According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.
1 Corinthians 3:10-11 ESV
The work of the ministry is sort of like carpentry. This is not surprising, as our Lord spent much of his life in the carpentry trade with his stepdad (Mark 6:3). But as carpenters, we don’t come in and start from scratch. The foundation is already poured—that is the good news of Jesus himself. We simply build on that work. If we serve in a church where others have pastored before us, then we are adding to what they built along the way (for better or for worse).
The goal for all of us is the same: We want to see Jesus glorified through people being loved and disciples being made. We have several tools of the trade to get us there.
Some of these tools are indispensable. The church is commanded to worship together. We must have a worship gathering of some kind. And in places like 1 Corinthians, we find elements of what should be included: Bible teaching, singing, prayer, and the Lord’s Supper, for a start. Yet, there is also freedom to structure the service in different ways from our style of teaching to the variety of songs we sing.
Other tools are meant to be picked up and placed down as needed. We see the example in Scripture of the church meeting in smaller groups. Yet, how do we do this? Do we have Sunday School, which has only been around a couple of hundred years? Do we have home groups, which date back 2000 years to the foundation of the church in Acts 2? Do we offer groups the same day as our worship gathering? Do we wait to have them mid-week? Do we do both? The answer to these questions might change with time and context. Where a pipe wrench might be needed in one location, a socket wrench might be necessary in another.
We also have the tools of evangelism. We are commanded by Jesus to “Go,” but how do we emphasize this? What style of evangelism do we teach? Do we teach multiple styles? Does the situation call for a hammer or a screwdriver?
How do we minister to children and families? Bible Clubs? Vacation Bible Schools? Awana or RAs and GAs? After school programs?
We have a great variety of tools in our box that have been collected in 2000 years of church history. Some will be more useful than others in the moment. A “skilled master builder” is one who knows what tool he needs and when he needs it.
Of course, one of the challenges of leadership comes when you look at a situation and realize you need a putty knife but the church you lead is convinced the flat head screwdriver, which they’ve been using for two decades, is doing just fine. Helping the church select the right tool for the job can sometimes take wisdom and patience. Prayer for such is always a good place to begin.
Photo by energepic.com: https://www.pexels.com/photo/tool-set-on-plank-175039/
This post originally appeared at Thoughts from the Hills.
Mike is a small-town pastor and founder of Ozark Hills Church Consulting. Follow Mike at Substack.