As a pastor, one of the words I self-consciously try to avoid is 'need'. We hear it all the time and can probably find it dozens of times in any one leaflet of announcements: We need people to do stuff. We need people to make calls. We need people to give this. We need people to serve here. We need you... The word is great for motivating by way of guilt-- I see a need, I could meet that need, I should meet that need.
Yet the reality is that God does not need anything. Paul articulated this well when he addressed the Areopagus: "The God who made the world and everything in it... does not live in temples... nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life..." (cf: Ps 50:9-13, Ps 123:1-2, Mark 10:45)
To achieve His goal of world-wide worship, God does not need a church plant in Arlington. He does not need me to lead it. He does not need any particular person to be on its leadership team. He does not need anything. God gives us opportunities to partner with him. God offers us opportunities to get in on His work. God's goal is our discipleship, our transformation into the likeness of Jesus. He gives us opportunities to serve, to give, to lead as a means to the end of Christ-likeness. He does not need us. Do we want the opportunity to grow in dependence, to grow in prayer, to grow in risk-taking, to grow in speaking the truth in love, to grow in our resemblance to Jesus?
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