Is Your Church a Mary or a Martha? tagged: , , , ,

Is Your Church a Mary or a Martha?

Posted by in Baptist Life, Church & Missions

(Luke 10:38-42, ESV) Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. (39) And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. (40) But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” (41) But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, (42) but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Sermons about Mary and Martha have become cliché. This passage is a favorite of preachers, and I think there are multiple reasons for it:

  1. The passage is short and complete. Reading is quick and the reader need not know the immediate context of the passage to understand the author’s point.
  2. Readers can easily identify their mothers with one or both of the women. The honor our culture gives to mothers makes this passage one with which we easily identify.
  3. The stark contrast between Mary and Martha is punctuated by the event’s conclusion with Jesus’ surprisingly strong statement. Rhetorically the story is powerful.

My Church

I see a strong parallel from this passage in the way in which we do ministry. Some of us, individuals and churches, are “distracted with much serving.” My last sentence almost sounds like blasphemy coming off the keystrokes of my laptop. WHAT!?!? How can any church be distracted with much serving? Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do? No, Martha, not quite.

I’ve heard it said so many times that I guess it must be true that in your average church 10% of the people do 90% of the work. Looking across the table at our last leadership meeting for our Hispanic ministry, I noted that in two years our leadership has shrunk and the team has no new faces on it. By and large three couples are the supporting structures of our ministry, and if one is removed, the building becomes unstable. If two are removed, we cannot continue with our normal programming.

That hurts to think about after two years of ministry. Paul could be in an area for less than six months and establish elders in a young and growing church, and even if those churches had issues, they at least didn’t depend on a few couples to survive. I look at where we’re at and I wonder if we shouldn’t have more men who are apt to teach, more people who can explain the gospel in a nutshell. I know the answer to that question, but the answer only highlights my own responsibility for our current situation.

In August we will celebrate our second anniversary of the start of our Saturday night services. Two full years. I am not satisfied with where we are at. And I fear where we will be in another two years when we celebrate our fourth anniversary if we don’t do something now.

It’s not that we haven’t done programs and put on big events. We enjoyed the World Cup Final between Spain and Holland. We’ve had two Christmas celebrations, an Easter egg hunt, a Good Friday and Holy Saturday service, and not a few dinners after our normal services. Many of these events have been so large as to put a lot of strain and stress on the few of us occupying leadership positions.

Truly we have been “anxious and troubled about many things.”

But have we missed what is important? Without laying the blame on anyone but myself (since I alone have insight into my motivations and feelings), I think we have. Maybe you have too.

Radical

I recently read (and reread) David Platt’s book, Radical, and the follow up, Radical Together. He’s quickly growing in popularity and influence in the SBC and with good reason. He’s a young pastor of a megachurch who has been making some waves with his new books and outreach.

The basic premise of his two books are that we need to be doing some serious self-examination of both our lives and our churches. I’ve mentioned before that I have difficulty weighing and considering a lot of Jesus’ statements in the gospels because they are so radical and I don’t want to write them off as mere hyperbole in order to make a point. If Jesus uses such strong language to make a point, maybe that’s because he wants us to feel the weight of that point.

I think David Platt is seriously trying to consider Jesus’ teachings in these two books. How does “Sell all and follow Me” apply to my current life situation and my church? Do I need to move to a larger apartment or get rid of my stuff? Does the church need a larger foyer or is God calling us to set an example and exist without a building? These are hard questions. And David Platt is asking them.

I asked a pastor I know what he thought of Platt’s book. He thought there was good material, but didn’t like a megachurch pastor suggesting to people struggling to get by that they might need to give up a building or eliminate programs. Then again, Jesus called on people to give up everything they have. And if Platt is only pointing us to Jesus and asking us to rethink our motives and calling, is that all that bad?

I think Platt is on to something here.

In our situation, we have been putting a lot of time, energy, and money into big events. But the spread of the gospel does not depend on our ability to compete with the entertainment industry. It doesn’t depend on our ability to get lost people into a building on a certain day or hour. It depends on Him drawing people to Himself.

We’ve been “distracted with much serving.” And when we look around, we get upset that other people aren’t getting with our program. We ask, “Why are you taking your family on a vacation when you know we’re having our big outreach event this weekend?” Yet we forget that some people need a vacation because they’ve been coaching a high school sports team and sharing Christ with players and parents all season instead of once at our event. We end up alienating those who are making a kingdom impact and corrupting those who don’t know any better by making them give up the “good portion” in favor of our “many things.”

In our ministry I am going to put more resources and effort into training people up to carry out the ministry (not the program) instead of throwing everything at some event once or twice a quarter.

What about you? Are your people being plugged into programs or into Jesus? Are you doing the ministry, or training them up to do the ministry? God help us as we seek to be in holy submission to His plan, not our program.

(Luke 10:38-42, ESV) Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. (39) And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. (40) But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” (41) But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, (42) but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Sermons about Mary and Martha have become cliché. This passage is a favorite of preachers, and I think there are multiple reasons for it:

1) The passage is short and complete. Reading is quick and the reader need not know the immediate context of the passage to understand the author’s point.

2) Readers can easily identify their mothers with one or both of the women. The honor our culture gives to mothers makes this passage one with which we easily identify.

3) The stark contrast between Mary and Martha is punctuated by the event’s conclusion with Jesus’ surprisingly strong statement. Rhetorically the story is powerful.

My Church

I see a strong parallel from this passage in the way in which we do ministry. Some of us, individuals and churches, are “distracted with much serving.” My last sentence almost sounds like blasphemy coming off the keystrokes of my laptop. WHAT!?!? How can any church be distracted with much serving? Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do? No, Martha, not quite.

I’ve heard it said so many times that I guess it must be true that in your average church 10% of the people do 90% of the work. Looking across the table at our last leadership meeting for our Hispanic ministry, I noted that in two years our leadership has shrunk and the team has no new faces on it. By and large three couples are the supporting structures of our ministry, and if one is removed, the building becomes unstable. If two are removed, we cannot continue with our normal programming.

That hurts to think about after two years of ministry. Paul could be in an area for less than six months and establish elders in a young and growing church, and even if those churches had issues, they at least didn’t depend on a few couples to survive. I look at where we’re at and I wonder if we shouldn’t have more men who are apt to teach, more people who can explain the gospel in a nutshell. I know the answer, but the answer only highlights my own responsibility for our current situation.

In August we will celebrate our second anniversary of the start of our Saturday night services. Two full years. I am not satisfied with where we are at. And I fear what will be in another two years when we celebrate our fourth anniversary if we don’t do something now.

It’s not that we haven’t done programs and put on big events. We enjoyed the World Cup Final between Spain and Holland. We’ve had two Christmas celebrations, an Easter egg hunt, a Good Friday and Holy Saturday service, and not a few dinners after our normal services. Many of these events have been so large as to put a lot of strain and stress on the few of us occupying leadership positions.

Truly we have been “anxious and troubled about many things.”

But have we missed what is important? Without laying the blame on anyone but myself (since I alone have insight into my motivations and feelings), I think we have. Maybe you have too.

Radical

I recently read (and reread) David Platt’s book, Radical, and the follow up, Radical Together. He’s quickly growing in popularity and influence in the SBC and with good reason. He’s a young pastor of a megachurch who has been making some waves with his new books and outreach.

The basic premise of his two books are that we need to be doing some serious self-examination of both our lives and our churches. I’ve mentioned before that I have difficulty weighing and considering a lot of Jesus’ statements in the gospels because they are so radical and I don’t want to write them off as mere hyperbole in order to make a point. If Jesus uses such strong language to make a point, maybe that’s because he wants us to feel the weight of that point.

I think David Platt is seriously trying to consider Jesus’ teachings in these two books. How does “Sell all and follow Me” apply to my current life situation and my church? Do I need to move to a larger apartment or get rid of my stuff? Does the church need a larger foyer or is God calling us to set an example and exist without a building? These are hard questions. And David Platt is asking them.

I asked a pastor I know what he thought of Platt’s book. He thought there was good material, but didn’t like a megachurch pastor suggesting to people struggling to get by that they might need to give up a building or eliminate programs. Then again, Jesus called on people to give up everything they have. And if Platt is only pointing us to Jesus and asking us to rethink our motives and calling, is that all that bad?

I think Platt is on to something here.

In our situation, we have been putting a lot of time, energy, and money into big events. But the spread of the gospel does not depend on our ability to compete with the entertainment industry. It doesn’t depend on our ability to get lost people into a building on a certain day or hour. It depends on Him drawing people to Himself.

We’ve been “distracted with much serving.” And when we look around, we get upset that other people aren’t getting with our program. We ask, “Why are you taking your family on a vacation when you know we’re having our big outreach event this weekend?” Yet we forget that some people need a vacation because they’ve been coaching a high school sports team and sharing Christ with players and parents all season instead of once at our event. We end up alienating those who are making a kingdom impact and corrupting those who don’t know any better by making them give up the “good portion” in favor of our “many things.”

In our ministry I am going to put more resources and effort into training people up to carry out the ministry (not the program) instead of throwing everything at some event once or twice a quarter.

What about you? Are your people being plugged into programs or into Jesus? Are you doing the ministry, or training them up to do the ministry? God help us as we seek to be in holy submission to His plan, not our program.