Keeping Your Ministry Dreams
Alive:
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This is a marvelous subject. When someone feels called into any kind of ministry -- be it professional church work or visiting the sick -- something very special has happened. It is wonderful. Why then do so many lose their dreams and stop listening to that call of God to a special ministry? For all those who engage in ministries of all kinds: here's a suggestion. Your goals may be lofty. But you might think about majoring in something that will help you keep your ministry goals out of the hands and control of those people who can manipulate, control, or even kill your ministry efforts. It is a perennial problem among those going into professional ministry. Don't allow your wonderful ministry goals and ambitions to be placed at the mercy of those less studied, less knowledgeable, less spiritual, less motivated, and sometimes less caring than you. By all means, put your life in the hands of God and allow faithful people to help you. But if you want a fulfilling ministry, you might think about ways of keeping yourself independent of the control of that system now affectionately known as "the church." The point is not that "the church" is a bad place. In fact, working with a church and godly leaders can be a wonderful experience. Even exhilarating! There's nothing like a team of people with hearts for God. This means that no one, including you, can have a chip on your/his/her shoulder, and working as a team in the same direction is understood by all. This kind of give-and-take can be wonderful. The warning, here, is about the reality that some church leaders and some church administrative systems are more concerned about control issues than true ministry, and sometimes ministry takes a back seat or is smothered altogether. And that is a shame. Probably, everyone knows that the church and ministry are not necessarily synonymous terms. This is not an anti-church statement. It is merely a warning that you should take a look around and see the number of people whose ministry dreams have been dashed by those in control of the purse strings in churches -- and for whom that is an important thing. They might be good people, but they are not always the most visionary, the most outreaching, or even the most well-trained or even thoughtful people about what "ministry" is. It has always amazed me that we send potential ministers (of various kinds) through large amounts of training and preparation, and then in our churches, we hand over the decision-making power (re: where the money gets spent, what programs get started or stopped, etc.) to some business man who may not have any more vision about ministry than you did when you were 10. Put more bluntly, it is not a virtue to sacrifice the ministry goals and dreams of you and your family for the sake of a few "official" people around a table who, in the name of God, wish to manipulate and control your thinking, your actions, and your destiny based on outmoded, inadequate, or shallow thinking about serving God. There is neither warrant nor example in scripture to suggest such a path. Actually, look at Scripture. Even though both Jesus and Paul accepted money from people from time to time, Jesus warned his disciples there would come times they would need their own purse and sword (Lk 22:35-37), and (despite many current misunderstandings) Paul felt churches had an obligation to pay their teachers, but never if it entangled them in a system of "patronage," which means their message could be compromised by those who paid the bills. Paul refused all such entanglements, insisting, in those instances, on working his leather-crafting trade (Acts 20:34-35). Paul clearly believed in the proper support of those teaching the Gospel. But he would never have become an "employee of the church" in which anyone exerted any kind of control or coercion over what he taught or how he carried out his commission from God. As a matter of fact, as meek and loving as Jesus was, he wasn't very willing to compromise his calling, either (and yes, this is an intentional understatement.) It simply makes no sense to hand a "calling" over to people not involved in the call. While there are many good and faithful church leaders, there are also stubborn, self-willed, narrow-minded, visionless, ministry-killing people in church leaderships on all levels. Even though God loves those people, too, you should make no mistake about it: these people can and do steal people's ministry dreams every day of every year. Christ died for the church. Your children don't have to. Nor your wife, nor you. You can die with Christ every day, love the church, attend it, help it, and serve it. By all means! But don't ever put your ministry dreams in the hands of any leaders who don't really know what a call to ministry is. Ministry is a great and wonderful thing. So wonderful, in fact, you might want to think about what "ministry" really means. Actually, "ministry" for you transcends what any other person thinks about it for you. It is a personal mission from God for you. Keep it that way. Don't let others take it away from you -- no matter what happens.
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