Launch Your Ministry Chapter 1 of 27
<-Chapter 27 Chapter 2-> Return to FulltextMinistry Made Easy
Condensed Version (Completed)
This series is designed to make the subject of ministry easy to understand.
We will do this by comparing your natural life with your spiritual life.
Your Spiritual Career
Ministry is the equivalent in your spiritual life of your natural career.
But there is a tendency to make following a spiritual career too complicated, and few know how to go about it.
Many try to approach their ministry the way they do their natural career, and this does not work, because the two are very different.
So the main thing we will be explaining in the first part of this series is the difference between a ministry and a career.
Becoming a Servant
A minister in Bible terms is quite simply a servant. Ministry effectively means 'service'!
When it comes to a career we often think,
"I want to rise up and make more money than anyone else. I want to become famous and well known, and I want to come to a position of authority where I can control other people."
There are three temptations - a desire for fortune, a desire for fame and a desire to control others.
Two additional things also tend to color and affect our motives for ministry
1. Acceptance
This means having others take you just as you are and treating you equally. But there is also more involved.
You may have been rejected for things such as your racial group, your looks, your height or weight, or even your gender.
But acceptance actually starts in your relationship with your mother. The mother tends to accept her child where others do not.
Where your mother and sometimes also your siblings do not accept you, it leaves a void inside that creates a deep need.
This affects everything in life, because you will try to get people to accept you and keep changing your behavior to do this.
In ministry you are meant to be a part of the invisible Body of Christ. So when you feel the other members do not accept you it is difficult to find your place.
Your ministry is now affected by your view of yourself and that deep need for acceptance.
2. Recognition
The second thing that stands in the way is recognition.
Recognition looks instead at what we have done and accomplished. We want people to admire us, and this meets a need inside.
The main person involved in meeting this need in a child is the father, rather than the mother.
But fathers are too busy with other things. The child grows up feeling that he or she was not recognized.
There is now a driving force to be above average. You have to be better than everyone else and there is a continual need for affirmation.
Even if you do find people that will accept or recognize you, that deep inner need is never fully satisfied. It is a thirst that you cannot quench.
When these things color your ministry, it will become less effective, and it will fail.
Achievement
There is a better desire that can replace these inner needs. It is called achievement. Achievement involves fighting against yourself and setting your own goals in life.
There is a driving force in you, to reach the goal that you set for yourself. And this can be a desire to do great things for God.
There is nothing wrong with this, because you are not doing it to draw attention to yourself. You see broken lives and you want to help them. You have a desire to achieve great things for the Lord.
And as you reach out to others, taking your eyes off yourself and pouring into them, they will both accept and recognize you. So although did not aim for these two things, you would still get them automatically.
As you take your eyes off yourself and pour out to the needs you see in others, God will provide back to you those deep needs you have.
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