June 15, 2007
Labor Force
Immigration is a hot topic today. One of the talking points for various aspects of immigration is the labor force. We’re told that immigrants, whether legal or illegal, are doing jobs that the average American won’t do. I think I see a similar attitude in the church. People want to be part of the body without serving one another. We salve our conscious by hiring additional staff to do the ‘spiritual’ work that we don’t want to do. The staff then determines their job is to educate and train us to do the work we didn’t want to do in the first place. It’s not that we’re uneducated about serving, teaching, evangelism, etc., it’s that we don’t want to do it – that’s why we hired someone else in the first place.
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Gail;
-----You are very good at choosing illustrations that fully illustrate your topic. I remember watching the beet-weeders when I was a child. I admired them for their hard work and commitment. I also felt sorry for them because they were paid so little for doing what I knew I would not do. But that was then. I don’t remember when was the last time I saw good folks in the fields pulling weeds. Maybe it is because there are far fewer fields today, and of those, even less are planted in beets. Maybe it is because our chemical companies have developed very specific herbicides for weed control. I don’t know.
-----But I do know a few good house cleaners. They are not illegal aliens. And they clean toilets. I also know an excellent brick mason who just two weeks ago was complaining about his work being slack at a time he should be snowed under. He complained of too many illegal aliens laying brick for cut rate prices. I know a man who was one of the best of this valley’s lathe and plaster experts. He accepted the writing on the wall several years ago and retired because there were too many illegal aliens doing the work for too cheap. I also know a framer who tells me that illegal aliens are cut rating it in construction as well, although many of them wind up as hirees by the established businesses. I also know a woman who was showing me pictures of the work her husband, an illegal alien, is doing. He does masonry with river rock, and his work is absolutely breathtaking. So are his prices. I have done some river rock masonry, and I would like to be as good at it as he is. It is also one of the few things I would like to do besides accounting.
-----Maybe we are squeamish about saying we are being outright lied to, but we must at least be truthful enough to admit we are being deceived. And the deception is very similar to the misrepresentations made in some churches by even the leaders. I know of a person who was voluntarily performing a very valued printed fellowship ministry in one of our local churches who was called upon by the leaders to cease. I know of many men in that same church qualified for the eldership who would never step forward because it was well known that the leaders screened the elders by ideology. I know of several qualified teachers who did not teach in the empty Sunday school rooms at that church because the leaders there did not perceive Sunday school as important enough to promote. Yet the call continues from the music stand for volunteerism…uh…in the church programs.
-----Yes, Gail, your illustrations often well cover the issue. Like the need for the illegal aliens to do the jobs we Americans won’t do is touted by our political leaders to a nation of people who are complaining about the illegals taking jobs they have loved to do, the church leaders bemoan the lack of volunteerism into the ears of a congregation that has had its volunteers blocked from their Spirit given services. And the whole congregation is snowed under.
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