Takers, Givers, and Balanced

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I’ve recently been thinking about how different people conect with others in the church. I think there are three basic types of people in regards to their connection with others. They are:

  1. Takers
  2. Givers
  3. Balanced

Now I know there are lots of diferent people that attend church and most people vary within these categories depending upon wat is going on in their lives. These three categories are just for my discussion of how people connect with others (i.e. the church word of “fellowship”). They are just broad generalizations for discusion. Here’s what I mean.

Takers
People in this group seem to think that fellowship is mainly about people doing things for them. If you haven’t done something for them recently then something is wrong with your friendship. In the church world I used to hear people every now and then say how they were leaving a certain chuch group because they “weren’t being fed” there or people in the church just didn’t connect with others. I don’t hear this anymore because people at Tapestry don’t talk that way. The Takers soak it all up and when there is nothing left to soak up then they think something is wrong. It is all about them.

Givers
People in this group seem to think that fellowship is mainly about meeting other people’s needs. The problem with this view is that this sounds noble and good but it isn’t. Serving others is noble and good but not allowing others to serve you is rather selfish. When a person insists on serving but never allows others to serve them I fear it has more to do with control than with humility. It is selfishness wearing a mask.

Balanced
In my opinion the goal is to be here. Sometimes the most loving thing a person can do for others is to serve them and other times the most loving thing a person can do for others is to allow them to serve you. That’s really what fellowship is about. Meeting the needs of others and allowing them to meet you needs.

I hope this week you are able to seve someone in the fellowship of faith you belng to and allow someone in that fellowship to serve you. Being balanced is a great thing. Just taking or just giving screws everything up.