Dear Friends,
Who Will Move the Chairs?
The satellite church had moved into its new location. The first week a team of eight volunteers packed chairs, tables, and audio-visual equipment into a 20-foot trailer and moved it from the main campus to the satellite location. At the end of the service, the team packed everything back into the trailer and returned it to the main campus. All totaled, the team spent about eight hours making sure everything was taken care of.
By the third week, the team had dropped from eight to six members.
By the fourth week, it was a team of four.
Moving the chairs can be back-breaking work. Chairs are heavier then they look, so arranging seating for one hundred worshippers is not a job for “light-weights.” The team of four, it turned out, was not made up of men you’d expect to see in a weight-lifting contest. One was seventy-five; one was sixty-two, the other two were younger, but not so young as to make the chair detail a walk in the park, so it was not an unreasonable request when the team leader asked several men who were standing by if they would be willing to help.
His request prompted a cascade of excuses. “I have to check on my kids in the nursery.” one explained.
Another responded, “I was planning to meet with the pastor.”
“I’m heading up a small group.” was the response of one young man whose small group would be starting the following month.
The man who shared this story with me was one of the four remaining members of the chair-moving team. He was frustrated, hurt, and ready to not only quit the team, but to change churches.
Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Luke 10:2b
Do you have gifts you can use as a worker in the harvest field? 1 Corinthians 12:28 identifies “helping” as one of the gifts: God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.
The men who stood by while the team of four handled the set-up probably hadn’t thought about the fact that they do indeed have the gift of chair moving … and the gift of picking up trash and the gift of packing boxes. It’s called the gift of Helping.
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 1 Peter 4:10
Even picking up bulletins and replacing hymnals in their holders is a form helping — serving … and serving is a form of worship.
All of us can serve. Maybe your talents are in the area of encouraging; you can offer a hug or a comforting word to someone who is hurting. Maybe your gift is hospitality; you can be a greeter or simply take the time to welcome someone who is new to your church.
Take counsel from 1st Corinthians: There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. 1 Corinthians 12:4-6
A pastor with a good message can make members and visitors happy they came, but it’s often the people in the chairs (pews) who can make them want to come back.
Blessings,
Your Friends in Christ
Because He Loves Us Press 