Rejoice with me! At St. Peter Lutheran in Arlington Heights, Illinois, we’re rejoicing in our recent Service Enterprise certification. See details here.

We’re the first congregation in Illinois, and perhaps the nation, to successfully complete the year-long certification process. Although that status, and the certification itself, is a feather in our caps, it’s certainly not an achievement that’s much known or understood. The certification wasn’t our primary goal.

We did this to take ourselves through a rigorous examination of all aspects of our church that affect volunteerism, led by an organization, Points of Light, using in-depth data on the characteristics of organizations that engage volunteers effectively. We then worked to improve in areas where we were weak. Volunteers are involved in all aspects of ministry at St. Peter and the more effective we are at engaging volunteers, the more effective we aim to be in achieving our mission of leading people to a full life in Christ.

I’m grateful to our Service Enterprise team, Julie Klopke and Ellie Bach of our staff, volunteer Kathy Relias, and lead pastor Micah Greiner, for their hard work. I’m also thankful for our entire staff and their commitment to value, engage and support our volunteers. And of course I’m grateful to our volunteers. We couldn’t do it without you!