Sharing my thoughts, experiences and passions about church ministry and life in general. More than likely what you read here will be worth what you paid for it.
This is a ThrowBackThursday blog post, and you can find this blog in its entirety at the link after this introduction...We are busy with work, family, life, hobbies, side jobs, and needing an occasional rest in between...so why in the world would we or should we even consider devoting more of our time to anything? ...like volunteering in our local church... Faith without works is dead...the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few...go into all the world...what you've done to the least of these... These are just a few phrases from some powerful Bible verses concerning service. I ask the question, "Should You Volunteer in Your Church?" Please Read the Rest of this blog HERE
We are busy with work, family, life, hobbies, side jobs, and needing an occasional rest in between...so why in the world would we or should we even consider devoting more of our time to anything? ...like volunteering in our local church... Faith without works is dead...the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few...go into all the world...what you've done to the least of these...
These are just a few phrases from some powerful Bible verses concerning service. I ask the question, "Should You Volunteer in Your Church?"
It's an easy thing to move into the back seat, sit in the back row, and slip into the shadows in your church. There is enough going on and people volunteering we can convince ourselves of a few lies-
1. There are enough volunteers already, they don't need my help 2. They probably wouldn't want my help, I've never done this sort of stuff before 3. I haven't been going to church long enough to volunteer 4. I come to church, believe in God and pay my tithes, I don't "need" to do anything else 5. If God wanted me to help with that stuff He would send someone to ask me to help
I'm going to address these 5 misconceptions about service, volunteerism and lay ministry within the church. After we address these issues, I'm going to leave you with some awesome scriptures to help you get over that "Should I Really Volunteer?" hump.
1. There are never enough volunteers (PERIOD) They do need your help, sometimes things look like smooth sailing and a well oiled machine, but I can authoritatively promise you, there is always room for more help. New volunteers give relief to current volunteers and leadership, and hey, guess what, you might be the best volunteer ever, which is a HUGE blessing to your church and to God. 2. As mentioned in #1, they do want your help, and it doesn't matter if you've never done this kind of work before. A lot of ministries and volunteer opportunities in churches come with training or give you time to learn from someone already doing what you will be doing. For example, my wife and I oversee the Multi-Media Ministry at our church, we require 10-12 volunteers to fulfill all the duties needed for a service (running cameras, computer/presentation, lighting technician, video switching, recording, live sound mixing, and much more)
- sounds kind of intimidating, and at times looks even more intimidating. Guess what, pretty much none of our volunteers had any experience doing any of these things before they came into our ministry. We aren't super leaders or excellent trainers either, it boils down to desire, passion, and God. If you want to serve and you put your "All" into it, God will bless it, and will most likely help empower you to serve him to an even greater level.
3. I don't know what the perfect length of time is before you can help out in a church regularly, but again, if you are a believer, God is ready to use you. Maybe its just picking up chairs and tables after events, helping take trash out after small groups or Sunday School, door greeting, or something else, but if you show a desire to help and do it with passion and love, your church and God will notice. You will be blessed and more opportunities to serve will come your way. 4. All those things, coming to church, believing in God and tithing are great! However, we are called to service by God, so yes you "need" to help if you are able because the Body of Christ needs you! Mark 10:44-45 "...and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. 'For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.'" - yeah I went there, I pulled out the Bible to prove my point, if service was required of our savior, and we as Christians are to be Christ-Like, we too should be active in our service to Him. 5. Yup, God has sent a number of people to tell you that your help is needed, dozens of authors in the Old and New Testaments, most likely your pastor at sometime or another has asked for assistance from the pulpit, and if you are reading this now, God sent me to you...and I'm telling you, Your Church Needs Your Help. Here are a few more verses to help inspire you to lend a helping hand in your church: Do it to Glorify God Matthew 5:14-16 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. "Nor do men light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house. "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Jesus as an Example Matthew 23:11 "But the greatest among you shall be your servant. Serving One Another Ephesians 6:5-7 Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eye service, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, Showing Love to one Another Philippians 2:1-4 If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Blessed are the Givers Acts 20:35 "In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" Love Your Neighbor Galatians 5:13-14 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus came to Serve Mark 10:44-45 and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." To the Least of Them Matthew 25:40 "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' Mark 9:35 And sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all." By the Strength of God 1 Peter 4:10-11 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
I pray that this post and these scriptures not only lift you up but help you realize the call God has placed on you to serve Him and the local church you attend. Volunteers are crucial to the mission of the local church, and without you, we can't do what we do.
I want you to think of a close friend or a family member who at any time you'd drop what you were doing to help them out. Now most likely you'd take a phone call from them, run them gas on the highway if they ran out, pick them up from somewhere, loan them money, offer advice, be a shoulder to cry on, right? Why? Because you care, they are important to you, their needs are important to you and their future is important to you. Now I want you to think about someone you know that you aren't exactly "close" to on the same level as the person we just talked about. Get someone on your mind... Do they know Christ? If they are a believer, are they grounded? Do they have a good support system, could they benefit from you reaching out to them?
Over the years I've had people come in and out of my life, people that I believe God positioned in my life so that for a time or season I might have some positive influence on them (some more than others). This isn't a "oh wow Ryan you are so wise and almighty" comment, I think God allowed me to learn as much if not more from the experience than what I was able to impart to these individuals. One thing I've taken away from these experiences, which I was reminded of recently in my Sunday School class(we now call them Connect Groups), to truly reach someone and be there for them, we have to make ourselves "Sacrificially Available." So you might ask, "What do you mean 'Sacrificially Available?'" Well I'm glad that you asked, I feel like it means to make yourself completely and totally available to a person in order to benefit them to the best of your ability. Often times we tell people to give us a call or shoot us a text if they need prayer or anything at all. Frequently we press ignore on our phones or don't call them back for days. This is not being available at all and certainly not on the sacrificial level.
So why the sacrifice? To be a Christian means to be Christ-like. What did Christ do? Sacrificed himself so that we might have eternal life. Any chance we can sacrifice something to help someone else we are being like Christ. I feel like true "Sacrificial Availability" means that you put another person's needs and priorities above your own, this would be the common behavior in a marriage or between a parent and their children. This kind of activity obviously breeds love, success, maturity, discipline, the list goes on. Why not try this with someone in need? Pray that God opens your eyes to see a person in need, or ask that they literally be dropped in your lap. It can happen, and this is the kind of ministry where we can be really effective in sharing about Christ, what He's done for us, and what He can do for them. Think about Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch from the book of Acts, Phillip was minding his own business traveling from one town to another town and God brought him somebody.... 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth." 34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him." -Acts 8:29-38 Phillip, in this instance, made himself "Sacrificially Available" to this man, and because of it, he was able to lead this man to Christ and Baptize him as well. More often than not, our experiences won't be this simple or short lived, but the moral of the story stays the same. As ambassadors of Christ, we make ourselves available to deliver his message, but we don't just leave it at that. We must make an effort to continually encourage and build up those we witness to. Sometimes the continual contact and conversations will minister more to a person than all our efforts to "evangelize" them. Personal contact goes a LONG ways today.
So again, what is "Sacrificial Availability?" I say it means answering the phone when that person calls, it may mean stepping away from the dinner table, muting the TV show, waking up in the middle of the night, or going over to someones house to let them unload all of their emotions. It means going beyond what any normal person would, because guess what? We aren't normal people, we are believers in Jesus Christ, we are Christians, we are more than Conquers and we are empowered for ministry by the Holy Spirit and called by the Great Commission to go preach, teach, and reach. Become "Sacrificially Available" to those people you are ministering to, or to that friend who needs your help, or that coworker or classmate that really doesn't have anybody. Go out of your way to care about someone else's needs and make their priorities your priorities. Their future ought to matter to you, they need to be important to you, you should care... Be blessed!
I don't want to always sound like I'm chewing church people out, I'll preface this post by saying I'm equally guilty of everything I'm going to be talking about in this post. So let's just shoot straight for a minute, which is easier; talking to a person you know and like, or a complete and total stranger? Obviously for most people that answer is the person they already know. Talking to strangers is awkward at best for most people, mix it up and make the setting a church and you've got a whole new bunch of obstacles to make the encounter even more uncomfortable... but it doesn't have to be, and it shouldn't.
A saying from my dad, "You only get one chance at a first impression," this statement is never more true than inside a church. You only get one shot to show people who you are, as a church when they visit. If they don't like it, they are moving to the next church on their list. So the first impression they get of you starts early, with the people you have greeting them when the enter the doors of your church, or as they drive their cars onto your parking lot (I'm a big fan of having parking lot attendants directing visitors to the "easy to find and close to an entrance" visitor parking).
We talked about it today in an impromptu staff meeting, what do you say to someone if you aren't sure they are a visitor? You don't want to offend someone who's been coming for years, and don't want to ignore a possible visitor... what to do? Get creative, here is an example of an easy and friendly question, "Good morning, how are you doing etc," followed up by a, "Now, how long have you been coming here?" Either they are a visitor, or you've just connected to someone in your church you haven't connected with before. It is a Win-Win.
As a church, we cannot afford to not be friendly, especially to visitors, what kind of Jesus Christ does that convey? "We are only friendly to people we know..." ? That's not the way Jesus rolled. I encourage you to extend a warm welcome to unfamiliar faces in your church this week, whether you are on the "Greeting Team" or not. As Christians we are called to be Christ-Like, He wouldn't ignore someone, so you don't either (myself included).
Sorry that I haven't been blogging lately, kind of been a little behind with church stuff and have been playing catch up all year so far. A young man got saved this past week and it really just stayed on my mind and I wanted to share about it.
We have a Discipleship Ministry at our church on Wednesday nights, WednesdaysOnPurpose. The ministry consists of discipleship classes that last about 90 minutes. Right now we have 4 different classes going on, to learn more about the ministry, visit our site: WednesdaysOnPurpose.com. Right now we are in the 2nd round of "Man Up", a men's class. Well the teacher of this class and his two sons took a first time visitor (who I'll refer to as Young Man) out for pizza after church. The class, as far as I know, went just fine and was engaging and interactive as always. The men of our church just love the class. Steve Gann, the teacher is one of the best we got. I digress, back to the heart of the story, Steve and his sons took this young man out for pizza after church and continued to minister to him, speaking life, testifying about all the great works that Christ had done in their lives, and the importance of living for God. The young man obviously was looking for God to show up in a big way. I met him before church, very polite and pleasant, I shook his hand, said hello, and moved onto what I had "going on" that night, I was too busy or caught up in my own schedule to really take the time to realize what God was about to do in this young man's life. But these guys, Steve and his 2 sons...they went the extra mile...the young man sat in church that night listened to the message God had for him, then some "church people" asked him to come join them after church for some fellowship time. They continued ministering to him, outside the walls of the church, after church was over, probably past a time that was convenient for their "schedule". Long story short, that night, at the pizza place...they led this young man to the Lord. He accepted Christ, came to church Sunday Morning, came to my Sunday school class (new believers class), and as far as I know came to church Sunday night and I'm pretty sure is planning to come back to church this Wednesday. Steve and his family are continuing to lift this new believer up and encourage him. I'm praying God continues to show up in this young man's life in a new and awesome way. My whole reason for posting this is to encourage any of you who might read this, to realize that Christianity isn't just coming to church, sitting down, clap a little, put a tip in the offering plate, then go home. Christianity goes beyond the walls of the church, it goes beyond our personal agendas, it takes us outside of our comfort zones sometimes. We need to daily be praying that God helps us to recognize the opportunities he gives us to minister to the hearts of those who are searching for Him. go the extra mile...
Rev. Ryan & Tiffany Rose serve as the Associate Pastors at Evangel Temple in Fort Smith. They serve the ministries of the church and have a passion to equip leaders to reach new heights. They also own their own small business, Rose Auto Sales.
