What’s Your Ministry?

The speaker at my church this week encouraged us to read the Bible and do what it says. That is not a revolutionary message by any means. We were also told that if we consider ourselves to be Christians, it is not enough to simply go to church. Nothing new there either. What strikes me is that this man who has been doing revival ministry for twenty years believes this is a message the church needs to hear. I assume the man seeks God’s wisdom on what to preach, so this is God’s message to our church: read the Bible and do what it says.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that I have repeatedly lamented the fact that statistics show that most Christians are not reading their Bibles regularly. It comes as no surprise then that neither are Christians living much differently than their non-believing neighbors. Not reading and not doing; that’s the state of the church in America today. It’s no wonder that the country is going to hell in a hand cart as the saying goes.

What are Christians supposed to be doing based on their reading of the Bible? Simply put, they are to be doing ministry. Paul often refers to himself as a slave or bond servant of Christ. To be a servant or slave means there is a master to be served. Our Master has given us pretty clear instructions about what it means to serve Him. Our ministry to Him is to minister to others: love thy neighbor. What it means to love a neighbor was famously detailed in Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan. In essence what He said was to do for your neighbor what he or she needs done, especially if they can’t do it for themselves.

I think most Christians think of ministry as a vocation that only a few people get into. The term “minister” usually refers to a pastor or preacher who works for a church. That view is too narrow for the term as it is used in the Bible. Paul explained to the Ephesians that those who are called to a vocational ministry are there to equip believers for “the work of the ministry.” In other words, it is the people in the pews who are the ministers, not the one behind the pulpit.

If I look at my life, I think of the years I spent teaching in Christian schools as ministry. I burned out and took what I thought of as a sabbatical, leaving “ministry” behind. The years I spent driving a truck for a living had me feeling like Moses tending sheep on the back side of the desert for forty years before he was called to his “ministry” of delivering God’s people from Egyptian slavery. I haven’t had a burning bush type call back to what some call “full-time ministry.” That phrase emphasizes the misunderstanding of what ministry means. Like all my fellow Christians, I am called to full-time ministry. I am to live my life in service to my Lord every minute of every day. Full time.

What is my ministry now? This blog is one part of my ministry. Thousands of people from around the world have read these scratchings of mine. I won’t know until I step into eternity how many people have been encouraged or enlightened by my writing. But that is not my only ministry. I regularly help people in the RV park where we live with projects and repairs. I have done something for every widow or single woman living here. I sometimes receive a modest wage for my efforts, but often the labor and materials are a gift in the name of Jesus. I also minister when I go to my part-time job at Home Depot and do my work “as working for the Lord.” When possible, I sneak in a word or two that comes from my faith perspective, although I am prohibited from outright evangelism by company policy. I think they are afraid I might “offend” someone if I presented the gospel openly, so I just live the gospel quietly in the aisles – full time.

I have not been describing my “ministry” as a boast—far from it. I am simply using my life as an example of how one does what the Bible says: serve Christ with your whole life. You don’t have to get a paycheck from a church to be a minister; you just have to live the Word. You may be the only Jesus some will ever see; you will likely be the only Bible some will ever read. Live intentionally for God as one of my former pastors used to say. Make it your business to be a witness to the goodness of God; that is the essence of what Paul meant when he said, “Do all things for the glory of God.” That’s your ministry.

Related posts: Make Time for Timeless Truth; Merely Christian; Christianity: Religion or Philosophy