I heard one day about a man who came to visit a Lutheran church with his wife so they could "check out" the church for themselves. After the service he received a customary, "Hi, how are you?" greeting from the pastor on the "hand-shaking line," but no one else said a word to them. In fact, no one even asked them their names.
Nevertheless, in spite of this rather "under-whelming" welcome, the couple came back to the church and worshipped there several times, eventually becoming members of the congregation after they had informed the pastor that they were new in town and were bona-fide Lutherans from somewhere else.
Some time went on until one day, the man received a phone call from the Head Usher who had noticed that he and his wife always came to church well-groomed and well-dressed. They were asked if they would consider joining the ushers team and make themselves available to serve on a rotation basis every month or two.
They graciously accepted the invitation and came for training, and finally they began "serving" in the church.
One day, almost by accident, the Head Usher asked the man about his daily occupation. He shared that he was the Head of Surgery at the prestigious University Hospital in their city. The Head Usher was shocked to hear that this man had such enormous responsibility and was known internationally as a great surgeon. He was also a bit embarassed that he had asked this gifted person to serve as an usher. "Why didn't you say something about who you were?" he asked this doctor.
The man replied, "because nobody asked me."
There are probably very few churches in our synod that have such prestigious members who go unnoticed, yet this story reminds us that one of the reasons are churches are not growing is that we often fail to take seriously the enormous gifts that people bring with them when they take part in the life of our Christian communities.
Why is that? I suggest that it's because we simply don't take the time to find out or to help people discover the gifts God has given them.
What gifts do you have from God? What "biblically-based" gifts do you have? Check out the survey found at http://archive.elca.org/evangelizingchurch/assessments/spiritgifts.html. When you have a few minutes, fill it out and then print out the results so you can share them with your class. How well does the survey describe you?
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My thoughts on this passage are mixed. I do strongly feel that it is an honor and a privilege to share our spiritual gifts on the premise that to keep them we have to give them away (they are of no use contained and bottled up). However-I do not feel that due to ones professional or social position any possible work within the Church should ever be considered "lesser" or even "menial". Some of the greatest jobs I have had in the Church whereby I was able to give time and talent included landscaping and mowing the lawn, performing volunteer sexton functions-cleaning the facilities and making minor repairs as well as ushering, have all allowed me at one time or another to come into contact with people and hence permit a discussion of faith and just interact with other Christians and sometimes non-believers as well. Today the gifts I cherish and choose to develop are working with youth as confirmation teacher, serving on the altar as assisting minister and reaching out to others via Bible Study and Prayer-Care-Share groups within my congregation. I love writing about my faith and how much it means to me and have spoken frequently on faith issues, as well as having been asked to prepare and present a few homilies as well. I also enjoy sharing my faith with my coworkers which is a challenge I took up about two years ago because of fear of sharing my faith story out of fear of rejection. I found the opposite to be true and in fact find that people seek me out to share with me and ask for my opinion and counsel. I have learned that we all have spiritual gifts and talents, and have come to treasure Paul's description of the many different parts of the body all having immense value. I am grateful to feel called in a number of different directions now and eagerly await further opportunities to serve the Lord!!
ReplyDeleteI think the great thing about this story is the fact the surgeon, who does hold a prestigious title, did serve as an usher regardless. Serving God in any fashion is a gift, not an embarassment.
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