In today’s busy world, the best way to get something done is hire someone else to do it. Years ago, everyone worked on their own cars. Now, we hire someone else. We use to mow our own yards, but now we have landscape services. At one time, people cooked for themselves, made their own clothes, raised their kids. . .well you get the idea. It seems today it’s easier to find money than it is to find time. I’m not against some of these things. If I could afford it, I’d hire someone to mow the grass and I’d get someone to cook and clean so my wife and I could just hang out with the kids. Most of the stuff is ok, but it has caused a dangerous trend. We have started to oursource ministry.
Don’t get me wrong, I am glad ministry get’s done, and I am not totally against paying someone to do some of it. I am an Associate Pastor, so I teach, lead, support, train and work in the church and I receive a paycheck so I can live. Paying a pastor, that’s biblical and a good idea. The issue comes when we decide we need to hire a “Pastor Of” to take care of the stuff we don’t want too.
My first experience with this came from a church that wanted to hire some people to take care of the nursery. No one wanted to miss the Sunday Morning service, so let’s just hire someone. This didn’t make me real excited. At what point did we decide it’s ok NOT to take care of our own babies, not to teach them about God. Why do we have to hire someone in the church to tell them that God loves them?
Later, we had to hire someone for childcare for our Small Group ministry. It was easier than enlisting workers, but again, this seems wrong to me. Jesus said “let the children come to me”. If the kids are important to Jesus, shouldn’t they be important to me?
I noticed this trend is spreading. I use to not be opposed to it, but it’s starting to bother me. When looking for some youth leaders in our church, people tell me “can’t the church just hire a youth pastor”? Children’s ministry? Hire a children’s pastor. Preschool? Hire someone. Evangelism? Can’t we hire someone to do that too? Cleaning up the church? They have services for that, right? Can’t we hire someone? Before you know it, there is no mission’s budget left to help people go overseas (something we SHOULD hire people for) and the people have all gained 20 lbs from sitting in the pews.
Ok, maybe I am exaggerating a little. . . but maybe not. When did it stop being the responsibility of Christians to be the hands and feet of Jesus? It’s time to put the money in the plate, send it to missions and get up and clean the church, teach the youth and children and babies, do VBS and sing in the choir. Let’s stop outsourcing the work of ministry and get busy doing stuff.