Part of a series ‘Voices of Volunteers from Around Australia’.
Sarah Kuswadi: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and the volunteering that you are involved in?
Jordan Green: The most significant moment in my life occurred when I took Jesus seriously in high school. The second was marrying Damaris three and a half years ago. We live in Launceston, Tasmania where I work as a secondary school physics and science teacher.
I love working as a teacher. Not only do I get to show and speak about Jesus, day in and out, to future generations, but I also get regular holidays where I can be a part of volunteer camping ministries.
My volunteering has looked different over the last ten years. While studying at university in Hobart I was involved in a lot of Christian organisations. These included my church, a youth group, my local AFES group and Anglican Camping Tasmania (ACT).
Currently, ACT is my main volunteer ministry, second only to church. I have been serving on its governing body for nearly seven years and directing camps for a range of high school ages for over eight years. It is a ministry with a high turnover rate, so my focus for the last two years has been on establishing and mentoring new directors and instilling a culture which is Christ-centred, mission-minded and Bible-based.
Why did you get involved in volunteering in this way and what have you found encouraging from volunteering here?
I started volunteering in youth group and camps because I believe in the old-school ministry philosophy: “if there is a gap, fill it.” It initially involved being a junior leader on an ACT camp; a month later that turned into an invitation to lead a weekly youth group too.
I have become convinced that camp and youth group leading is where it’s at. Kids and teenagers are the future. They will be the church in ten years’ time. They need us to disciple them because they’re already getting discipled, just by poor influences.
I get deeply encouraged as I watch God keep saving people through his gospel. We need to keep joining in God’s work. Year in, year out. It is deeply edifying to be a part of.
What is your background and what is something that’s unusual about that?
I have worked as a men’s gymnastics coach for ten years. Before I started I was an introvert. This job taught me how to be a learned extrovert. Learning how to teach in the sports context, talk to parents and be responsible for others from an early age taught me essential skills I use regularly in camping ministry.
My hope is to show a variety of ways Christians volunteer around Australia. What would you want to share with others about how volunteering has changed your life?
God used volunteering in a modelling and teaching capacity to grow me as a Christian. I was well discipled in the Bible at home, but God used leading on camps and youth groups to turn my head knowledge about him into heart love for him. Having the chance to share Jesus with someone meant I had to figure out the pieces of the gospel for myself. I found an amazement for what God had done. While this was something I’d known about before, it became something I truly believed and lived out.
Can you tell us about some things that you have learnt recently in your volunteering role?
From leading leaders and volunteering in a variety of roles, a few things stand out:
- Modelling is essential. Some ministries I have been involved in did not do any modelling. They trained but didn’t model. I have learnt that this practice misses the mark. Walking the journey, clearly modelling the ministry, is where it’s at.
- Be organised when you lead volunteers. Don’t make them sacrifice any more than they already are. Try not to ever waste their time and don’t be the reason they get jaded with serving God. Aim to make volunteering as much of a joy as it can be.
- Keep showing your volunteers the gospel vision. Keep reminding them why your ministry exists, why we keep banging on about Jesus!
Is there a Bible verse that you often come back to for encouragement?
There are two Bible verses that keep driving me in volunteering. The first is 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 in particular verses 9 to 12:
Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
Reading Paul’s example of life and gospel modelling has been an absolute inspiration for how Christian ministry should be caught and taught.
The second is Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 to 8:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus gave himself for me. His whole self. This keeps inspiring me when I’m tired or happen to get hurt in ministry.
