Qualifying the Called

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

January 17, 2016

Qualifying the Called

Numbers 11:16-17

“So the Lord said to Moses,

“Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel,

whom you know to be the elders of the people

and officers over them;

bring them to the tent of meeting,

and have them take their place there with you.  

I will come down and talk with you there;

and I will take some of the spirit that is on you

and put it on them;

and they shall bear the burden of the people

along with you

so that you will not bear it all by yourself.”

****************************************

The call came on a weekday evening

a long time ago.

I answered the telephone and

on the other end of the line

I heard a familiar voice,

a woman I knew from church,

the church in Buffalo where I worshipped,

the church where I grew up.

She said she was calling on behalf of

the Nominating Committee.

Those words were barely out of her mouth

before my brain kicked into

full defensive mode,

full refusal mode.

Every synapse was firing,

my brain running through

every possible permutation

of how to say firmly, but politely,

“no”.

I listened as the woman spoke,

She told me that the Committee

was asking me to consider service as a Deacon,

service on the Board of Deacons in the church

where I had been baptized 30 years before,

where I’d been confirmed,

where three generations of my family worshipped. 

I knew the caller well –

I had grown up with her children.

I knew that she had long been active in the church,

faithfully serving on many committees.

How could I say “no” to her?

How could I say “no” to the church?

But I did;

I said, “no”.

That was 30 years ago,

so I don’t recall my precise reasons,

but I probably used words like,

“I’m awfully busy”;

“work is crazy”;

“too much going on”;

“Now isn’t a good time”;

“overly committed already.”

                                                                                

Nominating Committees are nothing

if not resilient,

so I wasn’t surprised when

they approached me again the next year.

It was the same request,

but a different caller:

Would I consider serving as a Deacon?

“No” was still my response.

I was a little slower with the no,

but still firm,

resolute, adamant.

“No.”

The Nominating Committee left me alone

the next year- no call, no request;

but back they came the fourth year.

Only this time, they swooped in

and caught me off guard.

This time I wasn’t asked to serve as a Deacon.

No, this time I was asked whether I would serve

on the church’s Board of Trustees.

Back then, the church still had

three operating boards:

The Session,

the Board of Deacons,

and the Board of Trustees.

The Trustees oversaw building and grounds,

the maintenance and upkeep of

what was a large, historic facility.

The Trustees also supervised the church’s

investments in the endowment funds.

I said yes to that request.

I said yes without hesitating,

as busy as I was.

I said yes, because

I understood what the Trustees did:

they were the business-end of the church,

they were about dollars and cents –

the language I spoke fluently in my business career.

I knew I was qualified to be a Trustee;

I was not sure I was qualified to be a Deacon.

I knew I had the skills and knowledge

to be a good Trustee;

but I was not sure I had the skills and knowledge

to be a good Deacon.

I served on the Board of Trustees for three years,

and in my final year I was the Board’s president.

Subsequently, I said yes to other requests:

would I serve on the Stewardship Committee: Yes;

would I serve on the budget committee: Yes

would I serve on the space planning committee: Yes.

I said yes to requests that seem to fit my gifts.

Looking back, I wonder whether I ever

thought about God’s hand,

God’s role in my being called to service.

I’m not sure I ever thought of any of those calls

that came from the Nominating Committee

as calls from God,

calls from God to serve,

calls to serve God and serve the church.

It was many years later I realized

that what I had reduced to nuts and bolts,

dollars and cents,

buildings and grounds,

was really about serving God.

Every call from the Nominating Committee,

had been a call from God.

The work of the church is

too much for one person;

too much even for a handful of people.

We need to have lots of people,

teams of people working and serving together.

It is no exaggeration to say that we need everyone,

everyone to be involved in this body of Christ.

Our text teaches us that even Moses needed help;

even Moses could not lead

the children of Israel by himself.

So what did God tell him to do?

Something that should gladden

our Presbyterian hearts:

God told him to recruit a committee,

a team,

70 strong.

In re-reading this story,

I wondered how many people Moses had to ask

to get 70 to say “yes”;

Did anyone say “no” to Moses?

Did anyone say to Moses,

“You know, thank you for asking,

but now’s not a good time”?

The more important lesson

we glean from our text, though

is that when God calls us,

God also graces us with the gifts we will need

to do the job that God calls us to do,

whatever God calls us to do.

We read that, hear that

as God says he will put his Spirit in the 70

Moses recruits to serve.

As the saying goes,

God doesn’t call the qualified;

God qualifies the called.

Had I said “yes” to that first call

to serve as a Deacon,

God would have graced me with the gifts

I would have needed to serve faithfully,

to serve well.

Yes, I felt more comfortable serving as a Trustee,

but had I at the time put more trust in God,

I would have been fine as a Deacon.

God graces those who are called,

those who say “yes” to the call to service,

with the gifts they will need to serve,

to serve faithfully and well,

whether it be as an Elder,

as a Deacon,

chairing this Team

or simply serving on that Committee.

God graces everyone called to

leadership in the church with the ability to lead.

God teaches all those called to lead in service

that leadership is not about dash, intellect,

schooling, or charm;

Rather, leadership is about service

as we all follow the head of our church,

our Lord Jesus Christ.

Some 40 years ago,

a professor named James MacGregor Burns

wrote a book called, “Leadership”.

In the book he observed

that leaders tend to fall into one of two camps:

they are either “transactional” leaders

or they are “transformational” leaders.

When I served on the Board of Trustees,

I was a transactional leader:

I got things done;

I knew how to make things happen.

But in the church,

as much as we need to get things done

and make things happen,

those called to lead

are called to be transformational leaders

more than transactional leaders.

We should not call them Ruling Elders;

we should call them

“Transformational Elders”.

Leadership exercised by Deacons,

leadership exercised by Elders,

by chairs of Teams,

by chairs of Committees,

is all transformative leadership

because it is leadership

done in the name of Jesus Christ;

leadership guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Transformational leaders creatinge a culture,

a place where all can grow

and be nurtured and nourished

in the spirit of Jesus Christ.

                            

The year ahead promises to be an exciting year

as we begin to do the work

envisioned by our Capital Campaign.

We’ll need lots of people, teams of people

people involved in lots of different ways.

We’ll need leadership,

leadership through service.

Where is God calling you to serve?

What is God is calling you to do?

What is God calling you to help with?

Serve on Stewardship to build on

this past year’s success?

Serve on the newly formed Membership Team?

Serve on the newly formed Fellowship Team?

God may be calling you to something that fits you,

or God may be calling you to serve

in a way you never previously considered.

Either way, God is calling you to serve,

and God will enable you;

God will empower you;

God will qualify you;

God will even help you

to make the time you need,

but don’t think you have to serve.

Listen!

Listen for God’s call to service.

It will come;

And when it does come,

don’t hesitate,

don’t make excuses,

don’t worry,

Just say “YES!”

AMEN