LET'S BE REAL.
A glimpse into life as a ministry volunteer...
Close
your eyes for a second… okay never mind you won’t be able to read this if you
do… go ahead and open your eyes. Imagine with me for a second. It is 7 o’ clock
in the morning (or earlier for you Church planters), you’re polishing off your
‘grande vanilla latte’ on the car ride to Church. It’s Sunday morning, and it’s
beautiful outside. The kids are all grinning, hands folded, enjoying the view
on the short ride over to a beautifully remodeled Church facility where a dozen
or more department heads, ministry of helps (or lay workers) are there awaiting
your arrival with a smile as everyone begins the process of preparing for the
10am service start time. While the amazing band is wrapping up a flawless
rehearsal, the TV cameras are ready, sound is checked and dialed in, the ushers
are prepped, the greeters are smiling from ear-to-ear ready to hand out
bulletins and shake and greet everyone as the multitudes quickly pour into the
main auditorium. It’s 10 o’ clock, the worship team fires up and the
congregation jumps to their feet as the celebratory atmosphere of praise,
worship and expectation fill the room. As worship ends, Pastor has the people
greet 5 people around them. Then… unleashes an inspiring, life-giving message
persuading dozens of those who don’t know Christ to raise their hands and give
their lives up to follow Christ from that day forward. Those new believers
would of course continue to attend, tithe, bring their friends, kids and
neighbors… only to repeat this beautiful process over and over, advancing God’s
Kingdom and growing an influential Church in the process.
Okay,
okay. Let’s be real, if you have spent 2 minutes in any kind of ministry
platform or volunteer in your local Church, you know that the majority of the
above just isn’t based on reality. In fact, it is far from it. Among the realities
of helping in ministry are that it often feels harder to wake up on Sunday then
any other day of the week. It often feels impossible to get your family (or
yourself) out of the house and to Church in time to get set up, meet with your
team and get prepared for service without developing a frantic or frustrated
attitude in the process, let alone polish off a ‘grande vanilla latte’. You
often have to work aside people you don’t necessarily like, and feel you need
to relay the same instructions across 450 times before anything get’s done as
requested. You deal with “camera-men” whose attention drifts in service, sound
guys that play the same two songs for offerings even when supplied a library of
music, ushers that wait until it’s time to take up the offering to let you know
they are out of T&O envelopes, which you often feel is a lost cause since
the majority of the congregation would rather spend the money they claim
they’re low on, on Blockbuster and PizzaHut, before funding the same Church
they wish would have outreaches, events, a cooler sanctuary and someone to
answer the office phone every time they call for information that gets
announced in service and written in the bulletins they typically leave under
their seat, or stuff in the back of their Bibles, if they bring one at all.
I’ll stop there. But I think you get a little glimpse of my point. To say the
least, it can sure be challenging!
