To Serve or Not To Serve...That is the Question!

I had a few difficulties today leading the services at church. I broke a string in the second service. Also ended up having to transpose one of the songs "Father, Spirit, Jesus" after the second service because it ended up being just a tinge high for myself and one of our vocalists Lisa. Otherwise the services went great. It was a pleasure to sing with Lisa and Pamela and play with Ryan, Caleb, Derrick, and Mark. My voice is quite thrashed though.

As with last week, our two main services were packed with just a minimal amount of seating leftover. It brought back memories of our services at New Life Church in Illinois when there was literally standing room only and people were lined up across the back of the room. Hopefully Foothills will continue to grow this year as New Life did. We absolutely love this church!

I have been struggling to keep up with the pace of trying to work at the church on staff part time and our ministry Heart of a Worshipper International along with working in real estate. It's not working out for us financially, because the the church work is part time pay for nearly full time work, and it just takes away from being able to be gone on Sundays working other ministry opportunities. It also has made it impossible to keep the website updated on a regular basis. My wife and I know that we must continue the awesome work that God has been doing through Heart of a Worshipper for the past several years, so we will once again be speaking and singing other places to help promote the work of that ministry. That means that we will try and divide our time up between local church/evangelistic ministry/working a secular job. But we are going to cut our working hours back down to make our lives more simple. Doing 60-70 hour work weeks for months on end takes much of the fun out of life, and is the total opposite of why we relocated in the first place. It's not God's will for us, so we will make changes to find the right balance. I know without a doubt that God will continue to use us at Foothills, but He will do so in a capacity that works for us all long term.

Let me give anyone is the same position some advice...Find the right balance for you in ministry. Figure out what works for you, your family, and God, and go with it. It's so easy to want to help out at your local church all the time, especially ones that have multiple services and things going on constantly throughout the week. As we talked about before...You've gotta get in the game...It' s certainly very important. Everyone should be active in their local church. Find that place where God can use you. Get in the small groups and meet people. Volunteer or get on staff if it works out and get going.

The other side of the coin though, is that I have known so many people over the years who have sacrificed their families and finances to a place where their marriages and careers are in ruin because of the wrong approach to ministry. Saying "Yes" to everything that is asked of them, when they really should have been working their regular job or spending time with their families. You can get in the same bad place even when you are on staff full time in a ministry. Man it is a tough call. And it is hard to say "No" when that Pastor is calling you asking you to fill in because someone got sick or couldn't make their commited time to volunteer. I'm one of those that almost always says "Yes." I have learned though, that there are times when I should not, and I should just stay home a be with my family or just be in the services to worship and to learn. As I get older, it's getting easier and easier for me to see when those times are :)

I think everyone would agree that there is a time and place for helping out at your local church, and that it should not be at the detriment of other things that are just as important, or more important in your life. All ministers won't agree with me on this one, but a person with an argument is never at the mercy of a person with an experience :)