INTRODUCTION
One
office that does not receive good attention in the church is the office of the
Usher. In fact some people in the church feel that the office of an Usher is
for the “Common” people in the Church; that is why sometimes the church
nominating committee does not found it difficult to get people into the
ushering ministry of the church.
But
we have forgotten that the Ushers were one the ones that welcome visitors into
the church during our worship services even before the pastor or before they
listen to the teachings or any message from the Pulpit.
In
this seminar, we are going to examine the following
1.
The Biblical Foundation of the Ministry of Ushers.
2.
The Qualifications of An Usher
3.
Training and code of conducts of An Usher
4.
The impact of Ushers in the worship services of the
church
A. Preparation
for the service
B. Duties
during the service and after the services
C. Other
special services
5.
How Ushering
Ministry contributes to the growth of the Church
DEFINITION
According to
LONGMAN DICTIONARY OF CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH, Usher is someone who shows people
to their seats at a Theatre, Cinema, Wedding e.t.c. Also “Someone who works in
a law court whose job is to make sure there is no trouble”.
From the above
definitions, there are three major functions of an Usher.
1.
To be sure there is orderliness
2.
To help people to their seats either in the church or
in public places.
3.
Also to make sure people do not misbehave or cause
trouble.
THE BIBLICAL BACKGROUND
The
word “Porter” is the KJV translation “gatekeeper, watchman, doorkeeper”. The
word first appeared in 1 Chronicles 15:23-24. In the New Testament, the word also
appeared in Mark 13:34, and John 10:3.
Also
in psalm 84:10, David said “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my
God than dwell in the tents of the wicked”.
The
above passages, give us the insight of the Ministry of the Ushers from the
Biblical time. The word Usher is not mentioned in the Bible but the duties of
the Levities mentioned in the above passages, Berekiah, Ehikanah, Obed-edom and
Jeniah were similar to that of Ushers in our churches today because their
duties were to serve as Ushers of God’s ark. We have some facts about the
Ushering Ministry. They are the following.
a.
Ushering Ministry is one of the oldest Ministry in the
Bible
b.
It is a special calling from God. 1Chronicles 15:23-24.
c.
The Ushering Ministry is worth desiring for. Psalm 84:10.
d.
It is the Levites (O.T. Priesthood Family) that have
the right to occupy the office of the Ushers. 1Chronicls 15:23-24
e.
Ushering Ministry is a sacred office in the Old
Testament because of the closeness to the Ark of God.
THE QUALIFICATION OF AN USHER
a.
He or she must be a Christian with good moral behaviour
inside and outside the church.
b.
He or she must not be a new convert but a mature
Christian who must have been discipled.
c.
He or she must be matured enough to tolerate people
even when people refused to co-operate with him.
d.
He or she must be prayerful. Because no body can
succeed in the Ministry of the church without prayer.
e.
He or she must be versed in the word of God and the
doctrines of the Church. 1Timothy 2:15
f.
He or she must be mentally and psychologically matured
in order to handle the work effectively
g.
He or she must not be a sick person or too old. The
work of the Usher demands that the Usher must always be on his feet.
h.
He or she must be friendly. He or she should not keep
malice with anybody in the church or outside the church.
i.
An Usher must make sure his or her appearance gives
glory to God. His social appearance in and outside the church should give glory
to God. His or her mode of dressing should be moderate and good looking.
Christian mode of dressing should distinguish us from others (1Cor 10:31, 1Tim
2:9-10). It is advisable that the church should design a uniform for the Ushers
and also “provide a tag for each of them for their decency and dignity in the
church”.
j.
He or she should be literate
TRAINING AND CODE OF CONDUCT FOR AN USHER
a.
Every Usher should attend special seminars organized by
the church. NO ONE SHOULD BE EXEMPTED
b.
An Usher should be asked to study and monitor the
nature and order of service of regular worship of the church and special
services e.g. Marriage, Baptismal, Lord Super, Burial, etc.
c.
Decorum- usher should be taught on how to behave with
suitable decorum at all the worship services.
d.
Usher should be trained on how to collect offerings,
give out the bulletins, help the people to have their seats.
e.
An Usher should hold nothing in his or her hand but the
offering bag during the collection of Tithe and Offering e.g. bags, purse, etc.
THE IMPACT OF USHERS IN THE WORSHIP SERVICES OF THE CHURCH
1.
Preparation for the services
(a) If the
church would experience a meaningful service, the Ushers should be in the
church 30 minutes to the commencement of each service
(b) All the
Ushers should come together for prayer before the service
(c) The Ushers
should see to the tidiness of the sanctuary before the service. Although the
cleaning of the building is the job of the sexton. But the usher should
supervise it especially on Sunday morning.
2.
Duties during the service and after the service
(a) Each Usher
should be assigned to places in the church some should be assigned to welcome
people into the services.
(b) As the
Ushers welcome people into the church, church bulletins of that particular
service should be given out to people.
(c) People
should be led to the available seats while the service is going on.
(d) The Ushers
are to collect the Tithe and Offerings, but it has to be done in a decent way.
(e) It is the
duty of the Usher to politely check the noise makers
(f) After the
service, the Chief Usher with one or two Ushers, should arrange the Tithe and
Offering to the counting room, monitor the counting of the Offerings, and
place the Tithing cards in the boxes
where the people will pick them. This also applied to other special services.
HOW USHERING MINISTRY CONTRIBUTES TO THE
GROWTH OF THE CHURCH
1.
Where there is effective Ushering Ministry the Ushers
give first impression of the church to the visitors. This will form the
decision of the visitor either to join the church or not.
2.
To experience a spirit filled worship, there must be
orderliness. A church that conduct such services would continue to enjoy
spiritual and numerical growth.
3.
In a church where a Newcomer is welcomed as a Special
Guest, such Visitor would like to come again. That is one of the duties of the
Ushers.
4.
In order to have effective Ushering Ministry in our
churches, the church should be ready to put her resources into this very
important Ministry in the church.
No comments:
Post a Comment