Taking the Lead

The other night I was locking up at the church and I stumbled upon a group of people assembling Marshmallow Angels, and as Wesley would have said, "I felt my heart strangely warmed." You see, it was a mission team that I talked with a few weeks ago and they were working on our church's Angel Tree. Last year's Angel Tree coordinator decided that she didn't want to lead the ministry again this year and so it looked like no one was going to do it, but then I got a phone call. Not just one phone call--two! (It's so cool to see God at work) Two separate groups, completely unaware that anyone else was expressing any interest in the project, stepped forward and volunteered to lead this ministry. And lead it they did!

The first group quickly felt a passion for Seniors. Realizing that so many Christmas projects are about kids, they decided they wanted to show God's love to some local seniors. So after giving them the name of a friend of mine who works at a local retirement home, they picked up the ball and ran with it. Likewise, the second group quickly latched onto the idea of supplying presents to single mothers who could then gift them to their kids as their own. Again, I gave them the number of a friend of mine at the Bethesda Mission and they moved. God is Great! In all it looks like we may serve 75 people this year! It's a huge win!

And so the other night, that crew of busy elves was my missions team hard at work. And do you want to know the coolest part? I didn't have to do a thing. Yeah, I know...Jason--get off your butt you lazy bum! Don't worry, I have plenty to do, but I was excited because I could see that I did my job well. As a pastor it is my job "to equip the saints for ministry," and as I stood in the conference room the other night, I knew that I had done just that. Those people were equipped, energized, and led by the Spirit, and my job was to get out of the way. And all God's people said--Praise Him!