Count the Cost

A few years back our media team produced a great video called “The Set Up Fairy.”  If I were more technologically adept I’d put it up here so you could see it, but trust me when I say it was chock full of awesomeness, and not just because yours truly made a cameo appearance as a short-tempered Connections Pastor who had the tendency to mutter under his breath and kick Coke machines for sport.

The basic gist of the video was that church doesn’t just happen.  It takes a team of volunteers to set up, tear down, provide childcare, park cars, make coffee, clean sinks, greet first timers, sing in the choir, and run the sound.  But have you ever thought about what would happen if those people simply ceased to exist?

• As complicated as our parking system is now, think about what it would be like if the parking team wasn’t there to help new guests find a church building that looks nothing like a church building…especially when all of the buildings around us are identical.
• The Summit has roughly 10,524 babies under three months of age.  10k babies screaming in a worship service?  It could happen if no one was manning Summit Kids.
• There would be no 150-voice choir to bring the glory of heaven down to our little warehouse…not that it would matter, since the soloists couldn’t belt it out loud enough to compensate for the fact that no one was working the sound system.
• Pipe and drape…you know, that black flowing stuff that makes you feel like you’re worshipping in a haunted house?  Yep, that’s going to be your problem.  Hope you can stand on your tippy-toes to get that junk down.
• Two words: No.  Coffee.

Continue down the list: no one to help new people find out more information, no one to get you connected to a small group, bathrooms that smell like you-know-what, and nobody to refill Pastor J.D. with his mid-sermon fuel of Mountain Dew and Slim Jims.

Everybody notices when something is left undone, but the problem with our great teams is that they always get it done, no matter the trial, sacrifice, or amount of time they’re investing in just making it happen.

But what if they didn’t show up?  Is the cost too much to bear?  Better yet, what if those people hadn’t been there the first Sunday you came to the Summit?  Would you have stuck around?

The cost is steep, and that’s why we need you.  Step up and serve today.