Bill Hybels - The Volunteer Revolution: Unleashing the Power of Everybody

Becoming a Contagious Christian (with Mark Mittelberg and Lee Strobel)

Courageous Leadership

Descending into Greatness (with Rob Wilkins)

Fit to Be Tied (with Lynne Hybels)

Honest to God?

Network (with Bruce L. Bugbee and Don Cousins)

Rediscovering Church (with Lynne Hybels)

The New Community Series (with Kevin and Sherry Harney)

Colossians

James

1 Peter

Philippians

Romans

The Sermon on the Mount 1

The Sermon on the Mount 2

The InterActions Small Group Series

Authenticity

Character

Commitment

Community

Essential Christianity

Evangelism

Freedom

Fruit of the Spirit

Getting a Grip

Jesus

Lessons on Love

Marriage

Overcoming

Parenthood

Prayer

Psalms

The Real You

Serving Lessons

Transformations

Transparency

The Volunteer Revolution
EPub Reader Format
Copyright 2004 by Bill Hybels

This title is also available as a Zondervan audio product.

Visit www.zondervan.com/audiopages for more information.

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Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

ISBN-13: 978-0-310-56603-8

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Interior design by Beth Shagene

Cover design by Curt Diepenhorst

Cover photo by Philip Shippert / Shippert Photography

I often agonize over book dedications. Not this time.

From the day I committed to this project,

I couldnt wait to dedicate it to the volunteer heroes

of Willow Creek Community Church.

They have lived out the every-member-a-minister dream

more robustly than any local church I have ever known, anywhere in the world.

I know its supposed to be the leaders job

to inspire and motivate the team.

At Willow, truth be told, the team has motivated and inspired the leader

more than they will ever know.

Ive said it to them hundreds of times,

but I have to express it again right here and right now:

Servants of Jesus Christ at Willow, I hold you in high regard.

Way to go!

Contents

For we are Gods workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

EPHESIANS 2:10

S ome years ago a new staff member of our church asked me how I had the gall to ask people who are already busy at work or in the home to get involved as volunteers at church.

I mean, dont you feel a little guilty doing this? he asked. Isnt it hard to heap such a burden on people?

He had a point. But I knew of a bigger point:

During the next few months youre going to meet people who stand at drill presses, ten hours a day, five or six days a week. When they go home at night, few of them sense the pleasure, meaning, and purpose of life theyve heard advertised in commercials for beer or computer systems. Theyre godly, conscientious people, and they feel thankful for their jobs. But they dont find satisfaction for their souls at the drill press.

And youre going to meet fine, hardworking people in real estate who show thirty homes a week. If theyre lucky, one buyer will make an offer, but theyre not lucky every week. Many are extroverts who love showing property and helping families find the right home, but even then they probably dont arrive home at night filled with deep inner joy because of their latest showing.

Youll meet insurance salespeople who have been selling policies for twenty years. While they feel grateful that the insurance business puts food on their table and sends their kids to college, the thought of selling one more policy likely doesnt float their emotional boat.

Youre going to meet car dealers and stockbrokers and bricklayers and police officers and plumbers who, despite their commitment to their careers and jobs, are honest enough to admit that their secular vocation does not offer enough meaning to satisfy the deeper needs that stir in their souls.

Some of them love their jobs; they feel stimulated and energized by their work. Some of them even leave their workplace each day knowing that they have honored God by their work and their love for people. But few of them would say: This is what life is all about.

I looked directly into the eyes of my young friend. You and I get to invite these people to be used by God in ways they never imagined. We have the opportunity to empower them to develop gifts they didnt know they had. We can cheer them on as they courageously assume new levels of Kingdom responsibility that fill their hearts to overflowing. And we get to see the look on their faces when they realize God has used them to touch another human being.

No, I said, I never really feel guilty inviting people to become volunteers in our church. Never.

ON A MISSION

When the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes decided to determine his purpose in life, he started by accumulating a vast sum of money, only to discover that it didnt provide the meaning he had hoped for. Then he sought power, attained it, and discovered that it too failed to satisfy. Next came a scandalous pursuit of pleasure. Then fame and celebrity. Finally, at the end of all his efforts, he uttered his famous words: Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. Or as another translation says, All of this is like chasing the wind.

We were not created to chase the wind.

We are created to join God on a mission. Some people think of God as hanging around beyond the edges of the universe somewhere, listening to really good worship music. The Bible sees it much differently. It teaches that God is at work 24/7, all over our world, filling his followers with grace and mercy and power to reclaim and redeem and fix this broken planet.

Its as if God has work gloves on. And he calls us to roll up our sleeves and join him with our talents, our money, our time, and our passion. He wants his mission to become ours. If youre into chasing the wind, he tells us, you can keep right on doing that. Or you can hook up with me, and together well transform this hurting planet.

What would it feel like to lay your head on your pillow at night and say, You know what I did today? I teamed up with God to change the world?

The desire to be a world-changer is planted in the heart of every human being, and that desire comes directly from the heart of God. We can suffocate that desire in selfishness, silence it with the chatter of competing demands, or bypass it on the fast track to personal achievement. But its still there. Whenever we wonder if the daily eight-to-five grind or our round-the-clock parenting tasks are all there is to life, that divine desire nudges us. Whenever we feel restless and unsatisfied, the desire whispers in our soul. Whenever we wonder what a life of real purpose would feel like, the desire calls us to something more.