The song captures exactly what it means to be the church. It’s you and me, working together, making sure that the church gets done everything that the church needs to do. And the church has a lot that needs to be done.
You see, being church is a lot like running a business. Like a business, there are officers and leaders who make sure that certain things get done. As a United Methodist, I know well the business of my church. At this time of year, churches are preparing for church conferences, and our district superintendents have forms, and more forms, and still more forms for local church leaders to fill out. My least favorite is the Report of Church Leadership.
This is part of the business of being church. There are certain responsibilities that leadership has to make sure are carried out; leadership has to identify the right person to put in each slot.
I for one am thankful for all the many people God has sent over the years to help this church be a church. I remember when God sent Jane to our congregation. Well, actually she’d been part of our church for a long time, but she had never really been part of any smaller group, like Sunday School or United Methodist Women and we didn’t know her that well. Jane contacted our lay leadership committee to let us know that she was retiring from her job as a banker; she wouldn’t mind getting involved a little more in the church.
She even had an idea for a new ministry. Jane noticed that several payday loan businesses have popped up in this area. Maybe you’ve seen the little building in the intersection 2 blocks down? She says that if someone is having an emergency, but doesn’t have good credit, they can’t get a loan at a bank. Quite a few with no where else to turn have taken out payday loans against their next paycheck. It’s one of the few legal scams left—someone borrows a hundred bucks, pays a $10 loan fee, but when they can’t pay it back at the end of the month they end up borrowing again, and paying another fee, and the next thing you know that poor soul owes thousands at an interest rate that’s exorbitant, 200% and higher.
Jane’s idea was to combine her contacts in the local banks and our church resources to offer financial counseling services and small loans to help these people break this cycle. We weren’t quite sure about this, it didn’t sound like a business our church usually participates in, but we formed a new committee and made her chair. She has reported her findings several times to our administrative council. She is a terrific committee chair: every time we have questions about what this ministry would look like, she comes back the next month with more answers.
In fact, we noticed right away how efficient and meticulous she is—I guess that’s to be expected from a banker—so we put her to work on the church newsletter. Yes, she was excellent: I don’t think our mailing labels have ever been straighter.
We realized we were wasting a valuable asset—with all her banking experience, maybe she could be a counter, counting the offering after worship service. Jane agreed, what a gal, and every Sunday she stays and counts until she gets the same balance 3 times. Not everyone would give up Sunday dinner with the family to make sure that the job is done right.
Jane has really made a difference in the fellowship of our church. The first time Jane showed up for one of our fellowship dinners on Wednesday nights, we realized how we could improve our system. We set up a table at the front of the serving counter, and Jane checked on whether people had a reservation and collected from those who had not yet paid. She’s a good worker. No one gets past Jane without paying for dinner.
You know, Jane’s really dependable. That’s why we asked her to be on the altar guild, making sure the church is cleaned and vacuumed before the Sunday morning services. It’s very important to have someone dependable on the altar guild…and on the trustees…because frankly, everyone else had already refused to be on the board of trustees, and Jane was the only one we could think of.
Jane is a good worker, we are so blessed that God sent her. It seems like she’s at the church every time you turn around. Well, you know that the Bible doesn’t describe anyone as retiring—except exempting Levites from heavy lifting once they reach a certain age—what else would Jane have done with all her time had she not been at the church? Sometimes she seems a little tired, but I know we’ve got several good years left in Jane.
Running a church is like running a business; it takes the right people in the right positions.
I wish that everyone God sent were as easy to get along with as Jane. Take Robert, for example. Well yes, go ahead and take him. (I know, bad joke.) I’m not sure he’s worth the trouble he’s been. We asked him to teach a Sunday School class. Nothing fancy—it’s an easy crowd, and they’re content if you just read aloud the Cokesbury curriculum.
Instead, Robert goes to some three-day Disciple training retreat and comes back all fired up wanting to start a Disciple Bible study program. To hear Robert tell it, this Disciple program is the greatest thing since sliced bread. The whole thing is probably just a stage Robert is going through. I guess everyone has to go through the phase where you read the Bible a lot.
In any case, there’s no money in this year’s budget to start a new program like Disciple. Even if he financed itself, I don’t know where Robert would hold his classes. He didn’t turn in a room reservation form by December 15, and all our classrooms are booked for the year. I know he’s excited about this Disciple Bible Study thing, but I’ve seen this enthusiasm before. It’ll pass.
What’s my job? In addition to my role on the lay leadership committee selecting which person goes on which line of the form for annual report, I help lead worship. I pray the prayers of the people. It’s an important job in our church—in fact, our church motto is that we are a house of prayer for all the nations. We even put that on our bulletin, just under the pastor’s cell phone.
This is how I lead our prayers. First, I tell everyone how glad I am to be with them on this beautiful Sunday morning. Then I ask if anyone has any joys or concerns. Mostly these tend to the concerns side, although every now and then someone raises their hand and says that their mother just turned 70 or they are celebrating their 1 ½ year wedding anniversary.
Usually there are no surprises. We have a telephone prayer tree, where whenever anyone has a prayer request they call the person at the top of the tree, who calls the next two, who call the next two, and so on down the line. So when Sunday morning comes around I already know that Jerry is going to ask for safe travels for his mother and JoAnn wants us to pray for her sister’s cousin’s brother-in-law, who is going to have surgery this week.
I give everyone plenty of time to say what they want me to pray for. Of course that fool Robert sits in the choir behind me—sometimes I think he waits until I turn with my back to the choir before he puts in his requests, like he’s trying to surprise me or something.
Then I ask everyone to bow their heads, and I pray the list of joys and concerns, making sure that everyone’s prayer request is said out loud and not leaving anyone out. I even add a prayer for the unspoken requests, just to be on the safe side. You just say what you want, doesn’t matter what nation you’re from, and we’ll pray it. If you call the prayer chain, we’ll pray your prayer twice.
We take running our church seriously; that means getting the right people in the right positions. It’s not an easy job, or one we take lightly, but we have been blessed: God has sent good people to fill our positions.
Sometimes I wonder if it’s all worth it; at times it seems as though we take one step forward, two steps backward. Talk someone into being on finance committee and next thing you know they’ve stopped coming to church. Course, some are still willing to put there names on the list saying that they’re on the committee. I guess that’s something.
I really don’t know how we’re going to keep up. Next week Anna is bringing her grandbaby to church to have her baptized, and you know what that means—we’ve got to find someone to work in the nursery now. I’ve left messages with everyone in the church directory but no one has returned my calls.
Still, I don’t mind, that’s part of my job: find the right person for every slot on the form. I know God will provide; God has sent us good people over the years to help us run this church. I’m even looking forward to the baptism service—the sermon is always shorter when the pastor knows there will be a baptism. But my favorite part is afterwards, when the pastor takes the baby and walks out into the congregation and holds that baby so everyone can see it
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