PrintRoll the Credits!
Last night I sat with my two youngest granddaughters as we watched a movie together. I had been told to watch the credits at the end because there were some funny 'out takes'. As the girls began to head off for bed, the credits kept rolling and I thought to myself, "Man, it takes a lot of people working together for a film to progress from an idea to the final on-screen presentation!" We may know the names of the main actors but what about all these other people without whom we would not know any of the actors, let alone see the completed movie.
If Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome was a movie, then the last chapter (16) reads like a list of credits. At least 35 people are mentioned by name as having made some contribution to Paul's life and ministry; people without whom we may never have heard of the Apostle Paul. It's like Paul said, "Roll the credits!"He wanted his readers to know that his ministry was, humanly speaking, dependent on the faithful friendship and support of many others.
I know that, as a Pastor, I am not only dependent on the Lord God to achieve any kind of effectiveness or 'success' in ministry, I am also dependent on the many friends who pray for me, support me, affirm me, correct me and walk alongside me. If ever I am tempted to think that positive fruit in service is my own doing, it's like God says, "Roll the credits!" Then I am reminded of how many people have had a part in that 'success'.
One of our sons is a highly trained Fighter Pilot who now, as a Fighter Combat Instructor, is training other pilots. On one occasion he was showing me the aircraft that he usually flies and I was impressed by the number of ground crew crawling over, under and in his aircraft. I mentioned this to him and he was very quick to acknowledge how dependent he was on his ground crew if he was to do his job effectively. He may be the high profile pilot who flies the aircraft but he is useless if his "groundies" don't do their job thoroughly.
In the Christian ministry scene, there is no such thing as 'solo ministry'; at least, there out not to be. Whenever there is the possibility of one person receiving all the plaudits of a job well done, someone needs to call out, "Roll the credits!!"
