Sometimes you can’t be both efficient and effective.
I’ve been helping my son Jared wire his basement. It’s pretty simple,
homeowner sort of stuff, mostly pulling wires for outlets, and wiring an outlet
is about as simple as it gets. But Jared’s expertise is with trees, not
electricity, and he wants to understand how a house works and how to maintain
it, how to do work like this on his own. So this simple basement job feels like
it’s taking forever, because we work a little then we talk a little then
we work a little more, and he plugs away on it while I’m not there and
then waits for me to take a look at what he’s done before we power it
up. It’s not a very efficient way to get the job done - but in the end,
it’s more effective. By getting his hands dirty with this work, he’ll
learn from it, he’ll grow from it, and he’ll make that house his
own.
If efficiency means getting work done quickly, then we’re not always very
efficient at Good Shepherd. We could have simply purchased an altar, font and
lectern, rather than building our own; and we could hire people to do all the
work you do around here, rather than trying to involve more people in work by
administering and collating all those time and talent and spiritual gifts surveys
. We could be more efficient - but we wouldn’t be as effective. When you
get your hands dirty doing God’s work, you learn from it, you grow from
it, you build your faith from it, and you that faith becomes your own.
So we’re still plugging along with those surveys you completed during
our time and talents emphasis in Lent. We introduced the data at the congregational
retreat in March, and we’re following up with training sessions for readers,
communion assistants and worship leaders for those who expressed an interest
in those ministries. Using the spiritual gifts surveys taken during the Simple
Suppers in Lent, we’ve formed an Administrators Group to better organize
your church’s ministries and call folks into those ministries. If you
turn to the page titled God’s Work, Our Hands in this issue of the Shepherd’s
Song, you’ll find a complete list of our ministries, committees, organizations
and work groups, and the committee chair or contact person for each.
Stay tuned, my friends. There is a place for your gifts in this church, a place
where you will find Christ more near. We just need to keep working on more effective
ways to help you find the work God built you to do.
Pastor Jim
The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for
the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ
Ephesians 4:11-12
From the Shepherd's Song Newsletter -- May 2010
Copyright 2010 by Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
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E-mail your comments and questions to Pastor Jim in care of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church at good.shep-holland@sbcglobalnet.