Marys and Marthas

Our latest transitional transparency meeting had quite the agenda. We spent 1 hour in small discussion groups as follows: first, 15 minutes to quickly choose a leader, scribe and reporter--then discuss Processing Women in Leadership (10 minutes) and complete a response sheet (5 minutes); second, spent 30 minutes to discuss Taking "The Story of a Family" to the Next Level or our church story and it's impact on where we are today; third, spent 15 minutes to discuss Learning to Process Better or whose call is it, anyway? Then the rest of the time was spent sharing with the congregation what were the 3 most important points of discussion from each group.

In the Bible there is a story found in Luke 10:38-42. In this story Jesus and his disciples came to Martha's house for a meal. Mary, Martha's sister, was simply sitting at the feet of Jesus. It wasn't long before Martha began complaining to Jesus that she needed help with all the preparations and asked Jesus to instruct her sister to 'get a move on.' But Jesus refused and said Mary had chosen "what is better" and that "it will not be taken away from her."

We are beginning to discover that our church is composed of mostly some Marys and some Marthas. The Marthas were probably happy with our last transitional transparency meeting, but the Marys were probably feeling like they were "left in the dust." While we need both the Marthas and the Marys to make our congregation effective, it is very important that we remember the Lord's words about the Marys. In our modern, fast paced times it is easy to push around those who process slower. The Marys may even appear to be doing nothing. The Marthas will sometimes need to put the brakes on and begin to appreciate the Marys with their example of the "better way."