The elders of our church recently had to ask someone to no longer attend Westside Bible Church. This person's name?  - 'someone Else.?

Recently too many people at our church have been counting on Someone Else to do the work of some of our ministries that require a team of volunteers.  This is not to say that there aren't a good number of people at the church carrying out individual ministries and roles, but other programs and needs at the church - such as Sunday school, junior church, junior and senior high youth groups, church cleaning and more - require a team of people to make them truly successful.  When increasing numbers of church members and attendees depend on Someone Else to do these ministries, the toll is a gradual drain of discouragement on those who have agreed to lead them.

During our elders? recent search for deacons and deaconesses to head up some of our church's team based ministries, we ran into some walls of unwillingness.  The walls encountered were not unwillingness to serve by leading but rather unwillingness to run ministries alone or understaffed.  This is not surprising.  In reality, when too many people leave to Someone Else what they could do (or at least try) themselves, it is leaders who feel the burden and pressure to take on extra.  And too often they do.

To replace Someone Else, the Elders have visited with and are recommending that ?Nobody? be made a member of the church.  Nobody has gladly agreed to do what others can do but aren't.  Now when there aren't enough people to teach Sunday school or junior church on a given Sunday, Nobody will teach the children.  Likewise, if not enough people volunteer to clean the church for a certain week or on a work day, Nobody will be tidying it up.  Nobody will also run our youth groups if others don't volunteer to help sponsor and plan their meetings.

Some might wonder why we would let Nobody do so much when with Someone Else at least there is a chance of something actually getting done.  The answer is this.  Church ministry, done in service to Christ, is about people not programs.  When ministry is left to Someone Else, there can be a lot of activity by a few, but the few also pay a heavy price and in the end using those few people to run a program is simply immoral.  At Westside Bible Church we don't use people up to do things in the name of God.  We would rather, and we will, let Nobody do it all and let some be accountable to God for not doing what they should have.

Pastor Tim Davis, Copyright 2004
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Pastor Tim has retired from pastoring local churches and is now working alongside his wife to help refugees and persecuted Christians.

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