A Christian ministry is looking for applicants for a newly-created position within their organization. I checked out what they were looking for and was surprised at what I found listed there. The typical stuff was not there, like educational background, formal degrees, experience, etc. In place of that, there was this:
- A lover of Jesus
- An apprentice of Jesus in Kingdom living
- A person with a passion for his/her own inward transformation
- A person of balance and wholeness, reflecting the Six Streams of the Christian faith
- A person who practices the spiritual disciplines as habits of life
- A person who is able to wait on the Lord and practice discernment
- A person who highly values developing and maintaining ongoing relationships
- A person with a tender heart
- A person who notices and genuinely likes people
- A person who listens well and is open to influence
- A person who maintains confidentiality about people, problems, and projects
- A person of humility who does not need adoration
- A person willing and eager to receive both feedback and suggestions
- A person who strives to build an open and vulnerable team
- A person who relishes the development and empowerment of others
- A person who can translate vision into reality
- A person with a passion for engaging and uniting local churches across boundaries
To be clear, I’m not looking for a different position but as I read down through these specific things, I was intrigued enough to ask myself whether or not I would qualify for such a position. And not just qualify, as in the minimum sense of the word, but exceedingly qualify as in being able to offer that organization excellence in those areas.
Maybe I’m still parked in Hebrews 12:28 and wondering what all is included in ‘purest worship’ as translated in TPT. Do I offer pure worship? Do I even offer worship? Do I offer worship ‘up’? Is worship just the singing part of our gatherings? And since something interrupted our normal times of Sunday gathering, making singing a disjointed, wobbly exercise, am I worship-less?
My friend, and yours, Frederick Buechner, says this:
“To worship God means to serve God. Basically there are two ways to do it. One way is to do things for God that God needs to have done – run errands for God, carry messages for God, fight on God’s side, feed God’s lambs, and so on. The other way is to do things for God that you need to do -sing songs for God, create beautiful things for God, give things up for God, tell God what’s on your mind and in your heart, in general rejoice in God and make a fool of yourself for God the way lovers have always made fools of themselves for the one they love. A Quaker meeting, a pontifical High Mass, the family service at Zion Episcopal, a Holy Roller happening – unless there is an element of joy and foolishness in the proceedings, the time would be better spent doing something useful.
After all that – does our practice of Worship qualify? PD
