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The Son of Man did not come for people to serve him. He came to serve others and to give his life to save many people.

- Matthew 20:28 (ERV)  

This week we continue our series, Soma: The Body of Christ, with a look at the muscular system which represents service in the church. This series is based on the Church Working Right Survey we took in May.  

The survey puts it this way:  

The time and skills provided by faithful volunteers are the “muscle” that moves a church’s mission. Service opportunities help individual believers grow as they use their gifts while also providing vital human resources to support the work of the church. - The Church Working Right Survey  

 Here are our results for this section:  

The Muscular System: Service - We got a score of 76/100 for this system which is good but with room for improvement.  

 Here are some individual statements and our scores on a 3.0 scale:  

 When I volunteer, I feel like my time and energy have been well spent to accomplish something important. Score - 2.53/3.0 

 This church regularly tells people about ways and opportunities to Serve. Score - 2.4/3.0 

 This church takes time to thank volunteers for their work and makes them feel appreciated.  Score - 2.36/3.0  

 This church does a good job of training volunteers how to do what they're asked to do.  Score - 2.23/3.0 

 This church is careful to ensure that its volunteers don't feel overwhelmed or become burnt-out.  Score - 1.89/3.0 

Biggest Highlight: People who serve feel they are doing something important. That is great because we are doing something important, eternally important. Everything we do for Christ and His Kingdom has eternal consequences.  

Room for Improvement:  

Appreciating our Volunteers: We are learning and trying some new things including our FIRST ANNUAL VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION DINNER on August 14 – catered by City BBQ. It was a great time together, and we are looking forward to doing this every year from now on to say, “Thank you” to all our volunteers.  

Telling People about Opportunities to Serve: Look for the new Connection Table under the pop-up tent outside where you can find out how to get plugged into the different opportunities to serve. Stop by and say “hello” this Sunday.  

Training our Volunteers: Look for greater training from the different Ministry Team Leaders in the areas where you serve.  

Keeping Volunteers from Experiencing “Burn Out.” - This is a big one, and we received one of our lower scores in the survey on this one. The biggest thing we are doing is encouraging additional people to step up, be trained to step in to give people a break and create rotations to give more people a chance to serve. This is an area of prayer and conversations about how to continue to improve in this area. We love our volunteers and want to work hard to keep anyone from feeling burnt out.  

It is all a work in progress, but we are definitely learning from you and working to address specific areas to become even more healthy as a church. Thank you for your responses and input and all you do to serve at Bridges Church.  

The Body of Christ is alive at Bridges Church.