| The Way Up Is Down (From E-Letter #65) |
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Many people that I talk to tell me that they feel God has called them to be Pastors. I think that is great. The world definitely needs more of them, but I wonder why I have never heard anyone say they have been called to be the clean-up person. Matter of fact, it seems as though clean-up is the least popular job out of all jobs associated with church. We can get all kinds of volunteers to set up for a ministry event, but when the event is done, hardly anyone sticks around to see that things get put back and cleaned up.
Jesus teaches that in order for us to grow and advance in God's kingdom we must be willing to lower ourselves by serving others.
In Matthew Chapter 20, the mother of two of Jesus' disciples makes a request that her sons be on the right and left side of Jesus in His kingdom. It seems like such a noble request. Yet, Jesus responds by saying basically, "Woman, you have no idea what you are asking for." In her mind, the closer her boys could be to the throne, the more powerful they would be and the closer they would be to greatness. Yet, Jesus says this. . .
Matt 20:25-28
"You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
God's kingdom is so different from our kingdom here on earth. Our kingdom desires authority and loves the spotlight. God's kingdom looks for opportunities to serve. In God's kingdom, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. (Luke 13:30)
A story I read the other day really blessed me. It was about a Pastor named Jay Voorhees who believes that one of the most important things he can do in his church is set up tables and chairs for church meetings, and mop the floors afterwards. The pastor of Antioch UMC in Antioch, TN has a heart for empowering laity to do ministry, and shares that the best way to do that is to take some of the grunt work on himself while giving laypeople a chance to shine by doing ministries that they are called by God to do.
"That's where the role of pastor as servant-leader is so important," he says. "Perhaps the most empowering thing we can do as servants of others is to take the most menial tasks upon ourselves so that others can experience the fun and glory."
This Pastor convicts me because my church family hardly allows me to do any grunt work myself. Even if I am carrying something across the campus, someone will come running to help me out or take what I am carrying altogether, and to be honest, it makes me feel very uncomfortable because I don't ever want to lose site of this biblical principal of how God's kingdom operates.
I never desired to become a preacher. I never desired the spotlight. Matter of fact, I used to not even be able to pray out loud in a prayer circle because I was so shy. This pastor thing sort of just happened for me. However, looking back, I believe that the way it happened for me was in my willingness to do the jobs around the church that no one else wanted to do, like taking a weed-wacker to the playground area around the church that was being overrun with weeds. I simply wanted to serve.
You might sum it up by saying the way to the top is through the bottom. It sounds like something Jesus would say. I have heard that a very well-known Pastor would tell anyone that told him that they wanted to get into ministry that the first thing they have to do is scrub toilets in the church bathrooms. I don't think that is a job anyone really wants to volunteer for. However, this Pastor wanted to show these people how God's kingdom operates.
We hear Jesus' parable about the wedding feast, where he tells his disciples not to be hasty to sit at the most important place at the table, '"for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.'" (Luke 14) And we see Jesus washing the feet of his disciples during Passover (John 13).
To grow closer to God and to be a bigger part of His Kingdom, we have got to remember it is not necessarily going to be found in the spotlight. More than likely, it is going to be found in the mop bucket. |
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