The Church has Left the Building!

Champaign, Il: Weekend of Service mobilizes entire congregation

Earlier this year, Lynn Peisker – who works as Volunteer Coordinator for United Way – was presented with a novel idea. What if her church chose one Sunday, out of the 52 this year, to honor God in a different way, by taking to the streets of Champaign, Illinois and doing community service?

This October, that’s just what 900-plus members of the Windsor Road Christian Church did. Peisker calls it The Church Has Left the Building. For months, the church advertised on their website, sold t-shirts and posted signs throughout the church that read, “Like raking it in?  Paint anything lately?” Instead of holding Worship Services and Sunday School, the church would send volunteers to four projects throughout the city.

The interest in serving has been building slowly among the congregation, Peisker says.   “As Christians, it’s more important what we do than what we say. We really want to be on the ground, serving our community.” Over the last five years, church members have identified the causes they feel most allied with and begun donating their time.  But nothing like this had happened before.

At the domestic violence shelter, they painted the entire interior of the building, landscaped the grounds including building a rainwater storage facility, and got enough mattresses donated to replace the ratty twin ones the women and children were sleeping on.

In Douglass Park, one of the poorer areas of town, church volunteers threw an old-fashioned picnic for families, with a baseball clinic, BBQ, and other festival games before distributing food to families in need.

Across town, volunteers invited 80 single moms to enjoy a day of manicures, craft-making, and R&R while providing childcare for their kids.

To say it was a major success would be an understatement; the church put in more than 4,000 hours of service in one weekend. But Peisker is not the type to brag. She is more interested in what can be accomplished when people put their time and money where their mouths are. “At the very beginning, we decided if the church was going to leave the building, the money should leave the building too.” On an average weekend, the church collects $20,000 in offerings, so – to ensure their volunteering had impact – that’s how much was invested in the projects.

Having resources to put into the projects made a big difference. The county that includes Champaign is second only to Chicago when it comes to poverty in Illinois. “One out of ten families don’t know for sure where their next meal is coming from,” Peisker explained.

A lot of work went into making sure both the volunteers and recipients would feel fulfilled for attending the church events. Planning began way back in January. Organizing and deploying 1,000 volunteers across the city is, after all, a logistical maze.

That’s where VolunteerSpot came in.  “We’re always looking for tools to help do the job quicker and better,” Peisker says. She tried VolunteerSpot’s online tutorial, then had the church set up links to VolunteerSpot from its website so people could sign up online.  Five hundred did.  Soon, all 750 spots were filled. 

Calls for donations – like new computers or discounts on paint– were also posted through VolunteerSpot. Needs were quickly met. “Our church is very giving,” Peisker says. Three days before the weekend of service, she was trying to figure out how to accommodate those who’d show up to church Saturday and Sunday, wanting to join in last minute.

Peisker always conceived of the project as one that would spur relationships that last well beyond the weekend. She’s waiting to see if some church members will decide to be permanent volunteers with the groups Windsor partnered with.  “It’s our primary goal to let people know that we serve because that’s what God’s called us to do.  We want to spread the love of Christ in the community, through service.”

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Article by Jessie Torissi - journalist, nonprofit communications strategist, and musician living in Austin, Tx. Permission granted to reprint this post in part or it's entirety with attribution to Jessie Torrisi and VolunteerSpot (http://www.VolunteerSpot.com).

Please visit Windsor Road Christian Church's website for more information including a video and photos about their Weekend of Service. Here are the stats reported by Windsor Road:

Stats

1 computer
1 dumpster
2 port-a-potties
2 park benches
3 picnic tables
20 new mattresses
500 t-shirts
1000 children's dental kits

2 project coordinators
8 project sites
8 project site managers
10 months of planning
40 task team leaders
42 tasks

8 First Aid Kits
8 dust masks
10 canisters of Clorox Wipes
11 bottles antibacterial gel
16 pairs of work gloves
20 Safety Glasses
20 pairs of ear plugs
85 gallons of paint
120 pairs of disposable gloves

100 leaders working for 10 months
728 total volunteer spots over 2 days

…and 1 God getting ALL THE CREDIT.