06 Dec Servanthood
As a Generation Link intern of a small church plant, I was
soon asked to assist with the setup of the church prior to the
morning service. Soon after I arrived, it seemed as though a
small army came through the doors soon after I had. Before I had
a chance to even ask what I could do men, women, and children
were rushing around. I was astonished at how efficiently it all
was coming together. I feel as though I spent more time asking
what I could do than actually doing anything. However, in the
short four weeks I have been at the Church of Blue Ridge I have
found my own little projects to do on Sundays which includes
setting up speakers, checking the lyric slides, and filling the
communion cups on those particular Sundays.
Although I grew up in a smaller Southern Baptist church, I
had never seen such a large percentage of the church come
together and work so diligently just to worship on Sunday
morning. Out of the 26 member church, I would say approximately
20 plus people are on rotation to serve within the church.
Seeing this has really affected my heart towards serving the
church.
So often in my past I have seen pastors almost beg their
congregations to serve in the church at some capacity. And more
often than not, it seems that the same 25% of the church does
the children?s ministry, youth ministry, backpack ministry,
praise band, and other miscellaneous ministry opportunities. In
my experience, I have seen this lead to at least two negative
repercussions.
Firstly, this mentality can often lead to a burn out.
Although the intentions of these 25% of the people are good,
they can often work themselves to resenting other members of the
church. Secondly, this leaves the other 75% of the church with a
lack of knowledge of what is going on and with ungrateful
hearts. It is extremely difficult for those who never
participate in the hard work to truly appreciate the work of
others. However, to my knowledge these two problems cannot be
found in the Church at Blue Ridge. To be able to attend an
intern at a church where not only everyone serves but serves
with a happy heart is extremely refreshing. The mentality of
service at this church is the embodiment of Colossians 3:23. In
this verse Paul says, ?Whatever you do, work at it with all your
heart, as working for the LORD, not for human masters? and this
is definitely the mentality at the TCBR. When people poor into
the small building, it is hard to find someone who is not
smiling with other members of the body. When a need arises,
people race to help. Even as one of the pastor?s eight year old
kid makes the coffee, he is as happy as he can be. I believe
this is because these people know they are not doing this for
themselves. This body of believers are not doing work for a
human master but for the Lord.
Jon Ross