Assistant, pastor’s “right-hand man”.

Assistant, pastor’s “right-hand man”.

I get chills when I see the picture below ... Assistants are an extension of the pastor’s arm, or at least they were, in my time. Both, the pastor and the assistants shared the responsibility of keeping the church in order; of warmly greeting and welcoming those who came into the church.

Before the meeting started, the assistants stood at the door greeting people as they came in, they formed close relationships with some and they followed-up with new members to ensure their spiritual growth.

The assistants knew when and why members stopped coming to church, and whenever someone missed an important meeting, the assistant would go looking for them.

After the meeting, they’d stand in front of the altar, waiting for those who wanted to receive prayer; some still felt burdened, some still felt pain and others requested prayers for their family.

Everyone highly respected the Assistants; they were confident in God and their uniform exuded power, causing the devil to tremble. In fact, even I trembled whenever I approached an assistant to talk to them, because I had so much respect for them.

Back then, not everyone was called to serve as an assistant. Oh no, they weren’t... It was an arduous process. I don’t want to belittle today’s assistants, but it was quite different back then.

In the late 80s and early 90s, assistants were definitely the pastor’s “right-hand person”. Just so you have an idea, I’m going to state some examples you might not have heard before.

Picture this: it’s Sunday, 7:25am and the service should have begun at 7am, but for some unexpected reason, the pastor hasn’t shown up yet to start the service. An assistant picks up the microphone, kneels down, prays, gets back up, looks out into the congregation and says, “Good morning, please stand in the name of our Lord Jesus. The pastor hasn’t arrived yet, but let’s starts the service by seeking God's presence. Sing with me: In this place of adoration, I came to seek You wholeheartedly, All of my life I want to offer You ....”

I’ve only seen two assistants start the service for the pastor, ask for tithes and offering, and “preach”, until the pastor arrived and took it from there.

I believe that what crossed those assistants’ minds must have been something like: "Thank you Lord for this opportunity”.

How many times have you seen this happen?

I'm not referring to the pastor’s tardiness, because that rarely happens, but what’s even rarer today, is finding an assistant with the courage to do that.

The pastor didn’t have to feel bad about what happened; he didn’t even have to worry at all. Do you know why?

Because an assistant used to be the pastor’s “right-hand man”.

That's right, his right hand and sometimes his left, too.

Did you know that many of the assistants were in charge of doing services as well? They would be responsible for smaller services, where only a couple of people come to church; for example: Saturdays at 10am or Thursdays at 3pm.

I also remember, assistants being very helpful with baptisms.

Take a look at the painting on the wall of the baptismal pool. Unless I’m mistaken, this was in the 80's. Assistant Isaac hand painted that, which in my opinion, was beautifully done. Now, imagine today, with so many varieties of wallpaper?

That’s right ... the church wasn’t as structured as it is today.

I can truly say that the church was very much like the early church. If anything needed to be done, we’d already start thinking: let's call one of the church members so they can help us solve this problem. I also remember, any time Pastor Randal said something about the church walls being dirty, someone would show up to paint them, with all of their heart.

Time has passed and people have changed, but if you want to be like it was before, I want you to know, that it only depends on you!

We must be different, in order to make a difference!

How many times have we, as assistants in small churches, begun the service for our pastor until he arrived?

HOW I MISS THOSE DAYS!

Assistant Alexandre Fernandes