Jesus said take up your cross and follow me. A cross is not an easy thing to carry. A cross was a place for death, not a place of inconvenience.
In these days of increasingly demanding schedules, are we making volunteer ministry positions too easy to get persons to fill positions? I think in many situations we have done just that. I have done just that. I have heard myself say: saying yes to this position will not require much time; in fact if you will agree to help us we will make serving as easy as possible.
I am all for supplying people in ministry positions with the proper tools, however, I believe we cheapen and make the ministry seem insignificant by our trying to make it easy to serve.
Serving in a church, no matter the position will require sacrifice…that is a tough word…but it is a fact. It could be a sacrifice from our leisure activities or time from other church activities we are used to participating in. The sacrifice could be of loss of money.
The ultimate example we have for ministry was Jesus and what He did required sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice.
I believe it is time for us to communicate openly with those we recruit and say up front:
- Here is the job
- It requires this
- It will demand some sacrifice on your part
- It fits into the big picture of this ministry this way
- It fits into the mission of the church this way
- By saying yes you are agreeing to be accountable to a team leader
- By saying yes your ultimate accountability is to God
