Redefining Duty 1

Redefining Christian Duty: a call to change volunteerism

Alyssa Bostrom

MNM 607

Dr. Marilyn Hosea

April 20, 2016

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Literature Review:

When I think about what it means to be part of a community, I believe that it means to

meet every person I encounter wherever or however they find themselves to be and join them on

their journey. There is a difference between being part of a community and entering a

community. The type of entering a community I’m talking about is that of faith-based volunteer

work. The book Religion and Volunteering: Complex, Contested and Ambiguous Relationships

reminds us that there has been a long standing and most often positively associated relationship

between religious affiliation and the desire to volunteer, (Hustinx, 2014).

The motives one holds for why they volunteer go deeper than just being religious. We are

all on life’s journey and find ourselves in different places at different times. María Celeste Dávila

and Juan Francisco Diaz-Morales wrote in 2009 about the motives for volunteer work. Volunteer

work can help meet the needs of the community being served but most often, service work also

meets an unmet need for the volunteer, (Dávila and Díaz-Morales, 2009). The reasons vary from

being protective or aiming to reduce negativity and stress, to the value system a person lives by

(this is often faith), to social, or broadening their community prospective, career driven motives

or self-enhancement. All of these motives are self-serving.

Self-serving motives are not inherently negative. We are all trying to live fulfilling lives

and find success. Aristotle built up the idea of human goodness and Thomas Aquinas added to

Aristotle’s exploration of the human soul and moral goodness when he wrote that moral virtue

can be found through the Christian walk, (Hardon, 1995). Therefore, faith by virtue is also not

negative. Faith most often allows us to keep going when things seem dark, hopeless and

confusing. Faith offers clarity, hope and peace. It is at the intersection of motive and faith that we

can arrive at real opportunities for social change. Other times we also end up in situations where

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service can hurt community development. Service learning and short term service trips have

become trendy over the past ten to fifteen years and we can attribute some of that to the

explosion of social media and storytelling through photo sharing.

In essence this is the definition of “voluntourism.” Many Christian organizations refer to

this as missions and they find justification for it in scripture. Katherine Borland and Abigail E.

Adams research and chronical this in their book International Volunteer Tourism: Critical

Reflections on Good Works in Central America. “Increasingly, U.S. volunteers travel…with

religious, professional, educational and civic organizations for short term stays that include at

least a service component,” (1, 2013). They go on to say that these participants return a few

weeks later feeling transformed. The questions that remains are, were the participants able to

transform more than just themselves? Are they able to make lasting community impacts for their

service destinations?

Borland and Adams further write about how short term services trips are problematic due

to the motives behind volunteers and at the same time these missions can offer transformational

opportunities for service learning institutions and social activism. My paper will later look at

research that investigates whether or not millennial participants service trips decide to remain in

the nonprofit and human service sector long term. Borland and Adams write that the service trip

is not going away anytime soon, (2, 2013).

Building off the self-serving motives of service and the long standing tradition of

Christian missions, I will now explore the research and definitions of Christian elitism and

volunteerism. In 2013 the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life made an

inquiry into the ethics of volunteerism. They found that the volunteers often look like, “almost

always involves a group of idealistic and privileged travelers who have vastly different socio-

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economic statuses vis-à-vis those they serve,” (Kass 2013). This goes back to my original

statement that most often volunteers are entering a community and not becoming part of it. They

are in a sense trespassing and trying to aid a community from their place of privilege. Most often

we see the privileged white college student spending a month trying to save Africa, and the proof

is in their Instagram posts. 21st century Christian mission organizations only further perpetuate

the stereotype and sometimes reality of this story. The wealthy American visits remote Latin

America or even just domestic travel to for example Flint, Michigan and as this 2013 inquiry

summarizes, the wealthy volunteer feel they know what is best for the community they are

serving. This is called the paternalistic model, (Kass, 2013). My paper will not completely

discount volunteer work and will advocate for volunteer work that is driven by the asset based

development model. This counters the short term missions “needs based” service model that

voluntourism often enacts. Needs based development is very external, whereas asset based

development focuses on the internal drivers of transforming communities.

The 2002 article, From clients to citizens: Asset-based Community Development as a

strategy for community-driven development, defines the asset based service as a model that,

“recognizes the capacities of local people and their associations that build powerful

communities,” (Mathie and Cunningham, 2, 2002). In other words, it is that of neighbors helping

neighbors and those that come to communities to help join and include the constituents in the

efforts rather than just providing goods to meet basic needs.

Mark Stephan’s article Christian Elitism defines elitism as a sense of superiority rooted

in the thought that as a Christian you have some earth shattering knowledge about the world that

makes you better than another or better off, (2012). It is then the “Christian duty” to share this

information and “save” others from being left in the dark. The opposite is also true because

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others may feel inadequate because they are lacking this information. I see it as a cyclical system

of guilt. The Christian duty according to biblical interpretations is to go out, evangelize and

make many disciples, (Matthew 28:19). I believe that somewhere along the way the foundations

of love and service have been lost. This is why I would like to investigate Immanuel Kant’s

theory of justice as it relates to duty, motive and rationality in order to redefine Christian mission

work in the 21st century. Michael J. Sandel does a clear job of paraphrasing Kant’s complex

philosophies. We cannot see others as an end, we shouldn’t even see “others,” rather we should

see all humans as individuals who Kant says are worthy of respect and dignity, (104, 2009). The

end goal should be many thriving communities that are inclusive. It takes service and

relationship building to do that, not short term volunteer trips and band aids.

Introduction:

If it had not been for an alternative spring break trip to work with Habitat for Humanity

New Orleans in 2010, I would not be where I am today, which is a steward of community

stabilization and youth empowerment. My theology of Christ and what it means to serve him has

been in flux over the last year and as I research volunteerism, I find myself becoming who I am

truly meant to be and asking others to seek humility over using only their wealth and time to fix

problems.

The above literature defines the growing trend of “voluntourism” and briefly touches on

the motives people have for doing service work. I also attempt to synthesize the differences

between needs based community development and asset based community development. I know

that my paper is emotionally charged and very personal. For this reason, instead of completely

dismantling the need for missions and community volunteers, I am specifically focusing on

redefining what it means to provide Christian aid and offer solutions to the complex

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neighborhood and cultural barriers that separate the beneficiaries of human services and service

providers. I want to transform the mindset I’ve observed in that the many volunteers I have

worked with form “I” “them” to “I” “thou.” This will include expanding national service,

promoting inclusiveness and identifying strategic service opportunities for those who wish to

volunteer.

The Tension:

Volunteerism is embedded into the work of most social movements. When the greater

public moves from their dark ignorance into the light of truth regarding many instances of

inequality, those from the privileged class take to volunteer work to help. Because of this

volunteerism itself has become an institution.

The American Church is also an institution and for many an obligation that goes hand in

hand with volunteer work. As stated in the literature review, identifying with faith is a strong

predictor of whether or not person will volunteer their time and money to help those in need. The

Gospel of Luke is known as the Gospel for the poor. It is here that Jesus teaches his disciples

about the poor and how they ought to responsibly use their wealth to reach and serve the poor.

Scripture was written for first century society but the message of serving the poor translates into

the 21st century. It is here that many churches establish their rationale for both local and

international missions, it is where they find their hearts to volunteer. This is a theology of

volunteering, (Hustinx, 23, 2014).

The negative side of the American Church and volunteer work is that many miss the

point of Jesus’ ministry. In the Gospel of Luke, he is asking his followers to humble themselves

and serve among the poor at their level, but most Americans feel they can serve the poor from

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their positions of power using their wealth to cover basic needs. Bill Moyer in his Movement

Action Plan describes the 8 stages of social movements and the parties involved. Bill Moyer

writes about two types of power: power elite and power people, (Moyer, 1987). The service work

of Christian volunteerism is founded on the power of the elite. It is as if it is their duty to save the

poor because they have the material resources to do so. Later in this paper when I offer solutions

to the dichotomy of when helping hurts by calling for a shift in power from the elite to the

people.

Bill Moyer says that the United States has a large number of power elites who drive

policy and the economy for example. Furthermore, the power elite through the media tell the

masses what to care about and when and how to care about things. Moyer also says that social

movements that are successful are driven by the power people, not the power elite, (Moyer

1987). The people are driving what needs to be talked about, advocated for and changed. Beliefs,

values and motivations are shifted from those in power to the average majority. Right now many

in the U.S. are just beginning to see how the privileged American Church is violating what it

means to live in community and in solidarity with those who are lacking a voice as they are

determined to aid the other through their short term volunteer projects. The elite still hold the

power over which social causes deserve attention and volunteers. However, many are beginning

to distrust these normal times and the Church.

The goal of volunteerism is to change the world, right? If you look at the mission

statements of many volunteer based nonprofits you’ll see words and phrases like, “bringing

together individuals to make an impact.” Volunteers freely offer their time, energy, skills and

sometimes money to a cause that will benefit others, who many times they have no direct

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relation to, (Hustnix, 24, 2014). To put it simply, the goal is to provide services that benefit

others.

Secondarily, volunteering results in some benefit for those who serve and this is where its

downfall can be found. Those who volunteer seek to find something greater than themselves.

They may be building skills, exploring a new career, building relationships or seeking personal

growth. We can see that both the primary goal of benefiting others and the secondary goal of

personal growth volunteer work provides does in fact leave an impact, (Dávila and Díaz-

Morales, 2009). The question that remains is who is more immediately and dramatically

impacted, the volunteer or the client?

Volunteerism’s downfall is that those who volunteer most often do so from a place of

privilege and so they are the ones who end up going home immediately feeling positively

transformed. It’s simply because they get to go home, they get to walk away from the low-

income community at the end of the day and go back to their comfort. Those they have served,

while they may have had an immediate need such as food or clothes met, will still find

themselves in a place of being the other and vulnerable when the day is done. A one-day

volunteer trip to the food bank isn’t going to reverse poverty. The cultural and economic barriers

that separate communities remain and that is where the true crisis of opportunity lies.

Opportunities for Change:

Short term volunteer work therefore follows a model of needs-based community

development. Mathie and Cunningham (2003) describe need-based development as, “well

intentioned efforts of universities, donor agencies, and governments [that] have…identified

solutions to meet those needs. In the process, however, they have inadvertently presented a one-

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sided negative view, which has often compromised, rather than contributed to, community

capacity building.” In other words, it’s a very external approach to serving communities and

often treats those being served as incapable of helping themselves at all. It leaves the client out of

the conversation.

Asset-based community development in contrast recognizes the skills, strengths,

identities and capabilities of the local people and how they fit into the story of building their

communities, (Mathie and Cunningham, 2003). Most often asset-based development focuses on

relationship building, and leveraging what a community already has going for it with what

external agencies might bring in such as volunteers, funding and other mobilization activities.

We then see that the “I” “them” relationship is shifted to a “we” relationship through asset-based

community development. It is capacity building. The local community becomes empowered and

mobilized to make changes while the external partners are able to have a wider perspective of

what it means to be in community.

Some of the greatest capacity builders that exist in the United States right now are the

hundreds of thousands of Americans who have served or currently serve in one of the many

National Service programs we have federally. This paper calls for an expansion of AmeriCorps

both in monetary funding but more importantly for enhanced public knowledge and

understanding. AmeriCorps programs have helped grow communities through partnering with

grassroots nonprofits. Since its inception in 1993, over 800,000 people have served at over

15,000 partner organizations, (Ward, 2014).

“AmeriCorps provides an opportunity for Americans to serve their country in a

nonmilitary manner, leverages volunteers in the nonprofit sector in a cost-effective

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way, bridges social classes, cultivates a civic ethic in young people, produces valuable outcomes

in communities, creates positive effects in program participants, and helps develop the next

generation of civic leaders,” (Ward, 2014). Anyone who has served in AmeriCorps will tell you

that it sparks a lifelong commitment to people, their communities and getting things done. It can

be anywhere from a three month to three-year service commitment in which the member lives

and serves within a community, gaining little in return.

AmeriCorps can be the catalyst one needs to find opportunities for change personally as

well as communally. Recently, there has been a push to be more inclusive in the members who

serve; recruitment is changing from the privileged recent college grad who is taking a gap year to

the high school dropout who is serving while they earn their GED. AmeriCorps members build

skills, gain real work experience, find a network of lifelong friends and often times discover

themselves to be at the beginning of a successful public service career when their term of service

ends. The possibilities for success with AmeriCorps are extensive and success for this movement

would be visible if it encourages those who volunteer to commit to more than just one week a

year.

The communities and nonprofits that AmeriCorps members serve with find that even

though it is hard to measure how AmeriCorps service strengthens communities, the evidence

exists, (Thompson & Perry, 1998). The biggest success of the program is that it encourages

community collaboration. Isn’t this in essence, the goal of asset-based community development?

This is what effective volunteerism should do, it should encourage partnerships and promote

teamwork. AmeriCorps members humble themselves to serve those who can most often never

repay them. AmeriCorps does what I think Bill Moyer would say is a power transfer from the

elite to the people. The program brings together clients, government leaders, nonprofit

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organizations and volunteers to build bridges, find common ground and provide opportunities for

growth that many at-risk communities can’t experience because of barriers that restrict access to

many things privileged Americans take for granted such as grocery stores, summer camps and

homeownership.

Furthermore, organizations that host AmeriCorps found that their members made a large

difference for their organization. We may not see that poverty has been eradicated for an entire

state, district or even neighborhood but for one group of clients that were served by an

AmeriCorps member over a year, you can be sure their needs were assessed and acted upon

(Thompson & Perry, 1998). It has been said that we can’t change the whole world, but we can

change one person’s world. That is true impact.

The Obama Administration recognizes the huge impact that National Service has

had in communities across the country since it was enacted by Bill Clinton in 1993. In 2013,

President Obama released a memorandum that called to expand service programs. This is a

tangible step forward in the growth of strategic volunteer opportunities and also the creation of

measures that will promote the longevity of AmeriCorps. One of the goals of the memorandum is

for the National Service task force to help facilitate service partnerships, (Obama, 2013). In

additional to that, President Obama calls for the task force to help program alumni with post-

service job placement. He has encouraged organizations and institutions to employ AmeriCorps

Alums. These are very concrete steps that have been made in order to promote intentional

volunteer work and advocate for asset-based community development.

While not everyone can stop what they are doing in life and serve a year, I believe that

anyone who wants to volunteer can make a greater commitment than just checking a box to

volunteer with their church on a Saturday. People who are motivated to serve because of their

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faith ought to take the time to find one cause that they are extremely passionate about and give

all that they can to that cause. Christians shouldn’t feel obligated to save everyone, their duty is

love everyone they may encounter like a neighbor. Christians need to come down from their

pulpit of trying to save everyone and to really do something big for even just one person.

When you go to an at-risk community, bring more than just food donations and money.

Bring yourself. Take the time to meet the person you are serving, learn their story and be part of

it, instead of writing it for them. I also ask for church volunteer teams to find organizations to

serve with that host AmeriCorps members. Take a moment to meet an AmeriCorps member, find

out who they are, why they serve. Effective volunteerism blends human stories and needs to

foster a human connection and long term impact. Effective volunteer groups know their

limitations and they may commit to serve with one organization and one cause over a period of

time, rather than occasionally serving everywhere and all the causes. To tie this back to the

Gospel, we find Jesus who teaches over and over again how he went to the homes of sinners,

lepers and widows and he just stayed with them. He is the model servant, the model that all

volunteers should aspire to. Remember the simplicity of the Gospel and build a theology of

volunteering that removes individual power and instead leans on community partnerships and

collaborative action.

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References

Borland, K., Adams, A. E., & Borland, K. (2013). International Volunteer Tourism: Critical

Reflections on Good Works in Central America. Palgrave Macmillan.

Dávila, M. C., & Díaz-Morales, J. F. (2009). Age and motives for volunteering: Further

evidence. Europe’s Journal of Psychology EJOP, 5(2).

Hardon, F. A., S.J. (1995). Meaning of Virtue in Thomas Aquinas. Great Catholic Books

Newsletter, II(1). Retrieved April 16, 2016, from

https://www.ewtn.com/library/SPIRIT/MEANVIR.TXT.

Hustinx, L., Essen, J. V., Haers, J., & Mels, S. (2014). Religion and volunteering: Complex,

contested and ambiguous relationships. New York: Springer.

Kass, J. (2013). International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life. Retrieved April 02,

2016, from https://www.brandeis.edu/ethics/ethicalinquiry/2013/May.html

Mathie, A., & Cunningham, G. (2003). From clients to citizens: Asset-based Community

Development as a strategy for community-driven development. Development in Practice,

13(5), 474-486. Retrieved from

https://dspace.library.uvic.ca:8443/bitstream/handle/1828/6800/Mathie_Alison_FromCli

ntsToCitizens_2002.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.

Moyer, B. (1987, Spring). Bill Moyer | The Movement Action Plan. Retrieved April 17, 2016,

from http://historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html.

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Obama, B. (2013, July 15). Presidential Memorandum -- Expanding National Service. Retrieved

April 20, 2016, from https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press

office/2013/07/15/presidential-memorandum-expanding-national-service.

Sandel, M. J. (2009). Justice: What's the right thing to do? New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Stephan, M. (2012, February 8). Christian Elitism. Retrieved April 02, 2016, from

http://biblicalmissiology.org/2012/02/08/christian-elitism/.

Thomson, A. M., & Perry, J. L. (1998). Can AmeriCorps Build Communities? Nonprofit and

Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 27(4), 399-420. doi:10.1177/0899764098274002.

Ward, K. D. (2014). Cultivating public service motivation through AmeriCorps service: A

longitudinal study. Public Administration Review, 74(1), 114-125.

doi:10.1111/puar.12155.