Why do Christians put themselves in a “Ministry” box? How many times have you heard someone say “That needs doing but it’s not my ministry”? This cartoon by Jon over at Asbo Jesus makes this point very well.

Thanks Jon for letting us mere mortals use your pictures…. (if you don’t know his work visit the site it will make you think!)

There are people in any church who like to point out the issues or things that “The church needs to do. X” but they are not willing to get off their lardy’s and do something about it themselves as they are not “called” to do it or it’s “not my ministry”.

These people often however aspire to great and grand things. They want to be recognised in their “ministry” field…”That Farquhar he is a real Prophet of God” or “Tarquin  he is a great pastor / teacher” or “there is no better kids work leader than Philomena”. They want the badge of office, yes they do have the heart for their “ministry” but often at the expense of serving where and when it is needed elsewhere.

Often it is the small jobs that don’t get done, or the dirty jobs or the unrecognised jobs that are done by those with a true serving heart. These people go un-noticed and often un-thanked.   They do the jobs that other people have no interest in.

 For example it might be cleaning the church building (hooving around people who are talking in the main auditorium and pretend you are not there or that you are a cockroach), car park duty (standing in the rain while people ignore you and pretend you are not there), serving tea and coffee (to people who have forgot their manners and never say please or thank you!),  or even PA (getting it in the neck from the “artists” on the stage, and being told to turn it up or down by the congregation). These are the guys that serve and there are an army of them out there.

If there is a need our response needs to be “Can I fill that need?” rather than pretending to be deaf.

People, like the woman in the picture above, often say they do not have the skills or ‘ministry’ to help, but in most serving roles that is cobblers. You might not be the best at it but you can at least try and think how you can help.

To highlight this I want to commend a friend of mine and a sometime commentator on this blog. In our old small group we used to provide three weeks of meals to new mums so that they did not have to worry about feeding themselves or their families. This meant each member of the group providing 1, 2 or 3 meals over that period. Now this chap cannot cook, he does do a mean Bolognese but thats about it, he likes good food but is not skilled in preparing it. So knowing this and not wanting to kill the recipient of his food, he thought about what he could do. Having given it some thought off he toddled to Tesco’s and purchased ready meals that could be frozen and taken out and cooked quickly and simply. He did not let his lack of culinary skills get in the way of serving.

We need to have a heart like that guy, who is willing to serve and willing to give it some thought if it is not his thing and try and come up with a way to help.

So it might not be your ministry, it might not be your calling, but you are called to serve and to be servants. Jesus did it we need to mirror what He did.