Volunteer Ministries
Empowering the love of neighbor through supportive solidarity, service, and justice.
What are Volunteer Ministries?
Volunteer Ministries include volunteer-related programs, partnerships, and resources that are coordinated by Volunteer Ministries staff and the Global HOPE Team. We coordinate, partner and promote opportunities that help people:
- Volunteer with organizations and projects they care about
- Explore how service informs justice and justice informs service
- Embrace opportunities for spiritual growth and discernment
- Build meaningful relationships and work in community with others
- Contribute to the work of the church – the sharing of neighborly love.
“Volunteer: (noun) a person who voluntarily undertakes or expresses a willingness to undertake a service, such as… one who renders a service or takes part in a transaction while having no legal concern or interest…”
Miriam-Webster Dictionary
“Volunteering” is a broad term that we use to talk about the ways people show up for one another. By showing up to support others in ways that they identify as helpful, we put our faith values into action and reflect God’s love in tangible ways. In our daily lives, we may do this in small but meaningful ways, like walking a friend’s dog while they are away or driving a sick neighbor to the doctor. In our communities and congregations, we can find more organized ways of volunteering, such as helping stock a food pantry, tutoring students, or participating in letter writing campaigns to advocate for affordable healthcare or other policies that serve the common good.
The Office for Volunteer Ministries works with churches, nonprofit organizations and other partners that support volunteers in these organized ways and in various forms – with multi-day overnight service trips, internships for young adults, and individual opportunities.
How Volunteer Ministries can support you:
Mission/Service Trip Opportunities:
We compile, curate and update a listing of churches, organizations and agencies that host volunteer groups and individuals.
Ecumenical and Interfaith Volunteer Partners and Opportunities:
We share information about ecumenical and interfaith opportunities and resources to offer potential volunteers a broader search across diverse organizations, locations and mission areas.
Young Adult Internships:
Working with UCC, ecumenical and secular, value-aligned partners, we coordinate summer internships that provide work experience, spiritual and vocational discernment, and leadership development. These service and justice-based experiences have been, for decades, powerfully formative experiences for people, many of whom now serve as leaders of faith communities and wider church settings, nonprofit organizations and other sectors.
Partners in Service:
Partners in Service is an application-based program for adult volunteers (age 19+) who want to serve in ministry and nonprofit settings for short-term (1-2 months) or long-term term (up to 12 months) periods. These opportunities may be customized to address weekly hours, lodging and/or stipend needs, depending on the host site and volunteer arrangement.
Disaster Ministries:
We coordinate opportunities and initiatives to support volunteer recruitment, training opportunities, and service opportunities that support disaster preparedness, response and recovery work in church settings and with affiliated disaster response organizations. We also administer disaster ministry service trip grants to offset the cost of church and ministry groups supporting long-term recovery in impacted communities.
Why Volunteer?
For Christians, the teachings and actions of Jesus are a kind of “blueprint” for living, and we can find many scriptures in which Jesus, and the prophets before him, call for God’s people to care for one another in a multitude of ways: feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, welcoming the immigrant and the stranger, visiting the imprisoned, and working to support the liberation of those who are oppressed. In worship, we pray for God’s will to “be done on earth as in heaven” and contemplate what it means to follow the two Great Commandments: to love God with all our hearts, minds and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Volunteering in our communities and beyond allows us to practice our faith and embody the work of loving our neighbors, demonstrating compassion and help in a multitude of settings and ways.
Even modern science and research reflects how these faith teachings impact human lives – both for those who voluntarily offer support and for communities in which support exists.
According to the the American Psychological Association, Studies show that “Volunteering and performing other acts of kindness boost happiness and reduce depression and anxiety—benefits driven by feeling more connected to others.”
High schools, colleges and other academic institutions are increasingly infusing volunteerism into coursework as a means of experiential learning, citing studies that show how on-the-ground community involvement and service, paired with contextual learning and coursework, deepens one’s understanding of systemic economic, cultural and institutional forces and better equips them for thoughtful, responsible citizenship and leadership in the communities where they will live and work. Similarly, we believe that the people, organizations and communities that work with and are helped by volunteers, in turn help to educate, help and shape those who volunteer, reflecting gifts of mutuality and reciprocity within the work of neighborly love and community engagement.
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Please contact Kelly Burd, UCC Minister for Volunteer Engagement (burdk@ucc.org), for more information.