Ministry

So what is ministry?…I mean REALLY.

The word “ministry” is one that we throw around so flippantly… “That organization is just such a great ministry!”… “I’m trying to figure out what kind of ministry God is calling me to.”… “That church’s’ ministries are reaching so many people!”… “Do you serve with any ministries?”… “I think God is calling me into fulltime ministry.”

When we say things like this, do we actually know what we mean? And even if we do know what we mean, is our meaning the same as God’s? Is our idea of ministry actually based on God’s definition, or is it simply an IDEA?…a man-made IDEA.

Although the meaning of the word “minister” has slowly morphed over time (as most definitions do), if you trace it back to its Latin roots and look at its definitions in other languages throughout history, you will find that it meant the following things:

-“Less” or “Subordinate”
-“Servant”
-“One who acts upon the authority of another”

Keep that in mind, as you continue to read…

The church today is filled with two types of people: those who have no real desire to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth, and those who do. Those of us who are desperate to see the world radically altered by the love of Jesus Christ are quick to reprimand apathetic Christians for their ignorance and selfishness. But I want to take a minute to caution all the “great commission enthusiasts” to examine ourselves…are we really as untouched by ignorance and selfishness as we think we are??? In our excitement to share the gospel and to use our gifts to meet the world’s greatest needs, how often do we make our ministry just that: OURS???

We look around and we see so much brokenness, and then we turn to God and cry out: “Use me!”…But we don’t usually stop after those two words. We often continue with something like this: “I have all these amazing gifts, God, and I know just how to use them for your glory! I have a plan, and I just know it’s going to work!” And then we expect Him to bless it.

DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT WE HAVE ANYTHING TO OFFER GOD THAT HE DOESN’T ALREADY HAVE?...ANY PLAN THAT IS SUPERIOR TO THE ONE THAT HE HAS ALREADY THOUGHT OF AND SET IN PLACE???

Newsflash: GOD DOESN’T USE GIFTED PEOPLE…HE USES OBEDIENT PEOPLE.

We get so caught up in the “spirit of adventure” on our quest to “save the world” that we lose sight of the Creator of the mission…And in losing sight of Him, we lose sight of the mission…for we cannot know what God is calling us to, if we do not know Him.

Do we evangelize because we genuinely want people to experience the same saving grace that we know?...Or do we do it for an adrenaline rush? Do we pray for healing because we genuinely want the power of God to invade people’s bodies?...Or are we just obsessed with the excitement of being the instrument of that healing? Do we perform acts of service because we genuinely believe that the needs of others are more important than our own?...Or are we just narcissistic heroes who want to have yet one more reason to praise ourselves?

Why is it that we are constantly trying to make ministry what we want it to be?...this glamorous, self-exalting, territory-expanding activity that we do when our schedules allow for it? I feel like we often have this “I came, I saw, I conquered!” mentality when it comes to ministry…We throw ourselves out into the streets, seek out people who in our opinion appear to need Jesus in some way, say a quick prayer or perform a quick act of service, and then go on our way thinking, “Wow, I just did something great! I just made a big difference in that person/neighborhood/city/country/etc.! I just brought the kingdom of heaven to earth!”

But what if it didn’t end there??? What if, after praying the “prayer of salvation” with someone, we were called to disciple that person for a year or two…or the rest of our lives?...long after the adrenaline rush has gone! Kinda loses a bit of the excitement, doesn’t it?...All that commitment and everything! Seems like that would be a lot of time and energy that could be “better” spent saving more lives and increasing our realm of influence, eh?...Or so we think…

And when we’re not attempting to PROMOTE ourselves in “ministry,” we’re often attempting to PROTECT ourselves. For example…

It’s easy to tell complete strangers about God…if they reject the message, no big deal!…you’ll probably never see them again, and even if they think you’re completely crazy, it will most likely have no effect on your life whatsoever! It’s a little bit harder to share your faith in your workplace…where your reputation, credibility, and even job instantly become “on the line!”

Or another example…It’s easy to tell an alcoholic that he is free from his addiction and that he has been forgiven for all the ways he has hurt his family when he’s just a stranger in a shelter…It’s a lot harder when that man is your father.

But, you see, we don’t get to pick and choose who deserves to receive the gospel message. We don’t get to decide the “what,” “where,” “when,” or “how,” either. God didn’t put us in our workplaces so that we could just work 9-5 and then go out and evangelize on the weekends. God didn’t put us in our neighborhoods so that Monday, Wednesday, and every other Friday from the hours of 2-4 we could go door to door and ask if anyone needs help with anything. God didn’t put us in our friend groups so that we could party with them every night in public and then pray for them in the privacy of our bedroom.

We have been placed in our schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, families, and friend groups to minister…and sometimes it gets messy! It’s not clean. It’s not safe. It’s not comfortable. It’s not convenient. But it IS our CALLING.

I recently heard a sermon preached on the word “ministry,” and the following example was given to illustrate what ministry should and should not look like: A man accepted a job offer, and to perform several of his job requirements he would need a laptop. So, his boss handed him the company credit card and said, “Go to the apple store and buy a laptop.”…So he did. [This is ministry: the “minister”-the man was given “power”-the credit card, by someone with greater authority-his boss, to fulfill the “mission”-purchasing a laptop.] But what if the man had refused the credit card, and not gone to the apple store to purchase a laptop? Or what if he had accepted the credit card, but chose to go to a different store to purchase a laptop? Or what if he had gone to the apple store but proceeded to purchase something other than a laptop? Or what if he had gone to the apple store and purchased a laptop, but also purchased something else in addition to the laptop? Would his ministry have been an appropriate application of the power given to him? Would it have fulfilled the mission of the one in authority over him?

Or what about a telegram deliverer? (I know, we’re going waaay back with this one!) A telegram deliver is given a message to give to someone else…a specific person…at a specific time…in a specific location…word for word, exactly what’s on the page. But what if he had chosen to deliver it to someone else (a family member of the person to which it was addressed)? Or what if he decided to wait to deliver it (deliver everyone else’s telegrams first)? Or what if he delivered it to a different location (the recipient’s home instead of present hotel room)? Or what if he decided to reword the message (give a summary or his own personal interpretation of it)? Or what if he decided to change the message altogether (leave some of it out or add something to it)?

Ministry FAIL. Mission not accomplished.

In ministry, we do not get to choose what the mission is or how to carry it out. We do not get to change it, add to it, subtract from it, reshape it, manipulate it, make it “relevant to today”…whatever that means, reword it, or give our own interpretation of it (which, by the way, there is nothing that you can say that will state something in a better way than the Bible already has).

And this is a big one…We also do not get to choose the timing.

A friend was recently sharing about his call into “ministry.” He said that he was so excited to FINALLY be headed into what he had always felt so passionate about…and then conviction set in and God humbled him…and he realized that God was not calling him to go immediately into the “mission field,” but rather, God was calling him into a time of greater knowledge and greater intimacy first…so that he may be that much more equipped to “hit the mission field” when the time came. I love what my friend said next…he shared that MINISTRY SHOULD NEVER BE OUR FOCUS…GOD SHOULD BE OUR FOCUS…GROWING IN OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM…AND THEN OUT OF THE GREATER KNOWLEDGE AND REVELATION THAT COMES FROM THAT INTIMACY, MINISTRY WILL BE A NATURAL OUTFLOWING!

It’s hard to understand why God would plant such heart-grabbing, gut-wrenching passions in us and then ask us to WAIT to dive head first into them. But when it comes to timing, God doesn’t ask us to know his reasoning. He asks us to know HIM. For in knowing Him, we know his heart, and it is only by knowing his heart that we are able to share it. [Which isn’t that what ministry really is?...Sharing God’s heart?]

If you don’t wanna just take my word for it [THAT EXTREME INTIMACY WITH GOD IS FOUNDATIONAL TO EXTREME MINISTRY WITH GOD], then here’s an example for you: JESUS. Okay, He was GOD, and even HE WAITED 30 YEARS before He began his ministry! (Luke 3:23)...He understood the importance of being ONE in heart and mind and spirit with GOD!

So, am I suggesting that we all go into seclusion for 2 weeks? 2 months? 2 years? and do nothing but read our Bibles and pray until we are certain that we know the heart of God??? Of course not. Because for one, we will never fully know God…it is a life-long process in which we will continue to grow in knowledge and intimacy. And two, Because God who loves to work in us and through us, out of his grace, does in fact use us, where we are at presently to bring glory to Himself and further His kingdom.

I am, however, suggesting that we BE CAREFUL NOT TO THROW OURSELVES INTO SOMETHING AND THEN ASK GOD TO BLESS IT, BUT RATHER THAT WE THROW OURSELVES INTO GOD AND THEN OBEY WHEN HE ASKS US TO DO SOMETHING ALREADY SOAKED IN BLESSING!

Ultimately, MINISTRY HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND WILL ALWAYS BE ABOUT GOD! We are simply the agent, the instrument, the medium, the messenger, the minister!

Let’s go back to our definition a minute: A minister is a lesser, subordinate, servant, who acts on the authority of another. As ministers of God and His Kingdom, we must recognize how lowly we really are, humbly submit, unconditionally serve, and then REJOICE that such an all-knowing, all-powerful God would choose to bestow His authority in us and His blessing upon us, and ask us to partner with Him in the greatest mission of all time!

May we never let our ignorant fears or selfish ambitions deter us from this cause!

When we fix our eyes on the needs of the world, we become slaves to the hopelessness and despair that we see, and are conquered by what appears to be an ever-growing evil. When we fix our eyes on our gifts, we become slaves to vanity, and are conquered by our own weaknesses when our strength has run out…and I promise you, it will. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, we become slaves to the author and perfecter of our faith, through whom, and by such faith, we have the authority to conquer all evil in the world and all weakness in ourselves, and run the race marked out for us in such a way as to win the prize!...To carry out the mission…and to live in a constant state of MINISTRY!

Beauty

If I have but one goal in this life [apart from knowing God and leading others to know Him…although when I say “apart,” I don’t actually mean APART, for I believe these two things are very much intertwined, and are often one and the same], it is to pursue beauty…to seek it out where it has been lost, to restore it where it has been tainted, to reconcile it where it has been morphed beyond recognition, to create it where it does not exist…to revel in it with such joy and such passion that every on-looker becomes ignited with inspiration and cannot help but accept the invitation to join in doing the same.

“Beauty” is a verb (I don’t care what the dictionary says!)…it is an action…it is meant to be experienced…No, it is meant to be an EXPERIENCE (okay, then maybe it is a noun, after all)!...a multisensory experience! I believe that God wants us to INTERACT with His world!...Why else would He have made us with five senses???...not one, not two, but FIVE! (Okay, actually there’s seven, but I’ll do my best to set aside my occupational therapy education for just a second and stick with the ones everybody knows.) [Even now, as I write this, I am blissfully soaking up the multisensory beauty in my environment…the relaxing music, the gentle lighting, the feel of the fan blowing air on my face and through my hair, the smell and taste of cinnamon and cloves in my rich, dark, foreign, French-pressed coffee.]

When you notice beauty, recognize beauty, appreciate beauty, breathe in beauty, exude beauty, you are overcome with a flood of joy and peace that resonates deeply within your spirit, confirming that you are walking in your identity as an image-bearer of the CREATOR God…You know that this is what you were made for!

But just in case it’s not enough for you to simply look around at creation and just KNOW in the depth of your being that you’re supposed to be active in it, God makes it pretty clear in His Word. And you don’t have to read too far, because already in the very first chapter of the Bible God reveals the following three things:

1) He is THEE Creator of beauty.
2) He has made us in His image and likeness…enabling us to reflect His beauty and creativity.
3) Not only are we equipped to do this, we are CALLED to, and by “called,” I mean COMMANDED.

God’s first word of instruction to man is “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:28) SUBDUE it…which means to conquer and bring into subjection, to overpower by superior force, to overcome, to bring under control, and render submissive.
It’s interesting, isn’t it, how this direction was given prior to the fall? How much more, in a post-fall, broken, sin-filled world, does this planet need to be restored to order…conquered by love, overpowered by the superior force of reconciliation, overcome by beauty!?!?!

And how then can we [as New Testament believers who know that this HAS been made possible through the death and resurrection of Christ, and who HAVE been filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered with all authority to carry out this mission of bringing heaven to earth] ignore such a calling???

Why is it that so often when we look at the world all we see is pollution and poverty, disease and disaster, abuse, neglect, injustice, and war? We have this mentality that it’s too big, it’s beyond us, and if we can’t fix it all, we can’t fix any of it. We give up. We call it “hopeless” and drown in man-made lake of discouragement and despair. Or we completely ignore it…we forget our identity, we forget our calling, we forget the importance of bringing forth beauty!

WHY DO WE ACT DEFEATED WHEN THE BATTLE HAS ALREADY BEEN WON?

WE ARE NOT CALLED TO BE A PEOPLE OF IGNORANCE AND APATHY!

WE ARE MADE IN THE IMAGE OF THE BEAUTIFUL CREATOR GOD! THE SAME POWER THAT CONQUERED DEATH LIVES IN US! THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT AND THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT ARE OURS TO REVEL IN AND SHARE WITH A DESPERATE WORLD!

This shouldn’t feel like a burden!...It should be a joy! It’s a gift!...We GET to reflect creativity and beauty!...We GET to partner with God in bringing heaven to earth!

Awesome! So, what does this [living in a constant state of beauty] look like?...Let’s make it practical…

...Get up early and watch a sunrise…smell the morning breeze…don’t just eat because you’re hungry but admire the colors, take pleasure in the textures, and savor the flavors of your food (everything is art!)…listen to a song (without doing anything else at the same time…just listen)…then listen to the sound of silence, total silence…hold a baby, wave at the neighbor girl, smile at a stranger…wash a dish, pull a weed, pick up a piece of trash…feel the wind, soak up the sun, breathe in fresh air…work hard…sing loudly…sing in a whisper…let someone else go first at the grocery store check-out…serve a co-worker…send a letter of encouragement…forgive…pray blessing over someone who hurt you…have a conversation with someone wiser than you (and by have a conversation, I mean listen)…delight in a gift received…be joyful in answered prayer…share a testimony…dance in the rain, dance in the street, dance in church…just dance!...give something away…give of yourself…love people…dive into a perfectly still lake…sit by a perfectly still lake…slow down…take in the details…cherish the moment…plant a flower, pick a flower, or simply NOTICE a flower that someone else planted or picked!

Make a cupcake. Eat a cupcake. Share a cupcake.
Bring Forth Beauty. Celebrate and Enjoy Beauty. Spread Joy by Sharing Beauty.

This may sound a little crazy…talking about finding beauty in cupcakes, when we live in a world in which beauty is continuously attacked on a grand scale in violent ways all over the world daily.

In suggesting these practical applications, I may sound at worst: pathetically ignorant and perhaps even satirical (it’s a joke, right?), and at best: like the adorably naïve cartoon character, Katie, from a loveable children’s movie, who said, “In my world, everyone’s a pony, and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!”

But I’m not blind to the devastating images on the news. I’m not deaf to the blatant lies about beauty blaring from the media. My heart BREAKS for every child who’s been emotionally or physically abused, neglected, abandoned, or orphaned. My heart BREAKS for every teenage girl who hates her body and spirals through endless self-destruction in attempt to figure out who she’s supposed to be. My heart BREAKS for every woman who’s been talked down to, deprived of education and other rights, beaten, raped, and sold into sexual slavery.

And yes, these are dark situations in which the light of beauty must shine through. But if we cannot find beauty in the everyday occurrences in our lives…the mundane tasks…the simple things right in front of our faces, how can we find beauty among such depravity???

I believe that God wants to use us to bring beauty into the darkest places in the world. But I also believe that we must prove ourselves responsible with little, before He will entrust us with much, and that we must demonstrate an ability to “walk out” beauty in the natural before He empowers us to deal in the full potential of the power of beauty in the most spiritual sense.

Reveling in beauty is an attitude, a mindset, a heartset, a choice…and as you chose to recognize beauty and rejoice in beauty, you will come into a greater revelation of what it means to restore beauty and how to go about reconciling beauty…and will therefore be empowered to bring forth beauty in an even more potent way!

As we seek God, we find beauty. And in seeking beauty, we find God…as He is the original source of all beauty! Without Him, nothing would be beautiful! We experience beauty, because He is beauty!

Psalm 50:2 says, “From Zion, PERFECT IN BEAUTY, God shines forth.” The Bible also states, in several places, that if anyone were to see God’s face, shining in the fullness of its glory, they would instantly die. That’s a lot of beauty!...So much that God must hide it from us, just so that we can stay alive! But isn’t it such a blessing, that God doesn’t hide ALL of His beauty from us…He allows us to see and experience it through creation and through each other. So, it’s almost like in discovering beauty in something or someone in this world, we have discovered a tiny piece of the face of God…which would then suggest that in sharing beauty with others, we are giving them a piece of the face of God…WOW!

God wants us to experience “life and life to the full!”…to REVEL IN BEAUTY!

Why wouldn’t you take up on the invitation [in Psalm 34:8]?...to “TASTE AND SEE THAT THE LORD IS GOOD!”