Let's be back door people

In chapter 8, Perkins wrote about the benefits of volunteering. To enter into serving the poor or volunteering in a racially mixed ministry offers significant learning opportunities for the volunteer.

First, a volunteer comes to know the needs of people in human terms rather than as statistics.

Second, if the volunteer is serving in an effective Christ-centered ministry, they can catch a vision for the power of the gospel to meet these needs. They begin to understand the holistic nature of the gospel.

Thirdly, if serving takes place in a racially diverse ministry, the volunteer can learn the meaning of reconciliation and take beginning steps toward the goal of reconciliation.

Volunteers might also begin to discern something of God's call on their own lives. Seeing needs and catching a vision, God often taps people on the shoulder with their own unique gifts and calling to serve in a way that meets a specific need for His Kingdom work.

Personally, I've had a re-occuring picture in my mind this past month. I grew up on Windsor Dr. in Waterloo. We had a big patio attached to our driveway, and a back door that led up to our kitchen. Every familiar person in our lives used that patio back door...relatives, friends, neighbors. Whenever our door bell would ring, it meant that someone stood at our front door, and we knew that the person waiting to enter our home must be more of a stranger, someone without that back door familiarity.

I think of regular volunteering as being something that often helps people grow relationally in such a way that they can become a "back door friend." Coming through the front door helped people get a peek at our clean and unfrequented living room, but real life was lived through the back door where the shoes piled up, where the supper was on the stove, where kids and friends and a St. Bernard ran in and out continuously. Front door visitors often had no real commitment to our family in mind....in fact, front door people were often seeking something for themselves and were usually trying to sell something that they thought was a good idea for our family. Back door friends, however, knew and cared for and were committed to our family.

As we reach out as volunteers in areas that might be home to many needs, it is my prayer that we not be front door people with a good idea to sell, but rather committed, caring friends who take off their shoes at the back door, join the mess of real family life, and maybe even stay for supper.