Life Without Me

I just returned from a week long worship leader's conference and something pretty amazing happened while I was gone. The worship band was able to rehearse and prepare for Sunday without me. What?! NO WAY! Try it sometime yourself. It works.

In my life as a missionary and now as a pastor, I have said numerous times that my job is to work myself out of a job. That is, I need to train people to be able to do things I do because there will be a time when I will not be there to do them. Even though I have said this over and over and I believe it is what I need to do I have too often failed in this regard. I tend to hold tightly to the things I am responsible for and give token efforts to make it look like I am "training others". The past several months I have been very purposefully letting go of things. This past week is an example. Normally I would rearrange the rehearsal schedule so that I could work with the team after I get back. Instead of focusing solely on the conference I would work through the week on the Sunday set-list and be e-mailing during seminars or miss out on important hang-out and discussion time with those I went to the conference with. This time I made a commitment that I would let those I left in charge do it and I would not step in unless they asked for help.

Sunday morning came and I showed up to the morning rehearsal not to lead but to play acoustic and sing background vocals. It was great! I had to keep fighting to not take charge but to let K.W. lead. This was one of the most enjoyable services I have had in a while.

Here is what I am trying to get at. No one, not you, not me is indispensable. Nor should we every think we are. The Apostle Paul writes to his dear friend and student, Timothy and tells him "The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others." (2 Timothy 2:2) Yes, Paul is talking about teaching the Word of God but I think the principle applies here. We who are called to ministry are called to be faithful and work hard but we are also responsible to train others to do the ministry along side of us and even train them to be able to do it on their own and eventually train others also.

So the next time you think you are indispensable think about what life would be like without you. Have you been faithful in training others to carry on without you. Jesus did.