Jeremiah Richards

I recently was in the drive thru of a Starbucks, who would have thought, and behind the Starbucks was a small dumpster on it was a sign that said

“Contents Not Edible”

Now when I read the sign I was immediately hit with this thought “That is a stupid sign!” I even said that out loud to Michelle. The reason that is a stupid sign is that there is an extremely high correlation between homelessness, most likely the population eating out of the dumpster, and illiteracy. So the guy the sign is designed to communicate with is unable to understand the message.

Than I thought, doesn’t the church do the same thing. We think we are helping the community. We think we are really reaching out in new and creative ways. We think we are making a difference when in reality much of our effort is lost because we know little about our intended audience, spiritually homeless people. Maybe if we knew more lost people we might actually realize the solution is to find a way to give them food instead of running worship services they don’t understand anyway.

Michelle, my wife, and I along with out 2 children visited Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC. on Sunday. We have been following the story of Elevation Church for 18 months or so. We have read about all God is doing there and how the church has grown from 25 – 2500 in such a short time. It really is a God thing.

We had some time off of work at Dutch Fork Christian Church so we decided to make the short drive from Columbia to Charlotte to see first had what this church was all about. So I had my pen and my moleskin journal ready to record observations. There is a lot to be impressed with. They bleed excellence, there are a lot of things they do well. I have 15 – 20 observations that I will act on in my own ministry, but one observation that I didn’t expect was really something Elevation wasn’t doing well.

See, Elevation is doing the Sunday morning worship experience with excellence. They put a lot of money and planning and effort into the Sunday morning worship service. Their worship is awesome, their presentation is clean, their transitions are smooth. They pay attention to details. They do this because people are being reached for Jesus through it. There are however many things that they are not doing well that are either products of their lack of a permanent home, they meet in 2 different high schools, or whatever it is falls outside of their laser sharp focus and doesn’t need to be done with more excellence right now.

One example…  Their children’s ministry is good, but it was not the over the top awesome experience that their worship service is. Again physical space is a huge factor in children’s ministry and those limitations are felt when dealing with small children. They also understand that people are not coming to Elevation because their 2 year old class is awesome. They are coming because in their worship experience you will encounter a risen Jesus who can change your life. So children’s ministry is needed, but it can not get the focus it deserves at this point in their life cycle.

I say all this because we all need to apply this lesson to our own ministries and lives. You can choose to try and do everything. You can try and be a jack of all trades, but in the end you will most likely be “ok” at everything and excellent at nothing. God needs you to offer your unique gifts to his service. He needs you to offer those few things that you are good at and potentially excellent at.

Andy Stanley says it this way. “You do what only you can do!” Marcus Buckingham says “Your greatest contribution to your team will be in your area of greatest giftedness.”

Stop trying to do and offer everything to everyone. Stop trying to be well rounded. Be you with you limited gifts and use them the the MAX of your ability for God glory and watch Him bless it. This truth is in the bible all over the place look at the story of David and Goliath or any Jesus story. People want you to be everything when God has called you to simply be YOU!