Motives

I watched as my neighbor down the road was attempting to move a treadmill into a van by himself.  Four different people passed by and watched as he struggled, with no success, to load it.  Eventually it dawned on me to walk over (I’m a little slow).  As I approached, I asked, "can I give you a hand with that" to which he replied, "no thanks, I'm good."  I stood back and continued to watch him as he planned his next move.  After another failed attempt I offered my assistance again.  He stopped, looked me over and asked, "why?"  Without being too proud of how I responded (because this doesn't happen often in my life), I said "you are my neighbor and if I needed help I would want you to offer it to me."  This caught him off guard enough to allow me to help him load the treadmill.  During this short task I learned that he had received help from a neighbor when moving into his home only to be robbed later by the same person.  He shared how he was slow to accept help because of this past incident.

How well do you offer help?  The more important question for those of you in ministry is how well do you accept help?  Many of us wonder what the motives are of those people offering to volunteer in our ministry area and we are often slow to respond to those people who offer assistance.  We remember past incidents where we have been "burned" and the pain from those situations resurface.  We begin to live in fear and rather than trusting God to send His chosen workers for the harvest we turn to our expectations of what a "good" volunteer should look like. By questioning the motives of people, over time we realize our ministry has little to no impact on the Kingdom of Heaven because we have no volunteer support.

I believe God calls us to carefully screen those who minister to our children and students.  I believe that we should pray and actively look for people who can plug-in and make a difference in our ministries.  I believe in having volunteers take a spiritual gift’s assessment and finding a place for them to serve that will allow them to use their gifts.  I believe there are people sitting in your church who are dying to help but don’t know how.  I believe that in order for me to trust people I must first put my trust and ministry in the hands of God and let Him lead.

I don't know where you are at in trusting people, but I do know that real ministry can only be accomplished as we invest in people and then turn them loose to carry the Good News to others.  Ministry by multiplication.