Are you a ftcw?

One of the blessing of being a church leader in Doncaster is that there are really good relationships between the various Christian denominations in the town and surrounding area. I belong to the local Ministers' Prayer Group, which meets at Christchurch every Wednesday morning from 7am-8am. I feel privileged to be part of a very strong network of fellow church leaders.

One of the ways in which we express our unity as churches is by meeting once each quarter for the City Celebration, when Christians from many Doncaster churches meet together to celebrate God's love. A few months ago, the quest speaker at the City Celebration was a man called Mark Greene. As people arrived at the venue, they were given a little red badge with the letters "ftcw" appearing on the centre of the badge. I am sure that a lot of people struggled to work out what these letters stood for!

I was reminded of the occasion this morning when I was reading from the New Testament the third chapter of Paul's letter to the Colossians, where he writes, "Whatever you say or do should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus" (v17) and "Do your work willingly, as though you were serving the Lord himself, and not just your earthly master" (v23).

Many years ago went for an interview with a lady at what was then The Methodist Missionary Society. I wanted to discuss the possibility of serving with the church overseas. It was a tremendously useful time for me, especially when the lady reminded me that, "You can serve God just as faithfully and effectively in your normal workplace situation as you can overseas".

Somehow in the church we have created the impression that those people who work full time for the church (ministers, missionaries etc) are in a category set apart. In fact, every follower of Jesus is called to be a "full time Christian worker" (ftcw). We all play a number of roles, whether in our family, our workplace, our community, or our church, and God is interested in the whole of our lives. Serving as a minister or missionary is, in one sense, no different from any other area of service. WHATEVER you do, says Paul, do it in the name of Jesus, and remember that it is him you're serving. What a difference it might make if every follower of Jesus saw themselves as a ftcw!