Many hands make light work:
Volunteers help sustain mission congregations' efforts
'It's energizing to know that other people are there to help us.'

For mission congregations, "many hands make light work" is hardly a tired cliche.

"We have more details to take care of than a church with a building and an established program," says Mission Developer Doug Warburton of Alleluia! Lutheran Church in Dublin, Ohio. "Because we worship in a school, it takes two hours to set up for worship, 90 minutes to tear down, and time to transport equipment. We’re always looking for homes where we can hold Bible studies and meetings. And getting the word out is an ongoing task."

Volunteers help ease the load for  these mission developers and congregations. "When other churches volunteer their gifts, we remember why we are doing this," says Pastor Warburton.

Pastor Jennifer Henry of Seeds of Faith Lutheran Church in Mt. Vernon, Iowa agrees. "It’s energizing to know that other people are there to help us."

Volunteers go home renewed and impressed by the faith and determination of these new missions and ready to share their enthusiasm with others.

"A connection with a church that is expanding brings excitement to our people, too," says Pastor Fred Opalinski of Trinity Lutheran in LaTrobe, Pennsylvania. "When something good is happening in someone else’s life, you can’t help but be excited and joyful!"

Spreading the word
Door-to-door canvassing- an essential congregation-building technique- goes a lot faster when volunteers are involved.

Seeds of Faith Lutheran Church was able to contact 1,200 Mt. Vernon, Iowa households in one day, thanks to volunteers from St. Paul Lutheran Church of Davenport, Iowa, and St. Stephen’s and Gloria Dei Lutheran Churches of Cedar Rapids.

Volunteers were paired with local residents and trained in the basics of door-to-door canvassing. Fifteen teams knocked on about 80 doors each. Refreshments followed.

The assignment was easy and fun, says Pastor Peter Marty of St. Paul, who enjoyed chatting with his partners, high school football players who seemed to know everyone in town. "The goal was to raise awareness about the new congregation, not to get someone to sign on the dotted line," he explains. "Because we were out-of-towners who were not heavily vested in the outcome, we could talk more enthusiastically about the first worship service and encourage people to attend."

Canvassing paid off. 92 people attended Seeds of Faith’s first worship service on September 12, 1999. A second round of door knocking helped attract 156 people to Seeds of Faith ’s Easter services, held in an unused rural Roman Catholic church.

Telephone canvassing is another area where volunteers are appreciated.

Pastors David and Rita Gardner Tweed of Joyful Servants Lutheran in Tampa, Florida use volunteers to make follow-up phone calls to people who have attended a worship or are receiving the newsletter.

"We supply a list and a script, and they can do mission work from the comfort of their own homes!" says David Gardner Tweed. Conversations are designed to find out whether a prospect has visited, and if so, what they liked about worship. "We just need to find out what people think."

Join parades, staff special events
Not ready to knock on doors? Try marching in a parade instead.

Volunteers from All Saints Lutheran of Worthington, Ohio helped carry a banner and pass out information about Alleluia! Lutheran in the annual St. Patrick’s parade in Dublin, Ohio. They also helped staff the kid’s game booth in a local Irish festival.

During the annual Heritage Days event in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, members of the new Seeds of Faith dressed in gardening duds and carried pots and tools. As they marched, they handed out packets of seeds with invitations to worship. Positive feedback prompted an additional appearance in the Sauerkraut Days parade in Lisbon.

These kinds of special events give mission congregations priceless visibility- and they’re fun, too. "Our best outreach is getting involved in the community," says Pastor Warburton.

Attend worship and provide music
Before and after worship, volunteers can help set up and take down chairs. During worship, they can pack the pews!

Afraid that her ministry would limp along with only a handful of people, Pastor Mary Louise Frenchman was delighted when 37 people- many from other Lutheran churches- participated in her first worship service at Living Waters Lutheran Church in Cherokee, North Carolina.

Visitors from other congregations are welcomed every week by Seeds of Faith of Mt. Vernon, Iowa. Sometimes they bring a donation, like the Missouri church members who brought a baptismal font to Seeds of Faith and were present when the font was commissioned.

Guest musicians are also welcome, like the guitarist who devoted almost every Sunday evening to Seeds of Faith’s summer outdoor worship. Other musicians also visited, arriving early to rehearse before service began.

"If you play an instrument and are willing to play, we’re more than willing to have you," says Brian Middleswarth, Mission Coordinator.

Assist with construction
When it’s time for your Mission Partner to start construction, send volunteers.

Bill Martin, a retired engineer and member of Trinity Lutheran Church in LaTrobe, Pennsylvania, played a key role in the construction of Faith Lutheran Church’s new building in New Florence. Under Martin’s leadership, Trinity volunteers worked with the ELCA Mission Builders and prepared weekly meals for the construction crew. Inspired by a stain-ed glass window crafted during a synod assembly, Martin urged Trinity to design, build, and install a stained glass window- a visible sign of the lasting partnership between the two congregations.

Sharing Pastoral Staff
Even pastors can volunteer. With the support of Our Savior’s of Spring Valley, Minnesota, Pastor Marlene Pankonin took a leave of absence in order to serve with longtime friend Pastor Denise Scheer at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Muskegon Heights, Michigan.

While Pastor Pankonin covered education, visitation, and pastoral care, Pastor Scheer and her husband developed community-based strategies to address the many needs of Muskegon Heights residents, who suffered from poverty, a sub-standard educational system, and the pestilence of drugs, violence, and alcoholism.

Many of their grass root organizing strategies focused on helping residents get better jobs. "Pastor Denise and her husband taught people how to write resumes and excel in interviews," Pastor Pankonin remembers. "They also were instrumental in getting corporations to interview lower income people and consider them for positions first."

Exchanges introduced the congregations to each other’s environments. Eight adults and young people from Bethlehem stayed with farm families during a visit to Our Savior’ s. The following spring eight Our Savior’s members helped with Vacation Bible School at Bethlehem.

"The 14-month exchange deepened and expanded Our Savior’s concept of mission. It increased morale at Bethlehem and gave its program a shot in the arm," says Pastor Pankonin, now pastor at French Creek Lutheran in Ettrick, Wisconsin.

"It was a wonderful new paradigm and a great experience for both churches and pastors."

American Indian congregation builds, grows through volunteers' efforts
'Strong support allows church to focus on building congregation.'

She said no at first. But a persistent dream convinced Pastor Mary Louise Frenchman to accept a call to Living Waters Lutheran Church, a mission congregation serving 11,500 American Indian residents of the Qualla Boundary in Cherokee, North Carolina.

After refusing the position, Pastor Frenchman dreamed about an elderly Cherokee lady waving at her from a hill. "The dream returned three times, and each time more people joined the lady until she had a whole mountain full of people waving to me. Finally, I called and said I’d come," she recalls.

Some of the people in the dream must have been volunteers, for even before she arrived, she was besieged with calls from youth groups, adult groups, and Mission Partners churches asking when they could come. "All I do is say yes, yes, yes! We have volunteers every weekend," she says.

Already, volunteers have renovated the downstairs room in the parsonage for a worship center.

"Before the volunteers pitched in, this basement area was a bare room with no ceiling and only a single light bulb," says Pastor Frenchman. Because it can hold only 24 people, the worship center is already bursting at the seams with Sunday school classes, prayer meetings, and Bible Study.

Outside, volunteers have laid a sidewalk, put up a church sign, planted grass, rebuilt and painted picnic tables, and power washed and painted decks.

They’ve also reopened and restocked the food and clothing pantry and helped lead day camp.

"Just about everything that gets done here gets done with Lutheran churches," says Pastor Frenchman. "That’s great public relations, because when I first went around to meet the local people, they didn’t know anything about Lutherans. Now they do!"

Strong volunteer support allows Pastor Frenchman and her small committee to focus on building their congregation.

"The biggest task is getting our members used to being part of a church that cares for the community and reaches out to others," says Frenchman, an Oglala Lakota Sioux who grew up on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation.

For their first service project, Living Waters youth are preparing "love bags" of lotions, shampoos, Chapstick, and other items for residents who must leave the Boundary for a hospital visit. Members also support a local youth center and are using two donated computers to teach each other about computers.

Pastor Frenchman is developing worship practices that are sensitive to the community. "Most of our members were unchurched or come from churches that don’t use bulletins," she says. "I work at not having liturgy so foreign that it alienates people." The Wednesday evening prayer circle incorporates Scripture readings and discussion with two traditional Native American practices: burning sage and passing an eagle feather around the circle as people pray for individual and community concerns.

Could Pastor Frenchman and Living Waters survive without volunteers? "No. Mission Partners have been a real blessing for me. Without them, I would feel isolated. With them, I know that we are modeling how faith communities work together."

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