Good to Great

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord you are serving.”

(Colossians 3:23-24)

It is amazing to witness the amount of effort and energy that people pour out into the corporate, entertainment and sports world. There is continual improvement and innovation: What can make the product better?  What can make the team better?  What can sell more movies?  How can we make the internet faster? People are constantly looking to improve, innovate, challenge, stretch, re-imagine and progress.   

Shouldn’t these very words also describe us as a church? Shouldn’t we pour out more effort, energy, love, creativity and imagination into the church than what the world does into industry, entertainment and sport?

Just over a year ago I read a book called, It’s your Ship, by Michael Abrashoff. He served in the US Navy for many years and was promoted to take leadership of the Benfold, a US destroyer. Before he took command, his crew was known for poor performance and even poorer morale. They were disunified, dispirited, underperforming and known as the worst ship in the entire navy. In less than two years he turned that crew around into the most unified and highest performing ship in the navy.

The million dollar question is: how did he do it? If I could summarize it for you in one principle it would be this: He created ownership. His standard and favourite line with his crew was It’s your Ship. It is not my ship, it is your ship. It is yours to endure, if you just want to endure it. It is yours to be miserable on, if you want to be miserable on it. It is yours to be embarrassed about and yours to resign from. Or it is yours to improve, yours to enjoy serving on. It is yours to be proud of. You can choose what your ship will be like.

After reading it I could not help but think of us as a church. How were we doing? I didn’t think that we were the worst church in the movement.  By God’s grace we were doing fairly okay. But as we all know, good is always the enemy of great. So I pondered upon the question: are we just going to do good? Or are we going to give our best for God and strive for continual improvement? What would it take for and from us to go to the next level? To move from Good to Great!!

What will move us from Good to Great is not just a couple of people, but rather for every disciple to take ownership - for every disciple to say, “this is my ship”. This is the Ship (church) that Jesus ‘bought with his own blood’ (Acts 20:28).

I believe that when you make Jesus Lord of your life, you want to please the Lord and give Him your best, but often times you don’t know how to. You can wait around until someone asks you to serve in some capacity.  A couple of full time ministry people will not be able to bring about the change that we desire, but a volunteer revolution could score a home run. We have to help every disciple to get involved and inspire everyone to work with all of their heart so as to put forward their best effort because it is the Lord Christ that we are serving.

In 2005, we sent out a church questionnaire asking people what they enjoyed doing and in what service areas of the church they would like to help out. It was amazing to see the response.  Many said they would love to serve for a whole year with the children as it was their passion. Some loved ushering while others enjoyed the more technical side of things. We realized then that placing people in their areas of passion would be more effective than forcing someone to serve in an area they did not enjoy. That is where we evolved the idea of service teams.

A service team is a group of disciples that are passionate about one particular area of service, for example worship or ushering. Instead of being in the team for a limited time, and then move onto something else, their objective is to focus wholly on improving and developing their area of service. This has allowed different disciples to use their talents and to take ownership of their part of the “body” (Romans 12). Our church services have become incredible as we are all involved and engaged. The leadership team now need not be responsible for everything.

We have created many service teams over the last year.  For example, the worship team now includes guitars, drums and a keyboard. They have introduced numerous new songs which has revitalised our singing.

The sound and media team is improving the quality of our services through visual presentations and improved sound equipment. The ushering team has given their whole hearts to making sure they are unified in all aspects, including their clothing, so it’s obvious who they are in case you need help. They are the first at church to welcome everyone and to make sure the venue looks great.

The CD ministry is in charge of recording both midweek and Sunday services and to make the sermons available right after service for purchase. Many disciples have loved purchasing specific sermons for those visiting as well as for others who were not able to make the service due to health or travelling reasons.

The library team not only oversees the borrowing of books, but also sells books every Sunday. The tea and coffee team makes sure that after each Sunday service both visitors to our fellowship as well as the church members feel at home with a warm beverage while they stay to get to know us better.

The PowerPoint team has brought us in line with the computer age through exceptional power point presentations to highlight points in the sermon. The design team is responsible for making invitations and logos for the church that are exciting and intriguing. Our latest revamped team is our KIDZ ZONE which is making church an exciting time for our children. And we are not stopping here. We still have plans for many more service teams.

As disciples we all make up the church so if we don’t all take ownership, the church will not move forward. With the logistics in place, the leadership team can now focus their attention on prayer and the ministry of the word. Please be praying for us as we strive to glorify God. And if you ever get a chance to visit us, we would love to see you.

Much love,

Werner Vos

Cape Town, South-Africa