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God calls everyone

During my first full year in ministry, I spent the whole 12 months preaching on the theme God calls everyone: finding our place in his great story. It was based around the book by Derek Walmsley. If you haven’t read it, then I can highly recommend it. The whole point was to remind ourselves (over and over again!) that there should be no back seat passengers in the life of the local church. That God calls each and every one of us to serve in some capacity within the body of Christ.

I feel it’s a message that we need to be reminded of on a regular basis. It’s all too easy to forget this fundamental truth and to believe that somehow God calls only those people who are visible and up the front on a Sunday morning – in particular the Minister, the Elders and so on. That’s definitely not the message we get from the Bible. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he reminds all of the church members there that “the Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others” (1 Corinthians 12:7, CEV). There are no exceptions or get-out clauses for specific individuals. The following verses contain a number of examples of how different people are called to serve within the church, all for the building up of the body of Christ. It’s not an exclusive list by any means. There are all kinds of ways we can each serve, and there is no hierarchy of gifts within the church. The individual who is housebound and supports our ministry through prayer is just as important as the people who lead worship on a Sunday morning.

So I want to issue a gentle challenge to those of you who have maybe taken a bit of a back seat and left the serving to others within the congregation. Take some time to read 1 Corinthians 12 yourself and pray about your own role here in Barrhead St Andrew’s. Talk with other Christians about your own gifts and how you can use them to build up the body of Christ. I would love to chat with you too if you feel that would be helpful. In particular, we really need some more people to step forward and serve on our Core Groups: Looking Up (Worship & Discipleship), Looking Out (Mission & Outreach), Looking In (Nurture & Fellowship), Fabric, and Finance & Stewardship. These Groups report directly to the Kirk Session and drive forward our Vision and Mission Strategy as a church. We have a number of people who have served faithfully for many years behind the scenes, and will be stepping aside at some point in the future. We need to honour their commitment by ensuring that we have strong, healthy groups to carry on their work. If you’re committed to the life of Barrhead St Andrew’s Church, then please do listen out for how God calls you to get involved and to use your own particular gifts.