A number of years ago I was acting as a group discussion leader in a Bible study group, and we were given a document titled “Are you a servant or a volunteer?” This happened near the end of the year when I was feeling a bit weary in well doing about being a leader. I loved my group and interacting with them, but I felt burdened and somewhat resentful about all of the time I had to spend in leadership meetings in order to spend 45 minutes or so guiding a discussion based on prepared questions that everyone was supposed to have answered in advance.So reading the article cemented my decision not to serve the next year. (I’m sure that was not the intention!) I had realized that my attitude fit the “volunteer” mold much more than the “servant” one.What’s the difference? It boils down to a few simple ideas:
1. Servants are focused on the people they serve; volunteers are focused on the work.
2. Servants expect no praise or recognition; volunteers often feel hurt if no one praises them.
3. Servants are willing to sacrifice themselves; volunteers will do what fits into their schedules and no more.
4. Servants are committed to the cause; volunteers feel free to leave at any time.
Obviously some lines have to be drawn here, and not every activity calls for servanthood in and of itself. The whole servant/volunteer dichotomy really boils down to heart attitude, and sometimes the best answer you can give to someone is “no.”
I was reminded of these ideas by a podcast, as so often seems to happen with me these days. Yesterday on “Happier in Hollywood” Liz Craft and Sarah Fain were discussing the concept of “recruits vs. volunteers,” thus adding a whole new layer to this subject. A recruit is one rung lower than a volunteer, someone who has had to be urged, indeed begged, to do something. No one wants a recruit if it’s possible to get a volunteer; no one wants a volunteer if it’s possible to get a servant.
So as I’m writing this post I’m thinking about a job I’m doing tomorrow at my church. I’ve been asked to provide lunch for about 30 adults who are attending a parenting seminar, plus about 15 children who will be provided child care during the event. The sessions will last from 9:00 to 3:00. It’s an interesting exercise for me to consider how I can be a servant for this event. I can:
1. Be willing to get there early enough so that I can have tea and coffee available as people come in. I myself don’t particularly care about such things once I’ve had my big mug of coffee first thing in the morning, but I know that people in general like to have something in their hands, preferably something warm. So I’ll hoick myself over there by 8:00 or so. I won’t, however, provide morning sn-a-a-a-cks.
2. Be willing to go the extra mile and be sure there’s a wide variety of food so that people can choose what they want. I’m doing make-it-yourself wraps and originally thought I’d just have cold cuts and cheese for the fillings, but it will take very little effort to make a batch of hummus for those who want to go vegetarian. (And I like hummus myself, actually.) I’ll probably make a couple of different salads, one rather sweet (ye olde spinach and strawberry thing) and one tangy (something Mexican-y with corn and black beans).
3. Make the effort to do menu signs so that people know what things are. But I’ll restrain myself from spending a lot of time making the signs fancy, something I often do and that doesn’t really accomplish anything. Just give the people what they need!
4. Clean up and leave as unobtrusively as possible.
In situations where I’m feeding other people I often tend to veer from one extreme to the other, either making stuff that’s too fancy and complicated or trying to get away with dong the bare minimum. If I truly concentrate on the people I’m serving and not on myself, I’ll tend to stay out of those two ditches and firmly in the saddle.
How about you? Are there areas in your life for which you need to switch your mindset to that of a servant?