As a church planter, it’s hard to be that impressed with one’s ministry. Church plants are, by definition, humble things, and everything is still embryonic. I love the people in our church, the culture that’s developing, and the mission, but we’re certainly not big or flashy.

I’m not alone. As I speak in other churches, I find few that are impressive. Again, the people are great, and the ministry significant, but it always seems that things are humble, and that the real action is taking place elsewhere. It’s tempting to wish that we were there, rather than in the small, humble places where we serve.

As I prepared a sermon last week on the parable of the Ten Minas (Luke 19:11-27), I was struck by the idea that the servants in the parable were entrusted with only a small amount, the equivalent of a hundred days’ wages. It seemed like a humble amount, but faithfulness was still required.

Speaking on this parable, Charles Spurgeon noted:

He gave to each of them a pound. “Not much,” you will say. No, he did not intend it to be much. They were not capable of managing very much. If he found them faithful in “a very little” he could then raise them to a higher responsibility. I do not read that any one of them complained of the smallness of his capital, or wished to have it doubled.