PROFICIENT NOT PROFESSIONAL

I want to be proficient at the things I do; not a professional.  Something of the fun and enjoyment goes out of the activity when it becomes a job.  I have experienced at camp; I have experienced that in the church.  Money and titles put pressure on a person to live up to certain external expectations from others.  It’s your job to do this or that, not just your interest or delight.  Why is the pastor cooking the soup?  That is the responsibility of the hospitality people.  The priest shouldn’t be setting tables.  He should be studying the Word of God.  An ordained clergy is necessary to give communion. No lay person is able to do that, even if it means a church must close because there is no clergy available.

At camp we would often take our best counselors, those who worked well with the kids, and advance them into leadership positions, away from the kids they worked well with, and have them do paperwork and organizational tasks.  Most would lose heart because their hearts were into the kids they worked with.  The money was good, but was it worth the price. This all seems like a destructive pattern and one that doesn’t seem to honor the worker or God, whose work is being done; camp or church.

In God’s world there is hierarchy and leadership; but He is it.  We are His servants; his workers, all equal in who we are and what we do; none more important than the other.  We are all called to be proficient at what we are called to do, whatever the responsibility is. 

Jesus is so clear in that and yet the church seems to continually ignore the teaching.  Matthew 23 is a heavy condemnation against those who were overseeing the religious system of the day.  Perhaps that teaching needs to be attended to by the Church today.  “You are not to be called rabbi for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.  And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.  Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.  The greatest among you shall be your servant.  Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Every child of God is born in the image of God.  Each one needs to be proficient at doing just that; being the image of God.  That’s the purpose of spiritual growth, spiritual practice, spiritual discipline, spiritual direction, and all we do to present a clear image of our Creator, Lord, and Master to those around us.