#283. The unwilling volunteer.

The phrase “unwilling volunteer” should be an oxymoron. Volunteering is about being willing. It’s supposed to be the overflow of your heart’s desire to give back to God, give back to your church and give back to your community. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.

Growing up in the church, I realized that there are two types of common unwilling volunteers. The first is the “dragged here by my spouse volunteer” and the second is the “parents thought it would be good for me teenage volunteer.” There are some nuances with both and I think it would be interesting to look at each a little closer.

1. The dragged here by my spouse volunteer.
I think most of these volunteers tend to be husbands. But, I’ve met some grumpy lady volunteers in my day so let’s take gender off the table. This one usually occurs most often in the children’s nursery. Like owning a puppy before having a child, one spouse tells the other that it would be good for them to learn more about babies. So the willing spouse volunteers the unwilling spouse for childcare duty. If you have a kid then you should mentally have a picture of this person in your head right now. They are the person that almost seem disappointed that you’re bringing your kid to their classroom. Like a waiter that is frustrated that you want more to drink, they grumble a little when you drop your kid off. And there’s no better feeling than leaving a kid with someone that clearly does not like kids. What a sweaty way to spend a sermon thinking about what is happening in that Sunday school room.

2. The parents thought it would be good for me teenager.
The teenagers that help my daughter L.E. at North Point Community Church are great. They are kind and loving and happy and nothing like I was when I was their age. I was a jerk. But that is another story for another day. I think the “parents thought it would be good for me teenager,” or PTIWBGFMT for short, occurs most often in Vacation Bible School. They’re too old to actually attend but too young to have a real summer job. So their mom or dad makes them go run the snack table for a week. And each day, when you ask for a juice box you are met with just utter contempt. You think to yourself, “they’re going to blog about this on their myspace page and probably twitter too which might drive up their technorati rating.” Then you think, “I’m not sure I really understand what any of that last sentence meant, where did that come from?”

I hope you get lots of happy, willing volunteers at your church this summer. More than that, I hope you get lots of unwilling volunteers that eventually fall in love with whatever they end up helping with. Kind of like when Kevin Bacon taught that other guy how to dance in the movie Footloose. Maybe you should get Kenny Loggins to play the closing ceremony at VBS this year. You can probably get him for around $175. Could be good.