I remember way back when I was in Bible college there was a chapel service where the speaker said something like the following: “I want everyone who is called to be a Christian school teacher stand up. Okay, now everyone who is called to be a missionary. An evangelist. Last, please stand if God has called you to be a pastor or pastor’s wife. Look around you everyone; these are God’s choice servants of the future. Lets give them a big hand. Thank God for each and every one of you.”
Although I have rarely seen it that blatant, I have seen that mindset perpetuated through the years. We have developed our own clergy/laity mindset. If one is the the “full time ministry” he is somehow better. We judge men by how many of their children enter this “full time ministry.” We have certainly swallowed this dichotomy of service in modern conservative evangelicalism.
Paul presents a whole different viewpoint, which he will develop in another place. It is pretty simple: we all have different gifts and we should use the gifts God gives us. No gift is greater and lesser than the other. A missionary or pastor is no more “God’s choice servant” than the office worker who faithfully serves the Lord or the mother and wife who tends her home.
As we grow in the Lord and study His word we find what gifts God has given us, teacher, proclaimer, exhorter, giver, or host; these are God’s choice servants.
All service for the Lord is full time. Maybe its time to give a big hand to those who have been forgotten. May we never forget “God’s choice servant” whether they use their gifts behind the pulpit, behind their desk, behind the wheel of their cars, or at the kitchen sink.
1 comment:
Hip Hip Hooray for the forgotten! Amen brother!
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