Today's Passage - Romans 12:7-8

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Romans 12:7-8   "If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach;if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully."   In this passage, Paul talked about the attitude for serving, what I would summarize as "the two 'lizes' for serving."  First, serving needs to be specialized.   There are many lay believers who seem to be playing musical chairs while serving in the church, they will take whichever seat when music stops every year.  That is the way to serve by position, not by gift, and the result is stalled church ministry.  A ministry might be going well, but with a new leader the work may be disrupted.  Another reason for such mistaken belief is  the concept of promotion in the church.  The administrator this year should become the coordinator next year, and given another promotion the year after to something like devotional coordinator.  This is the typical phenomenon of serving by position, not by gift.  Actually, those who are great as administrators may become poor coordinators.  Whenever I conduct training for ushers at church, I always tell them that ushering the most important position at church, because whenever a newcomer arrives at the church, he sees the ushers before he sees Jesus.  Unfortunately, to most brothers and sisters being an usher is just a stepping stone, and therefore church ministry suffers.   Second, serving needs to be professionalized.  Paul has used many adverbs here - generously, diligently, cheerfully, etc.  In other words, our serving needs to be professional and we need to focus on doing the best we can.  When you are serving according to your gifts, you must have the spirit of professionalism so that you will constantly think about how to make your ministry a top-notch ministry.  Today, many of our church ministries cannot thrive because we lack the spirit of professionalism.  Too many people treat serving as a side job, they'll do something when they have time, but forget about it when they don't.  The result is a ministry that is half-hearted.  Why can't the users at the church be like those at Disneyland?  If they extend such warm welcome to people into an amusement park, shouldn't we be more welcoming to people coming into heaven?  Why can't we perform truly professional service in everything that we do?  Being professional doesn't mean being technically perfect, but it is an attitude of being willing to pay a top-notch price in ministry in order to glory God and benefit people.  Brothers and sisters, are you willing to do it?      Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, please forgive taking ministry lightly in the past.  Help us to turn back from the state of being lukewarm, and let us have a focused and professional attitude in ministry, so that your name may receive glory.  I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!