Serving Tables

So I reached the grand old age of 34 last week.

Events like birthdays are like milestones, and as such I get very reflective, looking back on the year just gone, and inevitably many more years that have been and gone.

And I’m also saying goodbye to a two-year adventure with a wonderful schools team here in Chelmsford. I have no idea what is next but I feel God is calling me out of that and into some new adventure.

So for the first time in 12 years, give or take a month here and there I will no longer be in what most of us would consider to be “Ministry”

Now don’t get all worried, I haven’t lost my faith, I’m not angry with God or dissatisfied with church. In fact it’s the complete opposite, I feel my faith muscles flexing again, I’m discovering a deeper love for God and his love for me and my church is an awesome family to journey this through with.

It was about 12 years ago that I remember sitting in a room about 10-15 gap year students and being told that only a certain percentage of us there would be in any kind of ministry let alone still be in church in the next 10 years.

What a price to pay to be in “Ministry”

Like I said I’ve been reflecting on about all this stuff, chatting to loads of people and having conversations with God about all of this. One of the things that has challenged me as I’ve had many different roles in ministry is that often time I’ve had a platform, whether that be literal or a more a position within an institution or organisation. And in these roles I’ve been paid, paid to do ministry.

But here’s the thing, isn’t my whole of life ministry?

The verb to minister is ‘to attend to the needs of (someone). There are the needs of my family, the person on the bus queue in front of me, the barista serving me my coffee. Isn’t this where I’m supposed to minister?

Stephen the martyr is best known for exactly that, after having a divine vision and then being stoned. You can find that story in Acts 7 but in the previous chapter Stephen is found waiting tables serving the grumbling widows and easing arguments between Hebrew and Greek believers. He was chosen among some others to be the one that would serve the people whilst the 12 would go out and continue to spread the gospel. While the 12 were out teaching the word of God, Stephen was waiting on tables but performed many amazing miracles and signs among the people.

What were the criteria for serving the people, they were that he was a man full of Faith and the Holy Spirit. Is it really that simple, have I over complicated it all these years with a title, a role a salary?

I’m at a place of feeling like if I can’t be content waiting tables then I have no right reaching for a platform, if I can’t minister to my own family how can I expect to move into the things that I believe he has called me to do. When he has called me to be a husband and father and be his man for whatever season this is that I’m in.

What next? Well watch this space. But the next time your queuing for coffee or you sit down to eat, you might just find me handing you your latte or taking your order.

If you’re someone who prays, then please join me as I seek God for provision and clarity for the next steps.