Church Drains: The Epidemic of the Worthless Servant Pt. 1

Imagine you find a church you enjoy....the music is pretty good and the preaching is awesome...it's probably your fourth or fifth time going...you pile up the kids, remembering that your occasionally hyperactive 7 year-old invites his occasionally hyperactive 7-year old friend...so he comes too...but you're cool because the children's church is good as well...aaaaannnd you get there to find there's no children's church this Sunday.  It turns out that of the 5,000 members that attend, the church couldn't scrape together 20 that could replace the usual 20 that serve in that ministry...every Sunday...for uncountable consecutive number of Sundays.  That team had been wanting to take a break since last year, but they couldn't because there were no replacements.  They did all they thought was necessary to solicit help in the children's ministry.  But out of the large number of teachers and daycare workers that attend that church, none of them felt the need or desire to serve.  You start to feel bad...and then judgmental.  Thoughts like, this big church can't keep a children's thing going and how they gonna just leave parents hanging like that swarm through your head.  And these thoughts must be heavy, too; because never did you think that in the 20 years of you going to church(es) you haven't even asked if anyone needed any help.

There's not a clever way to write this up...you 'gotta-get-the-word-for-this-week' types are the worst ever.  You take up valuable air.  You patronize the system of growth.  You are selfish.  You are dull.  You are near-sighted.  You are the worthless servant.  You think you're an exceptional Christian because you're second row, shouting and amen-ing at every other sentence your pastor says.  Not knowing that your pastor is hoping you won't show up a few times so a non-believer can get that seat and receive something that will improve their life....since you refuse to help in the improvement of others.  In fact, that's all you think of Christianity...a life-improvement strategy.  And in a way, you're right...but you left out the part that a life gets improved when a person makes an effort to help another life. You believe the 'what God has for me is for me' lie.  Yet you disregard the truth in Matthew 28:18-20...that God looks for the bold servant and not the scared sitter.  Yeah I know the joke is people gotta pay to hear the word, but you actually should pay.

How did you get so cold in your heart to think that a system put in place since the beginning of time (a relationship with Christ, not church businesses) is all about your relationship(s), your finances, your possessions, your family?  Who convinced you that church was a production merely for your fleeting entertainment needs?  Well...I think I know that answer, I digress.  What happened that made you believe being a worthless servant to be logical?  When you look at the passage about being that...worthless...you should notice that the three people were identified as servants...meaning no one was a patron.  Yet somehow you consider yourself to be.

So...you've been Saved...or at least affiliated with Christ...years before you started taking hourly pictures of yourself.  You've got undeniable talents and gifts that only come around once every three generations.  You can literally change the world.  But apparently you go to church only to check in, post a fairly descent quote, and take more selfies.  Stop being worthless.  You're much more than getting your emotional needs soothed.  Your personality is just what a non-believer needs to become one.  You're maturity supersedes just getting a message without living it so someone else can get through.  You should be serving.  You should be sowing into someone else's life.  You should be conducting the mission and heart of your pastor.  But you're just leeching.  More than likely, because you aren't serving in a church body you probably aren't serving in "the real world" either.  Like at church, you're just taking up space.

Next Sunday, ask where you can help.  Inquire about what ministries could use a body.  Even before you go to church, instead of praying about "your enemies", pray about your own gifts and talents and where they can best be used in the place where you've been sucking up oxygen for a couple years now.  At the least...show up without the attitude of just showing up.  If you love your pastor like you claim, I'm sure he or she would appreciate you actually serving instead of looking all googly-eyed in their face every Sunday.  Just do something.  Well, talk more about this later...

(Sorry for the overuse of the word "you", but, you know...)