The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
Your Invisible Ministry Still Matters
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Hey, welcome to the Healthy Church Death Podcast. Happy Christmas Eve. I'm Todd Rhodes, and this is day eight of our unwrapped Christmas series for leaders just like you who may be worn out or dialed in and wondering where God is at in the middle of it all. And today we're talking about the kind of ministry that doesn't get noticed but still changes every day. We talked about this a little bit earlier in our series, but I want to circle back around from a little bit different angle today. And let me start by asking a weird question. Okay, and probably one that you've never even really thought about, right? Who let Mary and Joseph stay in the stable? Do you ever think about that? Because we don't get their name, we don't get their face, we don't get their their moment. It just is mentioned. We just nobody said, hey, there's no room, but you can use the barn. And because of that one small decision, the savior of the world had a place to be born. Think about it. It was quiet and invisible and uncredited, but it made a difference. It would have changed the whole Christmas story as we know it. And we tend to focus on all the major players in the Christmas story. Mary and Joseph and the angels and the shepherds and the magi. But so much of what God did that night came through people who stayed anonymous. We don't know their names, we don't know their faces, the person who opened their stable, the midwife who may have helped deliver the baby, the neighbors who shared supplies, the hands who cleaned up after the mess. None of them made the spotlight. None of them are in the nativity sets that you have on your mantle. But God used every single one of them, which means something really important for those of us in ministry. Not everything that matters gets noticed. Not everything sacred gets seen. And you already know this. There are things that you do every week, those quiet things, the unforeseen things that nobody claps for and nobody will ever clap for. You fix broken links on the website. Who's even gonna notice? You arrange chairs before anybody even walks in. You take that volunteer call late at night and nobody else knows about it. You pray for that struggling family that doesn't even know that you're praying. You load that trailer in the cold. You pick up trash in the parking lot before people arrive. Nobody ever sees that, nobody ever will, and nobody ever says thank you. But it makes ministry possible. And you might feel invisible, but your faithfulness is not. You're just like that stable owner. You're making space for Jesus to arrive, and that's never, ever wasted. Here's the bottom line for today. Just because your ministry seems like it's invisible doesn't mean that it's insignificant. In fact, and that's why I'm continuing and going at this from a different angle, because I know we already covered this earlier in the series. But this is, man, this is key, and maybe you need to hear this. I don't know who you are, but maybe you need to hear this today. The day before Christmas, the day we celebrate Jesus' birth. Some of the most meaningful, some of the most impactful work in the kingdom is done quietly, it's done offstage, and it's done without replies. Applause. I've talked with so many church staff that just are just down and they're just wondering, I does this even make any difference? Does what I'm doing actually matter? Especially during the Christmas season where all the attention is on kind of the big stage and the service and the sermon and the music, and they're serving in the background, but they're making everything work. And if that's you, let me plainly say, yes, it matters. You matter. More than you're creating the environment. You're think of it like this: you're setting the table, you're clearing space for God to meet people. And even if nobody says thank you ever, God sees every single bit of it, every ounce. So here are your reflection questions for today. Where are you currently serving in quiet, unnoticed ways? And then the follow-up to that is what would you change if you believed that your invisible work carries eternal weight? Would it change your attitude? Think about that today as you head into all of your Christmas Eve services. Most likely, I'm praying for you wherever you are, whatever church you go to. I'm praying that God will show up in a mighty way as you worship him.
