Monday, January 26, 2015

DAY 22 (52 Days)

MINISTRY IS A TEAM SPORT! VOLUNTEER FOR GTD!! Ever since I was a teenager in youth group I have volunteered to help out in other ministries. In fact, I've been volunteering for 26 years in the young adult ministry of my home church. For 26 years I have planned out activities, taught, and helped out in any way I could. It has always been rewarding. It has always been well worth it. In fact, one of the best ways to make a difference in someone else's life is to volunteer for a ministry. Whenever you use your talents and gifts to serve others God is going to bless it. GTD used to have a thriving volunteer team of about 25 hard working people. During The Great Recession many of our volunteers had to back off of their commitments for various reasons such as new marriages, new babies, new jobs, needing a 2nd job, etc. Unfortunately during that time we also lost our Volunteer Coordinator because of financial cutbacks and we didn't have a back-up plan in place. With just 2 full-time workers we had so much on our to-do lists that we could never carve out the time to recruit & train new volunteers or prepare tasks so that they could be delegated out. So we missed out on some great people during that time. One of our main focuses during our 52 Days campaign is to increase our volunteers who can help on the trips or before the trips or after the trips or in the office. We have plenty of areas that volunteers can make a difference in! So we are rebuilding our Volunteer Department from recruitment to training to opportunities it's all being built to enable people to be a significant part of God's work in GTD. As Tim Hansel put it in his book Holy Sweat, "God's method is man." He chose to use mankind as his primary tool to reach out to mankind. Volunteering in a ministry is fulfilling, healthy, honoring to God, and it allows you to begin stockpiling your eternal rewards in heaven. Let's face it, God's not judging us on how much money we make, how popular we are, or what kind of position we achieve. He's only interested in the things that last for eternity such as the souls of people, the way we love others, how we treat what has been entrusted to us, our own obedience to His calling, and so on. Being involved in ministry gives you the opportunities to make an eternal difference and to have something to present to God when we stand before Him to give an account for the life that we lived. Whether it's with GTD or your local church or another ministry, make volunteering a regular part of your life. You will never regret it! But as for this ministry, we are looking forward to increasing our number of volunteers. It's an exciting time to be a part of GTD!


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