Faith Food Devotional: Sunday, 19^th May, 2013

Creating Space for Others to Excel

“Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that plants any thing, neither he that waters; but God that gives the increase. …” (1 Corinthians 3:5-7 N.I.V)

Some preachers, worship leaders and others who have been given specific responsibilities in church are very insecure and feel threatened by others. They try as much as possible to be the only shining lights. They refuse to be team players and encourage others to excel. In so doing they retard the potential for the church to grow in strength and diversity.

The Corinth Church admired Apollo’s eloquence, but Paul did not show any jealousy or rivalry towards him; a new convert. Though they had divergent evangelizing styles, Paul impressed on the people that he and Apollos were colleagues; with each working towards the increase of the word of God and it was not a competition of who was the better teacher.

People are gifted differently and wider incluseness can result into a better worship experience. Sometimes you have to give somebody else a chance and move on, maybe even to greater things you cannot fathom while holding too tightly to the position that you have. You should never be proud to think that nobody else can fill your shoes. You should be happy that there are many more trained and ready to take over. We are only instruments to be used for God’s glory. As Max de Pree said, “We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity. We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion.”

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"The spaces between your fingers were created so that another's could fill them in." - Unknown

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