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King Street is a Resourcing Church

March 16, 2026 | Engaging and Blessing, Worship

“What is that in your hand?” (Exod. 4:2).

God put the question to Moses to teach him a lesson. God had just given Moses a pivotal assignment. Moses would be the means of announcing and enacting God’s clearest saving work of the Old Testament—bringing His people out of Egypt (Exod. 3:7-10). But Moses doubted. Moses wondered if the people would follow him. After all, what good is a leader if you’ve got no followers? But God was calling Moses to lead—to shepherd not only sheep, but His people. And so God asked, “What is that in your hand?” Of course, the answer is a staff; the staff is also a symbol. Think about Moses: He is a Hebrew who was raised in Pharaoh’s household. Moses has a heart for the slave, but the advantages of the established. He has an eye for the outsider, but the education of the insider. Moses is also humble—having fled from Pharaoh and working for his living.

What does the staff represent? That Moses is uniquely qualified for the job. He is not simply a shepherd for sheep; he is to be a shepherd for God’s people. God tells Moses to throw the staff to the ground and it becomes a snake. And then what happens? Moses flees from it (Exod. 2:3). If you are viewing the story in your mind rather than simply reading it, Moses’ fleeing the staff turned-snake might remind you of his flight from Pharaoh (Exod. 2:15), but this is a different kind of fleeing (and so a different Hebrew word is used). When Moses flees from the snake, he is not fleeing from danger, but from his calling and his responsibility. If Moses doesn’t follow through with God’s call, he is throwing away his qualifications. But God isn’t done with Moses. “Pick it up,” says God. Moses obeys. He isn’t ready to relent to God’s call, but God won’t let Moses off the hook. God has given Moses a mouth through his brother, and He reminds him, again, of his staff (Exod. 4:17). Moses is uniquely qualified and Moses is undoubtedly called. Moses isn’t the only qualified leader that God would call. When Samuel anointed David as the future king of Israel, he was also qualified. God told Samuel to look at the heart—the whole life— of David, including his devotion to God, yet Samuel also saw a strong, healthy, and fit young man (1 Sam. 16:12). Further, the servants of Saul saw similar qualities in David (1 Sam. 16:18). Lawson Stone, professor of Old Testament at Asbury Seminary, notes David’s qualifications:

  • Well-networked (“son of Jesse of Bethlehem”—David comes from a known family)
  • Hobbies and alternative skills (“knows how to play the lyre”)
  • Battle-tested (“brave man and a warrior”)
  • Speaks well
  • Physically fit (“fine-looking man”)

Each of these qualifications would serve David in the role God had for him. When God set Paul aside as the missionary to the Gentiles, one could imagine hardly a more qualified person—trained as a strict Pharisee, but also raised in the midst of Greek culture in Tarsus and a Roman citizen. What a combination! The devil tempts us to do two things when it comes to qualifications: to pursue the wrong ones or not to pursue any. As your pastor, I promise you this: Just like Moses and just like David, God has either already woven qualifications into your life or God has planned a path to develop your qualifications. Your qualifications might include skills, hobbies, relationships, education, or more. But your life is a story of being uniquely qualified to live out a purpose for God. You’ve got qualifications! What are they? And what qualifications would God seek to develop in you? What’s in your hand? What does God want to put there? How many qualified people have gone through life without attending to God’s voice and call? Don’t be one of them! So, what does all this have to do with us as a church? So much!

King Street Church is a uniquely qualified church—King Street Church is uniquely skilled resourced, networked, and positioned—because it has uniquely qualified people. Including you. What have you got in your hand? We have connections with leaders and ministries that empower us to collaborate on large-scale projects and mobilize initiatives that can bless our entire region. We have a large and multi-talented church family, that puts us in an excellent position to accomplish any task to which the Lord calls us. We are positioned right in downtown, where our impact on Chambersburg is keenly felt. But just as Moses’s staff, David’s power, and Paul’s training were not about them but for the purposes of God, so King Street Church’s qualifications are not about us. They are from God and they are for God. When we say that King Street Church is a resourcing church, we mean that every qualification—every resource we’ve got—is at God’s disposal to share with others. We won’t be passive about it. We will seek to put our qualifications to the work of God. Here’s one example. Every year, hundreds of members of our church family come together to produce a high quality Vacation Bible School. The team includes those with construction skills, artistic talents, decorating abilities, dramatic flair, creative teaching imagination, and hours of gladly given time. Because of that investment, we are consistently able to welcome hundreds of children into our building to hear about Jesus for the first time. Because of that sacrifice, young people – the number of which we will not know until eternity – have accepted the gift of salvation. Last year’s Ignite Youth Festival served students across the region because King Street Church contributed vision and leadership, worship resources, and media & production ingenuity to maximize the efforts of like-minded servants of God who desire to lead the next generation to live for Him.

In just a few weeks, King Street will welcome over 100 guests with special needs to Night to Shine, an event that we pioneered in this area, now for the tenth year. In that time we have blessed many people from West Virginia, Maryland, and a variety of towns in Pennsylvania. Just last year, a church in Chambersburg and another in Hagerstown, MD, have started their own events, and we have provided knowledge and support to both of them. Because of this, the amount of people with special needs who will be blessed by Night to Shine has doubled and tripled, and we have made an important stand for the value of every life created by God. That’s being a resourcing church. All glory to God! These are just a few ways that King Street Church has already lived into our mission as a resourcing church. God has set King Street Church aside as a resourcing church. That’s part of our mission. We have extensive qualifications, and so we have unique resources to support God’s ministry and God’s mission. Captive Israel was blessed by Moses and divided Israel was blessed by David and the early church was blessed by Paul. Who will be blessed by King Street Church? Moses, David, and Paul didn’t know the full extent of their mission. God did. And God knows who He will bless through King Street Church. While God told Moses to throw down his staff and then to pick it up, being a resourcing church means holding our resources with open hands. We will hold our qualifications before God and say, akin to Isaiah, “Here we are; use us.”