Eastview Community Church

Of Volunteers, Venues, Visitors, and a Vital Mission

Rick Hiebert - 2008-09-23

Fifty-nine volunteers (right) gave up some beautiful days in August to serve 371 registered guests for The Leadership Summit held at Eastview for the sixth year. This huge undertaking required the transformation of our auditorium into a conference hall complete with a monster sized screen at the North end, a supersized projector and 500 chairs.

The Bookstore (left), complete with 9 tables full of books from Willow Creek Canada, was set up in the Fireside Room. Sunday School rooms were converted to meeting rooms. Kids Cove was converted to a refreshment area along with the main foyer of the church. Food and beverage prep was done in one of the Sunday School rooms to avoid noise finding its way into the auditorium. Our sanctuary became known as Volunteer Central – a place where volunteers could relax when off-duty and catch some of the sessions during the Summit.

We had parking attendants (right), greeters, ushers, people at the information desk, prayer warriors, registration people, an entire facility team, a tech team looking after audio and video, a refreshment team, and a bookstore team. Some were veteran volunteers at the Summit; others were experiencing it for the first time. Most everyone loved the team atmosphere and went the extra mile to serve our guests and make them feel valued.

Our guests were pastors, ministry leaders in the church, leaders from parachurch organizations, and leaders from the community. For some, this was two days to recharge, refocus, for the year ahead. Some may have come wondering about future direction, either for the church or for themselves. Some come feeling inadequate. Some come to pick up that one idea that will make a difference in the life of their organization or ministry. We who served recognized that those who do come will hear something vital to the growth of God’s Kingdom and it was our job to serve in such a way that they would be sure to hear exactly what God wanted them to hear. We felt honoured to be part of a much bigger picture.

Thank-you to all who were part of this experience.