Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Discouragement

In today’s devotional from Experiencing God Day-by-Day, Blackaby speaks of Elijah becoming overwhelmed and discouraged in doing kingdom work. As Christians, we can all get discouraged in doing kingdom work. It would be easy to emphasize the “don’t get discouraged” part and but I think we, as Christians, should look closer at the kingdom work in our lives. How has God uniquely equipped each of us and how can he see each one of us to do His work?

I work full-time at the church and it seems as though that would be an easy place to stay encouraged in doing kingdom work. Before working at Living Hope, I designed installed audio/video systems for churches across Kentucky. In dealing with church committees, pastors, volunteers, architects, vendors, contractors, and others, it was often easy to get discouraged. It was often hard to overlook the frustration of completing a system, to see how it would aid that ministry to do kingdom work. I find that can still be the case working in the church. The technical ministry is a support ministry. We don’t normally facilitate programming and events but often provide the support to help make those events successful. We don’t preach the sermons but we help make sure the message is heard clearly. We don’t write or pick out the songs but we put the lyrics on the screen so the congregation can sing them. We don’t plan the mission trip but we often produce videos to show others the work completed on the trip.

It can be discouraging at times to not always see the direct impact the technical ministry has on baptisms, discipleship, or church growth. Though I often can’t see the direct correlation, I have to trust that God has uniquely equipped me to do His work and has placed me in a position to use my talents for His kingdom work. I hope each of us can daily focus on our unique gifts and find ways use them for His glory. I hope we won’t become discouraged by focusing on the temporary, but encouraged by looking to the eternal.

Allen Cothran
Technical Ministries Director

1 comment:

Chad said...

The later 2/3's of 1 Corinthians 12 speaks about the body of Christ and the unique contribution each member provides. It also goes on to talk about how important each part is regardless of its function.

Whether changing diapers, giving sermons, singing in the choir, or the behind the scenes technical audio/video part of things, all service work in the Church is God honoring.

Thanks for what you do. It provides all of us the opportunity to enhance our worship experience.