The Volunteer ~ A Parable

This is a parable that reminds us that we don’t need to have experience before we volunteer.

Once upon a time (don’t you love stories that start out like this?), there existed 5 people. (I’m sure there were more people who existed, but the story is about THESE five people!) These five people were named: ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’, and ‘E’. This is a tale of their growing confidence.

 A, B, C, D, E – Z  

Now, ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’, and ‘E’ decided it would be a good idea to start a new ministry program in their community. So they set about looking for that perfect project.

They looked at the homeless shelter, and saw that there were many programs being done there by many different people but neither ’A', ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ or ‘E’ felt that they were qualified to begin there. Later that week there was a community foot race being held for charity in their town, but not one of them could think of any way they could do the perfect project for all of those hot, thirsty, sweaty people. So, they kept looking for the perfect project.  They looked at the nursing home, and there were many programs being held there but neither ’A', ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ or ‘E’ felt that they were qualified to volunteer there.

Finally, ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ and ‘E’  decided to ask for help and they invited person ‘Z’ to be their leader and to help them with some ideas. Here is what happened:

On day one, the leader, (whose name was ‘Z’), handed out a mission idea to ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’, and ‘E’ and upon handing out those mission ideas, asked who would like to volunteer. The first person who volunteered was person ‘A’.

On day two, the same thing happened. The leader, (whose name was ‘Z’), handed out a mission idea to ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’, and ‘E’ and upon handing out those mission ideas, asked again, who would like to volunteer. And again, the first person who volunteered was person ‘A’.  This happened again on day three, and again on day four, five, six, and seven. Every day, person ‘A’ volunteered first, no matter what those mission ideas that the leader (whose name was ‘Z’) offered up.

The interesting thing was that on day one, ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’, and ‘E’ had equal knowledge and experience in those mission ideas, but since ‘A’ was the first to volunteer, ‘A’ was the first to grow in confidence. Each person volunteered according to their letter ranking: ‘A’ ahead of ‘B’, ‘B’ ahead of ‘C’, ‘C’ ahead of ‘D’, and ‘D’ ahead of ‘E’. Soon, their position was an indicator of their confidence. ‘A’ was more confident than ‘B’, ‘B’ more confident than ‘C’, ‘C’ more confident than ’D', and ‘D’ more confident than ’E’.

By day 20 or so, ‘A’ was far ahead of ‘E’ in experience and confidence to fulfill his mission, and ‘E’ had no idea why.

The last person to volunteer winds up being the least experienced. Have the confidence to volunteer early!

Related articles

• This is What I can Do (barefootpreachr.org)
• Make A Difference in Young Men’s Lives ~ Be a Group Facilitator (barefootpreachr.org)
• We Salute: Volunteer Brandon Sherrell (swwashingtonredcross.wordpress.com)
• All volunteer nonprofit needs new tagline (socialactions.net)
• Volunteer fire departments get creative (kshb.com)

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