Do I "have" to volunteer at church/organizations?

[westcoast]

I have discovered that I am definitely an introverted person. My job, however, requires me to be an extrovert, so on my days off, I like to enjoy time by myself and revert back to my comfort zone. I do have a lot of time off, too. So: with all of my time off, I feel like I should be serving God in some way, but does it have to be with an organization or among a lot of people? It just takes so much energy for me to socialize all the time, but I feel like God wants me to do something productive for Him with my time. Is it okay to “volunteer” my time by simply saying the Rosary or praying for others instead of actually having to join groups/organizations? I feel like a cop-out (if I chose this route) because in the Bible, Jesus and his disciples are always working among people. But I know, too, that lots of hermits and cloistered nuns (I am neither) devote their whole life to prayer. I just want to make sure I’m not just using my personality as an excuse to get out of devoting my time to service.

 

[chicago]

I think that a lot of the more active type personalities who “do” a lot of stuff in the Church would like to make everyone think that you must be as outgoing and involved as them. But it ain’t necessarily so. Generally, these are just dominantly omnipresent people because of all their activity. As someone once put it, “You are the ones who would show up to help out if it was announced at the end of Mass that there will be a flood tomorrow night in the Church basement.” Really, not only is it funny, but true, and they’d make an entire event of the occurance, too. But that prevalent mentality tend to either overwhelm or turn off those who just aren’t up to it as are they.

Bloom where you’re planted. While it might not hurt to try extending yourself to see if perhaps you can be of help in some form of more active assistance, should that simply not be what suits you, then don’t worry about it. There are plenty of other ways in which one can help his neighbor. And if you’re miserable being involved with something that isn’t a fit, you won’t be of much real help, ultimately. Instead, find what works for you and give that a go - whatever it might be.

 

[m134e5]

I have discovered that I am definitely an introverted person. My job, however, requires me to be an extrovert, so on my days off, I like to enjoy time by myself and revert back to my comfort zone. I do have a lot of time off, too. So: with all of my time off, I feel like I should be serving God in some way, but does it have to be with an organization or among a lot of people? It just takes so much energy for me to socialize all the time, but I feel like God wants me to do something productive for Him with my time. Is it okay to “volunteer” my time by simply saying the Rosary or praying for others instead of actually having to join groups/organizations? I feel like a cop-out (if I chose this route) because in the Bible, Jesus and his disciples are always working among people. But I know, too, that lots of hermits and cloistered nuns (I am neither) devote their whole life to prayer. I just want to make sure I’m not just using my personality as an excuse to get out of devoting my time to service.

You do not “have” to be involved in church organizations, but it is good to get out of your comfort zone in church too (alone time is fine though- just remember that most are not called to be hermits). Sometimes introverted people have the most meaningful comments in discussions. You don’t always have to have something to say, or be in a leadership role. You don’t always have to do everything there is to do, but it is good to get involved in church organizations.

 

[rstegeman]

I’m an introvert myself and had it not been for my girlfriend, I probably would be hesitant to get involved as well. But I have found that it is rewarding and a great way to get to know your parish family, which is important. I also have to say that I’m lucky to be in a parish where the people are generally warm and friendly to begin with. I have been to others where you have to be part of the “in” crowd to be involved.

Look for other ways to get involved that don’t require you to be overly social: event/church cleaning, being a server, extraordinary Eucharistic minister, etc.

But believe me, I know what you mean about how much energy it takes out of you to be social. I am very much the same way.

 

[gmarie21]

If you have an Adoration Chaple, why not become a permanent adorer for a few hours each week. If your chapel is like mine, the coordinators probably have too many hours they take each week because no one else will sign up for those hours. See if you can take those hours and serve your parish and God that way.

 

[chevalier]

I feel for you, Westcoast. I just can’t get along with some groups. As a rule, the more modern it is, the worse it gets, while I can’t put up with an artificially reactionary atmosphere (like pretending we still live in the 19th century), so I can only really get along with reasonable people who don’t flip out much and are more or less natural and well-behaved unless their quirks are actually funny.

Nothing or no one says you have to do something in groups all the time. If you’re introverted, group effort may be some kind of sacrifice on your part, gaining additional value, but there’s nothing wrong with saying a rosary instead. You can’t personally feed or clothe every single person in your country, nor can you fix every single screw or bolt on the church property.

Note that there are people who would much rather to charity work or any work for the Church for that matter, if that were to “buy out” prayer time because they don’t feel contemplative for anything in the world throughout most of their time. Different personalities are there and everyone has some kind of role. Different gifts but one Spirit.

This is not to say it isn’t great that you try and overcome your inhibitions and work with people despite the difficulties of your personality type. I wish I had the determination - myself I should do more in that regard.

By the way, even we introverts need to socialise with people from time to time to maintain sanity, to have some friends, got to find the wife or husband somewhere too if one’s called that way. Charity work is a good place to get to know like-minded Catholics. At some point later in life, like a couple of years later, you might regret you hadn’t been involved, so it might be a good idea to keep up some involvement but make sure it doesn’t tax you too much.

 

[Anne1964]

As a fellow introvert I can empathize. I joined our altar guild. There are 20 people in the group, but only three of us at a time meet at the church to clean it.

I always choose an afternoon time slot and it’s really nice. We are usually the only three people in the church and I often go early so I can pray.

I also fill in sometimes for people who can’t make their hour of adoration.