Full disclosure, definitely staged the photo attached to this blog, but it was in the middle of moping.
I try to mop the fellowship hall of the church building at least once every two months, but I probably should do it more often. You see, the floor in the fellowship hall often gets ignored and dirty, so I sweep and mop. For some it might seem weird that mopping is part of the work of my ministry here at FCC, but I find it comforting. You see, ministry is rated as one of the most stressful jobs and my age group of ministers has the highest rate of burnout and leaving ministry, and I do not want that to happen to me. So, one of the ways I deal with stress is to clean, and the sweeping and mopping has a nice rhythm that really gets you centered.
But you see, this is not the only thing I do. Recently, anyone who comes to church campus in person will notice changes in wall colors and other things of the likes. These are all projects that I take on to work on improving the space. While I don't believe the building is the most important thing to ministry, it is one of the tools that we have and that we must take care of. So, in keeping with the message from Sunday, my care of the building is part of what I do to keep myself humble. I am not too important to clean something, or paint something or fix something or move something. I am a follower and servant of Christ.
But, of course, ministry is not about cleaning and the likes, it is about caring for others, teaching others and sharing the Good News of Jesus, which is not something we can do alone. Within our church community, all of us do ministry in some form or another, we all serve in different ways. There is no way the entire church ministry could rely on just the recognized minister, instead we all must recognize we are all ministers in our own ways and accept God's calling to do our work. And the community does not stop at the local congregation, we are part of a region that works to do Jesus work in this world through Global Mission Partners, assisting congregations with needs, building community across distance so that we know we are not alone in the work we do. And beyond the region there is a General Church, that has even more resources, and supports the education of ministers and ministries here in the US and around the world.
You see, faith is not just a one person act, it is not even a two person act. Faith is coming together as community (local, regional, general and global) to do the work of ministry. The sad thing for me is that I hear of groups actively seeking to break apart our communities. People and groups that are intentionally trying to separate us from one another, and they are doing it under the guise that being part of a larger community is not biblical. But you see, Jesus' ministry was not just him, he had his Disciples and his other followers (Mary, Martha, Lazarus, etc..), he had this great community that continued to grow and expand and do great things for others. So we must remember that as we do the work of ministry.
We are stronger when we are together, we can do more when have our community with us. Let us all take up our ministry mantels and do the work our Savior Jesus has called us to do. Let us be the Church, the body of Christ, locally, regionally, and around the world.
Amen and Thank You,
Mat
