By Invitation Only

To serve God in His church is a priviledge. It is such a priviledge opportunity that it should be strictly by invitation only. But whose invitation? God's invitation of course!!! However, in many churches, especially Chinese churches in Indonesia, the invitation to serve often does not come first from God, but from a handful of people who are already within the church organization. It is after being invited by a mere human, people will then start to contemplate to serve. The practice I believe undermines the powerful work of the holy spirit. There seem to be no avenue for less well connected Christians to answer God's calling to serve in the church while on the other hand, some individuals are installed in certain positions for life as it seems. Opportunity to serve, therefore is limmited to how good is your networking in the church first and foremost, instead of genuine calling from God.

I would like to see, one of these days, open invitation to the whole congregation be issued so that an unknown individuals who are called by God, can nominate oneself or be nominated by another, for leadership positions or any other positions, and go through the complete vetting process. Of course this process is highly complicated and churches need to have a clearly defined, objective and most importantly biblical selection process. This, I realise, is also a risky endeavour as current church officials may have the balance of their working chemistry tipped to another side. I believe predictability is not God's design for His church. God wants us to have faith in Him in whatever situation He chose to bring our way. I believe it is time to hand over the control of the church back into God's hand. And one way to do it, to let God work freely in choosing His workers.

To serve is by invitation only: God's invitation.