Serious Ministry
Part of Christian parlance is to speak of “the ministry” or “the minister” to refer to a set of professional religious activities and the professionals so employed. That’s a rather unfortunate happenstance of how religious terms develop, because ministry refers to everything Christians do to build up the body of Christ: “…the work of ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12)
What does serious ministry look like? Quite simply, it looks like serious Christians taking other Christians seriously. Christians who take their faith seriously and take other Christians and their faith seriously are the beating heart of serious discipleship. When Paul teaches Titus how to create a culture of discipleship in his church, notice how often he exhorts the disciples to be serious-minded:
But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behaviour, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. Likewise urge the young men to be sensible (Titus 2:1–6)
Apparently, the great threat to disciple-making is a lack of serious, sensible, dignified character. The enemy of ministry is a flippant, foolish, careless approach.
Consider these contrasting approaches to business. A serious businessman pays scrupulous attention to maximizing efficiency and output and minimizing cost. He pays close attention to his income and expenditure. He studies opportunities and threats. He keeps trying to streamline and perfect the processes inside his business.
A flippant and careless businessman ignores these things, and keeps chugging along, hoping for some change in fortune. He ignores a thousand little leaks from his bottom line. He is lazy with respect to developing new business and hopes to coast on past success.
The church that is flippant regarding discipleship keeps its programs going, while never really examining, or re-examining the material taught. It does not train or supervise its teachers. It does not keep track of the attendance of members, nor of their involvement in ministry. It does not try to make sure every member has been taught by another believer, or in a small group. For that matter, it has an extremely porous membership process and is rather casual about distinguishing members from adherents.
Serious ministry cares that each believer, young and old, is properly taught, cared for, and shepherded. Like business, serious ministry is a never-ending demand that must be met with rigorous planning, structure, and continual supervision. It considers very carefully not only the content of its discipleship, but its form: the way corporate worship is conducted, the way the programs are run, the way leaders are trained.
Parents who don’t care what their children are exposed to, who don’t teach, train, correct, supervise and deliberately shape are not serious about parenting. Christians and churches who are serious about spiritual parenting act with the affection and sacrifice of a mother, and the devoted, involved leadership of a father (1 Thessalonians 2:7, 11).
This post first appeared on Churches Without Chests, the personal blog of David de Bruyn, who is the pastor of New Covenant Baptist Church in Johannesburg, South Africa. We republish it here by permission.
Photo by Alyssa DeGarde