Serving Strangers Means Serving Jesus Himself

I’m a bit different than most of our GPS writers in that I don’t actually work for the church. My career is in web and software development. So I’ve noticed that churches are not always great at anticipating the needs of their users and building features to meet those needs.

In development, we work on features: well-defined bits of functionality that serve users’ needs. If a user needs to save an application for later so they don’t have to fill it out in one sitting, that’s a feature. Sometimes I’ll look at a product and wonder what problem they were trying to solve with certain features. For example, I’m currently looking for a job, so I’m on LinkedIn every day. LinkedIn apparently decided that the feature job-seekers really needed was mobile games built into their site. Yet I’ve never been in a position where I said, “This job at a tech startup looks great, but let me get in a game of Snake before I apply.” In this case, the product team didn’t fully understand the needs of their users, leading to a disconnect between what was built and what was needed.

This has happened in my church experiences, too. I’ve spent some of my weekends over the years volunteering at church events, ranging from outreach events to soup kitchens. Want to guess how many times I’ve used my web development and marketing skills to consult with small non-profits about the best way to accomplish their goals? Zero. Outreach events and soup kitchens are important, but using my expertise could have had a much greater impact than providing free labor for one day.

When Jesus tells the story of God separating the sheep from the goats based on how they helped others, I sometimes hope it’s just a metaphor. If I’m willing to help others, that should count, right? What about if I make a social media post every now and then, telling people how they can volunteer? If I only help in the ways that I want to help, I can quickly turn into LinkedIn, providing a Tic Tac Toe game to people who need jobs.

Much of the work done by churches is driven by volunteers, but we tend to volunteer for things that make us feel good, which aren’t always the things that our communities need the most. I don’t say this to shame anyone—volunteering for anything is important and should be celebrated. I say this because, sometimes, we can make a greater impact than we initially believe, and that enriches us just as much as the community. I will admit, I can do much better in this regard. You may have seen me on stage at Church of the Resurrection, leading the glamorous life of a worship band volunteer, but I have a bad habit of quietly sneaking out when they need help stacking chairs after the service.

Church of the Resurrection is amazing at meeting real needs in our community and beyond, but there are likely ways you can help beyond the standard volunteer jobs. Whether you’re a doctor, a businessperson, or a barista, your skills and experience have value that others need. Even if it’s not practical to use those skills, there are plenty of less glamorous volunteer jobs that need to be done. Being a part of a church community like Resurrection is about more than just social volunteer events; it’s about meeting real needs in our community, ranging from providing food and shelter to those in need to providing job training and leadership experience. Think about how you and your unique skills and experience can best meet the needs of people in our community and find a way to connect them. That’s the best contribution we can make to our church and community.