Who Can Do It?

by Paul Collins

Who can teach in the nursery ministry?

Can someone teach the teens?

Who will take charge of children’s church?

Do we have anyone who will go on visitation?

Did anyone call people who missed church this past Sunday?

Every pastor who wants his church to minister the gospel effectively to every age group asks this question. Lay ministry is the backbone of the church. Laymen and laywomen are instruments of God for any church organization and are vital for church growth.

When our family moved to Harrisonburg, Virginia, to start a Home Missions church, we had no one outside of our family to help us. My wife and my daughter Rachel, who was 11 years old at the time, were the only laypeople for our first “Get Acquainted Services.”

Patty taught a children’s class for Sunday School and children’s church during worship. Rachel watched her little brother Josh and another baby in the nursery. She read a Bible story and sang songs with them during the worship services. Thankfully, as families came to the Lord and were trained, they became the next generation of lay workers needed to grow our church.

The names Cindy, Ken, Adam, LaDawna, Bill, Carolyn, Mary, Hannah, Rachel, Josh, Patty, Joy Beth, Erica, Brooke, Brett, Larry, Kendall, Linda, Charles, Rita, Sam, Jim, Lisa, Clayton, and many others may not mean anything to you, but as a pastor, they are wonderful to me! They are among the people I depend on every week as the teaching and worship ministry impacts a lost and dying world.

On any given Sunday, we have a praise team, staff for children’s church, nursery staff, sound booth operator, and someone else to record services for video. At every service, we have a couple that greets people at the door when they arrive and when they leave. Ushers do far more than receive offering. They offer support as secondary greeters for first-time visitors.

They help those who need assistance. We need musicians and people who will lead in prayer; teachers for our Bible in Life studies (Sunday School) for every age group from toddlers to the adults; lay ministers who sacrifice time and talents to minister the gospel to a lost world.

Someone may ask, how can you reach the lost by ministering to those who attend church and most likely are already Christians? First, not everyone who attends church is a Christian. When they are greeted with a friendly smile and a handshake or hug, they are more open to the gospel. Second, when we minister to Christians, they, in turn, are challenged to go out into the “highways and hedges to reach the lost and to compel them to come” and worship with us. Third, when people in general are blessed by God through those who have invested their time and talents for the ministry, they, in turn, will want to get involved in ministry—the next generation of church lay ministers.

Who can do it? You can! Tell the Lord you want to be an instrument of blessing to your church. It is never too late to become the Who in “Who can do it?”

About the Writer: Paul Collins pastors a home mission church, Harrisonburg FWB Church in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Learn more at: www.harrisonburgfwbc.com