As a father of ten children, I read a lot to my children. When they are young, they like me to read little kids’ books, many of which are designed to teach children lessons about life. Many of these nursery rhymes and folk-tales have tremendous application to the local church, but perhaps none is greater than “The Little Red Hen.”
In this story, the little red hen finds a grain of wheat. Instead of eating it right away, she decides to plant it so that it will grow and produce more wheat. All along the way she asks for help. No one wants to help plant the wheat, no one wants to help reap the wheat, no one wants to help take it to the mill, no one wants to help turn the flour into dough, and no one wants to help bake the bread. However, as soon as the bread is out of the oven, everyone is willing to help her eat the bread.
A while back I heard of a restaurant in our area that had closed. My initial reaction was sadness; it served good food. However, I soon realized that I had not eaten there in close to five years. In other words, the restaurant closed in part because I did not eat there. I said I liked the restaurant, I just did not care enough to actually sustain it as a business. So it is with the local church. Everyone wants a great local church to attend. However, very few are willing to put in the work required to make it great. As soon as the church is finally doing well, everyone wants to show up and enjoy the harvest. However, that is the exact reason why so many churches are not doing well.
Imagine a church with 100 people. If everyone does their part, everyone serves equally, and the church operates at 100% strength. If one person stops, someone else must double their effort for the church to continue at 100%. The same goes for giving. If one person does not give, someone else must give twice as much. The more people there are who check out, the more stress is placed on those who remain. What happens when 70% of the church does not serve or give? It is cataclysmic.
The ones who do not give or serve now are dead weight that the rest of the congregation must carry. The people who have stopped contributing have not stopped taking. They are not merely dead weight; they are now leeches sucking the life out of those who continue to give and serve. Ultimately the church will reach a critical loss where it cannot survive. The remaining workers will burn out, and the decline will accelerate exponentially as each remaining worker must assume a heavier and heavier load.
The opposite is true. When one person steps up, the load on another person is diminished significantly. This enables them to serve better. Just think what would happen if the music team had another two hours a week to practice or if the pastor had another four hours a week to prepare his sermon. What if the children’s workers came into the room energized from rest instead of exhausted from overwork? How quickly would the church improve for all people? Where is that time going to come from? It comes from each person choosing to do their part. When people and budgets are not stretched thin, it makes a significant difference in the quality of the work the body of Christ is able to do.
So, what are you? Are you a consumer or a producer? Do you contribute or only take away? I understand the reasons people do not give of their time, energy, or money. However, have you stopped to consider anyone else other than yourself? Does you pastor’s wife not have kids to raise, too? Doesn’t your pastor need a break, too? Don’t the nursery workers get tired, too? Are you really the only one who has been squeezed financially? Do you really think that no one else is busy? Do you really believe that no one else wanted to sleep in? Yes, you have bills to pay. So does every single person in the church who gives faithfully. Yes, you have things to do; so does every other person in the church.
I understand that you got hurt at church; I get that you are burnt out. You do realize that when you check out of the war all it does it leave others still fighting with fewer forces? I get it. We all have been hurt in church. However, how do you think it will ever be fixed? Someone has to fight through the hurt. Someone has to stay and keep working. Those who stay have to deal with the issues that hurt you, AND they have to deal with the fact that they were abandoned to fight alone. The Christian life is not “every man for himself.” It is literally following a crucified Jesus up Golgotha to die with Him. It is going to hurt to do the right thing. If Jesus died for His church, do not think that you will get a great church without it costing you something.
Ultimately, people want to show up to a perfect church with beautiful grounds and buildings that are spotless. They want perfect music and a relevant message. Herein is the question, what are you doing to bring that about in your local church? Why should a pastor study all week to prepare a sermon perfectly tailored to you when you may not even bother to show up? I once had someone complain about my preaching; they wanted me to be more encouraging. Over the last few months, I had devoted every single sermon on Sunday evenings to encouragement. They just didn’t bother to show up. Ironically, they wanted encouragement that they themselves were unwilling to give.
This mindset permeates our entire culture. Many pastors have this mindset as well. They do not want to go to a small church with problems. They do not want to start a church from scratch. That would require them patiently fixing problems, endless pain, sleepless nights, countless attacks, and years if not decades of hard work. Instead, they want to follow pastors who did all the work. They want to eat what others planted, reaped, and baked.
Many people have got it all figured out and want to be heard within the church. There are many “mature” Christians that are so “mature” that they do not attend church. No church is good enough for them. Why should all the other Christians labor night and day, fight tooth and nail, and run themselves ragged on the off chance you might show up and “eat the bread”? Lead by example; get some skin in the game.
If you want a particular type of music, then why aren’t you volunteering to help with the music? You want cleaner facilities; are you incapable of cleaning cobwebs yourself? You want the pastor to preach better. Are you giving enough money for him to be full-time, get continuing education, be well rested, etc.? If you are so passionate about there being a healthy local church, it requires YOU to do something.
I am blessed to serve at Antioch. We have so many hard workers who have fought through the pain to produce a great church. I know many of them will read this and feel guilty that they are not doing more. Those currently working, giving, serving, etc. are not the issue. They need help! They need Christians who are willing to jump into the fray with them, not just here but at every local church. Churches need workers. They need people who are willing to contribute more than they consume. It is interesting that Jesus did not tell the disciples to pray for a harvest; He told them to pray for more workers. The laborers are still few today, even though the consumers have increased.
Herein is the bottom line: the local church is what YOU make it to be. A good local church requires sacrifice by ALL its members. Quit being the person who only wants to consume the product of others’ labor. Quit waiting for someone else to step up. Quit wanting to be the one who gives everyone else more work to do and not lifting a finger yourself. (Seems to me Jesus had something to say about that.) Quit staying at home and waiting on others to create a church that is up to your standards. If your ideas are so great, then YOU do them.
Start serving. Start giving. Show up! Ryan Begue, the pastor I began in the ministry under, constantly asked this question:
“If everyone attended as much as you attended, gave as much as you gave, encouraged as much as you encouraged, served as much as you served, what would your local church look like? Would it even exist?”
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