Secret Service

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend church in Cottonwood, California. As my family and I walked into this small rural church, we were greeted by the pastor who had a mop in his hand and was in the process of cleaning up a mess on the bathroom floor.

The church service was small, sincere, and the pastor (who previously was holding up a mop) held up his Bible and proceeded to encourage the congregation to trust in Christ and hold fast to the promises found in this book.

The humble image of the pastor, the warm affection that the church had for one another which subsequentially extended to us, visitors, struck a chord with me. There was no flashy stage production, nothing tweetable, or anything that would be considered marketable as relevant, just a pastor with a mop, and a small church who loved Jesus and people in the middle of rural Northern California.

It is our malady for us to be enamored with big production values and excitement when it comes to church. We often think bigness of activity or popularity is what counts, endeavoring to gear our services to that which will increase our social media credibility. In fact, numerous businesses cater to churches to help with branding and marketing strategy, promising that if they follow the algorithms, they can increase their social media presence and increase their worship attendance. I am not knocking a church who is active on social media or even large churches for that matter, but I often wonder how many smiles of God are laid upon churches, who for the most part are unknown to the world, and how many of His frowns are on those who have paid thousands of dollars to keep up with the latest cultural marketing trend.

God rewards that which is done in secret. In Matthew 6:1-4, in condemnation against the Pharisees and other religious type folks who paraded their good works for all to see and reaped the approval of men, Christ says to do the opposite and offers this concluding promise in verse 4, “And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” God is not looking for churches, or individuals, to be noticed and rewarded by the world. However, God’s eyes run to and fro in the world, searching for and approving hearts that are fully committed toward Him (2 Chron. 16:9).

A question to ponder as we go about our daily lives, serving Christ and doing good works toward our neighbor is this: Would I be doing this, if I received no commendation or if no one paid attention? Again, we like the praise of men and we like to be seen, but going back to the passage in Matthew 6, those who strive to get their pats on the back from men, receive their reward which is paltry compared to the reward from God.

Much of Christian ministry or Christian living, for that matter, isn’t flashy or glamorous and the real fruit is more often than not, produced in secret. We may get some recognition from others around us but in truth, that rarely happens. What matters most is not popularity from the world, but the recognition from God.

I pray that we would not be charmed by the praise of men or endeavor to be seen by others, rather that we live a life of faithfulness, doing at times, the unglamorous work of serving Christ by serving others and believe that God sees and will reward that which is unnoticeable from the world.