Is He a Worker?

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 5, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 10.

SOMETIMES the question is asked of a Christian whose name has been mentioned, “Is he a worker?” Now this question reveals an abnormal condition of things in the church. Such a question ought never to be asked of any Christian, for the reason that if a Christian at all he ought to be a worker. The very terms of discipleship and all the teaching of the New Testament imply that all believers are workers. By workers we mean those Christians who are giving personal time and attention to the practical spiritual work of God, who recognize that to them is committed the Lord’s unfinished work on the earth. As a matter of fact, the fewest number in proportion of church members are, in any true sense, workers. It is true of all our large churches, that the bulk of church work is passed over into the hands of the committee of the church, or abandoned to the officers, and in not a few cases the committee or board of officers are so engrossed with their own work that they in turn pass their assigned work over to the pastor. This may seem to be a little overdrawn; but it can hardly be denied that this is the tendency.

There is a growing disposition on the part of very many, especially of the well-to-do portion of our church membership, to look upon the church as an institution organized and maintained to provide a comfortable place in which they may go and participate in the worship of God, be instructed and comforted and otherwise helped in their Christian life—when they feel so disposed. To this end and for these privileges they are willing to pay a reasonable pew rent to maintain the current expenses of the church and provide a salary for the pastor, if it be not too large. In addition to this they will give an annual subscription to the various benevolent and missionary causes in which the church is interested, albeit it is only a few who participate in this part of worship who do so to any hearty and generous extent. Having adjusted themselves to this order of things, paid their pew rent, and given their “mite,” which is by no means a widow’s mite (for she gave all she had), they say, “It is corban.” In other words, by the payment of a portion toward the maintenance of the local organization and giving a subscription to home or foreign missions, they esteem that they have fairly and honorably commuted from all further service.

As for the prayer-meeting, they are seldom found there. They have perfect confidence that the pastor and elders or deacons, with a few others who are fond of such things, will see to the spiritual interests, which are supposed to be attended to at the weekly meeting of the church for prayer. If they were asked to do any personal spiritual work, such as visiting the sick, or speaking to some neighbor about his soul, or to seek to restore some brother who has fallen by the way or grown cold and indifferent to Christ and the church, they would be amazed at the bare suggestion of such a thing. To their minds that is what the pastor was hired for, and that is the especial business of the elders or deacons. Or, suppose some less pointed services were suggested—such, for instance, as visiting some neighbor, whom they know is not in the habit of going to church at all, and seeking to win him to the house of God. This would be considered by them as a most untoward proposition. They would probably meet it by saying, “Why, the church is open every Sabbath. They are at liberty to come if they like; and, if they choose not to do so, it is no concern of mine.” If they do not say this in so many words, they at least act it out in a way that speaks louder than words, week after week, not to say year after year. It is our custom to look over the congregation with whom we worship, and to whom we sometimes preach; and it is the rarest case that we ever see a pew-holder bringing any one with him to church, morning or evening, unless it may be occasionally some one who chances to be a visitor at his house.

We should like to suggest to all our readers the propriety of asking themselves the question, “Am I a worker?” Am I habitually engaged in any definite and specific line of service by which the kingdom of Heaven may be advanced on the earth? Am I contributing any personal influence, as a matter of purpose, which is calculated to lead any soul to Christ? Or, let us put it in another way: If I should withdraw from the church of which I am a member, apart from my money contribution and the one I count in the congregation when

I am present, would the church be any weaker in respect of the working force than if I should stay? Is it likely that any soul would miss my spiritual influence, or my personal help in the matter of his salvation or Christian edification? Would my pastor miss my help in his heavy work? Would the prayer-meeting feel my loss? Would it be said of me, “A good man, full of faith and the Holy Ghost,” is gone from among us, whose work of faith and labor of love will be sadly missed in this church and community?

It is a matter of some moment for every church member to consider these questions, or, rather, the question of his relation to the church and cause of Christ in the capacity of “a worker;” for it is a truth that stands out with startling distinctness on the pages of the New Testament, that God has no sons who are not servants. Whoever comes to Christ for salvation is at once tendered the yoke of service. The Master, when he went away, gave to all “his servants authority, and to every man his work.” When he comes he will require it at our hands. Woe to that wicked servant who buries his Lord’s talent in a napkin, and spends all his abilities on his own affairs. When that day of reckoning comes, there is danger that it will be revealed that the man or woman who was not a worker for God was never a son or daughter of God. We say, and say truly, that a man who is not a Christian on the earth is not likely to be found to be a saint in Heaven. It is equally true that the professor of religion who is not a worker for God on the earth will not likely be found to be a servant of God in Heaven; and yet we know that service is one of the most marked characteristics of the saved in Heaven. See Rev. 7:15; 22:3. —N. Y. Independent.