ORLANDO CHINESE CHURCH MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
OCTOBER, 2000

Lay Ministry 2000

On August 26, 35 people from the church attended a one day "Lay Ministry 2000" conference. Some of them shared their thoughts with us afterwards which are summarized as follows:

Joshua Wong : A Few Lessons Learned

  1. Team Ministry: Whether you are a pastor, brother, or sister, you cannot be a lone ranger in your service. Take football as an example: The coach alone without the players will not work; the players without the coach will be just as bad. A football team requires each member to cooperate and work together. In the same way the church needs everyone to serve together as a team, a lone ranger mentality will not work.
  2. Intercessory Prayers: Pray for your spiritual leaders and be mindful of the burdens they are carrying. In addition to praying for the sermons they preach, we need to take time, even a few minutes a day, to pray for them---their family, their health and spiritual soundness, having wisdom from above, knowing the focus of their service, being pure in heart and mind, blessed with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, etc.
  3. Being Thankful: In this day and age, few are truly thankful in their heart. The children today are not accustomed to saying "Thank You." We need to remind ourselves to be appreciative of those who have given much of their life to God's service.
Wen-Shiew Dai : Doing Our Part

The church is the household of God and the household of all God's children. Since we, as believers, belong to this household, we all share in its service. For a winning football team, not only the coach and the players, but all backup players and supporting personnel need to do their part as well. We are reminded that for the church to be strong and growing, at least half the members need to be involved in active ministry. Only when each exercises his or her gifts will church ministry expand. The speaker uses several people from the Bible to illustrate different types of spiritual gift ministry.

  1. Andrews, who share Christ with others.
  2. Davids, who shepherd.
  3. Timothys, who disciple others.
  4. Barnabas, who encourages.
  5. Abrahams, who prays.
  6. Rebekahs, who serves.
  7. Nehemiahs, who administrate.
Seven groups of people with different spiritual gifts will together carry out different functions as members of the body of Christ . No church will prosper on the ministry of one person alone. To be successful, the concept of team ministry is essential. May each of us rise up and exercise the spiritual gifts God has given us, each doing our part for the building up of the household of God.

Helen Yue :

It is my belief that each of the thirty-some people who attended the conference loves the Lord and the church and has a heart to serve God. The conference has taught us many things, the question now is: "What's next?"

In one of the examples given by the conference speaker, he gave us this picture of a football game when the players ran onto the field but stayed in the huddle and did nothing. He called this the disease of "spectatorism." I feel that in all these years I was like a sponge, soaking up a lot of Bible knowledge but failing to make use of my spiritual gift. When we always take in without giving out, we become, as the speaker called it, "flabby and weak." The problem may be that we are not aware of what our spiritual gifts are. The conference offers a 96-question survey to help us discover our spiritual gifts.

The speaker also warned us: "Activities do not equal accomplishments." Some people like to involve in every ministry of the church only to eventually find themselves burnt out and exhausted. Knowing our spiritual gifts, we will no longer involve in ministry because of a sense of shame or guilt; instead, we will know how to utilize our spiritual gifts suitably and faithfully.

Edward Shen : A Few Thoughts

  1. From past experience, when someone returned from a conference and having shared what he or she learned, the audience often expect to see some transformation in that person's life and neglect that the sharing is intended to bring changes to the church as a whole. As God's people we should be responsive to God's word. If God's word does not touch believers; how can we expect it to have effect on non-believers?
  2. It is not uncommon for a 3 or 6 month old Christian not to know a whole lot of the Bible; however, many who has been a Christian for 5 or 10 years may still know very little of the Bible. If you depend solely on the Sunday sermons for their knowledge of the Bible, your understanding of the Bible will never exceed 10%. For the church to grow, every member needs to grow and become mature. Only when everyone utilize their spiritual gift will the church as a body become healthy. People like to use the lack of spiritual gift as an excuse not to serve; in actuality every believer is blessed with spiritual gift. Not to use it for God's service is a loss to the church.
  3. As the church grows, there is a greater need for more brothers and sisters to become involved so that there is always freshness and dynamics in the church ministry. Of course, we do not look for change only for the sake of change. We often hear: "Other churches are doing this or that, we ought to make some changes too." This is like a doctor trying to prescribe treatment without diagnosis. Whenever we encounter difficulty we need to ask the Lord for wisdom, for the right prescription, so that we can be delivered from our troubles. God's prescription is not only for those who are leaders in the church, but often is for the whole church body. It is important that the whole congregation has the willingness to make changes as the Lord leads us.
  4. In the church, we often are leaders as well as followers. Whether we regard ourselves as leaders or not, many around you may look to you as leaders. Therefore, we cannot be careless in our speech or our actions.
  5. The focus of the ministry of the church is not on the church activities, but is on the vision from God and on communicating that vision to others in the church. If we are clear of the vision from God, we will not become lost in our service. On the other hand, if we serve without vision, all our service will be in vain.


Recently there was some discussion on a magazine article titled: "Many Want To Eat, But Few Like To Be Cooks." It talked about a phenomenon that is common among churches. The following is an excerpt. May it stimulate us to reflect on our service before God.

Many Want To Eat,
But Few Like To Be Cooks

July 30th was a very hot day. Temperature was over 100oF. What a day it was to pick for hard physical work! As I labored away during this annual work day, I seemed to encounter the same few familiar faces that showed themselves year after year. I could not help but to ask this fundamental question: "Why is it that at anyplace, any situation, any organization or any time, the principle of 'many want to eat but few like to be cooks' governs?"

In management, there is a well known principle called "Pareto Principle." Though not a new concept, Richard Koch reintroduced it a few years ago. He called it the 80/20 principle---the secret of achieving more with less. According to it, it is always true in each situation that the minority(20%) who represent the majority(80%). For example, 80% of church offerings are from 20% of the congregation; 80% of a business' revenue is generated from 20% of its products; The wealthiest 20% of a country makes up 80% of its wealth. Therefore, it is normal when "many want to eat, but few like to be cooks." It is not my intention to be self-righteous and critical in my remarks; my only intention is to present reality and post a question.

The church I go to has a luncheon meeting following the Sunday worship on the last Sunday of each month. It is called the "love feast" which is always free. Of course, it is not really free as the restaurant which caters the food has to be paid. The expense is covered usually by special offerings from a few brothers and sisters. Every summer each year, the church schedules a cleaning day. Brothers and sisters would bring their own tools and labor under the hot sun to clean up the parking lot and the yard. The cleaning actually is not a big deal and is often scheduled after a love feast. The work is entirely voluntary and not clearly defined or structured. Each person would do what he or she perceives as needed to be done.

Feeling the urge to stir things up a little, I asked, as I labored in the heat, those around me a question(one that no one really wanted to ask): "How come there are so few who are participating in the cleaning even though there were many people at the love feast? What motivates you to stay for the cleaning?"

Those I talked to were old friends and did not mind the intrusive nature of my question. Knowing my sincerity they openly spoke what was in their heart. Generally speaking, their responses fall into four categories which explain what motivates these minority few to become participants.

  1. The church is like a family: This is the most common response. This group can be called the religious purist. They view church as their home. If the home needs cleaning, would it not be ridiculous not to do anything? Since the church does not have a gardener, it is only fitting to do it themselves.
  2. No labor no dinner: This group can be called the male chauvinist. They are very religious when it comes to what their wives tell them. When their wives wants to participate, they will follow reluctantly to appease their wives so that they will still get dinner when they get home. In some instances, they come with their wives and when their wives stay they have to volunteer themselves also.
  3. Talk to me about my rights, not my duties: This group wants to correct, by setting an example themselves, the common attitude of claiming our rights but not our duties. In America we all(myself included, not that I like to disclose my true self) are always fighting for our rights. But when it comes to doing our duties, we like to politely pass them over to others. This group can be called the attitude reformer.
  4. It's a habit, I always do what needs to be done: This group can be called the Mr. Nice Guy group.
Compared to these four groups, my motivation for is quite different. I think I belong to the "self-Redemptive" group.

What I mean is this: When we are well fed and wearing warm clothes and not in the danger of starving to death, we feel obligated to do some "good deeds"---in order to heighten our sense of accomplishment. I have been going to church for twenty-two years from the time my wife and I were the youngest couple in the church. During this time, though I do not considered myself particularly spiritual and may be careless with little things, I have avoided committing spiritual blunders. For twenty-two years, I have held on to the principle of not fighting for my own benefits but striving to serve others. That is why I always participate in the annual cleaning despite my severe allergy to pollen, dust, among other things.

The motive for my participation is simple and selfish. To be completely candid, I look at it as an act of "self-redemption." Many people make the mistake in thinking that receiving thanks from others is the reason they want to help or serve others. This kind of thinking is really mixed up because real joy comes from serving others and not from being served. In any community or organization, we will always find quarrels and conflicts. The reason basically is because many want to eat but few want to be cooks. In other words, the 80/20 principle is the culprit.

In actuality, those who are willing to serve and labor never complain or feel they are being taken advantage of. In the society we live in, the annual church cleaning comes closest to being the example of an "ideal world"---no one will force you to come, no one will tell you what to do, no tangible reward for your participation, and you do not get into trouble if you goof off or leave early. The most amazing thing is that no one will ever complain of the work or the heat and things get done effectively in spite of lack of planning and supervision. I wonder aloud: what a wonderful place this world will turn into if we are governed instead by the 60/40 principle---giving out 60% but receiving only 40% back,. Think about it!