One Man Band or an Orchestra?

A one man band can be quite an entertaining novelty but no matter how talented the single musician might be the combined richness of sound of a 100 piece orchestra is in a class of its own.


Pastors and lay leaders of the church sometimes are tempted to be a one man band for Christ but in doing so we actually do a disservice to the church. The church should be about helping people find their calling in service and ministry and giving them opportunities for expression of that call.

Mark 10:43-44 whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.

This coming week the Lay Leadership team of our church will begin its work of nominations for church offices but more than that it will attempt to help each of us articulate a call to ministry.

Isaiah 6:7-8 "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out." 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!"

Your ministry may or may not be directly in or through the church but it is a ministry in the service of Christ. The orchestra of God depends on the harmony of all of the voices under the direction of Jesus woven together into the composition God is writing.

Where are you going to be in ministry this coming year? Don’t necessarily wait to be asked. Volunteer!

Called to ministry

I’m spending the early part of my week at the Board of Ordained Ministry meeting in Three Forks Mt. Here we are listening to the faith stories of three people in the process of being ordained as pastors in our church. Each candidate gets to preach before the board, discuss papers they have written on their overall theology, and discussing their experiences in practical matters of serving local churches.


Candidates for ordained ministry must write responses to a variety of questions from “How do you understand the following traditional evangelical doctrines: (A) repentance; (B) justification; (C) regeneration; (D) sanctification? What are the marks of the Christian life?” and “What effect has the practice of ministry had on your understanding of humanity and the need for divine grace?”

This afternoon we heard Mark Calhoun (serving in Polson) preach for us. Tomorrow we’ll get to talk to him about his papers, his preaching and the practice of ministry. Then we’ll either recommend him for ordination or refer him back for more study/reflection.

If anyone is interested I’ll share the whole list of questions candidates have to respond to and you can do some thinking about how you might respond.