Ministry is a topic which has been haunting me for a while now, so I think it might be time I speak out and get it out of my system…
Lets look at the heart of ministry… BECAUSE THE HEART OF MINISTRY IS THE FOUNDATION TO HOW ONE DOES MINISTRY…
Before I start, I need to say this.
The purpose of this is not to discredit anyone, but more to give clarity on ministry. I have heard much on this and shared with a few people who are in ministry, and I do believe I have some authority to get this word go out.
WHAT IS MINISTRY?
Let us start at the beginning…
The Dictionary defines it as follows:
noun: ministry; plural noun:
1. (in certain countries) a government department headed by a minister
2. “he is training for the ministry” – Synonyms :holy orders, the priesthood, the cloth, the church
3. (in certain countries) a period of government under one Prime Minister.
4. the action of ministering to someone.
This is an interesting image I also found
I am not going to say this is perfect, but I am going to mention what I believe to be true.
In my opinion ministry…
1. is being trained FOR GOD’S PURPOSE
2. is something one has to DO – AN ACTION
3. needs TRAINING AND GUIDANCE
According to Pastor Wayne Cordeiro, in his sermon titled “Dead Leader Running”, he points out something interesting about this… Ministry does not end and family does not begin somewhere… Family is ministry…
Why can this be said?
Family requires…
1. that the members in the family are to be trained…
2. that something should be done…
3. training and guidance from a mentor outside…
NOW, WHAT IS MINISTRY?
If family is ministry, as Pastor Wayne Cordeiro has said, then we have something wrong, because this does entail that ministry is more than a once in a while meeting, but a lifestyle…
In most cases we hear that ministry entails that there is a meeting of people, like a church service or a youth meeting… This you can see is a little different from what is mentioned above… Ministry is more about raising up people to know God and grow closer to God… This ministry seems to be confusing to a lot of people… And some of this confusion I would like to clear up a little later…
LASTLY, WHAT IS MINISTRY ABOUT?
We look at the Bible and see ministries…
The ministry of John the baptist: (See Matthew 3) His ministry was to prepare the way for Jesus Christ.
The ministry of Paul: Paul was an Apostle of the Lord, and he would raise up churches and equip them to raise up the next generation, even if he is not there. Paul wrote many of the New Testament books of the Bible.
Now the ministry of Jesus (of Nazareth): This can be read in detail in the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) in the New Testament. Jesus said: “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34) Jesus ministry was to prepare people. He trained them for ministry; trained them to train others for ministry and taught them what He knew. And when He was done, He called them friends, or closer brothers, for they were like Him. Jesus’ legacy can be seen in the book of Acts and can still be seen today, when we look at believers whom took up the commission of Christ…
WHY MINISTRY?
Ok, to start we need to understand some fundamentals about this…
WHY IS MINISTRY IMPORTANT?
Looking at the ministry of Jesus, we see the fruit of His ministry till today, people being equipped, not only for the now, but also for the rest of their lives.
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ (Eph 4:11-13)
According to this, ministry should always continue, until we measure up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
WHY SHOULD WE DO MINISTRY?
I am going do what Jesus did…
Say you have a secret, which you know will change someone’s life forever, if only they knew about it… Would you tell them about this secret?
This is why we should do ministry… Tell that secret to the world, so their lives can also be changed forever…
If you are unsure of this secret, Maybe I should also share it in short… Jesus died, so we may live. So choose life, so He is glorified by your life. If this does not seem like good news think a bit… Jesus came to earth so that we may be saved, He died for our sins, not just that which we have done, but also that which we are going to do… Just think, were you born on the day which He died? If yes, then you are fairly old, since it happened basically 2000 odd years ago… I suspect most, more accurately all, would answer no…. Now if only sins were included prior to the crucifixion, we have no chance, as the crucifixion is a one-time only thing…
However, when we look in Acts this is being taught, and by repentance we are unified with Jesus’ death and our sins are being removed, thus this does make it that the death of Jesus, to this day is still in effect, and our sins can still be removed… This is the good news…
His love for us, covers a multitude of sin. I will at some point expand somewhat more on this, but for now I will have to stop there, since I am going of topic a little…
HOW DO WE DO MINISTRY?
PERSONALLY:
To do it personally is actually easy. Talk to someone about God, and how He changed your life. Ministry is testimony… nothing more is require.
Rev 12:11 – “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.
People are changed by what they hear about God. If God does good things for you, won’t others want to hear it?
Another way to approach this, is the way describe well in Luke 10. According to Luke 10, we should pray for the sick, there are also various other places where we see that healing was used, by Jesus and the apostles, and this led to people being saved… I will be doing an in depth post on praying for healing in the future.
LIFESTYLE:
You may think this is weird, but people see your lifestyle… If you keep on speaking life and acting death, won’t people wonder if you were really changed? A changed life reaps the fruit.
I am going to say something here… If you do not have a revelation of God, get one… Ask God for one…. Beg Him if needed…. A personal revelation of WHO GOD IS, will carry you… Another person may have a different revelation, but have one of your own… Scripture does dictate how we look at Christ. Our revelation of Christ can not contradict the truth in the Word of God…
Note: leaching on another person’s revelation, will not make you stand stronger, since it is not your own…
CORPORATE:
Now this is something like a church service or youth ministry… There are guidelines to how to handle these at the church, especially when you are a part of the ministry team.
If part of the ministry team, something to know… IT IS NEVER ABOUT YOUR OPINION. I am sorry if I made you mad right now, but I have to say it is worth it… GET YOURSELF OUT OF THE PICTURE IF YOU REALLY WANT GOD TO MOVE. And if God tells you to move, since your season has ended, THEN LEAVE…
Corporate ministry changes more than you may think… Not to be mean… Sometimes a whole team is changed in as little as four years.
WHO CAN DO MINISTRY?
Anyone can really do ministry, but be warn… If you dare teach, the Bible does warn a greater judgement. (James 3:1)
If God did something great in your life, share it with someone.
If you feel God telling you to share something, do it…
My blog started because God laid it on my heart to tell people about God, and to teach… If He tells you to do something like this, GO FOR IT…
Now do not go into a church service and disrupt them, just because you want to do ministry… If you want to share, go to your pastor and share it with him, and he can find a place and time for your testimony to have the greatest impact… In corporate, you have formalities on how to do it correctly… and in this way not to cause confusion and disruptions.
WHEN AND WHERE CAN IT BE DONE?
I will have to start by saying… The when and where goes closely with the who, since a part is already answered in the last paragraph of the who…
Now for the when…. The when is NOW… Do not wait… Start now… If God did something for you, start now by telling people about what God did for you…
Where? How about this… Facebook, your neighbor, Twitter, a blog, this list goes on… Just do not start this thinking people will just listen… For Pete sake, I hope they don’t just accept everything everyone says… Even everything I say… No one is perfect, and ministry does not expect one to be… but if everyone just accepts our stuff and we lie, they are deceived, and they will have problems because of our lies… So if people question you or correct you, thank them, and continue…
CONFUSION ABOUT MINISTRY….
Couple of confusions are:
1. Ministry is about me…
This may be something you don’t want to hear, but it is true… Even Jesus made this clear: (see What do you see the Father do?)
John 5:19-20 – Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.
If this is what Jesus said, why do we start taking offense in a corporate setting when there is a difference… Do not defend yourself, if someone disagrees with you… A corporate setting was never about you… IT’S ABOUT GOD… Ask God what HE wants to do, not start with some or other I feel we must stuff, which may be your pride taking over… Sorry I might be harsh on this, but really it really does frustrate a team if it is all about you and your pride and your defense… Listen to God.
2. “Ministry comes first, then comes friendship”
This was the original reason I wanted to write this, but God made sure I waited to get as much info on this topic of ministry before I wrote…
Matt 26:36 – 38 – Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”
Now Jesus had asked three of the disciples more frequently to go with Him while the others were asked to remain behind and intercede in the distance.
The above scripture shows that He also talked to them about more in-depth heart breaking things( “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” ).
He took time apart to train His disciples, if they didn’t understand a parable. ( Luke 8:9-15 )
If more convincing is needed go to the “What is ministry” part… of even better… Dead Leader Running – Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
Ministry without relationship is UTTERLY WORTHLESS.
3. My day off…
Jesus said we should keep the Sabbath day holy… A day of rest… (Exodus 20:8)
Now do not get me wrong, I believe this is one of the most important things one should have… AND I HAVE ADVISED MISSIONARIES TO IMPLEMENT THIS AS WELL. So this is not about breaking the day off…
YET, I need to give some advise here… And if this offends you, I am sorry, yet I will not be able to take it back….
And Jesus also said we should bare fruit in and out of season… (2 Timothy 4:2)
Now if someone contacts you on your off day, one can still avoid being rude, and offensive about people “bothering” you… I would say, if this is how you feel, you might be running on empty and you may lack God in your life…
If you have to much to do… SCALE DOWN… GET HELP… and maybe take a break, a week away or get something to fill you, because it seems like you get drained more than you get filled…
Now this is it on this topic, I hope this helped you somewhat… And I really hope you can use it… If something in this does bother you and you need clarification, be sure to comment and I will come back to you…
God bless