Pastor Jeremy Stephens

I really dislike manual labor. Seriously. I know, with manual labor comes the satisfaction that you’ve actually accomplished something. You can look at a completed house or pathway or deck and say, “I’ve built that.” I understand, but I still don’t like it. Strangely, though, manual labor seems to follow me wherever I go. I’ve helped to build homes and I’ve made decks, boardwalks and stone paths. I’ve shingled roofs, stripped siding and built a fish pond complete with water fall. Heck, I worked on a dairy farm for two years, and I currently work in a warehouse a few days a week. I think I’ve earned the right to dislike it.

Despite my distaste for manual labor, I must admit that I had a really good time yesterday at Urban Promise in Camden, NJ. Urban Promise was birthed out of a Tony Campolo initiative in Philadelphia back in the mid-80’s, and has been working hard to keep kids off the streets of Camden, consistently ranked as one of the top five worst places to live in the United States.

Our church has had a relationship with Urban Promise for several years now. They go down almost monthly to lend a hand to whatever is needed. Yesterday, for instance, we cleared out a three-story home on their property that is in the midst of renovation. Our group consisted of mainly girls and we didn’t even fill up our church van, but by 2:00 in the afternoon, we had filled a roll-off dumpster to the brim.

This still doesn’t remove my aversion to “hard work.” If I had a choice between helping to build a house and sitting inside a Starbucks all day reading and chatting with baristas, I would almost always choose the latte…er…latter. It’s affected many of my ministry choices as well. I’ve always opted to introduce students to “front line” sort of ministries where we’re forced to speak directly with people, having to be prepared to share the gospel through their story. Because of this, I think I’ve missed out on introducing people to a ministry opportunity that has the “we’ve accomplished something tangible” quality.

I think I will always default to ministries which allow me to interact with people face-to-face. I believe story of Christ is so rich and its impact on my life so has been so profound, that it needs to be verbally shared with everyone. But I was reminded this weekend that my ministry planning needs to provide opportunities for people to experience the satisfaction of supporting God’s work from behind the scenes.