And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. … But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:2 & 4
A good friend of mine is a volunteer fire-fighter. He had always dreamed of doing that, and so signed up when he moved to his community. Every so often he gets a call to get to the station to help with some emergency. That sounds cool! Unfortunately, however, he can’t go to all of them because of his schedule. Fires, of course, are not scheduled things – they just happen, and the equipped ones rush there to save lives and property.
In this passage above, the first fire arises in the new congregation. Jesus has ascended into heaven, and the apostles are suddenly inundated with a mega church. Everything had been going rather smoothly with the group as a whole. Finances were stable and the group continually grew. One of the ministries of this new congregation was to help take care of the widows. This was a huge need, and so the church helped, but racial tensions meant that some were neglected, and it began to cause a rift in the group.
Fire Alarm – Drop everything and rush to solve the problem. Come up with a program, write a policy, start a campaign… What’s taking Peter, James, & John so long to get here and fix it? Isn’t that their job?
Well, according to them – it’s not.
As a pastor, I know the responsibility to try to make sure the church run’s smoothly. If there is a glitch, or problem, I am inclined to fix it myself. Sometimes there are things that need to be done, and it’s just easier, quicker, and appears to be a better use of time to just get it done rather than find a volunteer to do it. There is something even inviting about doing the other tasks of the church, rather than spending extra time working on a sermon or praying.
The problem, however, is that I have my calling, and it’s not really my place to do some of those other things. It’s easy to take over a project that isn’t being done the way I think is best – after all, I’m the pastor. The problem with that arrogance is just that – it’s arrogant. As if, because I’m the paid guy, I know better how to run a particular aspect of the church. Yes, I am called to give parameters to those leading the team, but when it gets down to it, I’m not gifted to do some of those other things, and therefore not called by God to do them. Is that a copout from “doing my job”? I don’t think so – imagine if I got up and shoved Ryan out of the way, and said I was going to lead the next song. Oh yeah – Joyful noise. It’s probably not all that wise for me to lead the women’s ministry, or to try to be in the nursery during the worship service. Not my calling, not my place, Not my gift, not my privilege… not mine.
The Apostles were called to go make disciples. They knew that they had been trained to develop other’s spiritual walk, and that meant that they had to spend the time studying the word and lots of prayer. As enjoyable as those things are, there is always going to be a desire to do something else. If the passage is “boring”, or if the prayer time feels uninspiring, it’s easy to justify doing something else.
If they had put out the fire themselves, they would have stunk at doing it and they would have prevented the congregation from coming together to solve a big issue. They would have never let Stephen, Philip, or the other’s fulfill their calling that is recorded in the next few chapters of Acts. The guys who were chosen quickly arose and did the job well. They also soon became incredible assets to the movement Jesus started.
As I look at our church, I am very pleased to see that most of our group is actively serving Christ inside Genesis. So many of our volunteers are discovering their calling. Yet even as I am writing this, I know of some fires that desperately need some volunteers to come and solve the problem. We are very low on nursery volunteers, we have need of elders, prayer warriors are in short supply, and people who are willing and qualified to disciple others are not easy to come by (Plus other concerns as well). What I’ve experienced numerous times is that when there is a need at the church, God already has someone in the church ready to fill the need. It’s not usually someone I would have first thought of, but as they step up, and then all of us discover just how gifted, called, and blessed that person is to do the job. The previous person was doing it out of faithfulness (that is a good thing), but the next person discovers that this ministry is what they were made for (that is a great thing).
That’s the calling of God! Every Christian has a calling – not just the paid people. Every Christian in every local church from the Spokane Valley to Sydney, Australia has a calling from God. If we, however, don’t follow through with our calling, then someone who is not equipped to handle that fire is trying to do it. Although they may do it with all their heart, they stink at it, they lose their joy, and the whole ministry suffers as a result.
How do you find your calling? Pray, and look for the smoke – there’s a fire that needs your giftedness!
