Are you a consumer or a producer?

Too many consumers and not enough producers that is becoming a problem today, take social security for instance. Right now there is more money being taken out of it than is being put into it. That can only be sustained for so long or social security will be bankrupt. The same thing can happen in churches today and I am not talking about money. Churches can tend to be filled with too many consumers and not enough producers. You may ask what are you talking about. Glad you asked, for instance if there are more people asking for prayer than people who are willing to pray, that becomes a problem, if there are more kids in the nursery than there are people willing to serve in the nursery, that becomes a problem. If there are more people needing Sunday school teachers than people willing to teach, that will become a problem. If there are more people taking money out of the church than people giving to the church that too is an obvious problem. If a church grows and the same people are the only one still serving, something is going to have to give. If society changes and the people of the church are not willing to change to meet the needs of the community that too is a consumer mentality.

I have heard people say I did not get anything out of church. The question becomes did you put anything into church? Do you go to church to serve or to be served? Church is not about you. Are you consuming the resources of the church or are you producing resources for the church? It really goes against human nature but when you go to church wanting to put something into it, with the attitude that you want to serve, or that you want to produce for the church that is when you actually get the most out of it. There are going to be consumers in the church and we do need consumers. However we need to make sure that the consumers become producers so that there is room for even more consumers to come and hear God’s word and become producers in their own right.

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. (2 Corinthians 4:5 ESV)