Answer the Call to Minister: No, Really...Answer the Call to Minister!

"The great violinist, Niccolo Paganini willed his marvelous violin to city of Genoa on condition that it must never be played. The wood of such an instrument, while used and handled, wears only slightly, but set aside, it begins to decay. Paganini's lovely violin has today become worm-eaten and useless except as a relic. A Christian's unwillingness to serve may soon destroy his capacity for usefulness." J.K. Laney, Marching Orders, p. 34


If you have been reading my Blog for any amount of time, you know that I usually place a Bible verse at the beginning of every post. But, I was so taken by this above illustration that I thought it would be good to lead with. But, to satisfy myself and my need to allow the Scripture to set the tone for my writing, let me also share this with you:

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" - James 2:14-17

At the church where I am a pastor, we have been blessed with swelling attendance numbers over the past couple of years. That of course means more ministry opportunity for those of us on staff and also for those within the congregation who have stepped up to serve.

When our church was started, we insisted upon eight distinctives that would help define who we were as a congregation. Our sixth distinctive states:

" At Compass Bible Church we have highly committed participants" (Eph.4:11-16; Ac.4:34-35).

To effectively and efficiently accomplish all that God has called us to do, we cannot maintain the all-too-common '20% of the people do 80% of the work.' At Compass we must always encourage that "each part does its work." (Eph.4:16b)

Now, I must admit that I have been amazed by the commitment level of many in our congregation; serving unselfishly week in and week out in the name of Christ. I am sure that compared to other churches, because we have set the bar high, that we have a higher than normal percentage of our congregation involved in a serving ministry. We do have "highly committed participants" who are joy to serve with.


However (you knew it was coming) I must also admit that some in our congregation consider themselves customers and come to church expecting others to serve them. Of course, we should accept the fact that not everyone within our congregation will have the heart to serve. However, as leaders I don't think we can accept that fact.

We live in a culture where it's about what we are getting...not about what we are giving. Many church-goers, at least in Southern California, have become accustom to the mega-church environment. And sadly, most mega-churches in Southern California are "seeker-churches". So, many of today's Christians are used to being served by the staff of these churches, and have little concern for getting involved themselves, satisfied with being spectators.

Dr. John MacArthur in his blog recently said the following:

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).

Over the next month or so, I will explore what the Bible says about serving vs. being served.

1. Is it wrong to be served?
2. Can you serve too much?

I hope you return.