“To Those Willing to Serve…” was the phrase used in church bulletins when listing men who publically lead the worship service in some capacity. Usually the listing came in a weekly listing of prayer leaders, song leaders, and Bible readers.
By my count my own church uses 12 people montly on the communion table (that’s 8 upfront, 4 “ushers” in the back). That’s 144 yearly. Then there’s 2 prayer leaders (opening and closing prayers respectively), and a scripture reader. That’s 156 men needed yearly to do this. Keep in mind we have 2 worship services on Sunday morning. This brings us to a grand total of 600 men per year needed to lead publically on Sunday mornings. That’s of course not including the preacher and song leader which is usually the same men over and over.
We have around 700 people who attend on Sunday morning. Of these I’m sure a good 400 or so are members and of these let’s say half are men. So that gives us a pool of 200 men to choose from. Why all the math? I wanted to point out a problem which seems to be effecting the church as a whole. The problem is you tend to see the same people leading prayers, reading scripture and serving on the communion table.
Of course not everyone is willing or capable of leading a prayer, reading scripture publically, or even passing a communion tray. However I do believe that most everyone could be capable of doing some of those things, given enough time and practice.
The problem is that due to apathy or fear members just don’t want to serve, but instead sit back in the pew and wait to be served.
“You must be proud of your son,” a member told a father of a son who had just got done leading a public prayer during worship service. As it turned out the father remarked that it was something he would never be able to do. Do we need an adult equivalent of “Young Soldiers” ? And I’m being told that there are some deacons who will not lead public prayers during worship services. Spiritual leaders indeed?