“I want to make a difference!” This is why many of us volunteer. It’s a good reason and it applies to all the serving we do, in our homes and work places as well as our communities and churches. Serving is meant to help others, to make a positive difference. So it’s wise to consider the impact our time and energy is making on the lives of others.

God is interested in impact, too. In John 15, He calls it ‘bearing fruit’ and emphasizes it is a natural and expected result of our connection to Him. In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), He praises the servants who put to use and gained more from what they had been given, and He condemned the one who had simply kept safe and returned what He’d been given. 

If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. John 15:15

It will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them.
To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,
each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. . . .After a long time the master
of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.  Matthew 25:14-15, 19

Sometimes our impact is clear. We can see concrete results; or people tell us how we made a difference. Other times, impact is difficult to discern and measure. 

Recognizing two distinctions increases the odds of increased impact. These are the distinction between relational and more superficial serving, and the distinction between emergency and long-term needs. 

Relational vs. Superficial Serving

A volunteer tutor has more impact on a child than the person donating school supplies. A long-term friend has more impact on someone experiencing homelessness or domestic violence than the volunteer serving Thanksgiving dinner or donating clothing to a shelter. Donating clothes and school supplies is certainly good and worthwhile, but its impact is short term. Being a tutor or friend builds a relationship, and relationships are transformative. 

Relationships are transformative

A Jan. 28, 2026, opinion piece in the New York Times referenced a recent study showing the transformative power of relationships. In the 1990s, billions were spent replacing high-poverty public housing, including the infamous Cabrini-Green apartments in Chicago, with mixed-income housing as a way to address generational poverty. The study found that the new housing did not help adults economically. However, the children of these same adults were affected, and greatly so. They were more likely to attend college and less likely to be incarcerated. Among children born after their parents moved to mixed-income housing, their lifetime income was predicted to be 50% more than if their parents hadn’t moved. Most strikingly, the researchers concluded “gains for children were driven by stronger social connections with higher-income neighbors” and “we can increase economic mobility by better connecting low-opportunity areas.” Friends make a difference. Relationships are transformative.

Relational serving is crucial not just among the materially-poor. People can have many material possessions but still have few strong relationships. More adults live alone, family ties are looser and more distant. Loneliness is described as an epidemic and is recognized as ia major risk factor in physical and mental health issues. Our technology provides us with virtual relationships, but these do not have the benefits of “real life” relationships. 

In any and all serving, people matter more than tasks

All of this means relational serving is crucially important. But serving that builds relationships is more challenging and more time consuming than more superficial serving. Every friendship has its ups and downs, but when that friend is experiencing current or past trauma or generational poverty, the challenge increases. We need to go into relational serving with our eyes open, with realistic expectations and awareness of our own capacity and limitations. Most of us do best with relational serving when we are realistic it about our capacity, and when we approach it with the support of those with more training and experience. Organizations like youth scouting, Kids Hope USA, and Safe Families for Children do a great job supporting volunteers who are building long term relationships with those they serve.

In any and all serving, people matter more than tasks, and relationships outweigh ‘stuff.’ When we keep this in mind in all our serving, especially in our families, we’re increasing our impact.

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12

A worksheet linked at the end of this article helps us consider relational impact. For now, keeping in mind that serving includes all you do for others (family, employment, school, community, church), consider:
– Where are you already serving relationally?
– Who can you go to for support when relational serving gets challenging? 
– Who around you is or might be lonely and how can you serve them?

Emergency Help vs. Developmental Help

When someone experiences a crisis – a house fire, sudden job loss, health crisis– we can serve them by offering shelter, food, money. When we want to help those experiencing long term material poverty, our natural inclination is to offer the same things. Shelter, food and money are definitely needed, but if that’s the primary or only way people are serving them, it can create dependency. It also increases the shame and powerlessness felt by most people who feel impoverished. Both result in an impact more negative than positive.

“Is this a short-term or long-term need?”

Helping those in long-term material poverty is a complex subject. Those of us who’ve always lived in the economic middle class do not naturally understand the culture, unspoken rules, and the hard realities of those who’ve only experienced material poverty. But if we care about making an impact, it’s well worth time and effort to grow in our understanding. 

Simply asking ourselves, “Is this a short-term or long-term need?” is a great first step. It is also valuable to work with reputable organizations with a track record of understanding generational poverty. I recommend The Chalmers Center for helping us within and beyond churches realize that our well-intentioned serving sometimes does more harm than good. Their video “A Different Approach to Poverty” (scroll down the page linked here) explains their wholistic approach to poverty alleviation. Recognizing that sin has caused us all to be broken, whether we’re well off materially or not, is foundational and an important truth to relational serving and growing our impact.

As you think about serving to meet emergency vs. long-term needs:
– Where have your served helping people with immediate needs?
– Where have you served helping people with long-term needs? Has that serving included relational opportunities? 
– To see the bigger picture of poverty alleviation, watch this Chalmers video, “How Do the Materially Poor See Poverty?” 

Considering Our Impact

Measuring impact is worthwhile. It helps us invest where it matters most–getting the most bang for the bucks of our time and talent. Even many agencies involving volunteers are starting to measure the work of their volunteers not by counting hours but by measuring impact.

Impact is not always immediate

But we also realize the limitations of our impact. Other factors play into the impact of our efforts, including the choices and actions of the individuals we serve. Again, this is easy to see as we serve our families–building a strong marriage, raising independent children, assisting aging parents. At work, our impact on the company as a whole is more limited than our impact on our immediate colleagues and our own effort. Our personal impact may be limited. But it still matters.

We also realize impact is not always immediate. IWhen I was about 10, my grandmother responded to one of my letters with the comment, “You’re a good writer.” Her comment not only made my day, it came back to my mind many times over the years. We too can be making impact we’re not aware of, or that only bears fruit at a future point.  

As you look for your impact on the lives of those you serve, look for little steps of growth as well as major accomplishments. Impact often comes through in ‘stories’ rather than numbers. And celebrate them! Celebrating small victories with those we serve is a great way to serve them, while we’re also quietly celebrating our own contribution to their growth.  

Ultimate Impact 

High impact serving is great, but a healthy balance between higher and lower impact serving takes into account that relational serving can take a lot out of us. In seasons of life when family and other commitments are high, we may rightly choose other serving that is easier on us.  

God makes the ultimate impact of transforming lives.

Be careful not to overdo an emphasis on impact. It can lead to frustration and even feelings of uselessness. “A Leaf by Niggle,” a short story by J.R.R. Tolkien, helps me keep a healthy perspective. In the story, an artist named Niggle is working on his grand masterpiece, a painting of a great tree in a vast forest. Due to many interruptions, including a neighbor who needs much help, he has only completed one leaf of the tree when he is compelled to take a journey he didn’t want to take. But the journey leads him to a far away country where he is surprised to find his masterpiece, the tree and the forest, in reality, greater and more true and beautiful than his incomplete and limited efforts could create. 

I hear Tolkien reminding us that all our work here on earth is imperfect and incomplete. Our ultimate impact–the fruit we bear–is only fully seen by the One who created us, our heavenly Father. He, the One who gave us our gifts and calls us to serve, makes the ultimate impact of transforming lives. He transforms our life as well as the lives of those we serve. And He does it through His grace, grace that covers our failures, our poor decisions, our inadequacy. All we do is in His hands, and He can and does turn it to good. 

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 1 Cor. 3:6

Considering your own impact,
– Where do you see you’ve made an impact? 
– Where do you feel unsuccessful at making an impact?
– Where do you need God’s grace?

---

 – Worksheet: More Impactful Everyday Serving

Share your thoughts on this topic by commenting below or by contacting Karen. Let’s keep the conversation going

Also in this series:
– More Intentional (&Less Crazy) Everyday Serving
Worksheet, More Intentional Everyday Serving
– More Joyful (and Less Dreary) Everyday Serving
Worksheet, More Joyful Everyday Serving
– More Faith-Full (and Less Disjointed) Everyday Serving
Worksheet, More Faith-Full Everyday Serving
– “More Serving? Or Better Serving?”
Worksheet: A Look at My Serving

Related Resources
– Why Look at Serving? 
– How relational is your serving
– Hungry for relationships
– Chalmers Center
– When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
– Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (and How to Reverse It) by R. Lupton
–Why Look at Serving?