Having crawled through attics to install sound systems and leading worship, Andrew Carpenter, a minister, deeply understands the gift of helps. This episode is an inspiring testament to the many ways we can serve within the church, highlighting the significance of this often overlooked spiritual gift. We chat with Andrew about his journey from traveling with evangelists to serving churches with their tech and media needs, providing valuable insight into the power of the gift of helps.
Having crawled through attics to install sound systems and leading worship, Andrew Carpenter, a minister, deeply understands the gift of helps. This episode is an inspiring testament to the many ways we can serve within the church, highlighting the significance of this often overlooked spiritual gift. We chat with Andrew about his journey from traveling with evangelists to serving churches with their tech and media needs, providing valuable insight into the power of the gift of helps.
Another great episode of Equip the Saints. Glad you joined us today. We got an exciting guest with us. I got to give you a heads up on this one. It's my grandson. I am very blessed to have my family serving God. What a joy that is for any parent or grandparent.
Andrew Carpenter:My name is Andrew Carpenter I am doing music and tech and media ministry for churches, and it's definitely kept me busy am currently working in Virginia in the United States.
Don Carpenter:You're married.
Andrew Carpenter:Yes, I'm married. I have a wife, no kids, and she is leading worship and helping another church.
Don Carpenter:Andrew, I've watched you grow up. You were a graduate of our Bible College, and how long have you since you graduated?
Andrew Carpenter:t was 2015, I think. So eight years now.
Don Carpenter:Where's the time gone?
Andrew Carpenter:I first started traveling as a musician and evangelists would hire me. I'd travel with them, and that got me like 60 to 80,000 miles a year Just driving to all these different churches, and Lord's really opened up a lot of doors there, and that's what led me down into Virginia.
Don Carpenter:So one of the gifts that we've seen develop and you feel is probably quite strong, is which gift?
Andrew Carpenter:Helping churches with the gift of helps.
Don Carpenter:You are musician and a singer and all of that too. We want to talk about helps and a lot of times, people look at helps as not being that big, but actually it's extremely big when we go into 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, and it says there in verse 28,. And God has appointed in the church. L ots of times we're thinking, it might be my idea. Whatever we are in the church, even the church that God guides us to, he places us there, and that's why we always have to know that we're in the will of God and not just our callings and gifts, but every part or every aspect of our Christian life and ministry is God directed. And it says in 1 Corinthians 12:28, God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings. And look at this, helps.
Andrew Carpenter:It's up there near the beginning of the list.
Don Carpenter:It's right up in there administrations, various kinds of tongues, so helps is very much Bible supported, very much God ordained. So how did you first start feeling that you had this gift, or was there anything?
Andrew Carpenter:There were a couple churches that I worked at, that they didn't really have many people to step up and to volunteer doing different things. For example, fellowship dinner, who's going to pull the tables out of the closet, throw the tablecloths on them, put the plates on the table, start serving the food? Who's going to clean up afterwards? Mop the floor from all the kids spilling food everywhere? Right, a lot of churches might not have a lot of people in order to do those things the logistics, the set up, the tear down and I was always taught by you and my parents that we serve in multiple areas, multiple capacities, even though I'm a musician,
Andrew Carpenter:If someone needs to turn the lights off or check the security system or lock the door behind everybody else or shovel the snow off of the driveway of the church.
Don Carpenter:If you live in the North country.
Don Carpenter:If you live in the North, yeah, so obviously, when you first saw this is interesting because as you were speaking there just about cleaning the tables, just that part alone I saw your passion start to rise and a lot of young people I'm talking about, you know, even many people, not just young people they don't want to get involved, they want to go to a conference, they want to go talk or they want to go who knows and do what, and it doesn't matter who's in the kitchen, who's not, who's cleaning up after, like a meal, fellowship meal, etc. When you first started to do that, did you feel fulfilled?
Andrew Carpenter:Absolutely, Felt tired too. people had a good time fellowshipping with one another, and now the place is cleaned and ready to go for the next event.
Don Carpenter:When you're talking about helping churches, not just in the kitchen, but what have been some other areas that God has really used you in.
Andrew Carpenter:There was a church that my brother was serving at in North Carolina and their sound system got hit by lightning.
Andrew Carpenter:The whole thing is a blew up, lost it all. So we had ordered all new sound gear but they didn't have anybody who was willing or, you know, thin enough to crawl through a crawlspace in the attic to run cables. And so my brother and I and one other guy from the church who was newly saved at the time he didn't really have a lot of biblical knowledge, but he had the willingness to help, he wanted to serve. He also had the gift of helps, but he didn't know how to use it. So as I'm crawling through the attic I almost fell through twice.
Andrew Carpenter:You know just little things like that, but the whole time we were talking and yelling from below down in the sanctuary to the attic, talking about scripture and talking about our testimonies and what God has done for us or for people that we knew, just while crawling through the attic, and then, we would solder cables and hook up this whole sound system. We started our work at 6 pm and we got done at about 4 am. We worked through the night and it went by so quick because the whole time we were just talking about God and about different biblical topics, whatever it might have been, things that he had questions about, all while serving with the gift of help.
Don Carpenter:So what's happening? What I see happening just in this story? Let's go talk about this story. It was in a non-threatening environment. He felt totally relaxed. He was just working with his hands helping to install some cables in a crawl space in the attic. And many times, Andrew, I have found and I'm sure you've experienced this as well people, when they get relaxed and they don't feel that they have to perform, they don't have to talk Christianese. He would have asked you questions that he wouldn't had a chance to ask, maybe the minister or the pastor was very busy too.
Don Carpenter:If he just went to a church meeting.
Andrew Carpenter:Yeah, absolutely.
Don Carpenter:So you can see God using you there like personal one-on-one Right, like you do that. You do that well.
Andrew Carpenter:Absolutely, the gift of HELPS opens doors. The apostle Paul talks about. not neglecting the gathering of the saints, about relationship with talking with one another, one-on-one or just in a small group, because iron sharpens iron is the saying. And so when we're working, doing things with our hands, and sometimes it might take a while, it could take days, but we're always going to be talking, we're always going to be communicating with one another, and I feel like the gift of helps is a gateway, it's a doorway into discussing certain topics with each other and just talking and just fellow shipping, whereas you might not have the time to just sit down at a coffee shop or whatever and talk for four hours.
Don Carpenter:Your 28 years old, and how long you've been doing this.
Andrew Carpenter:So I've been in ministry since I graduated from Bible college here in New Brunswick, so it has been eight years. I was full time for the first four years, and a worship leader for another four years after that.
Don Carpenter:Y ou are still full time, Even though you have another job. Do you have any other stories that you can share regarding gift of helps?
Andrew Carpenter:Yeah, so lately, a gentleman named Rich and I . (he's a sound technician and he did sound out in California and then he moved to the East Coast. He moved to Virginia) and he wanted to serve God with his gifts, with whatever he could, and helps was one of them. But he really has a gifting for technical sound and audio and setting up sound systems and stuff.
Andrew Carpenter:So he invested and bought an entire sound system himself so the church that we were attending could do outdoor events and all that.
Andrew Carpenter:we built teams and put people together who had the gift of helps and gave opportunity, saying, "hey, we got an outdoor concert going on on such and such date, and then we would set up for two, three hours and that's with five or six people, but during the whole time there's still a lot of communication going on, talking and fellowshiping, giving people the opportunity to serve and Feel like the church is going somewhere, is doing something for outreach, not just in the four walls, but now we're outside, now we're setting up all these other stuff and to see his growth, rich's grow through all this process because he had never really used his gifts in that capacity to glorify God, because he was.
Andrew Carpenter:He was mixing other bands and stuff at Coliseums and concerts, doing professional audio, and then he on the side, he also did some for Christian bands. But now he dedicated his gift of helping churches and the church that he attends with doing sound and setting it all up for them so they can just worship, team, come in and play, and it's dedicated 100% to God.
Don Carpenter:Okay, so we've had two or three stories. Yeah, I've asked you here. How do you know? This is like almost like any gift how do you know if you have the call for the gift of helps?
Andrew Carpenter:I feel like inside of you, like, oh, I see that that they got five light bulbs burnt down in the church. I would love to just donate some bulbs, come in and replace them for them and they don't have to worry about it. Gift of helps is kind of like a Relief for a lot of church ministries and a lot of pastors, because people have expectations on church leaders like they got to do everything Right. But it's just like even in this verse in Corinthians here, where you know God has appointed in the church, you know, apostles and prophets and teachers, and then for the gifts of healing and then for the gift of helps. Well, these other gifts, you know, can come alongside our church staff, our church leaders, like the pastors, children's minister, etc. And come in and lighten the load.
Andrew Carpenter:Okay, so the gift of helps can come in and you know, if you really feel like, oh, I just want to help them out, I want them to relieve some of their stress, don't want our pastor to burn out, so then you come into the church and just help out wherever you can. That's why it's called gift of helps right.
Don Carpenter:You know, no matter where you look, whether it's a family, you know there's needs in the family to whatever. How do you go about determining? How do you know who you should help?
Andrew Carpenter:Well, I mean, the Bible doesn't really say that you should help some and don't help others.
Don Carpenter:Right, but you only got so much time, right.
Andrew Carpenter:You don't want to burn out yourself, because a burnt-out Christian is not an effective Christian. Right right, how can you spread the gospel if you've got no energy to even do anything? Your back is pulled sore, so you kind of got a. I Don't know. Figure out the priorities like oh well, if they're my family, then they're a priority before helping out friends and stuff. But just do what you can, but don't.
Don Carpenter:So you would prioritize? Have you ever helped those strangers? Yeah like you know, you've never met them before. And God, does God speak to you? Does he say to you more? You sense I need to help them, I've got to help them. Do you ever get that sense?
Andrew Carpenter:no, but I do have one story here. I was working just cleaning up cables and organizing at the church I was a worship leader at and I heard a knock on the door. And this was like 11 o'clock at night. I was about to go home.
Andrew Carpenter:I heard a knock on the door, which was odd for that time of night yes and so I go to the front door of the church and there's a homeless gentleman that came up and he's like I saw the light on, I saw your truck here. He's like I need help. I don't have a phone, I need to make a couple phone calls and I need to get to the closest homeless shelter, right. So I was like, let me see what I could do. And I walked into the room. I'm like, okay, lord, guide me here, because I have no idea what I'm doing. Yes, and I don't know if it's legit, if it's real or if he's just gonna want to ask for money or whatever. But he only asked where the homeless shelter was and if I could drive him there.
Andrew Carpenter:Well, long story short, we called, they were closed and they were closed down due to due to COVID. That was going on, and so there was nowhere for him to go. And I'm like, okay, well, what can I do now? So it wasn't like God was telling me I do this. It was just like, okay, do I do? I have the ability to be able to help this man, even if it's just a little bit? I had 16 dollars cash in my pocket. I gave it to him, took him to Burger King right down the street.
Andrew Carpenter:They were open you never met this guy before never met him before, took him to Burger King, got him a burger five minutes before they closed, just in time. Went back to the church. I went inside the church and found a moving blanket. I'm like, look, it's cold, it's raining, but there's some trees in the backyard of the church, so I'm gonna set you up, right, this is a gift of help, right? And so I went and got him a moving blanket, got like five or six cardboard boxes, cut them up, built them a shelter out in the rain. We carried it out to the woods and he did. He slept in that and next morning he came up to the church and he talked with the pastor, gave his, gave his life to the Lord. That morning they took him out to McDonald's to get breakfast and gave him a hot shower and everything to come to the truck stop and all that. And then another homeless shelter in another city, next door, about 30 minutes away. The pastor and a couple other people drove them to there and dropped them off.
Andrew Carpenter:Yeah, none of that would have happened if I didn't take that step of faith. Just saying you know I'll help him with my ability. I got cardboard boxes and moving blanket and $16 cash this.
Don Carpenter:This is a case here where you're led by the spirit absolutely like you know it's it's it's not everybody has compassion.
Don Carpenter:I feel well they should if they don't, but every believer does. But like, like we're talking about here, you only do so much right and whatever, whatever ability and resources we have, and so God leads us by this, by his spirit. You know, andrew, I got to go back to where the scripture is that. We read it here in first Corinthians 12, 28 God has appointed in the church right, and when I hear that, it just seems to me like, do we have an option? We don't have an option like.
Don Carpenter:God's appointed this to happen right, and helps is what he's placed there, and people who, who are help, do helps, should never feel that they were any less than the apostle or the administration, whoever those people are. The ministry of helps is vital for the welfare of the church and people like you I mean all my Christians, I'm sure help in some way with some things, but there are those that really feel that this is their calling, absolutely, and I'm gonna get you today to just pray, sure, simple. Whatever you, however, you want to do it. For those who may be, does God they're asking this question? Does God want me to do the ministry of helps?
Andrew Carpenter:let's just pray here, absolutely well, lord, thank you for your word today, and we thank you that we can learn more about you and the gifts that you give each and every one of us. So I just ask that you reveal to your people today, if you have given them particular gifts and in this case, the gift of helps. Lord, reveal it to them, show them in their spirit, man, quicken them to action. And Lord, open up the doors where they can help and they can serve and they can worship you with their gift of helps.
Don Carpenter:So we thank you for who you are today and who you will always be in your name, amen, amen and now you've prayed like this, I really feel that God is speaking to people right now, so it's going to be very effective. Thank you for joining us today. I really feel that this was a timely subject that we brought up, and if you'd like to have more ministry, you can contact me. Just go to my website at stonkarpenterca and you will find some encouragement and help there, and also, if you want to send me an email or whatever, we'd love to hear from you, and God bless you until the next time.