A RESPONSIBLE POSITION
A young man, a skilled mechanic, was driving a visiting pastor from his home town, 50 miles across the country, to another city. En route, they passed a huge factory consisting of perhaps 20 buildings scattered over several hundred acres.
"Do you see that red brick building over there behind this grey stone one?" the mechanic asked. "I work on the second floor on the south side. There are 74 of us in that department, and as far as I know, I am the only one in all that crowd who ever goes to church or tries to live a Christian life.
Sometimes I have to remind myself that, as far as that department is concerned, I am all there is of the Christian church. If I don’t do good work, then the church has failed as far as those men are concerned. If I can’t be relied upon, then the church is undependable. If I am careless, then some poor unfortunate soul may have to pay for the church’s carelessness.
It is pretty serious business being the church in the midst of 74 other people."