CHURCH TECH
VOLUNTEER MIXING & THE ‘ GOSPEL OF WORK ’ | Jeff Hawley
Words are important . We read from the Word , Moses inscribed the tablets of the covenant with words , and when all else fails ( and we ’ ve started a small electrical fire or two ) we may even read the words in the instruction manual . This installment of ‘ Audio with Jeff Hawley ’ is going to focus on one very powerful word that is central to what many of us do each and every Sunday — volunteer .
During the course of my marketing career I have frequently crafted advertising copy such as “ a mixing console designed to be easy enough for volunteers ” or “ support and train your volunteer tech team with this new video series ”, etc . It is a word that we often toss around as an adjective , a noun and a verb without too much thought . Why have we felt the need in the past to address volunteers as a unique demographic or technographic ? Is this a good practice still ?
Has the wider tech world and specific worship tech landscape evolved to a point where we may need to rethink ( or at least refine ) the term ‘ volunteer ’? Let ’ s take a look !
“ WORK ALONE IS NOBLE ”?
I was struck by the need to dig into the word a bit more as I came across the work of the late anthropologist David Graeber in a used bookstore a few weeks ago . Graeber ’ s basic conclusion is that meaningless jobs are bad . His first premise posits the potential harm to society when we make too close of a connection between our work and our individual self-worth . He pairs this idea up with his view that over half of the jobs that exist today are essentially pointless and produce nothing of value . Both of those viewpoints may be a bit contentious ( and maybe a topic for another article or two down the road !), but the logic of the conclusion does seem to follow if these core premises are to be believed . What really caught my eye in the book was Graeber ’ s take on the influence of Biblical scripture and Western religion in a broader sense on the formation of our current view around the idea of work itself .
Graeber highlighted what the Victorian-era poet , historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle called the ‘ Gospel of Work ’ in making his case . According to Carlyle , “ All work , even cottonspinning , is noble ; work alone is noble ,” and if working itself “ is not ‘ worship ,’ then the more the duty for worship ; for this is the noblest thing yet discovered under God ’ s sky .” This is the passage that most struck me as I thought about how volunteering relates to working and worshiping . And is there even a difference between volunteering , working and worshiping ?