The Most Valuable Church Member
Recently I read an intriguing article entitled, “How to be an Indispensable Asset to your Business.” The feature listed several great principles and concepts I found to be uniquely relatable to, not only the Christian walk but more specifically, the life of the believer and his or her enhancing the effectiveness of and adding excellence to the church. As the brand-new year stretches out before us, be so kind as to join me in considering the following:
1. The first point listed was: Think outside the box. In any organization you find there are always those who lead and those who lag behind. The same is true in church. A typical Bible believing, Bible preaching church inevitably seems to have a handful of members who just get it. Their motto is, “If something needs to be done-just ask me!” Over the top, above and beyond, going the second third and tenth mile, etc. The first to volunteer, the last to leave-they are just so addicted to the house of the Lord. But what makes them like that? The answer is clearly revealed in Scripture.
One day, during our Lord’s earthly ministry, a pharisee invited the Lord to his home for dinner. While there, a woman of the lowest social order brought an alabaster box of ointment-very costly and sat down at Jesus feet. She broke the box, anointing his feet with the precious substance and wept, wiping his feet with her hair. The pharisee- who did not think outside the box-no pun intended-began to inwardly judge Jesus for not immediately turning the woman out because she was such a sinner. And as our Lord knows what is in the heart of man he turned to Simon the pharisee and began to tell him a short story about two men who were in debt. The one owed a substantial sum, the other not so much, and yet the generous creditor decided to forgive them both. The Lord asked Simon which of the debtors would love the man most for forgiving the debt. Simon said, “I suppose that he to whom he forgave most.” Jesus said he rightly judged and then went on to rebuke the hypocritical pharisee by commending the woman for all the love and sacrifice she showed the Lord. She loved much. She knew what she was-so unworthy to even share a place on the floor near Jesus’ feet. When she heard Christ was in the house, she brought the most valuable thing she could think of and lovingly poured it out as an offering. You see, as comfortable as the pharisee was, he could afford a meal with no personal loss. As an upstanding citizen in the community, he would “do his bit.” Not her-she gave it all. And Christ said her sins were forgiven, her faith had saved her, and then the most beautiful words, “go in peace.” Those of us who have been forgiven by our Lord know firsthand the preciousness of those words. What that must have meant to her.
2. Try to Learn New Skills. It has been said that to be a valuable asset to your organization you should never shy away from learning new skills. When it comes to the church, this is often seen in the lives of new converts, and it is so refreshing! They want to learn-they want to understand-they are eager to be taught and more than willing to be a vital part of the Lord’s church. Some never lose that zeal, praise the Lord. A few days after he got saved my husband at age 19 attended a Bible Believing-Bible preaching church for the first time in his life. After the service ended, he turned to the man who led him to Christ and gushed, “Joe! How do you join this place? What do I have to do? Who do I see? Do I have to pay dues?” He was lit from the inside out, could not wait to serve Christ with all his heart and he has never changed. We should always be willing to learn and to serve in whatever capacity will add quality to the church. Incidentally, this does not mean that everyone should join the choir, play the piano, or sing a solo just because they aspire to. Sometimes a person’s particular talents may not be best suited in those areas… (insert grimacing emoji…) Moreover, we should have enough humility about us to understand that in order to be a blessing to the Lord’s church certain skills and talents may be required in certain areas. So, if we do not possess them, we should continue to seek ways to serve until we find our place. The church always needs servants-everything from ushers to Sunday School teachers to brunch leaders and helpers-to someone whose only desire is to be a blessing wherever they can be used. “Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you.” 1 Samuel 12:24
3. Be Respectful and Courteous to Others. Being a go-getter in the church; someone who faithfully attends all services-who gives and volunteers for everything is all well and good but if you lack the Christlike qualities of humility, kindness, love, compassion, and esteem for your brothers and sisters in Christ-well, who can say it better than Christ when he said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” I am sorry to say it, but I am certain I have enough experience to do so- having been a member of the Lord’s church since right after I got saved 43 years ago, at times there are those in the church who cause problems by their unkind treatment of God’s people. They habitually reveal themselves-tongues first. Predictably, their preys are some of the finest, most godly people in the church. With their critical, fault-finding spirit, they regularly indict and accuse God’s children. Hmmmm…come to think of it…the Bible speaks of another being who regularly accuses the brethren…I’m just sayin’… One of the key principals for unity and peace in the church is that we esteem others better than self by walking in true and sincere humility and Christlikeness. Here is a good rule of thumb: Respect and love for the brethren identifies you as a Christian.
4. Be Open to Feedback. In any organization, establishment or institution-from the home to the government- there is always room for problem solving in order to become more efficient and effective. This is true of the Lord’s church as well, and we have plenty of Scripture to confirm that. Yet, at times within the church there are those who simply cannot handle any kind of correction. Always on the defensive, ever full of excuses. For years I would instruct my young and impressionable school students about the character flaw of making excuses, citing quotes by upstanding and successful people. Henry Ward Beecher, the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe said, “Hold yourself responsible to a higher standard than anyone else expects of you. Never excuse yourself.” So often I would note how even my youngest students would stop themselves mid-sentence from offering one of those predictable, “I couldn’t do my homework because…”, and simply tell the truth and receive instruction. Often a Pastor will attempt to correct something in the life of a church member. The evidence can be clearly presented yet, they just will not have it! And I wonder how that can be. Shakespeare once wrote, “And oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excusing!” Aha! Brilliant! Even better-Proverbs teaches in chapter four, “Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.” The heart of the matter is that it takes humility to receive instruction. Be sure of it-a godly Pastor only has the improvement of the believer and the purity and advancement of the church at heart.
5. Last of all: Always do more than expected. Years ago, I had a woman on my brunch team who would always do the very least asked of her. One special Sunday we were anticipating a lot of visitors, and everyone was making all kinds of appetizers. I asked her to bring a tray of pigs in blankets. That Sunday she appeared with a tiny round, silver tray the size of a dessert plate. On it there were ten tiny hot dogs encased in ten little puff pastries. Each one was injected with one of those frilly little toothpicks-as if that would make it seem like she brought more. This was not a matter of her not being able to afford it. All of the ladies providing for our brunches knew very well they could have spoken to me, and I would have covered for them in a heartbeat. So why is this wrong? Because another woman on my team, who typically went above and beyond- grabbed her purse, turned to me, and said, “And what are we supposed to do with those! Feed them to the goldfish? She then ran out to the store and bought $40 worth of appetizers so the church would have enough. The reason this is wrong is because someone else-who had already done more than her part- had to make up for what the hot dog lady should have done in the first place. In closing, a word from the great Spurgeon-“Not that our salvation should
be the effect of our work, but our work should be the evidence of our salvation”.
May the year ahead bear that out for each of us! Thank you so much for reading! -Liz
