Numbers 3-4

Shaquille O'Neal is unstoppable, Peyton Manning is often incredible, Pujols is possibly the best MLB player right now.

What do these men have in common? They are current leaders of their World Championship Teams. But Shaq has Wade, Manning has Harrington, Pujols has Rolan and Carpenter. Just to mention a few. These men could never have accomplished what they have without the team assembled together. In all cases the team won the championship, not the individual. All the things that have to happen to win a championship can never be done by just one person.

In today's reading God has Moses call all the sons of Levi before Aaron so that they might serve in the temple with him. For Aaron to carry the burden by himself would have been impossible. Having read through the lists of sacrifices and offerings, we realize how daunting of a task this would have been. One person can never carry the load by themselves. Even if they are incredible at what they do they can never be all things to all people at all times.

Sometimes though, especially in smaller churches, this is exactly what we expect of our senior pastor. We expect him to do the "work of the church." That's his job, right!? The problem is Scripture is to the contrary. Reading in Ephesians 4:11-12 "And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ..." According to this passage, who does the work of the Church? The saints... that's you, not your pastor.

Our senior pastors are there to equip us for service... through sound preaching, teaching, and shepherding. But it is us who are to be the body of Christ to the world. The country pastor can not evangelize all those you work with, he can not financially support the church, he can not make every decision, he can not run every part of the service. To make a service work it takes the members of the congregation working together to pull off something of such magnitude.

Aaron could never have done it alone. Nor should we expect one man now to be able to do so. We are the sons... not of Levi but of Christ... who are brought into our local churches to serve.

Are you serving or expecting to be served? Start today!