What is a team? – Volunteer and community festival in the Reformed Church Community of Menziken-Burg
The Menziken-Burg Reformed Church Community's Christmas card has already stated twice that we are often dealing with a group of people rather than a real team, and that the term "team" is unfortunately used very inflatedly to describe almost all groups and forms of human collaboration. There are big differences between a "group of people" and "a real team". Definition: "A team is a solid group of at least two people who work TOGETHER toward a goal that is known to all team members and that everyone considers desirable."
At the beginning of November 2023, the new pastor Andreas Schindler joined the parish team. He, in turn, not only speaks of a team of employees and the many volunteers. He even speaks of a "core parish" that he would like to build with the parish.
How do you form not just a team, but a core community, a living core community? A literally priceless part of the work of a church community depends on the team of volunteers. This is precisely the point that the many people who leave the church think too little or not at all about: if the church community is weakened too much by the people leaving, a large part of this work, this largely unpaid, voluntary work for young people and the elderly, will have to be taken over by the church. The church's taxes will have to rise to an extent that is currently unmeasurable. The church community naturally wants to prevent this, and this can only be done together!
That is why the Menziken-Burg parish takes appropriate care of the volunteers and tries to appreciate their work. For this reason, the new event to thank the many volunteers, helpers and members of the core Menziken-Burg parish is no longer called the employee brunch, and it no longer takes place in February, but in the future a "helper and parish festival" will be organized in the warmer seasons, where this gratitude and togetherness can be celebrated. So on Friday, June 7, 2024, from 6 p.m., the parish invited people to a festival in the hall and, if the weather was nice, even outside in front of the hall of the parish hall. And indeed, on Friday there were almost 100 members of all age groups at the festival organized by the pastor, with the president and the managing director at the grill and the sexton supervising. The employees and volunteers were allowed to be guests at this event and to accept the thanks, because, as the 2023 Christmas card said: "In the new year, we want to make a difference with you and develop a group of people not just into a real team, but into a "core community in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ." Even Peter thanked his flock by sparing the parish from the rain that had slowly become unbearable this spring almost until the end.
Text: Bruno von Nünlist, Photos: Hanspeter Schüpfer
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