Wednesday, December 24, 2008

A Cast of Thousands
The mission of the church is not efficiency, but developing all its people.
Lillian Daniel | posted 12/19/2008

A Cast of Thousands

At my daughter's elementary school musical, the printed program noted: "This musical was originally written for 15 actors, but it has been adapted to accommodate our cast of 206." You know what kind of show this was. No-cut auditions, no performer left without something special to do. They danced, they sang, they delivered lines, and somehow 206 children graced the stage that night.

It was not a short program.

So many productions in life are competitive. TV's American Idol is popular as much for the failures as for the successes. Admit it. If no one got cut, would we really want to listen to these people? The excitement is seeing who makes it and who does not, and the winner is idolized. Celebrity worship is not just a figure of speech.

Well, the world may operate that way, but the gospel response, the church's calling, is like the volunteer geniuses that took an elementary school musical with 15 parts and creatively made room for 206. We take a few loaves and fishes and feed thousands, at the church potluck or at the homeless shelter. We take a task that we could professionalize and simply pay someone to do, and we divide it into parts so that everyone has a job. Is it efficient? No. Not if all you care about is getting the job done.


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