How to Avoid Having to Serve
_ One of the
dangers of attending church is that eventually you’ll get pressed into service.
That can be avoided. Here is the plan.
Don’t show up. If you hang around church long enough, you figure out that it is the people who faithfully attend who are picked for service. So the simplest and the surest way to avoid service is simply don’t be faithful. Do not attend church too many Sundays in a row. Skip a Sunday now and then. Even better, skip every third Sunday or miss every other Sunday.
Don’t criticize. If you make the mistake of being too consistent in your attendance, whatever you do, don’t criticize anything that’s done. If you criticize something, someone may get the idea that you have a better idea. That’s a sure-fire way to be drafted. They’ll give you the job of implementing your superior idea! So it is a bad idea to criticize anything that can be improved.
Don’t do a good job. If you should have the misfortune of showing up and making the mistake of making a suggestion for making something better and you are given the job, whatever you do, don’t do a good job. That will ensure that you will either keep that job or you will be given more work to do.
There is, of course, another possibility.
Show up. Now there is a biblical idea. The writer to the Hebrews speaks of “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” (Heb. 10:25). Be faithful in being with God’s people.
Sign up. Wow! There is another biblical idea. The writer to the Hebrews says, “Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works” (Heb. 10:24). Don’t just show up to warm a pew. Sign up to serve others when you get there. Don’t just ask what your church can do for you; ask what you can do for those in your church.
Serve well. Notice that we are to stir up others to good works. Let us do a good job doing good works.
So, here are the options: avoid serving, don’t do a good job -- or as you serve others, do the best you can as unto the Lord.
In order to help us make the right decision, the writer to the Hebrews says “so much the more, as you see the day approaching” (Heb. 10:25). If all we do is consider our creature comforts or current circumstances, we will serve our own interest. But if we remember that He is coming, we will sacrificially serve.
If we don’t serve, we will arrive at the judgment Seat of Christ empty-handed. If we serve the Lord by serving others, we will arrive at the Judgment Seat with a fist full of crowns. You make the call.
© G. Michael Cocoris, Februry20, 2011
Don’t show up. If you hang around church long enough, you figure out that it is the people who faithfully attend who are picked for service. So the simplest and the surest way to avoid service is simply don’t be faithful. Do not attend church too many Sundays in a row. Skip a Sunday now and then. Even better, skip every third Sunday or miss every other Sunday.
Don’t criticize. If you make the mistake of being too consistent in your attendance, whatever you do, don’t criticize anything that’s done. If you criticize something, someone may get the idea that you have a better idea. That’s a sure-fire way to be drafted. They’ll give you the job of implementing your superior idea! So it is a bad idea to criticize anything that can be improved.
Don’t do a good job. If you should have the misfortune of showing up and making the mistake of making a suggestion for making something better and you are given the job, whatever you do, don’t do a good job. That will ensure that you will either keep that job or you will be given more work to do.
There is, of course, another possibility.
Show up. Now there is a biblical idea. The writer to the Hebrews speaks of “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” (Heb. 10:25). Be faithful in being with God’s people.
Sign up. Wow! There is another biblical idea. The writer to the Hebrews says, “Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works” (Heb. 10:24). Don’t just show up to warm a pew. Sign up to serve others when you get there. Don’t just ask what your church can do for you; ask what you can do for those in your church.
Serve well. Notice that we are to stir up others to good works. Let us do a good job doing good works.
So, here are the options: avoid serving, don’t do a good job -- or as you serve others, do the best you can as unto the Lord.
In order to help us make the right decision, the writer to the Hebrews says “so much the more, as you see the day approaching” (Heb. 10:25). If all we do is consider our creature comforts or current circumstances, we will serve our own interest. But if we remember that He is coming, we will sacrificially serve.
If we don’t serve, we will arrive at the judgment Seat of Christ empty-handed. If we serve the Lord by serving others, we will arrive at the Judgment Seat with a fist full of crowns. You make the call.
© G. Michael Cocoris, Februry20, 2011