IN response to some who read my previous blog the answer is no. I am not going to stop being a minister. This seems like a good time to explain what a minister really is. A minister is someone who serves God and cares for other people. There is not mention of pay in that description. You don't have to be paid to be a minister, you don't even have to be assosiated with just one congregation.
This leads us to an on-going problem in many congregations. There are many in the pews (or chairs) and only one or two behind the pulpit. That really isn't the way God intended it. Timothy's purpose was to train up the Christians to do the work of the Gospel. Thats what ministers really should be doing.
If your minister is doing all the visiting, the teaching, the preaching, the baptisms, the funerals and weddings, the youth and calling on visitors then both you and your minister are failing the Lord.
Imagine 1 or 2 people doing the work and 200 watching. Wouldn't more get done if the 200 were doing it too? Wouldn't the 200 learn more about the Lord if they were doing what He did? Don't athletes become stronger and more skilled by practising and playing the sports they work at? Christians do too!
People often tell me I am the only minister they know who tries to work himself out of a job. But its a foundational truth of Christianity that the people are to become better Christians by doing the work of the Lord.
Do
Its a tough word. Its an action word. it means to go through the activity so designated. Do the homework, do the dishes, do the yardwork. These things cannot be accomplished by sitting and watching. One has to get up and get into it.
SO...I will always be a minister. I will do the work of the Lord that He sets before me.
What about you?
See ya
A Touch of Reality
About Me
- Geoff
- I was born in a little log cabin, on the 32nd floor of the CN Tower.....
2 comments:
I totally agree... the minister's job is to show people how to serve, if he/she is the only one doing the serving then both the congregation and the minister have failed!
First of all, Amen! Secondly, I think the reason people are or were so concerned (at least for me anyway) is because all we know is the Geoff who was the minister in a paid position. That shift to Geoff who is just like us and works an everyday job and serves in the church is going to be difficult to understand. My own reason for panic and fear when I read your blog was because you are one of the most influential people in my life. God used your ministry at Garnett to bring me closer to him. And I just think of all the people who's lives have been touched by your "paid ministry" and I can understand their concern. But God is going to continue using you for great things, I'm excited to see where he takes you in your "unpaid ministry". May God bless you in your decision and lead you on! Thank you for allowing yourself to be used by God in my life, I have never been the same.
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