I see many church people getting offended and bitterly leaving their churches because they felt their input was undervalued or the sheer volume of what they had to do was wearing on them or they just got frustrated. These tips may help:
* Understand and develop your best spiritual endowment and physical attributes through your personal relationship with God.
* It is not possible to be involved in every department of your church. Find the best place in the church where your gifts can be maximised and make your impact felt there. Don’t try to be everywhere. You will be too intrusive and will upset a lot of people and yourself in so doing.
* Take on one task at a time or you will be ineffective in all your tasks and will have no time for your personal development or spiritual growth through the Word.
* Understand your spiritual boundaries and do not cross them!
* Your raw passion and zeal for church activities must be well managed. Zeal devoid of in-depth knowledge can sometimes lead you to error. Proverbs 19:2 (NLT) – “Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes.”
* Understand the difference between church activities and spiritual actions. Church activities are expressive physical engagements within the church that help to move the church forward in an organised fashion whilst spiritual actions are actions that come from the depths of our relationship with God and which impact us and others with spiritual proofs.
* Don’t take on what you don’t have the capacity or creativity for in the name of humility or exuberance. Be honest, knowing that people’s lives are on the line.
* Always remember, God has many others who can do what you are doing. Don’t think you are helping God. He can help Himself.
* If you are new to the church, take time to understand the organisation or you will soon feel offended when you are corrected for going against the grain.
* Don’t try to impress your pastor, rather, honour him. Impress and be faithful to the One who called your pastor.
* Don’t feel guilty if you are unavailable to contribute to a church event today. You can be effective when you are available tomorrow.
* Seek to know less about the internal bureaucracies and keep your sight on Jesus. Less is more.
* If you seek a leadership role, be spiritually mature first. You will see and hear things that may shake your Christianity and could affect your views and honour for your leaders and the church.
The Lord rewards your labour of love.