Stewardship of Time and Efforts

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 6

In those days, as the disciples were increasing in number, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. The Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “It would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” This proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a convert from Antioch. They had them stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.

Friends, we’re in a very peculiar and interesting time as Americans. As of the recording of this message, 8 states have not gotten to the threshold where they can “call” the election in that state for one Presidential Candidate over the other. While this is nothing new in elections—it feels raw and new to us because of all the emotions that went into this election and will continue after this election.

Please allow me to share some thoughts for us all:

In an election we can expect that our leaders will be decided, for our country. This does not mean that the leaders of our hearts are decided. That is an individual choice and one that we frankly need to make every single day. My hope and trust is that as Christians, you all have made that decision to allow Jesus to be the guide for your heart and the compassion you find there. Frankly, if we allow either President Trump or Former VP Biden to guide our hearts we will miss the mark of heaven by several million miles.

I hope that you all voted and voted your conscious—just as I did. I’m also sure that people in our congregation voted differently, but that, again, should not dictate anything for us. What should dictate our life and our actions are the teachings and example of a wandering rabbi some 2000 years ago that showed himself through many signs and wonders and finally his resurrection from the dead to be the Son of God, our Messiah, and the Christ—our Savior.

I’ve spoken more and written more on this topic, but I’ll end these remarks with this: whether your candidate will win or will lose, our challenge as Christians is to create space for the in-breaking Kingdom of God here on earth now—and that stands above and apart of any political force in America today. The work that has been assigned to us is the same that it was 1 month ago, one year ago, and one decade ago. Continue to live out your life as a Christian, and everything else will just fall in line.

So today, lets talk about service.

In our Membership vows we committed to supporting the church by our prayer, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Service and witness go hand in hand, but we need to evaluate them separately.

Much like the encouragement offered above in regards to our election response, just because we’ve hit a milestone of sorts does not mean that the journey is over. For instance:

Just because you’ve perhaps already “done your time” in a Sunday School class when your kids were younger does not mean that your gifting and therefore responsibility to steward that talent is over.

Just because you helped with VBS one year doesn’t mean that the gift of service you have to be administrative for ministries is over.

Just because you came and volunteered for that one thing on that one Saturday means that the challenge and the opportunity to continue in service is over.

I’d like to briefly look at two things in this passage, and then read for us another passage of Scripture, this time from Paul, to remind us just of our place in the body of Christ.

First, with this passage from Acts—notice that the people already had jobs.

There were some, the Apostles, that had as a roll the teaching and prayer for the church

If we look back earlier in Acts, we see that the whole population of believers had mutual responsibility for each other—to share all things in common and to care for each other. Further, when they gathered it was common in the early church for everyone to bring something encouraging to share with the body—they all participated actively in worship.

But now, even now in Acts, things change as the dynamics around them change. When a new ministry is identified and needed they do not expect that the Apostles would simply add on to what they are already doing, but they appoint people who are capable and have talents for the task at hand to fulfill the need.

Friends, as a church body, this is something that we can do better at. There’s a saying that is quoted often but not lamented enough that 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. It seems to be a reality, and it seems to be always present, but why don’t we do anything about it?

You know what this attitude leads to? Burnout and long-term cessation of ministries. We become a “flavor of the month” crowd that adopts a ministry and then fails to keep it going long term either because volunteers decide that they’ve “done their time” or because leaders burnout or a combination of the two.

It probably would not take a considerable amount of mental gymnastics for y’all to come up with your own list of things that fit this bill within our own church. It happens all the time, but it should not happen.

Another potential problem that occurs…the church identifies a need, or a person identifies a need, or the pastor identifies a need and the church agrees that something should be done, so the pastor starts something and then ends up doing most if not all the work. Friends, this is a pattern that is so common around the world of American churches that its almost like its a cultural expectation. Which it probably is. After all, what do churches pay pastors for if not to do the work of the church?

The attitude that we can give of our tithes and offering instead of our time and service is toxic and should be rooted out. Conversely, the attitude that we can give of our time and service instead of our tithes and offerings is also toxic. When we become a Christian God doesn’t ask us for a portion of our life and a portion of our heart—in face we’re told that God is a JEALOUS God who has ZEAL for us and wants everything that we have.

Frankly, the idea that our service to be God is something that we can outsource either to another person or a pastor or a ministry or another church is distinctly unChristian. Unfortunately, it’s distinctly American, which is why it’s so difficult for us. Like most things in our life, we’re being called to determine and make a commitment about where our first loyalty lies. When it comes to our nation and God, are we a Christian American or an American Christian? What’s the primary noun for us?

The challenge is not to live apart from the world around us, the challenge is to live in the world but not be corrupted and defiled by the world. Instead, just as holiness and healing flowed from Jesus to the woman suffering from bleeding—she was made clean, not Jesus made dirty—our life in the world should bring about life, instead of the world bringing death. And a big part of it comes back to our service to God through the church we’ve been called to be a part of.

So practically, what does that mean for individuals today, especially in the time of COVID:

Volunteer at our Food Pantry

Volunteer to come in and help sanitize spaces and get ready for when we can re gather in person

Share the service video on facebook, or through email

Call a friend that you used to see at church and check in with them

Write a card to one of our families or one of our older members

Call someone in the church and offer to make them dinner and bring it over to them

As a church community, what are ways that we can be in service and commit together:

First we will always continue to meet needs as they arise…and this is the challenge and our commitment, that we will meet needs that show up, not that we want to meet. The Apostles didn’t create a problem and then start to meet it in Acts, they recognized a problem and then corporately got together to meet the need.

Church, we have much growth as individuals and as a community to go through on this. But we can do it together.

Will you pray with me?