Brethren Volunteer Service presents a personal face to congregations.

By Todd Flory

If for no other purpose, the newly-formed Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) special assignment of visiting churches and pastors proved valuable in placing a personal face on the program. For pastors, deacons, and youth groups in 154 congregations in 8 districts, that personal face belonged to Sam Bowman, who recently completed a year of traveling the country to talk about BVS. Bowman has been serving as a fulltime BVS volunteer.

Two other BVS workers also have been making visits to congregations: Carolyn Gong has visited pastors in the Middle Pennsylvania District over the past several weeks and in Pacific Southwest District earlier in the year, and Monica Rice will visit pastors in northern and southern Ohio in upcoming months.

"The idea was to go to congregations, build bridges, have face-to-face contact, and talk about BVS," Bowman said. "A large number of them (the pastors) thanked me for coming, for being a face, a warm body, instead of a piece of paper that could slide across a table into a trash can," he added. "I wasn't going with a presentation, but to listen."

During the visits, the volunteers' main objective was to ask what pastors knew about BVS, to provide additional information if asked, to listen to what the church leaders like or dislike about BVS, and to receive any suggestions of what they would like to see in BVS. A secondary purpose was to ask pastors their thoughts on the prospect of a military draft, and to find out what support churches will need in the event of a draft.

The volunteers also gave pastors BVS materials and conscientious objection packets from the Brethren Witness/Washington Office. Bowman said many pastors were unaware of the materials on conscientious objection. "An amazing number would say, 'There should be a packet for CO's and how people could register as a CO,'" said Bowman, "and I'd show them the packet and they'd say, 'Oh, this is great!'"

Gong said the pastors she spoke to were very receptive and supportive of BVS, and that each congregation seemed like a family. "Overall, it's been a really positive experience, " she said, describing the pastors as having "a deep love for Christ in what they're doing. That's their life work, their passion." It is that passion that Gong hopes will help push more people into choosing to do volunteer service. "Sometimes people are hesitant to leave home," Gong said. "They go straight from school to the job, but that's our mainstream, our culture. I think any kind of volunteer service is vital to the country."

As diverse as the over 17,000 miles of landscapes through which Bowman drove, the views on service and peace were often just as varied. "I got to see the reality of the diversity" in the Church of the Brethren, he said. He described his congregational visits as a roller-coaster. Often, on the same day, he talked with pastors who had completely differing views on certain issues. "I could see why this person was on the right or the left, and each side had truth to what they said and believed," he commented.

Even on the peace issue, which has been and remains such an integral part of Brethren identity, there emerged varying viewpoints. "All the pastors I talked to have been proponents of peace, and try to incorporate that into their sermons, but some have different views of how to promote peace," Gong said, noting that some pastors said they were pro-peace, but still supported the military, while others viewed the military as an impediment to peace.

Positive aspects of BVS for the pastors included that it is an opportunity to live out one's faith, serve the community and God, and is an avenue for personal growth. A common aspect that many pastors wish to see more of in BVS is evangelism and more project placements for faith and faith-sharing.

A discovery for Bowman was the need for greater communication and connectedness between congregations and the denomination. Some congregations, Bowman said, feel disconnected from the larger church. Many feel not enough is being put back into the congregations, that there needs to be an emphasis placed on the congregation as the strongest part of the denomination rather than an emphasis on certain programs or agencies.

Part of creating a better sense of connectedness, Bowman feels, is sharing stories. "In general, members of the Church of the Brethren aren't doing a good job of telling their faith stories with the congregation or the district," he said. "I'd ask, 'How many former BVSers or conscientious objectors do you have in the church? Do they ever share their stories?'" The pastors would reply, "'No, not really,'" he said.

"We need to be telling and sharing our stories, because that's how things are passed down--how we share what's important," Bowman said. "If one thing can be gleaned from this, it's that our churches want more personal contact with each other, with their leadership, with programs, and I would say with God as well."

--Todd Flory is a Brethren Volunteer Service worker in the BVS office in Elgin, Ill. Previously he served as a legislative associate at the Brethren Witness/Washington Office.

Source: 11/08/2006 Newsline