“Just a Shmo"

By Jonathan Kindberg

Recently I was talking with a friend of mine who has just come on staff part time with a new church plant as their worship leader. He was talking about the new church and then began talking about how unprepared he felt to begin his new role, it being the first time he has worked at a church. “I’m just a shmo,” he said. “I don’t have much formal training.”

“I’m just a shmo.” That comment hit me. Here was a well educated (he has an undergrad and masters degree), gifted musician who is just finishing a year of a fairly intensive church internship and has a decent amount of experience leading worship. Why did he feel like “just a shmo”? I don’t think it’s his fault. I think it’s the Church’s (at large) fault. It is one more example of the professionalism of the church. We have said that you can’t do “ministry” unless you have a seminary degree, are of middle age, and have a decent resume. If my friend feels unprepared as a well educated, paid staff member how do you think those in the pews of our churches feel? No wonder they leave all the heavy lifting to the paid professionals.

The truth is, there is no such thing as a “joe shmo” in the church. There are ears, eyes, noses, legs, hands, hearts, and lungs. There are baptized Christians who, in their baptism and the infilling of the Holy Spirit, have been given the necessary resources (and mandate) to minister.

By no means do I mean to deny the importance of discipleship and training, but such training isn’t a prerequisite for ministry. Every believer is a minister from the day of their spiritual birth. We could call this “the ministerhood of all believers.”

Contrast my friend with one of my neighbors who is a self-taught keyboard player, has a beautiful voice, but has no formal training. He could easily feel like a “shmo” with nothing to contribute. However, I am hoping that when we begin regular services at Briar Street Anglican Church he will be one of our worship leaders. Naming a gift and encouraging the person to use it, is a start in this direction. If he decides to go forward, he won’t be paid, it won’t be professional, but it will be one part of the body ministering in their giftedness for the good of the whole. And it will be easily reproducible (those in the pews: “If he can do it, then so can I!”).

It is my prayer that he nor anyone else in the church ever feel like “just a shmo.”