Over the past couple of days I’ve been watching a shingling crew re-shingle the house across the road. Now granted it’s not the largest home, but in less than two days the job was finished. It was kind of fun to watch them since it was very clear the crew of five men each knew their responsibilities; in fact they functioned so well together I really couldn’t tell who was leading.
As they arrived on Thursday morning, a couple of guys quickly spread out the tarp to keep the debris from falling in the shrubs and landscaping around the house. One man drove the Telehandler with the work platform to the edge of the roof while the other two men set ladders and carried the tools for removing the shelves on to the roof.
Within a couple of hours they had the majority of old shingles off and as there was less room to work on removing the old shingles, two of the men started prepping for the new shingles. And then, with the use of a couple of nail guns, they had the roof re-shingled in an hour and half. And again, as there was less room to work on the roof, the others began cleaning up around the job site and before you knew it, they were packed up and on to the next job. Each person was equally important to the completion of the project.
(By the way, if my sermon isn’t that good this week, it was because I was watching the roofers while doing my sermon prep.) J
Watching the roofing project reminded me about God’s intent for the Church, each person is equally important in completing the good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do. I Corinthians 12 reminds us that, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts…in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them just as he wanted them to be…”
And just like each person on the roofing crew had his own responsibility unique to his gifting and talents, so it is with each person in our congregation. Because of your unique gifting and talents, God has placed you into this expression of his Church in Luverne.
Paul writes it this way in Romans 15:5-9 (The Message), “So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.
6-8If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate; if you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.”
I praise God for the opportunity to work alongside of you in his kingdom, but I also realize that not every one of you feels like you have an important part to play. Well, one of my passions is to help people discover the joy of using their God given gifts. So if you’re not sure where you fit into the mission of ARC, please let me know, and we will get you plugged into meaningful kingdom work. May we never forget that God chose each one of us to bear fruit. Help wanted, Mike