[ampaterry]

This article was written by a pastor in Servant magazine, January/February, 1989.

I was in the supermarket one day, and a lady came down the aisle whom I could barely see over the top of her groceries. I got somewhat frightened because she seemed to be heading straight for me.
She screeched to a halt within a few feet of me, peered over her load, wagged her finger, and said, "I left your church. I left your church".
So I said, "Well, if it's my church, I think that was a very wise decision. If it's my church, I think I'm going to leave too."
She said, "Don't you want to know why I left?"
I said, "No, not particularly, but I think I'm going to find out". And I was right.
She said, "You weren't meeting my needs".
I answered, "I don't ever recollect seeing you before, let alone talking to you, let alone knowing your needs. Did you ever tell anyone specifically what your needs were?"
She couldn't recall that she had, so I raised another question. "Can you tell me, if we have 5,000 people sitting in that church, all with your attitude, how anyone's needs are going to be met? If you reserve the right to have that attitude, then you must give everybody the freedom to have that attitude. And if everybody has that attitude, who on earth is going to do all the need-meeting?"
Standing her ground, she demanded, "Then you tell me who will."
Relieved, I said, "I thought you'd never ask. This is what will work: when people stop sitting in the pew saying, 'They're not meeting my needs' and start saying, 'Whose needs can I meet?' Then needs will be met. When the servant spirit flourishes in a congregation, then they minister to each other as unto the Lord."

Now there’s a message that EVERY pastor wants to give, but darned few ever do. That is an advantage of being a non-paid pastor; NOTHING interferes with me giving you the truth, because my livelihood does not depend upon you liking what I tell you!!

May God bless each one of you with the opportunity to meet someones needs today.
And may He bless you further by having someone meet your needs as well!