Day by Day: How to be Faithful in Ministry
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“If you aren’t faithful to ministry, then I’m not sure you understand the state or stake of your life”
The older I get, the more I find myself looking back on the man I used to be. The more often I do this, the more I frequently arrive at thoughts like, “Man, what was wrong with me?” or “What was I waiting for?”
Ideally, this message finds you in a place of current involvement in ministry. You might be juggling three, four, maybe even six different obligations or responsibilities in ministry. The critical point of your life that you need to evaluate is those times in-between responsibilities. What are our responses to the four-hour window after church where we sit down and relax? Or the one-hour after work before heading off to Bible study or prayer? If you are at a place where you prefer the breaks over the ministry or find the work more of a chore, I’ll just go ahead and tell you that you need to be addressing that in your heart, now.
I’m going to start with some potentially oddball illustrations for you but bear with me. Think about Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. These are obviously fictional (sorry kids), but even if they were real, their dominion or providence is at best situational or seasonal. It is important to delineate that in our minds. A lot of people come to the faith through simple family life or by experiencing the faith of the person beside you. It is important to understand how we have been brought up because the God that we worship and serve is not in the realm of all the fictional gods we are all familiar with. His universe and frame of existence are juxtaposed, something completely different and set on top of. God isn’t God simply when we pray or during Christmas time or when a tooth falls out. God is God, the Lord of Lords, the creator of time itself, of all that we could ever fathom. He is beyond and above anything and has situated himself into your life through the manifestation of himself through his Son, Jesus Christ. That closeness to you and the relationship that he offers is nothing like what we could have been familiar with when growing up.
Now, think of life as an RPG or otherwise known as a role-playing game. You are the main character and equip yourself with weapons and clothing. You choose your story and responses to circumstances. You have the main quest that progresses the storyline and ultimately the game, and, if it's a good game, you are presented with multitudes of side-quest opportunities, villagers, or random encounters that require your aid. This would cause you to want to put a pause in what you're doing and help this person or stop the quest to go gather a certain amount of x. Ministry, in our lives, is the main quest. Too often I hear accounts that make it seem like our ministries are the side quests and a mysterious “mission” is the main quest.
We wake up, every day, to minister. If you have accepted the death of Jesus Christ to save you, then you have also put your flesh to death with him, and in that co-crucifixion, walk IN HIM. That means that you no longer have “your life.” It's something that you gave up as sinful and vanity and ultimately only earning you damnation. Now you get to serve. Now, you get to minister. At the point you fail to see your ministries as just that, you have lost vision for what you're doing.
Where there is no vision, the people perish. If we do not see the vision of our mission through ministry, we will perish. The thoughts, the time, and the feelings we get when ministry is all of a sudden optional is called perishing if left to its sinful work. Ministry is the outlet for your abiding in Christ; it is the satisfaction of your spiritual vessels in their yearning to be with God. Ministry cannot be an item on the agenda because if that's the case, faithfulness to it is optional. If you aren’t faithful to ministry, then I’m not sure you understand the state or stake of your life. At what point was there an option given to us to choose the old life instead? You can but you risk the discipline of the Lord. You either leave your life behind or you don't. You cannot serve two masters.
“...it’s not unlocking deeper and deeper biblical truths that awaken a higher maturity from my Spirit”
Let’s take Bible study for example. A once every two weeks, maybe once a week commitment. This isn't truly a burden on your time because you’re already reading your Bible daily or should be, right? You write down what you’re learning and go share or talk about it in a group. Now, if for some reason, this simple task is what you find challenging in commitment or faithfulness, why are you doing it? What is the mission of Bible studies? How do we serve or attend ministry service in Bible study? Reflecting on the vision of that obligation will help you to shy away from grudging attendance to you instead texting your Bible study leader with a “Hey, how can I be of help this week? How can I be praying for our group? Is there anything I can do for you tonight? Can I bring some snacks?”
Faithfulness to ministry day-to-day is easy because if you’re doing it well, you aren’t thinking about it. Ministry is your life in Christ, evangelism, discipleship, baptism, meal nights, kidtown, whatever it is. You are fitly joined into the body of Christ and every part of the body has been designed to perform a task. God doesn’t strike me as the kind of being who arbitrarily throws the soup of our bodies together, shrugs, and says, “As long as it's got arms, it’ll work.” No, every single part of your human anatomy is intentional and necessary. That is the comparison we get for the body of Christ from Paul in Corinthians. If you can read through 1 Corinthians chapter 12 for instance, and not see yourself as absolutely needed, you’re perceiving the grace of Christ incorrectly. He loves you, and more than simply saving you, he puts you to work just as you are. We wonder at how the church gets anything done with 30% of the people doing 70% of the work. But to be quite clear, it's probably that 70% of people are asking how to be faithful day in and day out, without getting bored or exhausted or falling into this lifeless, monotonous fog that causes them to fail.
I would hope that at this point we are all reflecting on the daily dialogue of our hearts. For the sake of not wasting this blog post or risking it to just be another read for those who need it, let me be even more clear. If you have thoughts that sound like, “I’d love to do this ministry, but I’m already at church three times this week;” “I can try and squeeze this in until someone can take over;” “I’m so busy with XYZ ministry that I don’t have time for this relationship or this disciple,” then you need to think about what you’re saying. There should be no protecting your life from the “overwhelming burden of ministry.” There are no sides. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, your life is hidden in Christ. The Christ who turned in his entire life to purchase yours.
In light of that, are you truly seeking to barter with the Lamb of God how much of your precious time you get and how much he get to keep? Oh, “the church/ministry” gets... excuse me? It is impressive to see the capacity we have to fool ourselves in this delusion. If Christ owns your life, then your life is ministry, the mission. All you have and are is to invest the word of God into the souls of men. It is hard to answer a question like, “How do I stay faithful to ministry day to day?” without having to sound like a meanie-pants, but you probably need to hear that.
The older I get, the more I realize that it’s not unlocking deeper and deeper biblical truths that awaken a higher maturity from my Spirit. My Spirit is one in Christ and thus, perfection. Daily submission to simple principles in the word of God cuts more and more of my flesh down. The more you see life and experience ministry, the more simple teachings of core principles strike home as necessary.
“Put the success or failure of the mission in his hands and obey”
Humility, for example. I understand what it is, but at no point have I mastered it, ask anyone. However, in seeking humility every day, I am able to grow as a Christian. This understanding is what will allow you to see ministry as something that isn’t optional. How could someone view me unfaithful to how I live? Ministry is life. Just keep waking up, praying, reading your Bible, praying throughout the day, and seeking God to use who you are in every moment. There is no way for a person being led by their flesh to have the capacity to serve God once, let alone every day. If you find yourself worn out or tired, lean into the God who promised to sustain you. Put the success or failure of the mission in his hands and obey.
Again, the Spirit-filled Christian will only be empowered by ministry. Yes, you will be tired, but that warm glow of reaching the lost or equipping the youthful will burn hotter and hotter in the depths of your bowels. Chase that feeling, so you can be in the center of Christ’s will for your life. To be in the very center of his grace. To be in the very shadow of his wings. So, being very honest, struggling with faithfulness to ministry every day is struggling with faithfulness to your God every day.
Uriah is a member at Midtown Baptist Temple and a leader in C&YA. He leads one of the men’s UMKC small group Bible studies and is also the leader of Temple Worship.