Who am I Working For?

1 Cor 12:5

There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.

My grandfather once ran a garage.  He could fix most everything, but he had a love for working on Big Indian Motorcycles.  If his shop only serviced Big Indians, he would have been rather hungry (there were never more than 5 in that section of Maine) and a lot of people wouldn’t get anywhere with all the other broken down vehicles.  Today, I’m in awe watching the mechanics working in their specialty area on one car.  There is someone working on the transmission, another tuning the engine and yet another repairing and balancing the tires.  “Bob” owns the shop and has sent each of the mechanics for training in their specific area.  “Bob” might not even be able to fix his own car.  But he knows who knows what to work on and makes sure they have the tools and time to complete the individual tasks.

I attended a church that had a sizable staff, more than enough to handle the demands of maintaining and growing the church.  Someone appeared that had a specific talent that could be utilized on the team.  One of the existing members took the inclusion of the new person as a threat to their position within the staff and fought against the ability for the new person to grow and perform.  Neither of these persons are still with the church, and I feel that the temporary loss impaired the growth.

I attended a church where the Pastor was responsible for everything.  It was a small church, but still between congregational care, weekday bible study, message creation/delivery and worship music delivery, he was getting tired.  Someone appeared in service and it was discovered that he had a talent for music and a gift of leading.  The pastor found a way to work the person into the service, giving the congregation someone else to worship with and the pastor a small chance for respite.  The members of the congregation grew closer to each and closer to God as a result of the sharing in ministries.

Our current church has a small team that services the church.  There is a danger that as we grow, the collection of people will burn out trying to do all things for all people.  We need to specialize in our service in what we are most suited for, depending on others to pick up the slack and complete the total mission.