Ministries @ St. John's

Opportunities for involvement

St. John’s offers many possibilities for worship, service, education, fun, fellowship and spiritual growth. Each of us brings our own unique abilities and gifts to God’s service. We hope that you will consider the good stewardship of your time and talents and join us as we minister to each other, our community, and the world. If you have any questions or would like information on selecting possible areas for your ministry, please contact Margaret Ruark, Lay Ministry Coordinator at 704-366-3034 or Margaret@saintjohns-charlotte.org.

GOD’S CALL TO YOU!

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord…For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of the one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many…But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose…As it is, there are many parts, yet one body…Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (I Corinthians 12:4, 12-14, 18-29, 27 from The English Standard Bible)

You hold in your hands a wonderful gift! Not only is it an exciting compilation of the many ways in which we serve God through St. John’s, it’s also a powerful tool for you to discern how the Lord is calling you to serve. And he is calling you as St. Paul made clear in the passage printed above.

A great encouragement and comfort to all disciples of Jesus Christ is the assurance that God calls each of us to serve him in the unity of his Church, the Body of Christ, as St. Paul described in the passage above. The really good news is that each of us is called and equipped by the Holy Spirit to be a minister in the way that God chooses! “As he chose” describes God’s loving care for each of us. This is a central truth to us from the Word through the Apostle Paul.

We so often transfer the language and mindset of the secular work into the church and so we talk about volunteers and committees, as if the church were just another organization. That diminishes the meaning, beauty and power of God’s call upon each of our lives. Paul reminds us that God’s Church is an organic unity of the Holy Spirit, of which the Lord Jesus is the Head. It’s wonderful relief that I’m not the head of his church at St. John’s— nor you! Nor is anyone excused from his service. We are all servants, stewards, ministers of the Good News of God in Christ.

How we live out our calling (vocation) from God isn’t up to us. When we know our spiritual gift set, our passions, our skills and experience and our opportunities then we can prayerfully hear God’s direction—when we ask and listen for it. He called me to be a priest and at this time to be your Interim Rector. My job was to say “yes” to him and then depend upon his grace to do the best he enables me to do, asking forgiveness when I fall short, as so often I do. It’s the same for you, for all of God’s people. Please don’t “volunteer” for something just because there’s a need and no one else has filled it. A better way would be to open this wonderful catalog of opportunities to serve and then read it with your heart asking God on every page—“Are you calling me to do this, Lord?” Please open this gift with expectancy to hear from God and with gratitude that we are all useful to him!

Blessings in Christ,
The Rev. Dr. Sudduth Rea Cummings, Interim Rector