I know I don't know you, but I'm pretty sure you're inadequate

Have to have a bit of a rant here. The girls and I went to church this morning (Conor has decided it's boring and stayed home). Not all bad. It's mothers day and they gave out raffle tickets to the moms and I scored a gift certificate for a manicure and pedicure, which is one of my favourite pampering things. I felt responsive to the worship music, and some of the sermon connected with things I am going through in my life.

But there is one thing that is sticking in my craw. The pastor said that as much as the church community has done a lot of good things, he feels sad that we are not reaching our true potential, that some people still feel they're here to be served and not to serve. And he talked about things we could be doing to serve the church.

I thought, How do you know that people think they are here to be served? Has anyone told you that? He seemed to use attendance at church functions to rate whether or not he thought someone was truly serving.

Dennis Bakke had some interesting points to make in his book Joy at Work on how the church views people's use of their gifts and talents:

While churches generally do a good job helping people with religious
matters, they often overlook the secular roles we fulfill at God's behest. Some
jobs are wrongly considered more pleasing to God than others. The result is an
institutional church that misses the opportunity to adequately prepare the
majority of its members for the important roles they should play in the
world.

I wonder if the church I'm attending has the mindset in which the only ministry that is valued is what they themselves started and lead. I'm wondering if there are a lot of people who serve in ways that God has called them to, things like shovelling the driveway of an elderly neighbour, volunteering in their child's classroom, coaching soccer, taking a hurting friend out for coffee, but if those same people aren't seen in the official ministries of the church they are seen as just being there to be served, rather than being there to be encouraged so that they can continue to serve. This is not to say that the official ministries of the church - like food bank, leading children and youth classes, helping with parking - are not valuable. But I think in some churches, there needs to be a broader recognition of where ministry happens, and less judgement of people who don't fit the mold.