As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“…the history of evangelical ministry is filled with examples of spectacular, theatric, and entertaining methodology. Since so few Christians have a working knowledge of our history, we continue to fall prey to the next big thing.” - Ken Brown
“Not only did Jesus make good tables, but his toil was not in vain. If Jesus’ work for twenty years was not in vain, then how does that change the way we evaluate our own lives or those of others?” - IFWE
Reposted from Rooted Thinking.
We need a God-centered, faith-filled expectancy as we pursue Gospel ministry. There are many reasons why we as believers in Jesus Christ should serve Him with a spirit of expectancy that God will work through us in evangelism. We looked at two reasons for such expectancy in a previous article. Now let’s look at three more.
What am I doing here? Who am I to be giving the Gospel to others? Why would God use me? Why should people listen to me?
I imagine that most Christians have asked questions like these when seeking to obey Christ and witness. When these thoughts come, what we do with them becomes extremely important. If we allow ourselves to dwell on our weakness, we will witness less and ineffectively, if we witness much at all.
What is the church’s mission? How does the mission of the church relate to the mission of God? Are they the same, or different?
“I have in mind Rick Warren’s brief address Tuesday from the floor of the convention and Juan Sanchez’ convention sermon Wednesday. These two messages represented two different, competing visions of ministry and the local church.” - 9 Marks
“…things that are cool are ephemeral. What’s fashionable is, by the necessity of the rules of fashion, quickly obsolete. This is one of many reasons why chasing cool is a fool’s errand for churches and pastors, as I argue in my book Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide.” - TGC
“Another sentence that is never far from my mind came from Francis Schaeffer in No Little People: ‘We must do the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way’ (74). I believe this is the defining issue in our generation, and in every generation.” - Ray Ortlund
“Excellence” might not be the business leadership buzzword it once was, but it’s far from dead. A quick search at Amazon shows plenty of recent business titles with “excellence” in them, and even if the term isn’t the biz word of the day anymore, the concept has never waned.
This is because the business world understands that making what they do, and how they do it, better is essential for their survival in a competitive marketplace. Maybe that marketplace mentality is partly why ministry leaders sometimes view excellence as a “a business thing.”
Discussion