In the true spirit of the season, I'm inspired to depart from the usual Dream Jobs track. This is a good time to take a break from Web design, server software, and product management. Which brings me to Glide.
Glide Memorial United Methodist Church likes to call itself a family, and its wild assortment of brothers and sisters welcomes all God's children. There are old ladies in hats, transvestites in turbans, and little girls in pink dresses with tightly braided hair. Homeless Irish vets sit next to teenagers with dreadlocks; immigrant families from Vietnam share pews with prostitutes and poets.
To be at Glide on a Sunday morning is to witness some serious glory. The gospel choir, in multicolored robes, sways and wails; the congregation rises, shouts, and claps. The Reverend Cecil Williams, a fiery African-American activist with a salt-and-pepper beard, thunders, pleads, and lifts up his hands as he spreads the good word.
The Tenderloin, where Glide's huge old church is located, is a tough neighborhood, and Glide has long ministered to its toughest - prostitutes, addicts, runaways, and thieves - with absolute respect and tireless, no-nonsense help. Reverend Williams mixes his calls for social justice with humor, but he doesn't let anyone condescend to his flock or forget that even the most serious of transgressors will make it to the Kingdom.
Glide is what you might call a full-service church. For starters, every day of the year, volunteers serve three free hot meals to 3,500 people. Then there are workshops in literacy, art, and poetry, as well as day care, needle exchange, basketball for homeless teenagers, mentors for schoolkids, legal advice, care for people with HIV and AIDS, substance-abuse recovery programs, free clothes, emergency help for battered women, and computer classes, to name a few services.
It takes a lot of family to keep the whole show going - more than 1,000 people volunteer at Glide each year. "Of course, you don't have to be a member of the congregation to work here," says volunteer coordinator Faye Campbell emphatically. She laughs, "You don't even have to be a Christian. Our Jewish and Buddhist friends cover for us so we can go to services."
Faye says Christmas is the busiest day for volunteers; it's so popular that you have to sign up ahead of time for the privilege of a one-hour shift serving dinner. "I had this guy come back and beg to work Christmas," says Faye, "because he'd worked for us on Thanksgiving. I asked him what he did that was so great, and he said, 'I carried trays of turkey, I cleaned up spills - it was the best day I ever had in my life.'"
So if the spirit moves you this season, try a little time in the Tenderloin. It's a great short-term alternative to spending the holidays with your parents - and you just may find yourself getting hooked.
Volunteers for Christmas Day can sign up for one hour or make a pledge to serve meals weekly. Other ongoing programs require a three-month commitment. Call the volunteer office at +1 (415) 771 4014.
This article appeared originally in HotWired.
