Mass. congregation serves community as 'Mission: Possible'
Written by Carol Pavlik March 18, 2010
In this year's difficult economy, the leadership at United Church of Christ in Medfield (Mass.) decided it was time to let go of a long standing annual retreat over a winter weekend. Instead, church members opted for spending the better part of a Saturday rolling up their sleeves and helping out closer to home.
Mission: Possible, a day-long event focused on family-friendly ways to participate in mission, started with a brief worship service to kick off the event. With 321 people participating, the entire day centered around helping eight organizations in the greater Boston area.
The Rev. Phil Bauman, senior pastor, was thrilled with the huge outpouring of volunteers for Mission: Possible. "It was very intergenerational," said Bauman, who said participants spanned from age five to 80. "Because several of the work sites were child friendly," he said, "it allowed parents and children to work together."
Rick and Sue Schaub, members of UCC Medfield, spearheaded planning for the event. Once the eight organizations were chosen, including Habitat for Humanity, Cradles to Crayons (a mission for children ages 12 and under), a soup kitchen, Healthcare for the Homeless, the Greater Boston Foodbank, and the Medfield Public Library, the Schaubs focused their energy on making sure the sign up process and participation was easy.
"Everyone likes the 'easy button!' quipped Rick Schaub, who commented that while many people have it in their hearts to get involved, sometimes people don't know how or where to start.
"People really embraced the ease to get involved [with Mission: Possible]," said Schaub. "We told them the date, the time, and gave them a childcare option [for kids younger than 5]."
By dividing the participants into smaller teams, the Schaubs were able to get information out quickly and efficiently via team leaders. "It's a universal truth," smiles Schaub. "All the world's great work gets done in small teams."
Following a light breakfast and wearing t-shirts with "Mission Possible" and the church logo on the front and Mark 12:31 on the back (You shall love your neighbor as yourself), the teams went out into the community and gave of their hearts and their time.
Susan Holbrook, director of Children's Ministries at Medfield, team led two shifts of 50 workers each who volunteered at Cradles to Crayons. "We have and will continue to support many of these ministries financially," she said, "but we didn't want to have any fundraising component to Mission: Possible. For this one day, we focused on the service element."
UCC Medfield felt strongly about adding a civic angle to the day, so the church contacted the town administrator for a suggestion. As it turned out, the Medfield Public Library had been planning a major moving project, one that would've been costly to the library if the laborers were hired. Mission: Possible workers helped move shelves and books to facilitate a re-laying of the children's and teen section of the library at no charge. "The librarian told me, 'We want teens to feel comfortable here as a hangout,' " said Schaub. "We were helping to create a place for teens to hang out after school and on weekends. That turned out to be a pretty big deal."
Schaub also mentioned how fun it was to see parents working beside their children. "So often, we drop our kids off somewhere and go do our own thing," said Schaub. "But parents could do this as a family and show what's giving back is all about. And the kids did great work," he added. "I didn't hear any whining or crying."
At the end of the day, the workers gathered one last time for a group dinner and celebration. Schaub said people were able to share with others about the work they did during the day. Kevin Holbrook, a church member and a tech-savvy junior at Medfield Senior High School, assembled photos taken throughout the day and presented a slide show overlayed with music. "That was a really high energy point of the day," remembers Schaub. "It was a heck of a wrap on how much got done that day."
After all the planning and the energy leading up to Mission: Impossible, Schaub admits to feeling a bit let-down once it was all over. "But it's like [Pastor] Phil told me," he says. "The work is really just beginning. You feel like you've graduated, but you've got lightning in a bottle now."
"We've got a broad group that wants to do more now," says Schaub. "Once you've done this kind of thing, you always feel great in your heart that you took time out to help someone else."
"I am thrilled," says Bauman. "As disciples of Jesus, we need to be out in the world serving. That needs to be a high priority."