Diversity

June, 2002

by: Brock Bolde

As I look around at the Children's Ministry, I am amazed at the diversity of people that we have serving in this vital ministry. We have elderly people, we have youth; we have married people, we have unmarried people; we have men, we have women; we have people with children, we have people without children; you name it, we got it! The Children's Ministry is truly a ministry with great diversity. And as I sit back and think about that, I can't help but think how healthy that is. I can't help but think how beneficial it is for the children of this church to see this wide array of people, all at different stages of their lives, sacrificially serving because of their love for the Lord. It reminds me of the church that the apostle Paul describes in Romans 12:4-8:

4. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function,
5. So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
6. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;
7. If service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching;
8. Or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Each of us is gifted in some unique way by God (see I Corinthians 12:27-28 for additional gifts). And we are to use these gifts for the edification of the body. The church is not a place to be a spectator — we are all called to be doing something in accordance to our giftedness.

F. F. Bruce says:

Diversity, not uniformity, is the mark of God's handiwork. It is so in nature; it is so in grace, too, and nowhere more so than in the Christian community. Here are many men and women with the most diverse kinds of parentage, environment, temperament, and capacity. Not only so, but since they became Christians they have been endowed by God with a great variety of spiritual gifts as well. Yet because and by means of that diversity, all can cooperate for the good of the whole.

Each of us needs one another. There is no place for the lone ranger approach to Christianity. So, whether you're young or old; male or female; married or unmarried; have children or don't have children; I want to challenge you to prayerfully consider becoming a part of this dynamically diverse group of people that make up our Children's Ministry team.