Christian Service Is Not Mandatory.

"When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?"

I am the acting head usher at my church. I am usually the one who co-ordinates between the ushering staff who will pass offering plates. We usually need three men to take up the offerings.

I had two of the men decline to serve this morning. I had one man volunteer, and one man was happy to do the job. Those two plus me, and we were all set.

No-one is paid to serve as an usher at my church. The only people the church pays for regular employment are the Pastor, his Secretary, and one Assistant. Everything else that goes on in the church is done by volunteers, including taking out the garbage and mowing the lawns. None of the ushers is required to serve. In a pinch, any of us would usher as required, and there are even a few men who are not regular ushers who will stand up if there are not enough ushers to fill in, at any given meeting. We are pretty much guaranteed to have enough ushers.

Still, it rubs me the wrong way when someone will sometimes and sometimes is unwilling to take 5 minutes of their time and maybe do a little extra standing around. If you don't want to do what you can do, that is up to you. But come on now! Sure someone else can work for God, but then that someone else will be getting a reward that could have been yours.

I am considering changing my tactics, so that the first people I ask to help at the church meetings are the ones who are more willing to do, instead of the ones that have been reluctant to serve recently. If you can afford a suit, bring it. But if you would rather bring it to a pew than the aisle or doorways, that is between you and God. I'll ask a guy in a shirt and tie who is eager for the blessing of ministry, before the guy in a suit who is unhappy to be called on.

If you do not wish to help, feel free to sit down. Someone else will take your place, or the else the job must go undone. If no-one stands up to do a necessary thing, will you then be shamed enough to do it yourself? Why?

Why bother yourself? It's not mandatory, after all . . .

"When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?"

(however, you might be well advised to consider the context of that verse . . . .)

********

I'm hardly the one to cast the first stone, but I felt like getting this off my chest. Thanks for listening.