We had our first Caring meeting the other day. People talked about their stuff. We talked about last term. Caring stuff kind of sat at the back of my head over the last few days, until a conversation today brought it back up again. Some of you may have heard my Caring team speech. You know. The one where I ask you about CCF. If it's a safe place for you to share your struggles and weaknesses. If you feel that people will give you the time to chat and untempered support.
Maybe it's because I'm fourth year now. But the concept of passing on the torch is ringing a little louder than it was before. I find myself asking questions like...what do you want out of CCF? What do you want to see? Vision casting questions...
The conversation I had was regarding the new ministries in CCF. Namely, Caring and Outreach. Those people involved in Caring would know it kind of collapsed at some point, because people involved didn't keep it going. Outreach had its events, which drew some attention. Since I'm not involved in Outreach at all, I will only comment on Caring.
I came to the realization that perhaps, CCF is in a bad place. During the first Fall Caring meeting, it was said that the eventual goal of Caring is that it will one day cease to exist. It shouldn't exist. It only does because a need was observed: the people in CCF are not getting enough attention. People are not being taken care of. So, now there is a need to facilitate an organization in order to address this concern, because although the community is suppose to be caring to one another, it is not happening enough. This means two things...
1) The existance of Caring means we're now trying to treat the symptoms (people burning out/falling through the cracks) and not the problem (the community not caring/unified enough).
2) The facilitate and systematic nature of Caring/Outreach may further this problem. People see these ministries and join them, because we all know that we're called do these things. The danger is that we might become dependent on these programs to motivate us to care. "Oh, someone is sick, congee team has gotta manufacture congee now" vs "Hmm, someone is sick, I want to make them congee" ... extrinsic vs intrinsic motivation. Given extrinsic motivations, would I still want to rely on intrinsic motivations?
In other words...would a taxi driver go home, after a long day of driving people everywhere, and bust out his RX7 and enjoy a ride?
Because really, we should haven't to regiment a Caring team. We should inherently want to do that. If Caring/Outreach didn't exist (because it is only a faciliated channel, nothing more), would you still care/outreach? Yes, I realize that most people are on teams like Worship, Caring and Outreach because they want to do it (thus intrinsic). But this question can be expanded to questions like...why do you attend CCF? or church? (I almost said "or lectures?" but I'd own myself there haha). Ministry is only a chore when it is solely extrinsically motivated.
This is where passing on the torch comes in. By considering and developing one's vision, one realises what motivates him/her. By realizing what grants you intrinsic motivation, it reduces burnout rates and fatigue. For if you consider your vision and dreams something God-given, there's few things that's more powerful than the simple knowledge that the Lord your God has anointed you to have it.
Haha. I just spent a page tell people to serve in the area they want to. But the implicit message here is...I was once told to not serve to solely fill a need. If I don't care for a ministry, I would not give it my all. Because the ministry isn't mine.
2 comments:
I think you are the taxi driver that would go home to bust out his RX7, as I've seen in your actions...
About serving to fill a role that may not be your own ministry. Of course, if it FEELS like a burden or pure obligation, then don't do it. However, I think we should still see to the needs around us even if it's not in our gifting, especially if you do feel it is something that you can help address. The issue here is still intrinsic motivation, not in the "this is my calling/gifting" sense, but rather in the "I see a need and want to help make a change" intrinsic pull.
You wouldn't not hold open the door for an elderly woman simply because you feel it is mere obligation. You wouldn't not tell your own kids about Jesus because you're not gifted with evangelism.
Yes, don't fill a role if you don't want to, but the point is we should be trying to become persons who DO want to. I believe it is dangerous to tell people not to serve to simply fill a role without making this point. Otherwise, we may end up a group of individuals who partition these important areas of life into their separate compartments. What good would a fellowship or church be with a hundred devoted worship leaders and no bible study leaders?
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