Turns Out "Chairs" Aren't a Spiritual Gift

I have a problem.

My name is Tim and I often pay way too much attention to the wrong details. This revelation was reinforced this week as I helped my wife set up a classroom in the church for her breakout session at our Women's Conference.

For whatever reason, I take pride in my ability to lay out a room. (I think it is the old church planter in me.) I have learned that as many people as possible need to be able see other people in the room. Rows need to be staggered so that optimum eye contact can be maintained between speaker and audience. Space between chairs and rows must be properly configured. Wider is always better than longer.

As I explained to my wife (who seemed to have some doubts at the time) "I have the spiritual gift of chairs!"

But alas, there is no such thing as a gifts of "chairs."

Not a single person has ever been reached for the kingdom because of my chair designs. I think as a pastor I can spend way too much attention on these kind of details because they are things I can control. Chairs will go exactly where I want them to and when I finish they look so good!

That is a rare experience in ministry. So, I spend time on chairs and bulletin layouts and powerpoint presentations and church logos (our new one looks pretty good by the way) and colors for church polo shirts and even perfect phrasing for particular proclamation points.

But that is not really where ministry happens. Ministry is always much messier and far more intangible. It is connecting people with God's revealed truth and helping those connections take root.

Ministry is about the people who invariably come in and mess up my chairs anyhow.