Reading Time: 8:00
I am sure there are many people who have been or are currently where I am. Where is that? It’s knowing you are not going to get done all you planned to do in this lifetime. Some people call it a midlife crisis. Some people just slip quietly into depression. Others fight it tooth and nail up until the very end. Few will admit it.
It’s not too bad of an experience in my life. However, high performance people seem to take it real hard. I admire people who have resolved these issues and have gathered to themselves a certain amount of peace in the inevitable.
For me, life has been about serving the church most of my life. I identify greatly with people who are committed to building and maintaining the church. Even though I’m not talking about the physical facility, I have invested much in where the church meets. That is, the house of worship, as they call it today.
As I ponder the course of my ministry, I do see a common theme. I seem to care about a lot of things that no one else does. From grade school to high school, working IN the church meant working ON the church. In Henryville, Indiana I worked in Henryville First Baptist by cleaning and fixing things. When I came back to the Lord as an adult I joined Bashford Manor Baptist in Louisville, Kentucky where I worked.
In 1979, when I was filled with the Holy Spirit, I joined Arlington Christian Center in Arlington, Texas. That was the one church where I focused entirely on biblical studies instead of working on the church. They had a Bible School I attended. I really don’t remember ever actually doing any work on the facility there.
I joined up with Pastor Wayne Biggs in Mansfield, Texas as he began to rebuild the old Methodist church there. He turned it into a wonderful spirit-filled work called Living Word. He and I did a lot of work on that old building. Probably the most work I did on a church in my life up to that point. I did a major portion of the drywall in the sanctuary and built the sound booth and new stage. Susan and I got married there, but we didn’t stay long enough to see the sanctuary carpeted. Pastor Wayne had hoped we wouldn’t have to get married on plywood floors.
Susan and I moved to Indiana in 1985 and started an evangelistic ministry called Life in Jesus Ministries. We joined a church in Paoli, Indiana and, yes, did a lot of work on it. Pastor Clifton Coulter was a hard worker and he was working hard to turn an old factory into a beautiful church. During this time I happened upon a new church in Crandall, Indiana and stopped in to see if I could come and preach. That same Sunday their pastor had resigned. They asked me to stay and help until they could get a new pastor. Yes, again I began to do a lot of work on that church—stage, carpeting, bricking the outside, office, Sunday School rooms, etc. So much had to be done. They finally got a pastor, so Susan and I moved our family to Trinity Assembly of God, in Corydon, Indiana. Pastor Paul Greer was instrumental in introducing me to the Assemblies of God and showing me the benefits of affiliation with them. Household of Faith in Crandall asked me to come back after their new pastor left. I did and brought the church into the Assemblies, where I later got my license.
We spent several years in Crandall and continued to work on the facility. When we left it was a nice looking church, but it was very small and the Indiana District stepped in and took it over. Susan and I attended Celebration worship in Georgetown, Indiana in the interim until Rev. Crank asked me to take a church in Cambridge City, Indiana.
Here we go again. However, this church and parsonage had more work to do than any of the previous churches I had worked on. I began to see a trend—a calling, if you will. The Lord needed someone to actually work on his house, not just in the house.
See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot
and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."
Jeremiah 1:10 NIV
Susan and I dug into the work of rebuilding that church. However, this time we had a lot of help. The Indiana District stepped in. Pastor Holdeman from the Richmond Lighthouse brought workers and materials, the Indiana Women’s Ministries under the direction of Candy Wiggington chipped in, and several churches from across the state helped (including a team from Calvary). They completely renovated the parsonage and made it a beautiful place for Susan and I to raise our family.
Over the years we served there, we did the same renovations on the church. So much had to be done that I experienced my first feelings of being overwhelmed. However, The River was where I learned to break large projects down into smaller chunks and wait on the Lord for his provision.
This has served me well in coming to Calvary. The first thing I was told was the church needed to replace the entire roof on the fellowship hall, offices, and classrooms. Well, here we go again. Just more of what I have been doing all my life. However, there was a peace about it. Over the years here at Calvary I have learned to pace myself. Yes, I still get overwhelmed, but I have realized an important fact. Should the Lord tarry, I will not finish, but I will continue to labor for the cause. I am just one individual in a list of many people who have moved this church forward over the decades of its existence. There will be those who follow after me and pick up the mantle. They, in their turn, will work IN the church and ON the church. They will have that same heart to do what needs to be done. We don’t do it for the praise of men anyway. We must just keep laboring for God.
“It will be good for that servant whose master
finds him doing so when he returns.”
Matthew 24:46 NIV
Knowing this, I find peace in what will not get done before I retire, or die, or get raptured. I have served the church with whatever gifting I can muster for most of my life. I labor in the Word and prayer, I labor in administration, I work, clean, and fix things. I do what needs to be done and thereby set an example for those who follow after. I take solace in the fact that I see this same attitude in those who have gone before me.
Each church I have served has had people there who worked without question to maintain, build, and expand the facilities of the church. May those who follow after, like me, see when rebuilding is necessary and commit themselves to the process. It takes time, it takes money and materials, it takes talent and craftsmanship, but most of all it takes a heart to invest yourself knowing your reward is not always in this life.
"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant!
You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge
of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!’“
Matthew 25:23
Take this to heart as you too serve IN the church and work ON the church. You will never finish, but your labor in the Lord is never in vain.
“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.
Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully
to the work of the Lord, because you know that
your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
1st Corinthians 15:58
Pastor Brian Jenkins
Calvary Assemblies of God