1.31.07 - Our Scope of Ministry
Here's the group of us guys: Ian, Nate, Sam, Me, and not pictured the famous Jeremiah - I'll probably hear it for putting their mugs on the web... |
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Ministry is an interesting subject. There are a lot of ways to look at ministry and even more ways of expressing it. I am convinced that at the foundation of whatever “ministry” happens to be, it must have God’s glory as preeminent.
For a few months now, I’ve been meeting with a group of guys with 3 specific goals: Prayer, Accountability and Community (or PAC if you will). It’s curious how the Christian life depends upon fellowship in order to foster spiritual growth. I mean its one thing to read your Bible, but it’s quite another to listen to someone else's life story, pray for a brother, or confess.
It’s almost like God uses other believers as bumpers (like the bumpers on a bowling alley, from when you were a kid) to keep us on the right path. The apostle John put it this way, “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,” 1 John 1:7a.
The Psalmist put it this way, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another,” Ps. 27:17.
The interesting thing is that as a Christian, ministry is more of a way of life than job you can do or an event you can plan. It seems that our American lifestyle and our Christian lifestyle are occasionally at odds with one another, and yet sometimes the most “Christian” thing we can do is just sit with a cup of coffee and listen. Can the glory of God be found outside the 4 walls of the church? I wonder if that affects your definition of ministry at all… something to think about.
