When I first arrived in America, I was not familiar with the concept of volunteering, or sacred service, because this concept is not known in Germany! There are all sorts of social services and churches that receive 8% of the Income Tax and can hire individuals for the work that needs to be done.
During my last 3 decades in this country, I have come to understand that volunteerism is a necessity for our various systems to function. This holds
especially true for a spiritual center like New Vision Center. There are countless jobs that are being done by devoted individuals. Everything from answering the phones at the office, decorating for Easter, working with the kids on Sunday mornings, to cooking breakfast for the band, welcoming
new individuals to the community or calling on congregants who need a little extra assistance due to illness. We have a Leadership Council that devotes many hours to the stewardship of our organization; the marketing team looks at ways to let the greater Phoenix area know we are here; and our Practitioners dedicate countless hours to prayer for individual congregants as well as the entire Center. The other day we were trying to add up all the service hours that our Service Ministries give to sacred service – I am still working on the math to figure that out! 😉
With Rev. Penny’s arrival, a shift to focus on Service vs. Volunteering was implemented almost immediately. The vision is that we don’t want something from our congregants, rather that we want something for them. We shifted from signing up volunteers for various tasks to creating a Service Ministry structure with clearly identified teams, with individual missions and Team Leaders as well as job designs. When we serve, we know where we belong and we start seeing service as a way of living. The evolution from having to fix something (we see it as broken) or wanting to help (we see it as weak) to wanting to share our skills, our gifts, our joy through service (we see it as whole).
My experience has been that the more I serve, the more energy I have and the easier I attract folks who want to create together with me a fabulous experience here at NVC. The latest example is our New Friends of NVC Luncheon! The Welcome Team stepped up and created the space for people who are new to come and connect and share food together in an informal atmosphere. There was lots of laughter as we got to know each other a little better.
What gift is in your heart that you would like to share? Contact me, Karin – I look forward to hearing from you!
If you would like to experience the benefit of service and for more information, please visit our website www. NewVisionaz.org and Click the SERVE button.