IN THE NAME OF LOVE

I am guilty.

I have lost my bearings amidst what can become the task filled world of the church.

I am wrestling with not making ministry a task but rather a service driven by love.

I have allowed myself to tread down a path that has lead me to activiate a wrong perspective of what it is to be a part of the body of Christ. What does it mean to be an active member or part of the body of Christ? Do not be confused by apart and a part. Indeed I am apart of the body of Christ yet I am also an active part. The former recognizes ones membership in the orginization while the latter indicates ones role in the orginization. Thus I am not focusing here on what it means to be apart but a part. Indeed I am a member, a part, a piece of the body of Christ. Each part has a symphonic role that when working with the whole compliments all the roles resulting in beautiful and unique compositions of love. This is the body of Christ, individual musicians commissioned to play according to their unique giftedness as a unified symphony.

The Lord has helped me discover a sobering reality. I am not being an active part operating effectively for the whole. If one part is not working well then the whole will not operate to its fullest potential. What am I talking about then, where does this task thing enter into the picture?

I have a tendency to make ministry the accomplishment of a series of tasks and not well, ministry. To be doing ministry to me is simply loving on those who need to be loved. I have discovered this to be the greatest difficulty I face in full time ministry. I have allowed myself to sit and accomplish a series of tasks that indeed contribute to the overall ministry of my church community to the outside community. Yet, by doing this I excuse myself from personally ministering to that outside community. I sit behind the ministry helping equip it to minister effectively, yet I am not out doing that ministry. I in turn develop an excuse to doing nothing at all. I believe there is a difference between contributing to the administration of the ministry of the whole and ministering along with the whole. Indeed the administration part is needed, yet for that to become the only part of the ministry that you involve yourself in you qucikly forget what ministering is all about.

Ministry is more than sitting in the office, going to meetings, writing out strategies, doing things, etc. These are only tasks that left to themselves can blindly be substitued for doing the action of service driven by love. No you are not doing the ministry, you are in essence simply planning the action of the ministry. I see ministry as an action that takes away the attention of serving your own needs and focuses them on serving the needs of those in need.

I have already been and will probably forever be labled as a minister of the gospel, simply because I will be in a leadership role at the church. I can't get around it this is just how things are. However, I am beginning to conclude that I don't really like this label, minister.

I often chuckle inside when I hear the phrase, "Well this is my ministry," as that individual sits down folding letters for one of the churches ministries. I hear all the time, "I am in the ministry", or "I am a minister", or "I did ministry this weekend." I am realizing that I am getting sick of this word. Maybe because I am not seeing the heart of what ministry is by those who say that they are doing it, this especially includes myself, especially.

What does it mean to minister, to do ministry, or to be ministering. Is folding a letter ministry? Is counting a tithe ministry? More generically is volunterring your time and accomplishing a task ministy? Part of me wants to think not. I tend to think of ministry as for example spending time with the poor or one infected with HIV, feeding the homeless, or taking an under priviliged kid to an Angels or Ducks game. I would like to think that ministry is serving the needs of others both inside and outside of your church community driven by nothing more than love.

The word ministry in its truest form is simply an act of service. Thus, another part of me recognizes that ministry is nothing more than service and indeed folding a letter for a certain ministry, counting the tithes, or shuttling people from the parking lot to the worship center is ministry. It is a place to serve. Anyone can serve, yet here is where the dilema I seem to be facing surfaces. What is driving you to do this service, what is the heart of it? Is this service accomplished to simply get something done, or to make yourself feel good or are you doing it with a heart that centers itself on a selfless love. For the heart of true service is nothing more than love. Serving is laying down your needs and acting into anothers needs, whatever it may be. Both outside and within the walls of the church there exists a hundred different oppurtunities to serve desperate needs in the name of love and in the name of Jesus Christ. I think what it comes down to is that I am not on the frontlines of service, doing those service projects that affect people in big ways.

Let us move beyond our walls. Let our blind eyes have their site restored to the needs amoungnst us. Let us dive into action driven by love.