Friday, May 6, 2011

the church has no volunteers - oh my

hey, did you hear the news, the church has no volunteers. nope, not a one, what are we going to do??? but don’t be alarmed, there’s nothing to worry about. yep, absolutely nothing to worry about because the church doesn’t need volunteers. the reason for that is because we have more then enough ministers to do all the work of the church.

see my friends, Jesus never called anyone to be a volunteer. in fact you will not find the word “volunteer” in any of the gospels in the new testament. Jesus doesn’t want volunteers. The army and rotary club call for volunteers, but Jesus calls disciples.

a disciple is someone who response to Jesus’ call to follow Him, in fact that’s what the word disciple means – one who follows. and Jesus calls His disciples to follow His example. there's a story in john’s gospel where Jesus washes the feet of His followers and says to them, “I have given you example, do as I have done - serve one another.”

Jesus came as a servant to humanity, and bids us to follow Him and become servants too. so if you are a follower (disciple) of Christ, then you are a servant too. and did you know that the word “minister” comes from the Latin “to serve”, so a minister is a servant, and all Christ’s true followers are therefore ministers. yep, the church is chock full of ministers – me, you, the guy who sits next to you in the pew, the woman handing you the hammer at a mission project, the girl standing next to you in the praise band or choir, all of us – ministers of Christ, called to serve one another, and to serve God by participating in God's work of healing our broken hearts and broken world.

so the next time someone asks you to volunteer to do something for the church, just tell them, “sorry i’m not a volunteer, i’m a minister of Christ - so what is it you need me to do?”

© 2011 Halley Low

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

living outside the cocoon

life in Christ is like the life of a caterpillar after it emerges from it’s cocoon transformed into something new and beautiful. the transformation takes place within the silent stillness of the cocoon, but if the caterpillar doesn’t brake out of the cocoon and fly up into the sunlight, the beauty of its wings will never be realized, and the freedom of its new life never experienced. it will never embrace the flowers, drinking of their nectar and assisting them in their process of pollination. if it chooses to stay in the silent safety of the cocoon the caterpillar will have only lived half a life. if it chooses to stay in the cocoon it will separate itself from life and die of hunger.

sadly, too many people follow the path of the reluctant caterpillar, crawling along until they find a comfortable spot then wrapping themselves in a private cocoon. within their personal cocoon they “get stuck”, perhaps by fear or hurt, yet whatever the reason their transformation stops short of realization, and inwardly they die of hunger a little more each day.

this is sad, for Christ came that we might have “life abundantly”. through His resurrection Jesus broke out of the cocoon and bids us to follow Him into the process of living abundantly; as life in abundance can only be lived outside of the cocoon. to stay in the cocoon is to remain separated and isolated, to live outside the cocoon is to live in connection and relationship.

living in connection is living in reciprocity. living in connection with the whole of creation means being part of something greater than oneself. living in connection with God empowers us to move from one point of being to a new point of being progressively, and not just for our individual sakes but for all that we touch in the interactive process of living in Christ. think about the butterfly, it takes life in the form of nectar from the flower and gives new life in the form of pollination to flowers yet to unfold. this is Christ’s invitation to all people – to break out of the old, to live boldly in the new, to take each moment as an opportunity to give and through the giving received more then we had before.

the essence of a christian life is a life that is connected, interactive and inter-dependent. no one can be a christian in isolation. Jesus didn’t come to guide us in a way of individualistic or narcissistic mysticism; He came to create a new and universal community, to open eyes that have been blinded by self-centeredness in order to see the glory of God that surrounds us and to take part in that glory, to heal hearts of loneliness by giving of Himself that we may have life and have it abundantly.

living in Christ is not about sitting in the corner reciting “praise Jesus” all day, rather living in Christ is about engaging life in all its grandeur, and even its brokenness, for engagement is true praise. living in Christ is about being part of the process of healing and transformation that flows from the heart of God manifesting in our actions. this is why when Jesus was told that His mother and brothers were waiting for Him, He responded “my mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” the word of God is active and creative and calls us to action, not to standing about waiting, but to be connected to the work of God – for God’s word and God’s work are one. “be not a hearer of the word but a doer”, follow Jesus out of the cocoon and live connected that you may have an abundant life; remembering that abundance is not about quantity but quality. for as a wise man said long ago – “it is in giving that we receive, in forgiving that we are forgiven, and in dying to self that be are born to true life”.

© 2011 Halley Low