Servants Not Spectators
April 10th, 2008
(By John MacArthur)
I have often spoken out against all the pragmatic and “seeker-sensitive” approaches to contemporary worship because they tend to diminish the proper place of preaching and replace it with quasi-spiritual forms of sheer entertainment (music, comedy, drama, and whatnot). Any trend that threatens the centrality of God’s Word in our corporate worship is a dangerous trend.
But one of the most disturbing side effects of the seeker-sensitive fad is something I haven’t said as much about: When one of the main aims of a ministry philosophy is to keep people entertained, church members inevitably become mere spectators. The architects of the modern megachurches admit that they have deliberately redesigned the worship service in order to make as few demands as possible on the person in the pew. After all, they don’t want the “unchurched” to be intimidated by appeals for personal involvement in ministry. That’s the very opposite of “seeker sensitivity.”
Such thinking is spiritually deadly. Christianity is not a spectator sport. Practically the worst thing any churchgoer can do is be a hearer but not a doer (James 1:22-25). Christ himself pronounced doom on religious people who want to be mere bystanders (Matthew 7:26-27).
Something is seriously wrong in a church where the staff does all the “ministry” and people are made to feel comfortable as mere observers. One of the pastor’s main duties is to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:12). Every believer is called to be a minister of some sort, with each of us using the unique gifts given us by God for the edification of the whole church (Rom. 12:6-8).
That’s why Scripture portrays the church as a body—an organism with many organs (1 Corinthians 12:14), where each member has a unique role (vv. 15-25), and all contribute something important to the life of the body. “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it” (v. 26).
I can’t read that verse without thinking of Dizzy Dean. He was a Hall-of-Fame baseball pitcher, whose career peaked in the 1930s. His 1934 season has never been excelled by any pitcher in history. Dean won thirty games that year, a feat that hasn’t been repeated since (though Dizzy himself came close, winning 28 games the following year). But in the 1937 All-Star game, he took a hard line drive off his toe, and the toe was broken. It should not have been a career-ending injury, but Dean was rushed back into the lineup before the fracture was completely healed, and he pitched several games favoring the sore toe. That led to an unnatural delivery that seriously injured his pitching arm. The arm never fully recovered. Dizzy Dean’s major-league career was essentially over in four years.
Something similar happens in any church where there are non-functioning members. The active members of the body become overextended, and the effectiveness of the whole body suffers greatly. Even the most insignificant member, like a toe, is designed to play a vital role.
That truth has been one of the main foundations of my approach to ministry for many years. When I first became pastor of Grace Community Church in 1969, I taught a series on Ephesians, and we spent a great deal of time studying the principle of Ephesians 4:11—that the pastor’s duty is to equip the saints, and it is their duty to shoulder the work of the ministry.
Our people quickly embraced that simple idea, and it transformed our church in a remarkable way. For one thing, we began to see dramatic growth. Within a matter of months, attendance on Sundays had ballooned to almost 1,000. About that same time, a well-known evangelical magazine asked a reporter to write an article about the growth of our church. He visited our services for several weeks, carefully observed how the ministry functioned, interviewed scores of people, and then wrote an article titled “The Church with 900 Ministers.”
That title perfectly summarized what has made Grace Church unique for all these years. Nowadays we have several thousand ministers, but the principle is still the same. Everyone is expected and encouraged to be involved in active ministry. Almost no one in our church would ever view ministry as the exclusive domain of professional clergy. If you want to be comfortable as a mere spectator, Grace Church is not the church for you.
I am not making a case for egalitarianism. Much less would I argue against the need for full-time vocational pastors who devote their whole lives to prayer, the study of the Word of God, and the training and equipping of the saints (cf. Acts 6:4; 1 Timothy 4:14-15; 5:17). The church needs leaders, and God has specifically called men to leadership and set them in places of authority in the church (cf. Hebrews 13:7, 17).
But the New Testament pattern is clear and inescapable: Every Christian is gifted and called to ministry. The spiritual gifts we are given are not for our own sake, but for the benefit of the whole body (1 Corinthians 12:4-7). “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them” (Romans 12:6, emphasis added).
In my experience, it is not difficult to motivate gifted people to minister. The gift of mercy, for example, might practically be defined as the desire combined with the ability to show mercy. A person truly gifted to teach wants to teach. All the average person needs is encouragement and opportunities to employ his or her gifts. If faithful leaders properly train, equip, and guide people to the right ministry opportunities, the church will flourish.
If you are a church leader, I hope you have embraced your duty to equip people for ministry. It is, after all, one of your main duties—if not the single most important task for leaders in today’s church.
If you’re a lay person, I hope you’ll find a place where you can use your gift in the work of the ministry. Maybe you’ll be used by the Lord to start an epidemic of lay ministry in your congregation.
I appreciate the emphasis on training the people to do the work of the ministry. There is an unhealthy reactionary backlash to pew-sitting in many Reformed communities today that only serves to uphold pew-sitting. Churches set up formal memberships where only the priviledged are “allowed” to serve, and service is narrowly defined as only being part of a ministry that was created by church leadership. Individuals who employ their own gifts in serving others are looked down upon or ignored. “Official” ministries are often led by authoritarian overlords who bureaucratize their ministries to such a degree that all who “serve” under them are mindless drones who simply follow procedure. Nothing gets done, but it all looks clean and organized.
Once most people get exposed to such ministry, they don’t ever want to experience it again, and withdraw from “serving.” The leaders then wrongly charge them with “pew-sitting” and set up even more rules. They trust themselves more than they trust the Holy Spirit. I would encourage leaders to train spiritual “entrepreneurs” to do mighty works rather than spiritual “soldiers” to fall in line to do grunt work. This would bring about the epidemic of lay ministry much better and God’s people wouldn’t be relegated to a one-size-fits-all mentality of ministry.
“Dean won thirty games that year, a feat that hasn’t been repeated since”
You forgot Denny McLain. He won 31 games for the Tigers in 1968.
Good post.
A healthy local church is only as healthy as it’s being fed. If the Word of God is the spiritual food which is longed for, and there’s a genuine hunger within the local church, and they are being fed, and feeding themselves the truth, then this church will be healthy; whether it’s 50 memebers, or 5,000. The numbers don’t matter.
I would take exception with the following comment…
“When one of the main aims of a ministry philosophy is to keep people entertained,… ”
This is a common criticism of the seeker sensitive movement. In actually it is an incorrect conclusion. The use of contemporary communication methods (drama, video, contemporary music, etc) is not to entertain only, it is to be sensitive to the culture of the people trying to be reached with the Good News of Christ.
Missionaries know all about this; at least the effective ones. A missionary to India needs to be sensitive to the culture. Going in with “American” methods will just turn them off. One of the great missionaries of all time, Hudson Taylor, knew this principal. He shaved his head, had a little black ponytail, and wore traditional Chinese dress. Upon coming back home he was harshly criticized for it. But he was doing what was necessary to reach the people God had called him to.
Preachers and Churches have been seeking to be culturally relevant for centuries. Almost every age has music in church that is culturally relevant. Organs were not always “holy instruments of God” - they used to be in circuses and bars. D.L. Moody’s song leader, Ira Sankey, was about kicked out of England because of his “blasphemous organ.” A blasphemous organ?! Yeah, at one time it was considered that.
Being seeker sensitive does not mean changing the message or not preaching the word of God. It means delivering the Word of God while being aware of the culture you’re trying to reach.
We all know there have been extremes and excesses to the Seeker movement. There has also been great misunderstanding about it. I heard Bill Hybels once comment on the negativity of seeker sensitive. He made no apologies and said, “In fact, I am Seeker Obsessed!” His point was he was obsessed with reaching people for Christ.
I realize this article is not about the cultural relevancy of the Seeker movement; but instead about challenging people to serve. In the truly effective Seeker churches serving is a very high priority; including Willow and Saddleback. Hundreds upon thousands of people are serving every week.
What you have just described about the early days of Grace Community Church sounds just like my home church Mars Hill. I used to go to CrossRoads Bible Church, pastored by Jerry Mitchell, and found it amazingly difficult to get any opportunity to serve even in simple capacity, one of the things heard often there was that “if you want something done, you gotta hire someone to do it”, Jerry would often chastise the people for not serving, but when I went to Mars Hill, I was astonished to see how so many people were serving, in just about every capacity of the ministry. Thank you for this fantastic article! I will be circulating it around to the folks here in Seattle! God Bless you Mr MacArthur, we love you!
David M Palma
You will notice that in Ephesians 4:12 that equipping the saints is necessary for the building up of the body. If the saints are not equipped there will be no building up of the body and the “staff” will have to continue to bear the brunt of the work, which was never the intent, and leads to a weak, spiritually ineffective church. Entertaining is not equipping as it is apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers that do the equipping through the ministry of the word, not drama, video, contemporary music, and the like.
There is no connection between Hudson Taylor dressing Chinese and drama, video, and music. John does not wear a suit and tie at the Resolve conference, but he preaches the same message.
Morris
My discontent with seeker-sensitive churches is their focus on drawing “crowds” to the church rather than relying on the Holy Spirit to do the work of drawing people to Christ, if the focus is on exalting Christ before people, which often times it is not with seeker-sensitive churches.
Seeker-sensitive pastors are not likely to teach biblically because they are more motivated to teach pragmatically, thereby removing the understanding why members of the congregation needs to serve the church.
I believe that as a pastor digs deeper into the Word, through study, prayer and fasting, the congregation would begin to see and hear the Word of God revealed even more to them and how they can become more like Christ in their life. This should create a desire for an individual, to want to learn how the gift God has given to them can be properly utilized in an area of ministry within the church.
When a person serves in the local church, they should remember that they are doing so as to the Lord and not for the future expectation of gaining something in return for their service to the church. A person will be greatly disappointed when they die, expecting to receive a reward for serving the Lord when He knew they were serving themselves under a selfish motivation.
Kurt,
In response to your comment below…
“My discontent with seeker-sensitive churches is their focus on drawing “crowds” to the church rather than relying on the Holy Spirit to do the work of drawing people to Christ,…”
D.L. Moody rode up and down the streets on a pony giving candy out to all the kids. The papers of they day labeled him “Crazy Moody”. His goal was to “draw crowds” of kids to his Sunday School to hear the Gospel.
May God give us more crazy Moody’s in this generation.
Morris,
You say…
“There is no connection between Hudson Taylor dressing Chinese and drama, video, and music.”
Dude…come on! Taylor was an Englishman in a Chinese costume. He was definitley using this to reach the culture God had led him to.
Just like using modern technology WITH the Word of God is reaching our “visually oriented” culture.
Owen,
I haven’t read much about D.L. Moody and how he went about reaching people with the Gospel.
I’d rather not digress from the main point of the posted message here. It’s about why members of the church need to serve instead of just watching others serve.
Kurt,
Yes…however, the article was specifically directed at Seeker churches. And your comment was about “drawing crowds”, thus my response.
I acknowledged in the last part of my post that I realized this was not the main point of the article.
I also agree that equipping members for service is a key part of pastoral ministry.
Thanks for this article, I have recently been attending a seeker friendly church and wish to serve others in a capacity to spur them on in their study of Gods Word. I have been sitting back and trying to figure out where to serve, and I want to but dont know where to begin. So I contacted the leadership, told them of my background and my desire to serve with the gifts the Lord has given . Its a start to serving the Lord by serving others and this article has spurred me on to do just that.
Thank you for the reminder that we are not merely spectators but participaters for the Kingdom of Christ! I need to be a doer not merely a hearer only.
“Biblical servanthood has been hijacked in the church by ’servant leadership’”. That is what a friend of mine from church told me over lunch one day as we discussed a book on the topic he was close to finishing. That statement has stuck with me. Is leadership a biblical component of servanthood? My friend Nate Palmer explained to me why it is not and how true servanthood is an act of selfless worship that is increasingly being neglected and rendered irrelevant from the myriads of churches across the nation who are throwing out true worship for another gospel. Many people no longer attend church to actively worship, but rather to idly “be fed” by merely listening to a weekly message targeted at life issues. Sadly, as an inactive participant in the dispensation of the Gospel message they are missing out on the biblical standard that is laid out for us in God’s Word. If you want to read more on the subject I encourage you to see what Nate has to say here: http://www.biblicalservanthood.com
Nathan
I struggle with service in the church because I don’t know exactly what God would have me do. I don’t mean the obvious–like gospel spreading, helping those in need, etc.–but it seems so many of the church activities that are defined as “service” mimic the welfare state we live in today. When parents are commanded to teach and train their children…why are so many ministries wrapped up in teaching and training children who belong to Christian parents? Why do women choose to forsake worshipping the Lord a few times a month to work in the nursery, when children can be cared for by their own mothers as needed and still worship together? So when you belong to a church where 90% of the ministries are of these types, how do you find your place? I’m not being sarcastic…I really do want to serve where it’s needful, but I don’t want to “serve” just to say I serve. I want it to be meaningful service to God, not just relieving others of their own God-given responsibilities.
Ginny,
I do not have specific answers for you, but I pray that you will hear God’s leading as the desire of your heart is to serve Him according to His will. When I pray, I ask God to replace the desires of my heart with His desires. When I pray that way, I have found such clear direction and peace.
Sarah C.
Often the “Seeker-Sensitive” slooge draws people as consumers and then further solidifies that expectation on their part, forever making it difficult for them to being anything other than spectators.
Friends who pastor such churches have lamented to me how hard it is to get these folks to start serving after being catered to and appeased for so long.
It’s kind of a live by the sword, die by the sword whammy.
Hey Ginny,
I don’t know if you’ll see this post since the nature of blogs sometimes only allows a day or so on a topic and then its off to the next one. But this topic, of biblical servanthood, is near and dear to my heart.
I can totally sympathize with you and your sentiments. I had similar and worse thoughts about serving as well as the people I supposedly was serving.
The once motivating truth of the Gospel of when I first became a Christian slowly, over time dimmed in its radiance. Soon, my passion to serve, once a blazing torch within, began to flicker and then went completely out. It became harder and harder to force myself to serve in the church. The monotony and meaninglessness of tasks began to take its toll on my affection. Bitterness and laziness soon set in and I started to actually loath Sunday morning because I knew I had to serve.
How could stacking chairs be any benefit to me or to God? Why should give up my Sunday mornings? If faith, not works, saves us then what does it matter if I serve in the church? Why can’t someone else do this for awhile? I did my time. If this welcome table was not set up, would anyone even care?
I could no longer comprehend why I served or whom I served. Burned out and extremely frustrated, my focus shifted from amazement of the Gospel onto burdens of Church life. The reallocation of my passions from the God of the Gospel to my own comforts was now complete.
This bitterness was only heightened by my own perception of the attitude towards serving by others within the church. I mistakenly imagined that everyone else, seemingly able to remain Christian without serving, enjoyed their Sundays while I toiled. Maybe they understood something I didn’t. The more I thought about enjoying my Sundays, the more I became sour to the idea of serving and to the people I served.
Then our church in California decided to send a church planting team to Texas. My wife and I felt God calling us to go with them. I knew the embryonic church would need people to serve a lot more than in an established church, but I questioned if I could do that. I knew I couldn’t serve in the condition I was in. I felt as if I would be a dead weight to the church and a liability to my pastor.
As I remembered the passion I had when I first became a Christian, I started asking myself how I got to this spiritual malaise. Just a couple years ago I was so “on fire”… what happened? Why should I be a servant of anybody? Is there any purpose to any of this? Why should I serve when other people never do anything? What is the incentive and motivation for me to serve people in the church let alone people who do not even know Christ?
It is important to note at this point that servanthood is not an exclusive trait to Christianity or to the Bible. In fact, each one of us is not a neutral free agent sitting in the stands waiting to get into the game of servanthood. On the contrary, every one of us is an experienced and active participant engaging every day in all kinds acts of service. However rather than serving others or God’s interests, most of the time we are serving ourselves.
Instead of serving God, we serve idols of money, self-esteem, image, and career. We place our energy, hope, and trust into serving and nurturing them. They have become the masters of our affections and industry. However, none of those other concerns or interests is supposed to be the true motivating factors for Christian servanthood.
Biblical Servanthood is not about what other people are doing, even if they should be serving. Rather servanthood is all about what I am doing or rather whom I am worshiping. In opposition to those motivations, true Biblical Servanthood is primarily concerned with worshiping God. Merely being a servant and doing servant stuff is not the issue that defines and distinguishes Biblical servanthood.
While action is a vital ingredient to serving biblically, the major emphasis for Christians is found in the reason we serve, namely the person and work of Jesus. How we serve is defined, motivated, and made possible by whom we serve. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the starting place for defining a vision for serving biblically in and out of the local church. There can be no other starting points or competing motivations.
As Jesus points out in the Book of Matthew, we cannot serve both God and our own interests at the same time. “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” Matthew 6:24. Either we serve God or we are serving an entirely different master.
To clarify the purpose and distinctions of Biblical Servanthood, we can summarize that it magnifies the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the glory of God and the benefit of others. The distinction the Gospel makes between biblical servanthood and every thing else is not that it transforms us into servants. Rather because of Christ and through the Holy Spirit, a shift in our focus has occurred from serving ourselves and our own idols to serving God and his purposes. The mere act of service and the exercising of one’s gifts are not the endgame or even the pinnacle of Biblical Servanthood.
On the contrary, it is all about God and what He has done and not about me and my accomplishments. Put another way, our service for God is driven because of God. More profoundly, biblical servanthood is not primarily based upon our love for God but instead it is first and foremost founded, driven, and sustained by God’s love for us. A love that devised our salvation and a love that fully purchased it on the Cross. In Biblical Servanthood, the Gospel transforms service into worship. In worhsip I must primarliy concerned of my heart and actions not the motive and innaction of others.I hope this helps.
Nate
Owen–dude,
Hudson Taylor dressed like the Chinese because he was a foreigner in their land and was showing respect for them. Yes, it helped him by assimilating into their culture, but remember he was not Chinese to begin with. His dressing like them was an act of humility which was valued highly by the Chinese people at that time. That is quite different than someone who is already American “reaching” the American.
You respect the different culture, you observe it, you don’t overtly offend it (except by the gospel), then you present the gospel. I have been in two different churches who went the seeker way, and have listened to sermons by those who pastor other seeker types…and their version of the gospel is not the same gospel, and as Paul says in II Corinthians they present another Jesus, and their method of presentation appeals to the baser nature and removes the distinctivness that separates the sacred from the secular.
I have made 13 trips to the Ukraine and Siberia to preach and teach, and understand being a Jew to the Jew and a Gentile to the Gentile; understanding the way they think and perceive life, and how they approach life, and what is culturally permissive, accepted, and forbidden. Hudson Taylor did the same thing with the Chinese, but all you can focus on is his dress and hair. In any culture and in any time you still must present the gospel with integrity, keeping the gospel the gospel, not tainting it with matters or methods that appeal to the flesh, or softening it so that is not confronting. The ends never justify the means, ever.
The use of modern technology is a no-brainer. The church should make use of all the best technology available, in fact, it has always done that. To my knowledge the church hasn’t used pump organs in decades, it is using podcasts, HD-DVD, the latest digital technology (I even use a portable MP3 stereo recorder), and all the modern acoutrements, but that is not the point. Being wowed and enthralled by the technology, the audio, the video; being carried away by the music does not a Christian make, nor does it edify and equip.
Personally, I don’t like organ music and if I never heard another organ in church I wouldn’t miss it, but the point is what are we conveying and how. Both are important. Integrity and fidelity to the method and the message are important. That is what those of us who question the seeker-sensitive modus-operandi are concerned with.
Morris
Nathan, thank you so much for the post you just made about service…it was such an encouragement. As a pastor’s wife, I often feel the strain of ministry and all “I have to do”…your reminder was refreshing and oh so needed…so even if Ginny never reads this…THANK YOU!
Morris,
You wrote - Hudson Taylor dressed like the Chinese because he was a foreigner in their land and was showing respect for them. Yes, it helped him by assimilating into their culture, but remember he was not Chinese to begin with. His dressing like them was an act of humility which was valued highly by the Chinese people at that time. That is quite different than someone who is already American “reaching” the American.
Response - Until he assimilated into the culture the interior Chinese were trying to kill Hudson as a “white devil” – I’ve read one of his biographies and don’t see the humility principal you mention, but perhaps it is there. My point was, and is, the seeker movement is attempting to reach across cultures to gain credibility to present Christ. The fact that two people are “American” does not mean they have the same culture. There are different cultures between regions, generations, size of population centers, etc. This is pretty well documented and agreed upon.
You wrote - You respect the different culture, you observe it, you don’t overtly offend it (except by the gospel), then you present the gospel. I have been in two different churches who went the seeker way, and have listened to sermons by those who pastor other seeker types…and their version of the gospel is not the same gospel, and as Paul says in II Corinthians they present another Jesus,
Response - I highly question that the seeker methods lead to presenting a different Jesus? An untrue Gospel can be presented regardless of the methods being used – traditional, seeker, gen-x, etc. And the true Gospel can be presented regardless of the methods used. It would be interesting to see your examples of this. If indeed a different Jesus is being presented, is it because of the methods or just plain ignorance of the Word.
You wrote - I have made 13 trips to the Ukraine and Siberia to preach and teach, and understand being a Jew to the Jew and a Gentile to the Gentile; understanding the way they think and perceive life, and how they approach life, and what is culturally permissive, accepted, and forbidden
Response - so why is it so difficult to see this as necessary to reach another culture within America? Surely you realize there is not just one culture to be reached in North America. Having white skin does not mean people have the same culture. The 80 year olds in our area do not have the same culture as the 20 year olds.
You Wrote - The ends never justify the means, ever
Response - This is rhetoric. As long as the means are not immoral or unbiblical, I would say the means are justified by the ends. And those who use creative means will continue to be called irreverent, unbiblical, disrespectful, users of gimmicks, etc. I say bring it on. If bribing kids with candy get’s them into a situation to hear the Gospel, I’ll do it; Just like Moody did. If using a drama can help capture the attention of an unbeliever to present Biblical truth, then great.
You Wrote - The use of modern technology is a no-brainer. The church should make use of all the best technology available, in fact, it has always done that. To my knowledge the church hasn’t used pump organs in decades…
Response - my point was when organs were introduced it was viewed skeptically just like you view seeker methods today
You Wrote - Both are important. Integrity and fidelity to the method and the message.
Response - Who defines the method? As much as a regulatory system is looked for in Scripture, I don’t see it. The Message of the Gospel cannot be changed but methods can.
The Gospel is gold and methods are not. If the Gospel is changed, regardless of the methods, it is wrong. If People hear about Christ through different methods, then PTL.
Owen,
I attended a seeker friendly church and agree with Morris’ comments. Seeker friendly churches that I have attended (and most of them if not all of them) focus more on being man-centered than Christ centered. Instead of talking about sin and repentance and the need to be more Christ like, they focus on Christ being there for us and making us more prosperous and healing us. I believe Christ can do that if it is His will but we need to focus and seek His glory first and foremost. That is where I see the seeker friendly church is deficient. Christ has a method which is universal - look at how he interacted with the woman at the well. He opened the law to her and showed her that she needed to repent and turn to the Savior.
David
Owen,
The real trouble with the “Seeker-Sensitive” movement begins with it’s theology. With their Arminian based (I won’t even say real Arminianism) they come to the church believing that people are able to submit to God if only they can be made to understand the stakes involved. That stands opposed to the Biblical understanding that God uses the foolishness of preaching to regenerate and create faith in his elect people.
As a former member of an admittedly “seeker sensitive” church I have seen this played out and even explained quite clearly.
The thought process is that it takes someone a couple years to become sufficiently convinced of the gospel to make the leap to “salvation” and so what happens is, in hopes that someone may someday believe, the teaching and preaching is watered down so as to not scare people off before they choose to believe.
What is the first thing to go? The plain, offensive, gospel.
The trouble with comparing Hudson Taylor with Bill Hybels et al. is plain. Hudson didn’t change the message to suit the audience, he wore different clothes. He had a cultural divide to cross that mainstream America doesn’t but imagines it has between generations.
The whole thing comes down to the gospel. Do they believe it? Do they believe it can save without fancy “excitements” to draw people in. Is it the main event in a circus, or is it the power of God to salvation?
Clearly they don’t, otherwise they wouldn’t worry about “what works” because they wold understand that the gospel preached is the only thing that “works”.
The thing to note in seeker-sensitive churches, as compared to H.T in China is simple. H.T. changed his appearance so he would gain a hearing for the plain truth of the Gospel. S.S. churches add entertainment, which doesn’t preach the gospel, hoping people will stay long enough to hear something of value.
Entertainment necessarily reduces people to spectators. The Gospel necessarily creates servants.
Kristin,
Thanks for your kind words. At the risk of sound self-serving, if my post encouraged you - may I point you to article I wrote for Reformed Persectives Magazine and posted by Mongerism on Biblical Servanthood. I hope it encourages you more..
http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_details/26206/http://thirdmill.org/newfiles/nat_palmer/nat_palmer.torncurtain.html/c-114/
just click view this link.
Nate
Nate…thank you for the encouraging comment. I appreciate the reminder that one must worship first, then serve. I’m not really concerned about what others are doing or should be doing…I’m sorry if my comment came across that way. Actually I’m afraid it’s others who are more concerned with what I’m doing or not doing. Because the bulk of how I serve is behind the scenes (mainly because of the nature of how the church is functioning), it would appear I do nothing of substance in their eyes. Do I just toss their criticism off my back or is there something more I should be doing to have a good testimony in the church as well? Sounding my own horn doesn’t seem biblical. Is this the case of the widow giving her two mites…no one noticed except God and that’s just fine?
At this season in my life, I am extremely busy raising my family, but I also have the gift of serving and I always feel like I’m not doing enough for the Lord. Whether it’s false guilt or conviction, I couldn’t say. It’s hard to find that balance and maybe that’s the answer I’m looking for.