Hey, hey, what can I do?

So, since I've been writing about being more mission-oriented, sometime in the next week I will be talking with another in my church about how we can get something kick started. Stay tuned, you'll hear about it all here as it unfolds because you actually have a role in all this, gentle reader. As I confess my thoughts, efforts and fears to you, I then expect you to hold me accountable to follow through on what I say.

As I prepare to expand my volunteer efforts, I have been trying to define what I mean by "mission" and "mission-oriented" (I should probably just cave and use the word "missional", a fine word, but one which for some reason grates on my ear - hopefully I will get over it). Here are some of my thoughts and where I think they will lead in terms of action. These are not meant to be overall definitions of mission, but instead are my thinking as I prepare to become "missional". If these don't hold for you, fine.

1) Mission shouldn't be about the church, the church should be about mission.

When I first went and talked with my pastor about volunteering, I already had in mind helping at the local food bank, and he thought that was a good idea. However, when we talked about what I could do as part of our church, all of his suggestions were "inward focused", meaning that they were all aimed at the church and church members. One such that I took on was being the church webmaster, because at least there I could hope that by keeping the web site current and informative I would help people who were seeking to find our church (and we've had some inquiries through the site, for which I thank God for leading them to us). Another idea he had was training for the Stephen Ministries "the next time training comes around", which seems like it only occurs every few years, if that.

I left feeling good I could help the church by taking on and updating the static, out-of-date web site, but I was still lacking something. And that something was mission. Perhaps I should have been more explicit in what I was asking, and after I've talked with the other person in our church I plan on going back and discussing all of this with our pastor again, hopefully at that point as a pair with some ideas and the willingness to commit time to make them happen.

2) Mission for people in far away lands is good, mission for people next door is better.

I am not saying we should turn our backs on the wide world, not at all. I think there is a need for that, and one we must fill at Christ's orders. However, I think in many cases this allows us to shove some money in an envelope and send it off somewhere else and declare "Mission accomplished!" (pun intended). I think our Lord wants more from us than that.

I think He also wants more of us than having charity events, bake sales and the like, where the money is collected and then given to some good cause. Again, all those are good things (especially bake sales - yum! :-), all are serving a good purpose, and I am not denigrating those who do such things. However, I believe Jesus wants us out there getting our hands dirty, working directly with those that need help. And there's where I want to place my focus.

I have a friend that takes his family on vacation to Mexico each year through a program at his church to help families build their own houses, which is admirable and I applaud him for it, especially for going over multiple years as opposed to a one time "Well, that was an interesting experience" checkmark on his Good Works bragging list. But I want to focus on people here around me, because those are the ones I can meet, build relationships with, love as Christ commanded, and help more than just once a year. That's why I think local Habitat for Humanity programs are such a good idea, because they are helping families in the local community.

It's a cliché, but I do believe "Think globally, act locally" is a valid stance for church mission.

3) Mission is for now, not when I am retired.

Lots of people volunteering at the local food bank and the Habitat here are retired or semi-retired. Good for them! They are interesting, fun, vibrant people, and I believe a lot of that is because they're not just sitting home wallowing in themselves, but instead are out helping others and being engaged with the community. But why should we wait until we retire before we get to have all that fun of helping others?

Some will argue that for them, "There's not enough time, what with my work and our kids and their school and all their other activities." Well, maybe. Perhaps what they mean to say is "There's not enough time without making a sacrifice." BINGO. Jesus calls on us to follow Him, and He does not say it is going to be easy. In fact, we are going to have to take up the cross. In superficial America, that could mean having to give up a favorite TV night (I am so glad we don't watch TV in our house - I can't imagine how our family would ever get anything done if we had an antenna hooked up to the TV, let alone cable - of course, we're a house with five people and eight computers, so don't think time isn't wasted in front of a screen here :-).

And as for quality family time, why not volunteer as a family? Get the kids involved. Don't tell them, "You should feel lucky", but instead involve them with helping others, so they do feel lucky and more importantly, helpful. I plan on getting our children involved, not as forced labor (that's teaching the wrong thing), but because they have already asked to help.

4) Mission is mission, not evangelizing. It is helping, not converting.

When Jesus said, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.", He wasn't saying, "Give all your possessions to the poor so they will become Christians because of it". I believe He was telling us that we need to help the poor no matter what, because that is good in and of itself.

I have finished reading I'm OK - You're Not: The Message We Are Sending Unbelievers and Why We Should Stop, and I agree with the John Shore's (hi, John!) premise that in America at least, we should stop focusing so much on the Great Commission and focus much more on the Great Commandment. To me, the Great Commandment is mission.

5) Mission is about needs, not niceties.

The local food bank here is currently giving out food to over 1,400 families a month. This in a small-to-mid-sized city of 40,000; with the food bank serving parts of a six county area that probably brings up the population to around 75,000. And again, that's 1,400 families - men, women and most importantly children. If averaged out to about four people per family (which "feels" right from my experience there), that's 5,600 people getting food assistance from this one place every month. That means that somewhere between 7.5% and 14% of the local area's population are in desperate enough circumstances that they must reach out for help of the most basic kind - food and clothing.

So while I am not going to put down any volunteering or missions that don't deal directly with survival needs, I must say I personally am more focused on helping people who really need the help just to survive. Whose lives are so dire that they know not where their next meal may come from, or where they will be living next month, or even tomorrow. Who are forced to live as Jesus says we should all live, day by day.

If the local food bank had more hours during which I could volunteer (they are only open Monday through Thursday mornings, and Thursday evenings, which is when I go there), I would simply volunteer there more and I wouldn't be feeling such a drive to help in other ways.

6) Mission is a commitment to help, not a contest.

I have written elsewhere that when churches do try and do mission, they seem to always try to do it on their own, or at best, with the other churches in their area that are in their denomination. Even our church's work with the local Habitat is coordinated around a "[denomination elided] Habitat Day". What a mistake, because it implies, "God forbid we actually pound nails and saw wood next to someone whose doctine doesn't match ours!" and "Look at our church! Aren't we special?" What I really think it comes from is pride - the desire for the church or the denomination to show that it is doing something and to have it known throughout the community.

Pride is a sin. It is the sin. I have it as bad or worse than anyone I know. Therefore, I can diagnose it when I see it in others, and I see the above as symptoms of institutional pride. The desire to show that "our church is helping" in a way that makes sure the focus is on "our" and not "helping". There is little or no sense of doing something anonymously, for Jesus's sake alone.

That's it! Maybe we need to start "Volunteers Anonymous"! Not an organization for people who are addicted to volunteering (we need more of those :-), but instead, one where everyone that shows up is called by first name only (so there can be no newspaper articles touting, "Joe Smith, shown here volunteering at the local children's workshop"), nor any indication of what church they belong to, either. My attitude when giving and volunteering is to try and not let my left hand know what my right hand is doing. Maybe instead of "Volunteers Anonymous" the name should be "Matthew 6 Ministries" or something like that, because when I think of everything I am trying to say and do here, I am almost always thinking of that chapter.

So, how to work all the above into something I can do, and hopefully persuade others in my church to help as well? One of my thoughts is along the lines of trying to shamelessly copy, er, plagiarize, um, I mean honor by emulating Hope For New York and start a local clearinghouse of volunteer activities that are focused on mission - feeding, clothing and housing the poor (so certainly aimed at continuing to help the food bank, Habitat and any other such programs). It would not compete for attention (we could call it "Matthew 6 Ministries" perhaps?), money or volunteers, but instead it would help bring people together to events and activities already planned, to actually do things, to meet and help others.

I would want churches that are having mission-oriented volunteer days be able to post/advertise/coordinate to help get the word out so that more people than just their own church members show up to their activities to help the poor. It would hopefully be reciprocal - a bunch of Baptists and Lutherans showing up to help one day at the (Catholic) food bank, a bunch of Catholics appearing at the next "Baptist" Habitat day, and so on. And with no banner waving, no "We're Episcopalians and we're here to help!", but just "Hi! I'm Susan - what do you need me to do?"

My fears:

1) Churches would not want to participate, because they want to continue to go their own way and have their own "branded" mission and the publicity that comes with that.

2) It ends up being a flop, and nobody comes.

3) It ends up being a success, and entails a bunch of coordination work (some of which I am willing to take on as part of the effort) that then leaves me with little time to actually volunteer in face-to-face settings. I don't want to become just the webmaster again. Even as an introvert, I want to get out and follow Christ by directly loving and helping others, not just toiling away at a keyboard.

Ideas? Comments? Suggestions? Criticisms? Fire away!