Why I love volunteers

Where would we be at The Meeting House without our volunteers? NOWHERE!! I get to directly lead about 50 volunteers at our "main" Oakville location. If you aren't one of them, I doubt you can appreciate how much I value them.

I actually have a strange love-hate relationship with volunteers - not specific people - but with the whole thing. I won't lie - it's a pain. I mean, they don't "work" for me - so the dynamic is different. If they need to change their plans, they can, immediately. If they don't want to keep doing it, they can stop, immediately. And if they aren't pulling their weight, it's a little tough to bust their butts. See my point?

And yet, it's mindblowing how much these people give! I know it's true for all of our volunteer teams, but MINE just amaze me with how much they give.

So I have this whole pile of men and women that run cameras, direct video, mix audio, etc. etc. etc. None of them are "professionals", and yet the results - well if you have been to our little church, you've seen how good they are!

It's one thing for me to be there serving for 3 services on Sunday - it's my JOB! But the rest of my team have still put in 40, 50, 60 hours at work, spent time with their families, and then still give their time to the church. When I work extra one week - I take a day off during the next week. When they put in extra time at church, they can't take off during the week to make up time with their families! It's a humbling thing for me.

So I've just come off spending nearly 50 hours between Friday/Saturday and last night (Wednesday) completely revamping our lighting in the theatre. That meant we took down over 100 lights, recoloured them, changed bulbs, fixed lights, and then put them all back up again in a new configuration. It was a HUGE job. We finished this morning at 3am. There's a few more things to do, but the bulk is done. It looks incredible! (It wasn't my design. This is one of those incredibly talented volunteers. I wish I could hire him!)

Do you know that every moment I was there working on it, I had at least 2 volunteers working with me... sometimes 4 other guys were working on it. They were making cables, fixing fixtures, hanging lights, figuring out diagrams, moving manlifts, etc. It was a stinkload of work. My hands are raw. It looks so amazing.

I have a few volunteers that blow my mind. They are so dedicated, talented, humble, and supportive of my leadership. If I didn't have them, I'd quit my job... or at the very least, I'd fail at it.