Asking the clergy about volunteering

Why is it important for congregants to volunteer at their houses of worship?

The Rev. David F. Sellery, rector, St. Peter's By-the-Sea Church and Day School, Bay Shore:

Volunteering at your house of worship is as much about fellowship and getting to know your fellow parishioners as it is about helping the parish.

By working together, we get to know how you're doing. Is everything OK with you? And, you as a parishioner know you're contributing to the well-being of your house of worship.

But while volunteering at your house of worship is important, volunteering outside your church also is important.

Faith is not a spectator sport. You have to be in it to win it. And that means a lot more than holding down a front-row seat Sunday morning. Scripture tells us: "What good is it if you have faith but do not have works" (James 2:14). That does not mean that we volunteer as a quid pro quo deal with God. It does mean that service to our congregation and our neighbor is inseparable from our faith in God.

The motto we have adopted for our parish is, "Praising God and Serving Neighbor." Christ fused love of God with love of neighbor in his great commandment. So, for a Christian, service isn't an extra chore; it is our life in Christ.

Donald Smith, Orient Society of Friends Meeting, Orient:

The simple answer is that it is one of the ways a congregation can maintain its house of worship without spending a lot of money. Just like you have to maintain your home, you have to maintain your religious home. It is a living thing that needs care.

But, it is more than that. Volunteering makes you feel better because you're doing something to help another. And, it is good for members to get together to see how everyone is doing. It strengthens us one with another, and it also strengthens our faith because of that fellowship.

Bishop Andy C. Lewter, Hollywood Full Gospel Baptist Cathedral, Amityville:

Houses of worship are ideal and classic grassroots organizations that take into account and consideration the immediate needs of the neighborhood and the overall well-being of the community.

Any time government resources and revenue from the private sector have become increasingly unavailable for community projects, it is extremely important that groups such as churches have human currency available to provide those much-needed services and activities.

For the individual, volunteerism affirms our ideological stance that we are called to be servants of humanity and that we are at our best not when we are being served, but when we are serving others. Volunteering also is very therapeutic and takes the focus off ourselves, especially in times of personal difficulty. By recognizing the value and worth of others, we also validate the worth of ourselves.

As we move forward in the midst of a fragile economy and an uncertain future, it is only our ability to depend upon each other and seek solutions from each other that we can expect to survive.

Avraham Rabinowich, vice president of the Long Island Board of Rabbis, and rabbi at the Bellmore Jewish Center, Bellmore:

In the book of Exodus 25:8, God told Moses "And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them."

He told Moses that the people should build this temple. They were to volunteer their time, their talents and their donations to build this sanctuary. Everyone shared their talents. God doesn't need a home to live in. God said, "I will dwell among them," not "I will dwell in a house."

It is the people who create a sanctuary. It is the people who make Bellmore Jewish Center successful. It is through this volunteering of our time and talents that we make those strong connections with each other.

When you do things yourself at your house of worship instead of paying someone to do something at your house of worship, you're giving part of your heart. Yes, of course, there are some things that you have to pay someone to do. But, it is the heart that we give with the money that matters most.

In the history of Judaism, there was the tribe of Levites, and for centuries they did most of the work in the temples. They were designated for that. But, now, as Jewish rabbi and philosopher Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) said, "Anyone can be a Levite," if you just dedicate yourself to be one.

Whatever your talent is, share it with others.