Ministry = doing the will of God specific to His call for you

There is so much confusion among believers (and I was confused too for a while) regarding what is ministry. Let me give you a simple definition:

Ministry = fulfilling God’s call for your life = doing the will of God for your life

Yes, it’s nice to help sometimes where you can, but if you do that at the expense of fulfilling God’s call and will for your life, you are in disobedience while serving in the church!

Ministry is simply obedience to God. And sometimes that does not look like a lot of activity, sometimes He gets you to spend time with just one person, loving and caring for them. Other times there is great activity and other times it is only time for you and the Lord to grow closer, let Him work more on you and rest.

Don’t let demands take over you, you are here first of all to please God and to serve Him in His will only and in the fullness of the Spirit only.

IF YOUR SERVICE MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO SPEND PROPER TIME WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT TO BE FILLED WITH HIM, THEN YOU ARE DOING TOO MUCH, and you are sinning.

See the Bible pattern, even to serve at the tables, people were chosen who were full of the Spirit. Requirement from God’s perspective for service is that you are first filled with His Spirit before you serve.

Another requirement from God’s perspective is that you serve in the right place or ministry that God assigns for you, in the right role chosen by God, not something others choose for you, even if it is a Christian leader who asks you.

People should be encouraged to pray before they commit to any service in the church, to check with God if the request is for them to fill. Of course, if you haven’t learnt to hear God’s voice well, helping where you can is ok, but all disciples should be first helped and trained to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, taught to daily get filled with the Spirit and taught to learn the voice of God at a basic level. Only then they should be asked to serve.

And I think we need to prioritize the pastoring of the souls of the people before the service we can involve them in. Which means that our call and mission to pastor the people needs to be prioritized first before the fulfillment of the church vision.

I am not speaking this our of ignorance, I pastored myself and made the above mistakes myself and learned from them, but I see the things mentioned above happening too much in the last 10 years in churches, where people are asked to minister just to fill a need in the church vision, without consideration of where they are at, whether is good for them, whether they are ready or whether they fit well in the position offered, or even if they fit, whether is God’s will or timing for them to step into that.

I think it’s better to achieve less and look well after the people, and pray to see where they are meant to be involved and when and let them do the same and then involve them. When everyone is in their God assigned positions, they will be happy, fulfilled and bless everyone around them, therefore the church will be much stronger and healthier and the vision will get fulfilled in God’s timing, we are not to be in a race to achieve great things, but rather in a care and concern for the souls entrusted to us for which we will give account one day, as the Scripture says. We need to care that they are spiritually well first, that they are not so overworked  that their spiritual life is suffering and that they are in tune with God’s plan for their lives and functioning in it.

Of course, it is also the role of the individual to say ‘No’ when he feels it is not in line with the will of God for his life, but I believe leadership is more responsible because they are the mature ones leading the babes.

And the leadership themselves have to ensure they are in the right position that God assigned for them, doing the things that are in their gifting or they will confuse and affect the people under them.