Great Ways to Help Your Church Without Spending a Dime

March 4, 2007 By Matthew Paulson

As I write this, it’s Sunday morning and I’ll be headed off to my local church in just about an hour. I’ll meet my fiancé there, we’ll sit and listen to the service, and probably go out to eat afterwards. Sadly, this is about all a lot of Christians do in church. They attend Church on Sunday, but that’s about it. The fact is that your local Church needs a lot of support. Sunday services, Wednesday night activities, and everything else the church does just doesn’t magically happen. They need your help to keep the church alive and going.

Financial support for one’s local church is definitely a good thing, however a lot of people just don’t have the resources to give a serious amount of money to the local church. Fortunately you can give your time and energy to the church instead, here are some great ways to help out your local church without giving a dime.

Work in the Nursery – A lot of churches offer nursery services to take care of small children while church services go on, but the people who actually do the nursery are usually a small group of people that don’t get a break very often. Consider volunteering once a month to work in the nursery and take care of the children.,

Lead a Bible Study – If you’re mature in your spiritual walk and have the heart of a teacher, consider leading a bible study for your local church. Tell the pastor or priest that you’re interested, and the next time a round of bible studies begin, they’ll think of you when they’re looking for someone to lead.

Volunteer to Clean the Church – Taking care of church facilities can be a very costly affair. There’s the cost of landscaping, maintenance, upkeep, cleaning, and the like. A great way for someone with the heart of a servant to help the church is to volunteer to vacuum, dust, or perform some other cleaning activity each week. Usually the church has to pay someone to clean it every week, and that’s not an inexpensive affair.

Provide Food for Church Activities – Usually the local church has some sort of Wednesday night activities. Ours currently is doing an adult study on the For Men Only and For Women Only books, as well as having youth activities on Wednesday night. A lot of churches provide food or snacks for this activity. Consider offering to provide food for Wednesday night activities to ease the burden on the other volunteers.

Help out in Fundraising Drives – When the local church is looking at building a new facility, creating an addition or supporting some charitable activity, quite often it will have fundraising activities in addition to the weekly collection basket. These committees always need some hard working people to help do the leg work to setup fundraising activities, consider helping out there.

Work on Leadership – If you’re someone who’s been in the local church for more than a decade, don’t be hesitant to become part of the church’s leadership council. At most churches you would have to be nominated, and if you are, don’t be afraid to serve the church.

Help out during Services / Mass – During Sunday services, there’s a lot of people who help out. There are people who greet others at the door, hand out bulletins, pass the collection basket, play music, run the sound system, and do the power point if your church has one of them. It takes a lot of volunteers to make a service like this happen. Consider putting yourself in a niche that will best make use of your spiritual gifts during the Sunday services.

Don’t feel limited to these ways to help out your church, these are just a few good ways to provide support to your church without spending any money. Ask your pastor where they need help the most and consider focusing your energies there. Just remember that church doesn’t happen by it self, it needs the support of its membership through donations and sweat equity.

Posted in Christianity, charity