Celebrating our SBC Volunteers 

Have you ever stopped to consider the truly wonderful thing that is the level of commitment and service of every person who gives their time and talents to make possible all that we do in SBC? As an example, think for a moment about a typical Sunday morning at church. Our service can only take place because:

• At least three members of our Welcome Team will be there, volunteering to greet you.
• Someone volunteers to consider which songs and hymns to choose and then leads a team who play and sing in our times of worship.
• Two people volunteer to prepare bread and wine when we have communion.
• Our Tech Team volunteers to do the PA and AV, not just looking after sound and visuals in the building but also managing our livestream.
• Two people volunteer to do the Bible reading, after another volunteer has been in touch with them about plans for the service.
• When our children and young people go out to their groups, they are accompanied by a dedicated team of volunteers who are passionate about teaching and inspiring the next generation of church.
• Two members of our Finance Team volunteer to count the offering
• As our service closes, a couple of members of our prayer team volunteer to stay in church, to be with you if there’s anything you need to talk over.
• And when all this is done, you go out to the foyer where a team of people volunteer to serve the tea and coffee someone else prepared before most of us had even arrived.

Are you keeping up? I reckon this amounts to at least thirty people serving us in ways visible and not so visible, just to make possible every occasion of gathered worship.



And that’s not to mention the stuff you never even see on a Sunday: how the very building we’re in is maintained through our Facilities Team; the hours of work undertaken by our office team on tasks such as booking, publicity, church news and rotas; how every person who works with children, young people or adults at risk has a DBS certificate; how our safeguarding team work behind the scenes to ensure the highest levels of care and integrity in our work with the most vulnerable members of our church family; a website and social media feeds which are never out of date and are so important in keeping us connected and in publicising all that we do. Finally, let’s not forget our deacons, who come alongside the Ministry Team to work with them in the day-to-day leadership of the church, offering their practical gifts and spiritual wisdom in the service of SBC.

The beginning of June will also see the start of Volunteering Week, a national campaign that aims to recognise and celebrate the contributions of volunteers across the UK. This is an appropriate moment for us, as a church, to express our heartfelt thanks for the remarkable commitment of our volunteers: the ways they serve, the ideas they have about how things can be different and better, the commitment that has sustained activities over many years and the dreams from which new initiatives emerge. As the Apostle Paul reminded the church in Corinth:

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 1 Corinthians 12:12-14

While offering our thanks, can we also take this opportunity to remind you of some areas of church life where more help is urgently needed: these include our Tech Team, youth and children’s work. Could this be you? If you feel you could help with any of these important ministries, please speak with members of those teams who would be glad to have that conversation with you