Leaderboard

I sometimes think that churches are an excuse for people not getting involved in such things - they leave it to others - and it can end up with just a few doing all the Christian "outreach" type of work. I sometimes wonder how much the original Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers would recognize what passes for these people's ministries today. A lot of church ministers would like to be "pastors" or more often "teachers" and will openly state that they aren't any of the other people. I believe these gift ministries can operate in the body of the congregation as a whole, and the people often don't receive the recognition they deserve because they aren't "trained." The new minister in my church presented the church budget to the congregation recently. He ended with words approximating..."And these all need money to carry out, so increase your giving." No no no no no. These things the church wants to do require PEOPLE who are willing to undertake these tasks - not necessarily people who undertake these tasks and get paid for doing so. (For sure, someone to coordinate what's going on may have a full-time job on their hands and need some recompense.) We should want to be involved. To have an outworking of our love for God, our walking in the way Christ did. There is plenty of work to do. There are plenty of unreached people. And there are plenty of things that are perhaps shorter-term or less demanding in nature. Some people won't give in terms of themselves. Some people won't give in financial terms. And some won't give anything, either time or finances. They like to be passengers. So it would be better, if some of the latter group did give to help pay someone - but it doesn't really absolve them of the need to contribute themselves. One of our church ladies died recently. Sheila. Awesome woman. Sheila had MS, I think Americans call this Lou Gherig's Disease. Sheila took to a wheelchair at age 50 but was still active in the church. As she became less mobile, what she did reduced in physical activity but not in spiritual. In later years, she had a prayer book. She went to a Focus group and people wrote down what they would like prayers for. Sheila took the book home. Her carer turned the pages and Sheila read them, or was read to. She prayed for every one and every thing. She saw answers to prayer. Things happened. In the last couple of years she couldn't speak intelligibly, couldn't do a thing for herself. She could just smile. And pray. Her brain still worked, slowly, but it still worked, and she still believed. Until the day she died she believed for complete healing in her body. If anyone could have sat back and said they couldn't do anything to help the church, Sheila could have. No-one would have criticized her. But that's not what happened. She wasn't a passenger at anything. She was active until the very last day. Sheila was 73 when she died. She was joyful. She expected to receive a new body forthwith.