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At M-POWER we depend on volunteers. Volunteers teach people to read, provide healthcare, tend to our garden and do so much more. And we are grateful. So much so that we even have an annual volunteer award and volunteer celebration, and we're always talking about ways we can improve our volunteer program.
And yet, I am beginning to ask a rather disturbing question: is volunteering biblical?
As an organization that purports itself to be guided by the teaching and example of Jesus, what the Bible says is always critical.
I have read the Scriptures from cover to cover. If you have not done so, I highly recommend it. You might be surprised to find what is in there. More surprising, however, might be what you won't find.
Do you want to know what the Bible doesn't mention? Volunteering. Not even in Greek or Hebrew.
Instead, there is a whole lot about service, becoming servants, the first being last, our calling to be slaves to righteousness, and how our lives are not our own. Frankly, there's nothing in the Bible that suggests the Christian life is something we tack on at the end of a busy week or on football-free Saturdays.
Turns out, Jesus called twelve folks, and through the Spirit, all of us, to be his followers - his disciples, not his volunteers.
Jesus never said, "If anyone would follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and give me one hour a month."
Jesus's radical call to obedience is to give of our whole lives - to die to ourselves, actually.
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So, what does this mean for volunteering? Have we Christians been misled? Do we need to drop all our commitments - stop building houses for Habitat, serving food at the Fire House Shelter, or heaven forbid, volunteering at M-POWER? Of course not; but, we must begin to reframe what it means to serve.
The problem with volunteering is not that we do it, but that we think it is enough. We think, "An hour or two here and there, or a few days in summer, and I have met my obligation." In fact, the radical faith Jesus calls us toward requires us to live our full lives in service to Him and His kingdom.
Put simply, Christ wants all of us. Every day. Every hour. Every second. He wants us during work hours, vacation time, and date nights.
We must begin reframing our volunteer service.
If you volunteer by building a house for Habitat, it suggests you think someone should have a safe place to live. So, what might you do the rest of the year to help that become more likely? If you volunteer to serve food at Fire House Shelter, you are saying folks should not be hungry or homeless. So, how might the rest of your life reflect that same value?
At M-POWER, we see your volunteer service as merely one way for you to live out your calling to love and serve God with your whole life. When we serve through M-POWER, we are saying that people shouldn't have to be stuck in a cycle of poverty forever. So, what choices are we making in the rest of our lives that actually help keep folks there?
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Friends, these are heavy questions wrought with tensions, but gratefully we are not called to sort this out on our own. Christ has given us his Spirit and a community of believers to hold one another accountable for how we live. I challenge you to join me as we enter into these questions and tensions, with full confidence that God will transform us through the process.
Christ's Peace and Courage,
Executive Director | 
