State’s Baptist volunteers keep ministries, offices going

Have you seen a family in need cared for by a Baptist association’s mission center? Have you attended a training course for Vacation Bible School or an evangelism program? Have you received literature about Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) or Sunday School programs? Have you called your associational office for help or information?
   
If you have, chances are you saw or heard an Alabama Baptist volunteer. Serving on the front lines of associational ministries and programs, Baptist volunteers ensure that those who need help or information receive it.
   
Wayne Burns, director of missions for Russell Association, said, “Without volunteers, we couldn’t do the work of the association.”
   
He said the association has volunteers who work in the associational office, serve as directors of Sunday School and WMU programs and in other ministries like Builders for Christ, disaster relief and the mission center.
   
“[The association’s] job is to build up churches,” Burns said. “When [volunteers] do what they’re doing, it’s because of the association.”
   
No matter the association’s size, they all depend on volunteers, said Richard Alford, associate in the association and cooperative missions office of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM). “There is not a single association that does not utilize volunteers in some way,” he said.
   
Even the state board depends on volunteers to maintain some ministries, according to Rick Lance, SBOM’s executive director. “The traditional idea of volunteers in Sunday School and discipleship ministries is just one way they are used in the local church and in the association as well as in the ministries of state missions,” he said. “The best volunteers who assist in state missions are also the ones who excel as leaders in the local association.”
   
Alford agreed, saying, “Volunteers are needed in every arena of Baptist life.”
   
And they come from every arena of Baptist life, according to Tina Qualls, assistant director of the Etowah Baptist Missions Center, Inc. The center is a ministry of Etowah Baptist Association (EBA).
   
Qualls said the volunteers range in age from high school students to senior adults, and their backgrounds are as varied as their ages.
   
“They’re from all over,” Qualls said. “We have nurses, schoolteachers, industrial workers, homemakers.” She added that volunteers from other denominations pitch in, too, such as Methodists, National Baptists and Presbyterians.
   
This variety allows the center to fill many types of jobs.
   
“We give [volunteers] options and they serve as their giftedness and time allows,” Qualls said. She explained that some volunteers are outgoing and people-oriented, while others prefer to stay behind the scenes, sorting food and clothing. Qualls said allowing volunteers to serve as they can helps keep them from being overwhelmed by time commitments or jobs they dislike.
   
Although talents and ages vary, many volunteers, especially in mission centers, are senior adults. Martha Smith, church and community ministries director for Randolph Association, said this is a benefit in that they have more time to devote to volunteering. However, some are starting to have health problems that cause them to “retire,” Smith said.
   
“We’ve been seeking out new volunteers to take their places,” she said. The association has done this by asking church WMUs for volunteers and asking churches to announce the need in their bulletins.
   
Qualls said EBA’s mission center is having the same problem. There, they are looking into some marketing or advertising to spread the word, as well as encouraging their volunteers to recruit others.
   
“The best way to recruit is for a volunteer to ask a friend to come volunteer,” Qualls said.
   
While some are having to “retire” others are still going strong, like Thelma Newkirk, who has attended Ivalee Baptist Church, Etowah Association, since her church disbanded.
   
Newkirk was recognized at a recent banquet for Etowah’s mission center volunteers as having volunteered 1,099 hours at the mission center from August 2003 through July 2004.
   
This was the top number of hours given for the year.
   
Newkirk said volunteering at the mission center was her job, because she works all day four days a week at the center, sorting food and clothes.
   
“I went to a Thanksgiving service one night and the next thing I know I’m signed up to work with them,” Newkirk said with a laugh.
   
“I think that’s where the Lord wants me to be,” she said. “I feel like I’m helping someone else.”
   
Recognizing the work volunteers do is important to the association, Qualls said. Although the volunteers do not seek out and sometimes shun recognition, “We should recognize them,” she noted. 
   
“The work they do for the Lord is vitally important,” she said. “They have such a witness because they’re willing to give of their time, and [the banquet] is our chance to tell them we appreciate you and value you.”
   
The banquets also allow volunteers to visit with each other, Smith added, noting that volunteers from different churches don’t often get to see each other outside of their ministry. “This is a time to get together and catch up.”
   
Some associations recognize their volunteers at their annual meetings and others hold luncheons or banquets for individual ministries, like Montgomery Association. Judy Randall, interim church and community ministry director, said in Montgomery, volunteers are recognized by the leaders of the ministries in which they serve.
   
“We honor Samaritan Inn ministry at a banquet and have an appreciation luncheon for our conversational English volunteers,” Randall said. “We have four ministry centers and the director of each center does something for their own volunteers.”
   
Whether through banquets or at associational meetings, recognizing volunteers is extremely important, Alford said.
   
“We need to recognize these people that give so much,” he said. “Without [volunteers] you cannot fulfill all the needs and applications that an association has to do.”