What is My Ministry Calling: Part Four

7. My Calling May Become Clear Only After a Bad or Even Tragic Experience. When I was very young I got married and divorced. I thought my life was over. Here I was 23 years old and divorced. It really took a toll on my family, my relationships and my faith. But looking back now I see how God used my bad choices to bring Him glory. I got involved in a singles ministry and have seen what God can do with a broken persons life. I discovered my calling because of my divorce. Chuck Colson didn’t discover his calling until he went to prison. He tells his story in the powerful book Born Again. Following his time in prison it slowly began to dawn on him that God wanted him to start a Prison Ministry. A difficult struggle followed, and Colson submitted to God moving him out of his comfort zone. While Chuck Colson’s personal story is unusual, someone finding their calling after a bad or even tragic experience is not, i.e. the birth of MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. That is why we can’t put “passion pressure” on our fellow Christians. Maybe the catalytic event that God plans to use it their lives hasn’t happened yet. Maybe like me a very hard event has led to your finding your calling...I would love to hear those stories, besides your telling them encourages others in tough times.

What is My Ministry Calling: Part Three

5. I Might Discover My calling At Any Stage of Life I have a friend that died several years ago. He was a two star general and he really found his calling after he served our country. Christians should not feel any pressure to be passionate about some particular ministry. Rather, we should assume that when the time is right God will bring the circumstances into our lives that will light the fire. When church leaders are creating a calling friendly environment they need to be careful that they don’t create an environment of passion pressure. Passion pressure can come in a couple of different forms. (1) Someone feels that since they have discovered their calling everybody else should have discovered their call as well. (2) Or someone may feel that other people ought to share their passion for a particular ministry. Either type of passion pressure is to be avoided. What a church wants is an environment where people are both relaxed and concerned, i.e. they practice relaxed-concern. In such an environment there is a concern that everyone eventually finds and pursues their calling, but until both they and God are ready, we all relax. 6. My calling May or May Not be Tied to My Occupation or Natural Abilities. Often we assume that one’s Special Calling will be similar to their occupation. If someone is a doctor we might think that their calling will have to do with medicine, or a mechanic will find the calling working on cars. Of course it is a mistake to confuse one’s job with their calling. A few decades ago Studs Terkel wrote Working, a book that spent several weeks on the New York Times best seller list. We say that Terkel wrote the book, but in fact he carried a tape recorder across the country and interviewed a huge number of people doing different kinds of jobs and he printed their responses. His conclusion was, “Most of us are looking for a calling, not a job. Most of us have jobs that are too small for our spirit. Jobs are not big enough for people.” Some Christians will find their calling in their occupation, but most won’t. A man in Sacramento launched a ministry to rehabilitate houses for single moms and others who cannot afford to do it on their own. The ministry has been a huge success. But when you hear Ken speak you are amazed that he has very little handyman ability. He says his tool box contains a screw driver and a roll of duct tape. But he is the one that God called to launch a great ministry that depends on people who have better skills and better tool boxes than he has. On the other hand we also know a divorce lawyer who has started a ministry to those having trouble in their marriages. God can work his calling either way, it might make sense in light of one’s abilities and occupation, or it might not. That is the scary thing, only God knows, each of us has to get our marching orders from Him.

What is My Ministry Calling: Part Two

3. A Ministry That Is Likely To Move Me Out of My Comfort Zone. In Matthew 10:38 Jesus makes one of those sweeping and disturbing statements, “anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” This is another one of those statements that is all inclusive, “anyone” is about as broad as it can be. The cross is an instrument of death and it is certainly not a comfortable place to be. We can be sure that when we pursue our calling, the pursuit will likely force us out of our comfort zone. There is often a level of risk involved when we volunteer, but that level almost always increases when we serve as a Bond Servant. 4. I May Have One or Many callings. During My Life. Some people have a single calling. Others have many callings. We simply cannot put God in a box. Some people pursue more than one calling simultaneously. One’s calling is intensely personal. The mistake that is most likely to be made in a sacerdotal system is to try to plug people into a ministry calling that the priest thinks is best. Again plugging people in as volunteers is legitimate, but at the same time everyone needs to know about their calling. Encourage your place of worship to hold in tension the need for people to find their calling not only volunteer.

What is My Ministry Calling?

Over the next few days I am going to unpack several ways you know. 1. A Ministry That Energizes Me. (Ministering Out of Our five percent. 85% of every thing you do anyone can do, 10% of what you do only you and a few others can do, but there is a 5% figure that represent only what you can do. No one else in the whole world can do what only God created you to do). When we pursue our calling, it will energize us rather than wear us out. That doesn’t mean that our calling can’t burn us out, it can. But it takes a lot more to burn us out when we are pursuing the ministry that God designed us to pursue. 2. A Ministry That I Do as a Servant, Not a Volunteer We have already seen that volunteers are willing, while servants are compelled. The biblical picture of a servant is a powerful image. In the Old Testament Jews could be sold into slavery to other Jews, and under certain conditions they could be set free. However, if a slave chooses to remain one of his master’s slaves rather than living in freedom, he or she became a bond slave. The slave is now bonded to their master out of love for their master. In Romans 1:1 The Apostle Paul introduces himself as a Bond Servant of Jesus Christ. When we discover our calling to ministry we become bonded, as a result we are compelled to pursue our calling out of love for our Lord.

What is your passion...follow that!

I always place a passage of scripture under my signature, it is Philippians 2:12-13. The passage right before it in Philippians is on the incarnation. Verses 6-11 describe both the humiliation and exaltation of Jesus. This passage, more than any other passage, captures the agony and the ecstasy of God becoming a human being. The verse 12 starts with “Therefore,” i.e. based on the profound reality of the incarnation every Christian is challenged to “work out your salvation in fear and trembling.” That is pretty strong language. One of the most important challenges in life is to discover our Calling. Verse 13 assures us that we are not alone in the process, “for it is God who works in you both to will and to act according to his good purpose.” A paraphrase could read “God is going to give us the want to, to do what he wants us to do.” Philippians 2:13 says that God works in each Christian to “will,” that means that God supplies the passion. The way that God shows how us where to discover our Calling is to get us in touch with the passion that he has programmed into us.

We Don’t Develop Our Special Ministry Calling, We Discover It

What we need, to pursue our call to ministry, is programmed within us. But we may have to develop some skills or abilities once we know what our Special Calling is. When we discover our Special Ministry Calling we won’t necessarily have the immediate ability to get it done, rather we discover the passion to do whatever we need to do. Passion is the key, and our passion is directly related to the unique way God made us. We have always been amazed at how different ministries arouse passion in different people. When you talk about the plight of isolated seniors most people will be sympathetic, but not passionate. A few however, those designed by God to be passionate about isolated senior adults, will be passionate. Those who are passionate about seniors may be sympathetic, but not passionate, about the homeless. Can someone be passionate about more than one group of people, of course they can. But normally passion is reserved for a single ministry sphere of ministry during a particular stage of life. The most often used analogy for the church in the bible is the body. Different parts of the body have different ministry passions; the mission impact of a particular church should reflect the collective ministry callings of its people. Therefore it is extremely important that each of us is committed to discovering his or her Special Calling. What the church needs to be is a discover zone...

The Difference Between Me and Everybody Else

Ephesians 2:10 tells us the God prepared good works for each of the saints to do. God created each one of us as unique individuals, our uniqueness is intended to “fit” our Special Calling.” A pastor that I know says it this way. “Before architects design any new building they first ask, ‘What will be its purpose? How will it be used?’ The intended function always determines the form of the building. Before God created you, He decided what role He wanted you to play on earth. He planned exactly how He wanted you to serve Him, and then shaped you for those tasks. You are the way you are because you were made for a specific ministry…. God deliberately shaped and formed you to serve Him in a way that makes your ministry unique.” Each of us is unique, we have known for a long time that each of us has unique finger prints and more recently we have discovered that we each have unique voices and even unique odors! It is amazing that the DNA from a single strand of hair can be conclusive evidence in a court of law! So have you found that ministry yet? OK I am more than a little concerned it is our local church that is the biggest barrier. Often we want to plug you into volunteer rather than help you find your ministry calling. We need to ask more often than not the question, "If you could do anything for God, what would you do?" If money was not an issue, if education was not an issue, it work was not an issue, you were free to do what ever you want, what would you do? This week we had a 600 million dollar lottery, one person won the whole thing, just play like you won it and live your life accordingly.

When Our General Calling and Our Special Calling “Kick In”

Our General Calling begins the moment we become a Christian. When our Special Calling begins is not so easy to figure out. Someone may be aware of their Special Calling when they are very young or they may not discover it until they are much older. God’s Special Calling forces us to leave the ranks of the volunteers, even the most motivated of volunteers, and join the ranks of the servants. And obviously God has a Special Calling for those who pursue ministries other than the ministries where people get paid. But when one learns to think of ministry with a sacerdotal mindset the ministry means vocational ministry. sac·er·do·tal /ˌsasərˈdōtl/ Adjective Relating to priests or the priesthood; priestly. Relating to a doctrine that ascribes spiritual or supernatural powers to ordained priests. Synonyms priestly - clerical - ministerial A sacerdotal mindset is not Biblical and it is very dangerous to the church.

We Are All Created With a Special Ministry Assignment

The fact that every Christian has a special ministry calling is central to unleashing ministry passion in churches. When someone pursues their special call to ministry, as we have already seen, they do as servants, not volunteers. As long as the clergy are thought of as the church’s servants and the rest of us are their volunteers we are in deep trouble. Eph 2:10, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” The “we” in this passage does not refer to the clergy it refers to those who have been redeemed through faith in Christ. This is a powerful statement. It says that God actually prepared certain good works for each of the saints, (the Ephesian letter is addressed to the saints, 1:1). Eph 4:1 “As a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Every saint has received a calling and that calling has two parts. First there is the General Calling which is the same for every Christian. Then there is the Special Calling and that is different for each Christian.

Still the same

This is best time in my life. I love God, my dear wife and kids. I am embarking on a new adventure. I feel free to be who God created me to be like never before. I think I must feel a little like Lazarus. As I start this new journey I want to assure everyone I am connected with I am God's child, made to serve Him and Him alone. He is my provider. Twelve years ago I was asked to move across the country to help a local church reach young adults, I came kicking and screaming, sorry God. Now as I begin my new journey I am thankful for that opportunity. I came then with one philosophy. It is still my philosophy and I am thankful it has worked. WHY DO WE NEED PHILOSOPHY OF MINISTRY? In order to understand all that God has to say about various subjects (the Second coming, sin, etc.) it is necessary to study the Bible topically. This type of study is often called Systematic Theology. In this case, we are attempting to study all that the Bible has to say about ministry. Unfortunately, ministry is an area that many Christians have not studied topically or systematically. As a result, their Philosophy of Ministry is poorly developed and not well grounded on Scripture. It is often nothing more than programs and structures with little understanding of underlying Biblical principles. Finally, it should be said that these six cardinal principles are not the final word. They represent a beginning statement of our Philosophy of Ministry. It is likely that they will be modified and expanded as time goes on. 1. THE STARTING POINT OF OUR MINISTRY IS GOD, NOT HUMAN ACTIVITY. (1 COR. 3:6) God’s Part: God’s goals for the Christian are superhuman (1 Peter 2:21; 1 John 3:16; Eph. 5:18-20). As a matter of fact, Christian growth is totally beyond the realm of human effort (Gal. 3:1-5) for apart from Christ we can do nothing (John 5:15) Ministry and spiritual growth are things that God does by means of the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 1:5; Titus 3:5). Man’s Part: God, in graciousness has allowed man to have a part in the work and ministry of His Kingdom (2 Cor. 5:20). Our part is to abide in Christ (John 5:15) and to rely on the Spirit to bring change (Gal. 5:18, 22-23). We abide in Christ as we abide in the word of God (1 John 2:24) and as we obey that which Christ tells us to do (1 John 3:24; John 15:10). 2. IMPLICATIONS FOR MINISTRY 1. Realize that you are unqualified to minister to anyone (2 Cor. 3: 5-6) and that only God can bring growth in another’s life (1 Cor. 3:6). 2. Recognize that God’s grace equips us for ministry (rom. 1:5; 12:6) and that we can do all things in Christ who strengthens us (Phil. 4:13) 3. Determine to abide in Christ (John 15:4-5) by living in moment-by-moment dependence on God (Prov. 3:5-6). Commit to the Word and prayer (Acts 6:4). 4. Remember without God, I cannot. Without me, God will not. 2. THE GUIDE FOR OUR MINISTRY IS THE BIBLE-NOT HUMAN WISDOM (IS. 55:6-11) The inspiration of the Bible- Because the Bible is inspired by God (God breathed) (2 Tim. 3:16-17), it is the final authority for Christian faith and practice. It must be interpreted correctly (2Pet. 3:16) with the help of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:12-13; Eph. 1:18). The Bible as God’s “message book”- Since the Bible is the final authority for Christian faith, it serves as the ultimate judge as to what we believe as truth (John 16;13; 2 Peter 1:20-21); therefore, all experiences and circumstances must be interpreted in the light of what Scripture states (1 cor. 14:29; Deut. 13-1-3). By saying that the bible is God’s “message book”, we are saying that it gives us the content or the “what” of the Christian life; i.e., what is the nature of God, the nature of man, etc. The Bible as God’s “method book”-Since the Bible is the final authority for Christian practice, it serves as the ultimate judge as to what principles direct our methods of ministry (2 Cor. 1:12). By saying that the bible is God’s “method book” we are saying that it gives us the process or the “how” of the Christian life. In talking about methods, we must also distinguish between absolutes and non- absolutes. Absolutes are the foundational, Biblical principles that do not vary with time or culture. “Christians should gather together” (Heb. 10: 24-25) Non-Absolutes are the specific applications, which may vary with time or culture. “Christians should gather together at 11 AM on Sunday morning and sit in pews.” The absolutes are eternal and unchanging. On the other hand we should have great freedom to change the non- absolutes depending on the need of a particular situation. 3. THE FOCUS OF OUR MINISTRY IS PEOPLE-NOT PROGRAMS (1 THESS. 2:8; JOHN 3:16) “At the heart of the universe is a Person, not natural forces, a Creator who reveals Himself to persons, who became a human Person in Christ, who seeks to redeem estranged, sinful persons back to Himself…Essentially, the church is not a building nor an institution, an organization, a program. Essentially the church is people…it is natural to describe the local church in terms of its activities, its work, as an institution; but, everything the church does is for the sake of the people. All programming and organization are means to the end of effecting changes in people. The focus must always be on people.” (p.11, LeBar, “Focus on People in Church Education”) 4. THE GOAL OF OUR MINISTRY IS MATURE CHRISTIANS-NOT SIMPLY CONVERTS (COL. 1:28-29) The Westminster Confession states that man’s chief end is to glorify god and to enjoy Him forever. We glorify God by developing people; both ourselves and others who are becoming more like Christ (John 15:8). In Matthew 28:19-20, this is called “making disciples”. One way of describing a “disciple” is that he is a person who lives life according to Biblical priorities. These priorities fall into four categories: 1. Progressive commitment to Jesus Christ (Mt. 6:33; Luke 9:23) 2. Progressive commitment to the family (1 Tim. 5:8; Deut. 6:23) 3. Progressive commitment to the body of Christ (Gal. 6:10) 4. Progressive commitment to the work of Christ in the world (Acts 1:8) Further comments on the Fourth Priority: To be committed to the work of Christ in the world means to be committed to both social concern and evangelism. Both of these grow out of community. “Community is the matrix of missions. A congregation without community cannot fulfill its evangelistic missions, whatever is done to exhort or train. Conversely, when a congregation is spiritually healthy, that is, committed to Jesus Christ and to each other and constrained by love to selfless concern of all men, evangelism will happen spontaneously, effortlessly, continuously and effectively. Not only will the life of the community attract the alienated and lonely to its accepting, reconciling warmth, but in dispersion its members will radiate that redemptive love infectiously to the world.” 5. THE ENVIRONMENT FOR OUR MINISTRY IS THE CORPORATE BODY- NOT INDIVIDUALISM (ROM 12:3-8) We must be the people of God before we do the work of God. Too often we move into ministry before we have taken time to be the community of God. Jesus said that the world would know that we are His disciples if we love one another (John 13:34-35). He repeats this concept in John 17:27 when He says that the world will know that He was sent by the Father when they see the unity of the believers. This principle was then illustrated in the early church (Acts 2:24-27). Every member is a minister. The ministry is not just for the seminary-trained professional. God has gifted every Christian (Rom 12:3-8; 1 cor. 12:7-11) so that they might have a part in building up the Body of Christ. Everyone is essential and unique in this process. God has called some to leadership. In the bible, the leader is first of all a servant. He is committed to making others successful. He serves by pasturing the flock (1 Peter 5:2-4), and by equipping the saints for their ministries (Eph. 4:11-12). A leader must measure up to certain qualifications (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9). It seems clear that the Biblical norm is for a multiplicity of leadership (1 Tim. 5:17) and that decisions ideally should by made by the unanimous consent of those in leadership (Acts 15: 23-25). This requires teamwork and implies that the leadership should be committed to the same basic body of doctrine and philosophy of ministry (Amos 3:3). Authority and Submission: Because God has given leaders to oversee the flock, those under their authority should submit to their leadership (Heb. 13:17; 1 Peter 5:5, Rom. 13:1-7). The only exception to this is when leadership is calling the people to do something that would result in their clear disobedience of a Biblical absolute. 6. THE PROCESS OF OUR MINISTRY IS SPIRITUAL REPRODUCTION- NOT SPIRITUAL ADDITION (2 TIM. 2:2) Definitions Convert: one who has realized that because he was a sinner, he was subject to the wrath of God. Seeing his desperate plight and his inability to save himself, he placed his trust in the finished work of Christ on the cross. Mature Christian: one who realizes that he still lives I his sinful nature and that he cannot live the Christian life in his own strength. Realizing his desperate plight, he places his trust moment-by-moment in the finished work of Christ on the cross. He has also developed the necessary disciplines of the Christian life so that the lifelong process of maturing in Christ- likeness can reasonably be expected to continue. He has become independently dependent on Christ. Spiritual Addition: the process of reproducing in others what the Spirit of God is doing in you so that they have become either converts or mature Christians. This is also known as “second-generation discipleship”. Spiritual Reproduction: the process of reproducing in others what the Spirit of God is doing in you and in turn enabling them to reproduce it in a third generation. This is also known as “third-generation discipleship”. Why emphasize spiritual reproduction? Let us suppose that it takes two years to help a person grow spiritually to the place where he can also reproduce. Then if you invest your life in another: After 2 years there will be 2 mature Christians; After 4 years there will be 4 mature Christians; After 10 years there will be 32 mature Christians; After 20 years there will be 1,024 mature Christians; After 30 years there will be 32,768 mature Christians. Let us suppose you can lead one person to Christ each day, but by doing this, you don’t have time to help them grow: then, After 2 years there will be 731 converts After 4 years there will be 1,462 converts After 10 years there will be 3,653 converts After 20 years there will be 7,306 converts After 30 years there will be 10,958 converts.