What follows is an email that I sent to our prayer chain coordinator at our church. It did get published on the church’s email prayer chain. Although this email deals with serving in the children’s ministry area, it could certainly be applied to any area of service in the body of Christ.
Dear Mary,
I am sending this email as a prayer request and as a commentary on something about which the Holy Spirit has been speaking to me. You may choose to publish or not—follow the Holy Spirit’s leading.
As I work in Women’s Ministry, I am also in relatively close contact with our Children’s Minister, Alan Morgan. Although Alan has not shared with me, I sense a serious frustration on his part at not having enough volunteers to staff our children’s area for various programs. One only has to attend a Sunday worship service and hear a call for volunteers for the nursery to comprehend that we have a problem. Lots of precious little ones whom Jesus adores and not enough workers to minister to them. Every area of the church hinges on volunteers, every program without exception. Why should we expect children’s ministery to not need volunteers? Here is where the Holy Spirit has been dealing with me.
Anyone who knows me knows that my calling and gifting is in Women’s Ministry. I have always jokingly said, “I’ll serve anywhere, I’ll clean toilets, just don’t ask me to serve in the nursery. I’m not a kid person.” Well, before my Lord and my brothers and sisters in Christ, I repent of that attitude. The Holy Spirit reminded me of the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10. A man was robbed and beaten on the way to Jericho and left to die by thieves. Along came a priest who perhaps thought, ‘Providing medical help is not my calling. Let someone else help.’ Next came a Levite, a holy man whose job it was to attend God’s temple. I wonder if he thought, ‘Compassion and providing aid is not my gifting. Let someone else help.’ Let’s consider that those two religious men symbolize the average member of FBC–you and me. Now we find a Samaritan approaching. A lowly, despised-by-the-Jews Samaritan. This man sees a need and stops to help. Perhaps he had the gift of compassion, but perhaps he didn’t. He simply saw a brother in need and ministered.
Dear ones, I believe that God allows situations in our lives simply to see how we will respond. I believe with all my heart that our Father expects us to jump in and help in some situations simply because there is a need. He knows that situation may not use our gifting and calling, yet there is a need in the body of Christ and He expects us to say, “I’ll help”. It may inconvenience us or take us out of our comfort zones, but the Cross certainly wasn’t convenient or comfortable for Jesus. We may miss a Sunday service by serving in the nursery, but sometimes God asks us to give up the better for the best. It could be that one Sunday you and I serve these little ones would be the very Sunday one of them begins to see Jesus as someone worth devoting their life to.
Precious members of FBC, there is a need and it involves the very ones that Jesus loved so much–children. We are hosting more and more ministry opportunities for adults that will require workers for the children of attendees and I don’t want us to have to hear someone say, “I can’t come because I have nowhere to leave my child.” I am ashamed that I have acted like the priest and the Levite for so long. I am asking Alan, by way of this email, to place my name on the list of nursery workers and hear me say, “I’ll help.” What about you, dear friend?
