What is Ministry?

Nov 13, 2009 6:38 PM
What is Ministry?
by makestraight

This question of “What is ministry?” has been on my mind lately.

If you are at Gracepoint, it’s defined essentially as doing what you have been ASSIGNED to do by your Gracepoint leaders. By “assigned” I mean something that becomes your main responsibility in Gracepoint, whether you volunteered, or something suggested it to you. It could be children’s ministry, college ministry or young adult [post college] ministry and so forth.

If you are a staff, it’s to become a fully devoted bi-vocational minister, meaning, that during the day, you work your regular day job, and then all the other time, your main focus would surround whatever department you are assigned to.

For example, if you are a college staff member, your ministry would involve tasks such as the following:

Attending meetings about logistics for planning events such as New Student Welcome Night and its huge BBQ effort
Putting together an excel file per the above with responsibilities
Helping students move into their dorm to invite them to New Student Welcome Night.
Going to the Dining Commons on campus and then trying to sit next to a lonely looking freshmen or junior transfer to get them to come to Gracepoint, under the name of their campus groups [I don't know what all their names are - they have several now I believe]. Then gather their contact information for follow up.
Calling your contacts weekly and trying to arrange meetings with them, providing free dinner or get together with other staff. This may involve trips for shopping or touring around the bay.
Writing weekly reports to inform your direct leader, who will then inform their leader, who will in turn inform Pastor Ed and Kelly Kang about how you’re doing. They only inform them if you’ve committed some really significant folly or did something really great.
Serving in some other capacity – church setup, church cleaning, photoshop for flyers, etc etc.
As you can tell, a lot of these would take up a lot of time. There’s really nothing wrong with each of the things above [except for the optional-but-really-mandatory weekly reports]. I think it’s great to try to meet the needs of college students and to try to introduce them to the gospel.

The problem I do have, however, is that it’s so systematized. This template of ministry has been done for years, since the Berkland days. It’s just how Gracepoint does “ministry”, and it’s a duty based ministry at that, where essentially based upon your title of “staff” you are expected to do a certain amount of work, and be about as busy as other staff at your level, or at least be on par with your “peers” [those who graduated in the same year]. There are exceptions to this of course. If you are deemed “struggling” where you are not doing well in your faith [although it could be b/c of the legalistic structure of Gracepoint itself], or if you joined later, post college, or are not yet Christian.

Because of this expectation, a lot of staff, intentionally or not, end up doing ministry partly motivated to keep up with their peers, or to live up to their title. If not, they would be called in for a talk. My personal experience in my relationships with leaders is that although they constantly tell you that ministry is not everything, and that you should not be performance based, the expectations to live up to your staff title and being busy to a certain expected degree are clearly there. I’ve had leaders talk to me about other lower staff, and mention in grief that those certain staff were not doing enough, and that they were not fast-moving, clueless, etc. – a clear note that those staff were being measured by how busy and efficient they were.

Additionally, I’ve seen ministry used as leverage to “encourage” the recipients of ministry to be good ministers to others. What I mean is, that they’ll say things like “Didn’t we show a lot of love to you? How can you then not minister to others??” This is a debt-based system that tries to spur people on through guilt and restitution.

The worst part of how ministry is defined in Gracepoint is that they define for you what ministry is, and it’s usually in the context of Gracepoint, and restrictive at that. If you wanted to do some more “individualistic” ministry, or even ministry with other church friends, that’s frowned upon, and seen as secondary. You might be allowed to do some of it if it does not conflict with your existing GP ministry duties, but essentially you are bound heavily to the obligations specific that GP ministry that you “volunteered” for.

Furthermore, Gracepoint hardly ever teams up with any other church in order to do ministry. Perhaps other churches just aren’t efficient or excellent enough for them.

So again, what is the biblical idea of “ministry”?

I copied the following from www.gotquestions.org

Question: “What is Christian ministry?”

Answer: “Ministry” is from the Greek word diakoneo, meaning “to serve” or douleuo, meaning “to serve as a slave.” In the New Testament, ministry is seen as service to God and to other people in His name. Jesus provided the pattern for Christian ministry—He came, not to receive service, but to give it (see Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; John 13:1-17).

The Christian should minister by meeting people’s needs with love and humility on Christ’s behalf (see Matthew 20:26; Mark 10:43; John 2:5,9; Acts 6:3; Romans 1:1; Galatians 1:10; Colossians 4:12). Christians are to minister to others out of their devotion to Christ and their love for others, whether the other people are believers or unbelievers. Ministry to others should be impartial and unconditional, always seeking to help others as Jesus would.

The ministry in our day has taken on more of a vocational meaning as we call pastors “ministers” to full-time service. Pastors do spend their lives in the ministry, they do minister to others, and they can rightly be designated as ministers, but pastors are not the only ones who are to be involved in ministry. From the early New Testament churches to the churches of our day, each Christian should be in the ministry of helping others (see Romans 12:3-8, 10-13; 2 Timothy 2:24-26).

The content of ministry seems to prioritize the ministering in spiritual things, not just practical things. Ministry should certainly place emphasis on sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others so they can come to know Him and receive Him as personal Savior, go on to experience Him as Lord of their life, and go even further to know Christ as the essence of their Life (see John 1:12; Colossians 2:6-7; Galatians 2:20; Philippians 3:8-10). Ministry can, and should, include ministering to the physical, emotional, mental, vocational, and financial needs of others. Jesus did, and so should we!

I think that’ s a great definition. I especially appreciate how ministry is more loosely defined that it’s to meet others’ needs out of devotion to Christ, and that it’s impartial and unconditional. It means you can’t say “well, we did this for you, how can you not then minister to others??” It’s meant to be fully giving, and unconditional, just like God’s love for us.

Furthermore, it’s not restrictive, nor narrowly defined in any way. It’s not to just do the duties discharged to you from your church leaders. No, it’s to be Jesus to those that are needy.

Let’s now take a look at how ministry is defined directly or indirectly in the Bible itself.

If you search for the word “ministry” in the Bible, you won’t find any real definition of what ministry is. I think as the definition above provides it from the Greek, it’s just a reference to serve, and when we do Christian ministry, it’s to serve out of our love for Christ. It does state in 2 locations in 1 Chron 25, and 2 Cor 5 about “ministry of prophesying” and “ministry of reconciliation” respectively, but nothing else that really defines what its duties entail specifically.

If you look up “minister” you find a lot more hits, but you will find most of them relating to the Old Testament, and to the duties of a priests.

A couple of passages do stand out for me however, with reference to “minister”.

2 Cor 3:5-7
5Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Romans 15:15-17
15I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Paul talks about being a minister of a new covenant, one bound by God’s unconditional commitment to us, where he holds both ends of the covenant, one by Jesus and one by the Father himself. This new covenant is not based upon our own ability to hold up our part of the bargain, rather, Jesus fulfilled it for us, and continues to stand for us, and only by Jesus are we deemed perfect by the Father, sinless, bound by grace. Paul specifies that it’s not of the “letter” meaning no longer by the Law, b/c it kills!

The Spirit gives life, but legalism kills.

In Romans, Paul generically defines his ministry as a duty to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles.
There are no lists, no specific duties. He calls it a duty, but he’s referring to the overall big picture of ministry, that proclaiming the gospel is what he’s supposed to do.

This essentially implies that ministry cannot and should not be defined by church leaders. Rather, ministry can be done in smaller groups, in pairs, or even individually as Jesus himself was known to do. And it’s not about the church name. “We’re doing this and we’re from Gracepoint”.

No! It’s “we’re doing this b/c God loves us, and we want to love you.”

Furthermore, I believe God has given us the overall task of the Great Commission to proclaim the gospel, but also that our ministry is defined by living good lives among men so that they will give glory to God as we do our day to day tasks.

1 Peter 2:12
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
1 Thess 4:11
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you…

So it’s not just about doing doing doing everything about program-based ministry. Ministry is also just one that exudes from your character, where your neighbors will see a difference about you in your daily life. Often at Gracepoint, you are so busy within the context of the church that you cannot minister to anyone outside of Gracepoint. I also want to point out that the respect you garner is just given to you by the title and position given to you by the older leaders. “Here’s your small group leader,” and that’s that.

As a result, I’ve seen leaders with ugly un-Christlike character, but you could not say anything to them. Why? B/c by title they were your mentors and leaders, not by their own character.

Imagine a church were people did ministry b/c they wanted to, and not to keep up with their peers, or to live up to their title. Imagine where people, out of personal conviction, did ministry sometimes individually, sometimes with friends [inside or outside of their church], and sometimes with their church. Then they can share with their leaders, or their other church friends about their ministry and pray, and give glory to God, and encourage one another. Sometimes, one might be prompted by the Holy Spirit and so something slightly out of the ordinary, and his/her friend can join and see how God leads and provides, without having to consult and get an OK from their leader [who will see if it fits for their church and if not reject it as a bad idea].

I imagine that’s what God intended.

Not systematic, not restrictive, but out of our appreciation of God’s love, grace, and mercy for us.

Matthew 10:8 - …Freely you have received, freely give.

[With this post, barring any significant events that may motivate me, I consider this blog finished. I think I have compiled enough information for anyone looking to make sense of the abuses and aberrations they suspect themselves, for that to be validated. I will answer any comments directed toward me. However, I have prayed about this, and I think God desires for me now to move on to other ministry.

Thank you for all those that have read.

I do hope all of you ex-Berkland/GFC people find healing, and that God will minister to you. And as you find healing may you minister to others freely.

I will adhere to my original promise - if I hear of genuine repentance from Pastor Ed Kang and his wife Kelly, I will take down this blog.]