Serve in the church, or work more?

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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on February 27, 2013 at 5:22pm

Greetings David,

Welcome to AAG.

I went the opposite route. I owned a fairly successful business (still have it to a much smaller degree) and had a family when God called me into the ministry. I took a major hit in income, but was obeying the Lord and would never consider going back or second guessing the move.

 

The question you are asking is one that I believe needs to be answered between you and the Holy Spirit as He guides you. I can give you some questions to ask yourself as you seek to make the right decision, but cannot tell you what the right decision is for your life.

 

I will add that part of the Christian life is serving and though you may cut back it would be difficult to live the Christ-life without serving others in some capacity. The service does not have to be in the local church (though that is not bad), but simply for the Lord and may take many different forms in our lives.

 

1) What is the real purpose for earning more money? I ask this only for you to ponder and am not accusing you of anything, but it is easy some times to get our motives confused. Thus, is it to give more or to give more and have more? Now don't misunderstand, having more is not sin in of itself. It is only sin when your stuff has you. The Bible says that the "love" of money is the root of all evil. It does not say that money is evil.

2) If I work more and serve less will I still have time or make time for my personal relationship with Jesus? Will I be able to read the Word and pray regularly? Will I still gather together with fellow believers for edification and corporate worship?

3) What do you sense the Lord saying to you about this? Be careful to not go on feelings or emotions alone, but we do need to be sensitive to the voice and urging of the Holy Spirit.

 

There are probably other questions, but these three come to mine at the moment.

 

Hope that helps a little.

 

Lord Bless,

LT

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Permalink Reply by Seek on February 28, 2013 at 6:12am

I will add that part of the Christian life is serving and though you may cut back it would be difficult to live the Christ-life without serving others in some capacity.

I wrestled with this myself as there were two things I was involved in with church.  One was being a greeter.  That required opening the door each morning, handing out brochures, assisting newcomers with information, etc.  The other was as an apprentice/associate host for one of our evening Lifegroups (Bible Studies). 

Many issues came up that caused me to think being a greeter wasn't what I should be doing.  But I liked doing it.  However, I began to literally loathe missing the beginning and end of my Sunday school class and missing the first couple of worship songs to be opening the door for people who were too disrespectful of my time to be at church on time...and I knew that wasn't an attitude to have greeting people.  I finally realized, God did call me to teach and in order to teach, I need to BE taught.  So by dropping one area of service, I'm focusing on learning, being in my full classes and the full church service, getting my time with God to help me through what I'm dealing with right now in my own life to prepare me to teach others. 

At first it seemed wrong to me cause the teaching is only in the Fall and Spring, and the rest of the year, I feel useless.  I felt dropping out of helping wasn't the right thing to do.  But I took on greeter because I felt useless and wanted something to do, but that isn't what God wants me to focus on. 

Yet right now, I don't actually feel as if I'm serving others since now my class is sort of defunct as we had no members sign up this semester.  But I am attending a special leadership class starting tonight and I joined classes to focus on getting me back in shape right now as we also offer Lifegroups with short devotionals and then a time of fellowship in an activity such as Zumba and volleyball.  I need to get back in shape, I need energy, and I need this leadership class and the sermons, teachings, etc. in order to teach in the future.  So I may not feel I'm serving others at the moment, but I am in a learning area so that I can serve where God is leading me to serve.

All I know is that once I had stepped down as a greeter, I felt I'd made the right decision, but before that...it was difficult and confusing.

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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on February 28, 2013 at 6:55am

SYF,

 

You have made two great points That I will attempt to summarize.

1) Doing something for the wrong reason is not a good reason to do it.

2) All things have seasons. To teach you must first be prepared. You are preparing to serve in that way. Your time is currently being spent to prepare you to accomplish the ultimate goal of serving through teaching.

 

Lord Bless,

LT

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Permalink Reply by Seek on March 4, 2013 at 8:29am

Well I can see that now, but before, I wrestled with dropping off the Frontline team because it seemed just learning wasn't actually "doing" something.  We can get caught up in thinking we have to be doing something others see.

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Permalink Reply by Tammy on February 28, 2013 at 6:24pm

David, God doesn't need your money. He's the One that provides us with it in the first place. The church has a purpose. That is to encourage others as well as be encouraged. It's to help us learn & if you've been called to teach, you teach others. We've all been called as a disciple. To learn how to do this, church is where we learn it. Church is also a great place to try to disciple someone. The first thing I thought of when you posted this was we should never put anything in front of God. He is a jealous God & He will destroy whatever we put in front of Him. So, the minute you stop church to work to earn money, you may lose your job or He may slow it down to an almost stop. I, too, think you must get into some deep conversations with the Lord thru the Spirit because personally, I think it's a dangerous road you're about to walk on if you go the money route.

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Permalink Reply by David on August 19, 2013 at 3:49am

Hello again!

Thanks for all the advice!

First of all I can say now honestly that I really dont care about having money, and the stuff that comes with it. But I know that I dont know how I will feel about money later. The devil can attack me anytime.

And I would never leave church. I just asked if other peolple were called to earn money for Gods kingdom, and live only on an average budget for themselves.

Among the advice, and espesially "God doesnt need your money" from Tammy. Ive decided to serve more in the church. Ive been asked to join the leadershipteam for cotroling the finances, and Ive accepted.

I will now spend much time serving in the Church, and I will need time with Christ himself also.

I think if Im supossed to earn alot of money to give. God will give me an opportunity for that, even if I only can work maximum 40 hours a week.

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