Tonya Watkins and her husband Reggie and their Daisha Watkins made volunteering a family affair on early Saturday at the Transform Dallas workday in Hamilton Park. While Reggie has been volunteering for years, and has volunteered with his daughter, Saturday was the first time Tonya volunteered. 

“The Lord blessed me, so I’m going to give back,” said Tonya as Transform Dallas volunteers signed in, got T-Shirts, ate breakfast and waited for their assignments.

Tonya said that in the past, she avoided volunteering because she thought she wasn’t needed. She said she used to think: “Someone else will do it. They don’t need me. I’m not going to be much of help.”

But Saturday was different. “I’m going to try to do the best I can do – whatever else is asked of me,” she said.

Her husband, an employee with Texas Instruments, a Transform Dallas corporate sponsor in Hamilton Park, said that he felt “good, very good” that his wife had joined him.

Reggie said his family has a long history of volunteering. His uncle was a NAACP president in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. “It’s something I’ve always done,” explained Reggie, who was volunteering with Transform Dallas for the first time. “Voter registration drives and stuff like that.”

Serving is trusting. Think about it. When you give your heart, time and resources, you entrust something of yourself to someone else. You place someone's needs above your own, confident that you've made a priceless investment into an individual or a project that benefits people.

The fact that serving involves trust could be one of the reasons many don’t serve or give more often. Or more generously. The lack of trust that what they give isn’t appreciated or the creeping anxiety that their need will go unment can hinder the joy of giving by serving.

And yet Paul encourages Jesus followers not to fall into that trap. He cites his personal experience in Acts:

“You yourselves know that these hands of mine have ministered to my own needs and those of my companions. In everything, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” (Acts 20:34-35, Berean Study Bible)

It’s always worth the investment to reflect the endless generosity of God. There’s no downside. God directs seasons of service, identifies places of service, enables service, and refreshes His servants until the next service assignment. There’s no room for worry for those who reflect His purposes through compassionate service. 

When doubting the value of our service, we can hold onto this promise from Psalm 41:1:

“How blessed is he who considers the helpless; The LORD will deliver him in a day of trouble. The LORD will protect him and keep him alive, and he shall be called blessed upon the earth.” (NASB)

In other words, when you entrust yourself to the service God calls Jesus followers to, you can trust Him to take care of what concerns you. The woman who made room for the prophet Elisha discovered this. She and her husband prepared a place for him from their resources. They established a relationship. When she had a need, the Lord answered her. (Read the story of Elisha and the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4:8-37.)

While none of us should never serve to give or get, we must always remember that when we serve freely, without regret, we walk in the ways of Heaven, not Earth. Heaven runs on a different economy, expectation and return on investment. God's servants keep those differences in mind. Their service is led by the Father, not themselves others.

If God is leading you to take on a serving opportunity for Dallas, please consider joining us on Saturday, April 8 to volunteer at the Transform Dallas Citywide Workday.  Dallas Leadership Foundation, together with Concord Church, Fellowship Church, Friendship West Baptist Church, Highland Park Presbyterian Church, Park Cities Baptist Church, and Prestoncrest Church of Christ have teamed up to demonstrate the love of Christ.

The workday will provide pro bono services such as serving meals to the homeless, renovating elementary schools, assembling and delivering care packages to hospitals, hosting carnivals and block parties for children, assisting formerly incarcerated women, and painting houses for seniors and low-income families. You can register to volunteer at dlftx.org/transform-dallas.org.

Everyone has an opinion about the national health care debate. Whatever your perspective, there may be a silver lining to the contentious political discussion. Healthcare forces all of us to rethink what community actual is in 21st century America. Ultimately, the questions about healthcare can be distilled to who cares for us when we cannot care for ourselves when faced with illness or older years? Questions can drill down even further to the moral role of healthcare companies to the eternal question of who are our neighbors?

A recent article in The Atlantic prompted thoughts about the power of caring for each other and working alongside one another from cradle to grave. The article, "Government Paid for Poor Citizens' Health Care Some 300 Years Before Obamacare," argues that government-subsidized health care can be traced back to British settlers. Here's an excerpt:

"British settlers in North America brought with them the laws of Britain, including measures pertaining to health care. Just a few years before the settling of Jamestown colony in Virginia, Parliament had reorganized a hash of different laws into one big “Elizabethan Poor Law,” which dictated how governments assisted the poor in Britain from 1601 until a major revision in 1832. In British America, the law was adopted by the earliest colonial governments, and government’s involvement in health care was part of the civic fabric—like jury duty and rounding up stray animals. George Washington himself oversaw its provision early in his political career. Starting at age 30, Washington served on the Truro Parish Vestry, a kind of citizen board that assisted the local Church of England parish. As church and state were intertwined in colonial Virginia, this was the body that oversaw tax-supported poor relief, including health care, in that area.

The article also shows how communities can be formidable ecosystems. Don't we all know examples of this? Some communities have a long history of serving others in remarkable ways, often with little money but tons of heart. Other communities are remembered for neglect or intentional segregation by race and class, serving few and ignoring many.

The Bible outlines an expectation for the church of Jesus Christ to serve others, from their homes to the spheres of the world. (See verses on community.) Through the Transform Dallas Citywide Workday, Dallas Leadership Foundation and six core churches are trying to strengthen the understanding of community -- in spite of political, racial, economic, and denominational lines.

We're trying to "be there" as a dependable, community support system for those in need. Transform Dallas doesn't resolve a behemoth national issue like healthcare, but we're taking steps like cleaning debris, writing letters to veterans, painting and repairing houses, and reading to young children to help bridge racial, political and social divisions.

It's only the beginning.

To volunteer for the Transform Dallas workday, please visit dlftx.org/transform-Dallas.

Gentrification looms like an unsightly landmark in cities from Dallas to Austin to Houston and elsewhere in the nation. By either definition or intent, gentrification often triggers a struggle to balance the needs of current residents with the desire of developers, municipalities and corporations.

While new, affluent residents and visitors rave about must-visit restaurants, artsy boutiques, upscale housing and dog parks, many low-income residents who already call the neighborhood home can’t assume they’ll benefit from the burst of growth and amenities.

Current homeowners can anticipate that they may struggle to keep their homes, and renters can brace themselves for the possibility of exploding rents or the demolition of their apartment complexes if developers decide to raze older, existing buildings so they can construct upscale townhouses and condos with features home buyers covet.

Over time, the trendy replacement overshadows remnants of the old neighborhood, which seems quaint with the grittier signs of urban life tamed and painted. It’s a familiar pattern. At Dallas Leadership Foundation, we know from the 11 neighborhoods we serve that gentrification and the issues surrounding the phenomenon is something Dallas-area churches can’t ignore.

State Rep. Eric Johnson (D-Dallas) and Dallas City Council member Scott Griggs last week co-authored an op-ed about House Bill 2480, a bill that addresses gentrification and could help longtime residents in gentrifying areas like West Dallas, one of the city’s hottest areas for redevelopment. Johnson also was featured in an NBC 5 story about the bill, which, if passed, could go into effect in September.  

Fresh, comprehensive ideas are needed as the city’s challenges keep compounding. Earlier this month, D Magazine reported that Dallas ranked among the nation’s worst when it came to offering affordable housing. D Magazine cites a National Low Income Housing Coalition report that says only 19 low-income housing units are available locally for every 100 renters. Exacerbating the problem is that Dallas has one of the highest poverty rates in the nation and is car-dependent in many areas. Transportation expenses add more financial pressure on families who already pay steep housing costs on a tight family budget.

Gentrification and sustained investments in existing neighborhoods for current residents are issues that congregations can’t hope away. Why? Ministry happens first on the streets before it occurs in sanctuaries, and hands-on, let’s-make-it-happen ministry is needed in Dallas’ neighborhoods. For instance, lending a hand to small neighborhood associations painting houses, improving streets and picking up litter can be an incalculable gift to a community. Supporting small congregations that stretch every day to help their neighborhoods benefit enormously from philanthropic-minded people who provide resources small churches can’t access.

That’s why Dallas Leadership Foundation and six core churches launched Transform Dallas, a citywide workday. We believe Christians can lead by serving when they tackle citywide challenges like gentrifying neighborhoods and provide solutions. Our hope is that churches throughout Dallas view these challenges as divine opportunities to demonstrate that Jesus cares about the heavenly destination of human beings as well as living conditions in their neighborhoods here on earth.

To learn more about Transform Dallas and opportunities to volunteer or donate for this event on Saturday, April 8, visit dlftx.org/transformdallas.

Volunteering isn't a must-do ritual because gestures from the heart may be spontaneous or planned, but they're always genuine. Acts of service have to be because they matter so much to people. Authentic service doesn't sound mechanical like "I volunteer on Thursdays," but instead resonates with a passion for serving. Volunteers who get a kick out of what they do may say "I've learned so much from five high school students. I'm supposed to be their mentor and teach them, but they teach me something every time we meet."

Artifice and condescension don't accompany these volunteers. What does is the hope that their service delivers what's needed for the people they serve. Of course there are many reasons to volunteer, but here are five to consider:

1. Volunteering is a form of leadership that supports your neighborhood and the leaders and communities around you.
2. Volunteering can transform someone's life.
3. Volunteering provides an opportunity to give positively to society, not negatively.
4. Volunteering provides a feeling of personal contribution that is focused on seeing others thrive, lead and succeed.
5. Volunteering helps bears the burdens of others -- part of a mutually beneficial cycle where people give and receive help. (Galatians 6:2)

Mother Teresa said this about volunteering: "Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go." And Booker T. Washington once said pointedly about service: "If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else."

During the Transform Dallas Citywide Workday, more than 250 projects will be offered for volunteers to share time with fellow human beings -- the young, the old, the single, the married, the homeowner, the renter, the business owner, the employee, the retiree, the long-time resident or the newly arrived refugee.

Does volunteering at Transform Dallas interest you? We can promise you that whatever the service, volunteering can create relationships and memories you'll never forget.