Small Actions, Lasting Impact

Often we are reminded that through our ministry, big things can happen. By God’s grace, we can have a considerable impact – perhaps bringing about significant change, or reaching many people with the gospel. These things are all true. 

And yet sometimes I wonder if in considering things of such scale, we can overlook just how meaningful small actions really are. I have noticed that when I am in a difficult season, it is the smallest acts of others that really help me. Perhaps a kind word from the barista. A smile from a stranger. Or an unexpected phone call from my pastor to check if I’m OK.

In the music and sound ministry context, our roles are made up of multiple small actions. When I’m rostered on music on a Sunday, I arrive at church at 7am. We meet in a rented venue, so we build our whole stage area from scratch each week. We take an hour to set up, and then rehearse for 30 minutes before our pre-service briefing. 

At each point in that schedule, I can strive to be loving and selfless. 

Before arriving, I can ensure I have practised the songs and know them very well. 

When I arrive, I can be calm, positive, and ready to serve. 

In the set up, I can ensure my own area is set up well and efficiently. I can then offer to help others whose setup takes longer (the drummer!).

As we set up, I can ask others how their week was. I can show that I genuinely are about people as brothers and sisters in Christ, not accidentally treating them as ‘resources’ or mere ‘colleagues’.

In soundcheck and rehearsal, I can play only when asked to, and ask others if there’s anything else they need from me.

And so on!

Certainly, such an approach can be covered with a general call to ‘serve faithfully’. But there is something so powerful about breaking down our roles into components and seeking to identify how we can be faithful and godly in each of them. 

Part of this is remembering who we are serving. That can be difficult to keep in mind, because often the loudest voices receive our attention. Those voices can be ministry leaders or congregation members. And whilst we do serve our ministry leaders and congregations, we are ultimately serving God himself. As we read in Colossians:  

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23)

“Whatever you do” – this suggests that all tasks are significant! The job is significant not because of the perceived value of the job itself, but because of the One we are doing it for. We serve the King. Whether rolling cables, setting up mics, getting water for the team, handing out runsheets, we are to do it with Godward hearts, as if he is right there with us. Because he actually is! As Jesus promises, “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matthew 18:20) 

In God’s sovereignty, he has placed us exactly where we are supposed to be at any given moment. As David writes of God, “all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:16) God has given us the ministries and tasks we are involved with. And he has given us the conversations we find ourselves in. What could we say or do in each moment to glorify God and love others? It doesn’t matter how small the comment or action is. God hears and sees all of it. The smallest of things can make someone else’s day.

On the days when we are exhausted, or feeling sad or overwhelmed,  we may not have the energy to love in big ways. To be super outgoing. To host events. But we needn’t despair. In God’s immeasurable kindness, his Spirit is in us and at work – we don’t love others in our own strength. After all, we are mere “jars of clay” – thoroughly unimpressive and fragile! As Paul writes:

“we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us… Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor 4:7; 16-18).

So, co-labourers for the gospel in music and sound teams… do not lose heart. Keep going in loving God and one another in even the smallest of ways. And may we trust that in his own time, God will use all of these acts of service in his own way, for his own glory, and for the building up of his beautiful church.

Greg Cooper

Turramurra Music Church Training