During the last week of June, we were blessed to host a ministry team from Lord of Life Lutheran Church in La Fox, Illinois. This team came to help us with much-needed maintenance at our downtown Minneapolis headquarters. In addition, the team wanted to know the Prayer League better and for us to get acquainted with Lord of Life.
It would be difficult to put a price tag on the many tasks, big and small, that were completed by this team, but impossible to put a price tag on the eternal value of being part of such an undertaking. I was personally so encouraged and blessed to see members of the Body of Christ being summoned and anointed for these tasks.
We live in a fallen world where things wear out and we work by the “sweat of our brow” to repair them and maintain them. God could intervene and keep things from breaking and wearing out, and at times in history (and maybe even in our own lives) he has, but most of the time we deal with the things that “moth and rust destroy.” That, in and of itself, could really seem futile, but after having a team from another church family come and invest themselves as this team did, we can get a small glimpse of how “Christ makes all things work together for the good of those who follow him.”
I truly believe that tackling these kinds of tasks, in the U.S. or overseas, is not futile and not a burden. It is an opportunity to glorify the Kingdom with the “work of our hands,” and also an opportunity to build lasting relationships with other brothers and sisters in Christ, relationships between ministries, and most of all to deepen our relationship with Christ. And God’s grace is so abundant in that, after all the blessings I just noted, our Father in heaven also longs to reward us in glory for serving him in practical ways.
We all represent different parts of the Body to make up the “whole” that Christ intends for us to be. I appreciate our academics, our theologians and evangelists, but I love our practical people who have the ability to build “Kingdom relationships” through the work of their hands. I am fortunate to serve with a ministry that does a great job of pulling all the aspects of the Body together to work so seamlessly. I was reminded of this by the Lord of Life team, and give thanks to them and glory to God for their faithfulness.
