Are You In The Ministry?

I have a good friend who used to be in “professional” ministry. Though his current job does not allow him to “preach the gospel” in a public way, it does allow him to make a lot of friends. Further, he has made friends in the small town where he lives, and his life has been a ministry to them as well. Finally, he has ministered to me personally; therefore, I view him as involved in ministry
-
As we consider the word “minister,” it really means “servant.” A minister of Christ is thus a servant of Christ. As a bi-vocational minister, I am both a missionary pastor as well as a carpenter, yet I look at both my jobs as a service to Christ and to others. The greatest command of all is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and then the second greatest command is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Each of us should make these commands our ministry as we become servants of Christ.
-
In my previous “ministry” I was the pastor of an established church and did not have to be bi-vocational, but before that I was also a bi-vocational minister. During that time I was doing carpentry work for a lady that became a good friend. Her son was still living with her and was struggling with drunkenness. He came home from work discouraged one day as I was working on a remodeling project in their house. This man was close to my age and needed someone to talk to, so I set my tools down, noted the time so that I would not charge my customer for the time spent visiting with her son, and proceeded to talk with him for about 45 minutes.
-
During that conversation, he told me that the alcohol was killing him. I listened, but I also told him of God’s love and that Christ came to pay for our sins. He had tears in his eyes as we spoke of Jesus Christ and how He loved us enough to die for us. I was not on the job site that day as a pastor, I was there as a carpenter, yet because I loved God and my fellow man, I was able to minister- to be a servant. Each Christian should realize that there are opportunities all around them to minister for God’s glory.
-
This young alcoholic and I then became friends, but that friendship was brief, because he died just a couple of months later. Though I was no longer able to minister to my new friend, I was still able to minister to his family, and the best part is that they were able to minister to me. As I was missing my friend, it was so encouraging to hear his mom say that he had quit drinking and was talking about God the last few days of his life. Sadly the alcohol had already done so much damage to his body.
-
We do not all minister in the same way. I am a pastor and my ministry today is different than it was just a few short years ago. Today I am leading Bible studies as we get ready to start a new church here in Worthing. Since we do not have an established congregation yet, I also do carpentry work, thus I am bi-vocational again.
-
I am reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul as I think about ministry. “For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.” (1 Corinthians 12:14-18 NKJV)
-
Let us all minister as we put God first and love others.