Where’s the church?
(What is Ministry? – Part 2)
(Part 1)
There is no shortage of ministry, or at least what people call ministry. In my few years of running into other Christians and hearing about and being excited about what God is doing in and through them, I am constantly amazed at the huge number of different ministry opportunities that are available. From my time on the mission field, to my time at Cedarville, to my exposure to various ministries, even those in the church, I’ve seen a bunch, but I’m sure I haven’t seen it all. And there is one diagnostic question that has served me well in sorting through all of those ministry options, because this question exposes where someone is with regard to a fundamental tenant of ministry.
Where is the church?
So important is the church to the doing of ministry that without it, you cannot say that you are doing ministry. Now this is not saying that all ministry must be a formal ministry of a church, on the budget and promoted. There are various degrees of relating to the church. We said last week that our first and most important question to ask is, “Where is the love?” But this question is second to it, “Where is the church?”
Now, couldn’t you have a personal ministry? Of course you could, and we’ll explore what that might look like in the coming weeks. There is a danger here of blurring the lines between what is a ministry and what is not. And that danger is in minimizing both the church and Christian vocation. We are in danger of minimizing the priority of the church if we make everything we do as a ministry. And we are in danger of minimizing the value of Christian vocation if we claim that our work is ministry while other work is simply secular. No, everything we do we are to do as unto the Lord as a living sacrifice for him (Col. 3:23; Rom. 12:1-2). Some work is not better than other work, but some work is ministry and some is not.
Everything we do is supposed to be worship, but that doesn’t mean that everything we do is a ministry. Everything we do is supposed to be loving, and as we said last time, love is what makes something a ministry. But that still doesn’t mean that everything is ministry. There is a need to distinguish between our loves. We don’t love everyone the same. Just like in my marriage, I love my wife exclusively. And one of the ways that I love other people is that I do not love them the way that I love my wife. Love demands exclusivity. One of the most loving things I can do for an unbeliever is to show them that I have a unique love for believers and I am welcoming them into the family of God so that they could be loved that way too.
We see this unique love for Christians in scripture. Our love for Jesus is most prominently expressed in tending to and caring for and feeding his sheep (John 21:15-17).
“Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:13-18
A clear distinction is made here in 1 John 3 between the world and the brothers, and we know that we have the truth of God if we have a love for fellow Christians. This is how the world will know that we are Jesus’ disciples, for our love for one another (John 13:35). The world will look at the love that Christians share among themselves as the family of God and see that love as something out of this world.
On top of this, the exercise of the spiritual gifts that God has given to us is regularly described in scripture as being within the context of the body of Christ. The purpose of the gifts is for the work of ministry and ministry is for the body of Christ.
In our every relationship, we are to have this evaluation in mind, “how does the priority of the church affect this relationship?” My main concern in meeting anyone is to know whether that person is a believer or not, whether they are in the universal church or not, because that distinction completely changes how I interact with them. And from there I wonder what church they are a part of and how my church is in partnership with theirs. We’ll leave that further exploration until later. For now though, we learn that whatever we’re doing, it’s not rightly called ministry unless there is another believer involved.
So, what’s your ministry? How are you loving your brothers and sisters in Christ? And where’s the church?