At 18 years old, I gave my life to Jesus. It was well into the second year of my salvation when I began to see that Jesus was calling me to be in the ministry. I didn’t know what that meant at the time because I had never heard of a woman being called to preach. When I found out that Jesus calls all kinds of people to do all kinds of things, I was so excited! My journey in the ministry began.
I ALWAYS WANTED TO DO SOMETHING BIG FOR GOD!
At least that is what I thought at the time. I was from a small town. I was known in my town as a singer. I was a star in my town and my goal was to be a star in the world of music.
Just before I was born again, I landed a contract that was for writing and recording. It was a seven-year commitment. When I gave my life to Jesus, my priorities changed. Through a series of events, which I won’t go into now, the trajectory of my life radically changed. Therefore, wanting to do something BIG for God at that age was probably a lot of me needing to be significant.
OVER THE YEARS
What I have learned over forty years of ministry is that it isn’t all about me. I know that is surprising. LOL! But let me put it in a right context. Jesus gave fabulous gifts (people to help his people) to the church but he never intended that all ministry was done by the professionals.
DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR FOR MOST OF US?
We get up on Sunday morning, clean up, throw everyone in the car and go to church. We check in kids at children church and go find our seats. We sit through a class and listen to teaching (that can be great!) Then we find our seats in the main service. We stand for worship, maybe we worship, maybe we don’t. We give in the offering, maybe we give, maybe we don’t. We listen to a sermon. Get up, grab the kids and head to lunch. We might even do this on a mid-week service. There is a chance we said, “Hi” to a couple people. If there is a coffee shop at church, we may have gone there. Then we do it all over again next week.
THERE ARE MANY WHO DO SERVE
I am certainly not accusing us of never serving at church. You may run the nursery or even teach a class. You may clean the church, drive the bus or wrangle elementary school kids. But I always hear the quote of the statistic “20% of the people, do 80% of the work” and “20% of the people do 80% of the giving“. I am wondering if it is even 20%.
THE TRUTH ABOUT MINISTRY
Ephesians 4:11-12 (NKJV)
11And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
Paul seems to write the longest sentences in the world! So, there are a few more verses to complete fully the thought.
Can you see it? Jesus gave wonderful gifts in the form of men and women to His church so that the church could be moved to minister and grow up. He didn’t give us to the church just to showcase our ministries.
I am not against God exalting men and women who have been faithful and using them to His glory, but there should be a string of men and women trailing behind us, doing what we do. Those of us in the “ministry” as we typically think of it, should be training everyone to minister where ever they are.
THIS PRAYER TIME
This prayer time was designed to pray over the people getting mobilized to minister where ever they spend their time. It could be at church but most likely it is at home, work, play, business, and life in general. If we are God’s sheep, then we should be healthy sheep reproducing after our kind! We were made to make impact in our world as a business person who ministers. Or maybe a truck driver who ministers, or a banker, baker or candlestick maker…who ministers!
If you decide to pray through this prayer time with me just insert your name, your family’s names, and your church into the appropriate places. I hope you will take this journey with me!
Blessings,
lisa
© Copyright Lisa Swayze 2019