Marcellino Luke 6:12- 16 12One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.

13When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: 14Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,

15Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

We know a few things about the twelve disciples that Jesus taught and prepared to preach the gospel to the people once his mission on earth was finished. Some were fisherman, one was tax collector, Simon was very zealous, John loving, some were quiet and Thomas had a doubting problem. One might go so far as to say they were somewhat of a motley crew, yet Christ chose them to be his disciples. Christ wanted men that were not of the same mold and only Christ would be able to bring this diverse group together and train them to be able to work together to accomplish the mission Christ placed before them.

As we look at our churches today one can see a similar situation. Thank goodness we are not clones for it would be extremely boring and uneventful if we all had the same personality. We have people in our churches that can sing, others that shepherd the flock, some people are good at keeping track of the church finances and some people are very good at keeping the church in good repair, while others are great evangelists. Like the disciples we are all different with different talents and that is good thing to have in a church. Just like the disciples there are disagreements on how projects should be done, but even with disagreements the disciples came together in harmony to accomplish one common goal by spreading the Gospel.

I am sure anyone that has served in church leadership or served on a committee has come home more than just a little aggravated at the meeting’s proceedings because something just did not go in a sensible direction in your opinion. When you find yourself in that situation remember Jesus did not pick out twelve clones, rather he picked out twelve men that were very independent thinkers that were not afraid to shake things up once in a while and none of them were perfect. Instead of being aggravated the next time try being thankful there are people in your fellowship that have a different opinion and respect them for that and always work together for the common goal of serving Christ.

Paul Marcellino is the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Camden.