What is Ministry?
Is there a clear answer to this question? Each person asked will likely give a slightly to drastically different response.
What is Ministry?
Is there a right answer? Is the definition possible? How have we come to understand ministry? Does the definition change depending on the environment? If it does, is that acceptable?
What is Ministry?
How does scripture define it? How does scripture talk about ‘ministry’? How did Jesus define ministry? Have we come to accept an unspoken definition of ministry without thinking more deeply of its effects.
Our team has spent the last several weeks pondering more deeply, both personally and corporately all these questions. However, the answers, if there are indeed correct answers, continue to evade our understanding.
It has seemed that ministry has been defined, by actions more than spoken words, as church planting and door to door/street evangelism. I don’t know that anyone would deny that this indeed is ministry.
But what else is ministry?
Isaiah 58 and 61 addresses true fasting and the calling of Jesus Christ (and thus his disciples). “Loose the bonds of wickedness, let the oppressed go free, share your bread with the hungry, bring the homeless into your home, clothe the naked, bring good news to the poor, to grant the oil of gladness and comfort to those who mourn.”
Jesus hung out with fishermen, tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, social rejects of every sort, as well as some religious leaders, spending time with them.
How did he proclaim the good news to the poor? In ways they didn’t understand, in seeminly foolish parables, and offensive conditions. And yet, it was good news, the gospel. He never commanded or forced anyone into believing in him, he simply spoke the invitation to follow him, and they followed. He touched people and healed them of their sickneses and tormenting demons. He didn’t free people from prison in physical terms, and I’m not sure
that scripture even speaks of him touching the broken in spirit and heart and them being healed, but they were.
He healed and restored them by spending time with them. He loved them through personal relationship, and this brought about healing. Following his example, what does this look like for us?
Ministry is evangelism, but that is only part.
Ministry is church planting, but that is only another part.
Ministry is preaching
, and pastoring a church, but that is only part.
Ministry is working with children within the church, but that is only part.
Ministry is music, both within the church and outside, as are all the roles within the church.
Being a ‘missionary’ is ministry. (That brings about whole new question – what is a missionary?)
If I live a radical life of a missionary, who ministers, what am I actually looking at doing? It is so much more than the things I do, the roles I play; it is simply my life and relationships with people. I may go out and evangelise from time to time, around the world and in my own culture. And I will likely take part in ‘music ministry’ within my church, but more than anything I want my life to radiate Jesus Christ. I want to smell like him so that every moment I live is ministry.
Part of
‘ministr
y
‘
is the time spent with Jesus, becoming more and more intimate with him, knowing him more deeply. I feel this is the stage God is calling me to for a little bit.
As followers of Jesus, we have many people to preach to, souls to save, ‘evangelism’ to do, but we can only ‘do’ so much. I believe we need to learn to ‘be’
ministry more than ‘do.’ We will tire of doing – even Jesus grew tired of ‘doing’ things. But Jesus’ relationships never ended, so his ministry continued at all times. That is what I desire – that my relationships with people would continue far beyond the ‘doing’ of
ministry.
Thinking in these terms of ‘being’ verses ‘doing’, is hard for me, even though I grasp the concept in my mind. I still fight the thought that I must be busy doing something and in some way be a martyr in order to be doing ministry. I feel obligated to constantly be among the poor, pouring out my all, and though that’s a huge part of it, but I don’t feel like God has called me to give my whole life in Africa, among the poor. So if my personal call isn’t here, then what does it look like for me?
What I believe God is teaching me is that as I seek to know Jesus more, and pursue relationships with people in the places He has called me, then he will take care of the rest. I deeply desire to feed the poor and pray for their sicknesses and it’s a job that must be done, but I don’t want to neglect the area where God has called me because I have a warped understanding of ‘ministry.’ I fear that many people of my own culture fall through the cracks because as believers we feel that ministry is so much ‘doing’ that we miss the ‘being’ that God has called us to, and that Jesus exhibited for us.
Can we learn to really ‘BE’ Jesus to each and every person we encounter? Not some fake tract Jesus, not some steps to becoming saved, or all the ways to get one’s behavior in order, but really LOVE, as Jesus loved.
Can you love a
prostitute in the midst of her life? Can you love a
drug addict, an
alcholic overcome by their addictions? Can you love a
murderer? Can you love the
homeless man downtown, in his filth and stench? Can you love the
thief who has robbed you? Can you love the
people who look different and live their lives differently than you? Can you love the
homosexual without disgust and attempts to change them? Can you love the
person with AIDs without judgment? Can you love the
wounded woman who rejects your love? Can you love the
prodigal who knows the truth and walks in intentional sin? Can you love the
child molester? Can you love the
rapist?
Can you love like this? Not from a distance, but close up, touching without fear or hesitation? Can you pour your life into theirs, seeking your own fulfillment in God alone? Can you ask forgiveness on behalf of all those, including yourself, who have passed judgment and wounded these people?
We can learn, but it is hard. I am certainly not there yet. It’s not about doing things, but simply about being Jesus. It’s not our job to change people, or their sins, but just to love them to wholeness and healing. This is true ministry as well, beyond the active definition of ministry.
So I will take some time to be in ‘ministry’ with Jesus, in order to smell more like him, to be more intimate, and practice loving people on a day to day basis for the next couple weeks. I will not be ‘doing’ as much active ‘ministry’ as defined by what it has been so far on the Race, but instead will be learning love Jesus more deeply, and be filled with His love for me and others, as I sit as his feet, worshiping and interceding.
I do hope to visit a hospital and the poor communities in my time here in Gordon’s Bay, praying for the poor, feeding and loving on them, but I also feel I will be a part of building up other believers for the time being, and growing in intimacy with Jesus. I will grow in love, for Jesus, and for those around me.
Love is what makes the activities of ‘ministry’ effective.
Thank you for your continued prayers through this next chapter of my year and life.
