Having a servant’s heart is a key element in true and proper worship.
In Tim Hughes’s book ‘A Passion For Your Name‘, he tells the story of a well-known worship leader who as a young man was very keen to be involved in leading worship. He spoke to his pastor about his desire and this calling on his life, and was offered a job as a cleaner for the church. He agreed, thinking this would be an interim job, but as time went on and his main role continued to be cleaning the toilets and hoovering the carpets, he started to resent it. He couldn’t understand why the pastor was overlooking his God-given talents and using him to do a job that anyone could perform. Then one day as he was cleaning, he found that in his heart he was worshipping the Lord. It dawned on him that what he was doing he could do for the glory of God – it was worship. It was in that place that he learned the true heart of worship. (P 33)
I am privileged to worship alongside people who understand what it means to have a servant’s heart. I consider myself blessed to worship alongside leaders who don’t mind doing whatever is necessary to help God’s church. I am so grateful to be part of a church that understands that true and proper worship is about so much more than what we do for an hour or so in a Sunday service.
Frank Peretti, in his book “The Visitation”, talks about the life of a local church in the United States. It’s a fictional account, but as I read it, I recognise so many real churches from the narrative. The narrator, a jaded, weary ex-pastor named Travis, is talking about his church and what God has done there over the years in changing the lives of ordinary people. One character, Mr Framer, started coming to church because of the kindness of the pastor’s wife in giving him haircuts and soon decided to donate a chemical toilet to the church. That small decision was instrumental in his wife attending church and gradually they both became Christians. Travis goes on to remark wryly “when we installed men’s and women’s flush toilet restrooms in the basement, the Framers were there to cut the ribbon.”
Many people don’t feel that toilets, drains, manual labour or practical work have any part in what we call worship. They feel that such things are ‘worldly’ and are not worth mentioning. I disagree vehemently with that opinion. Paul teaches us that we are one body with many parts, and that every functioning part is necessary to the benefit of the whole.
“Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.” (1 Cor 12:15-20)
He goes even further, stressing that the parts we may think of as being less important are actually fundamental:
“The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honourable we treat with special honour. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.” (1 Cor 12:21-25)
May we all realise our great value and importance, not only to the Lord, but also to His body, the church, and may we understand the significance of our service as true and proper worship.