you are aware that you came along just after our counseling was cut, so you and all of the mentors have really filled a void.”
While we’re on a roll with safe predictions, let’s add another: The principal is one of many people in that school and the surrounding community who recognize the value of this church’s volunteers. One local church makes local news headlines because of an empty bank account; another church quietly fills a void for the school. Two extremes, no doubt. What about your church?
With spring break here and gone, the school year will quickly come to a close. However, the principal will continue working. Specifically, he or she will remain busy planning next year and determining how to deal with all those upcoming budget cuts. Now picture the reaction from that principal to someone helping assemble a list of volunteer roles, and then filling those roles over the months ahead before school begins this fall. Plenty of time now exists for any paperwork or background checks by the school system and orientations to take place, resulting in folks from your church actively filling voids: mentors, library aids, helping teach art/gym/music, playground monitors, room assistants, reading tutors, custodial care—a long list exists.
Last prediction: That list of voids will grow. Unless someone does something.
The accounting for all this adds up well. Cost to the church to provide volunteers = $0. Cost to the school = $0. Bottom line = “It has been great having so much help.”
What a great headline for a story about a church.
David Staal, senior editor of Today’s Children’s Ministry and a mentor to a second-grade boy, serves as the president of Kids Hope USA, a national non-profit organization that partners local churches with elementary schools to provide mentors for at-risk students. Prior to this assignment, David led Promiseland, the children’s ministry at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois. David is the author of Words Kids Need to Hear (2008) and lives in Grand Haven, Michigan, with his wife Becky, son Scott, and daughter Erin. Interested in David speaking at your event? Click here)
©2011, David Staal
