This seems like such a no-brainer that it shouldn’t even need to be mentioned, but based on my experience, it does. Sundays aren’t even the best view of this. Look at it through the week. Are the same people that are teaching Sunday School the same people that are hosting a Bible study at their home on Monday, leading kids' clubs on Wednesday, volunteering in the church office on Friday, and showing up on Saturday to help with the work project and get things prepared for Sunday again?
Another place to look carefully here is at the impact not just on individuals, but on families. At one point in time at Noelridge we had six women serving as deaconesses, and of those six, three were elders' wives, and the other three were deacons' wives. Now I’m sure this isn’t too uncommon - after all that heart for service really should run together in couples, but as a leader, be acutely aware of the combined family schedule, especially for younger families that still have children at home. More than once I have had someone wonder why I thought I was so busy when I was only committed to two or three different activities per week(!) at the church. When I asked them to figure in my wife’s commitments, and then remember we have small children at home, well, suddenly expectations change a bit.
Discernment is required here to understand who truly has the time and desire to serve greatly and who is working from feelings of compulsion and guilt. We do not get the best service from our people when they have a dozen things on their plate. Something will get missed, and something else will be done poorly. To my shame, I have done this often enough myself. As leaders we need to be willing to protect those overly-willing servants by telling them when they have enough on their plate, and then to fill the gaps we need to get a fire lit under those who aren’t helping out.
I visited a friend’s new church website the other day and under the tab titled “what we do”, I found these refreshing words: “At Grace Central, we basically only do three things.” Wow, I thought, only three things? Now those spread out a bit in ministry, I’m sure - it’s not like there are only three events on their calendar every week. But still, the focus: only three things. If it doesn’t fit in one of those boxes, it’s not essential, and we’re not going to do it.
From their website again [emphasis mine]: “…we want to try very hard to limit what we do to only those things which we are convinced are essential. That way people are encouraged to take what they are learning at Grace Central and go out into their lives to apply it and to discover the radical implications of God’s grace. We think being a responsible church means our people should have time for relationships and activities outside of our church as well.” Amen.
Also in this series: