rick meigs at blind begger had turned me on to 'leadership journal' online through one of his posts (rick is loaded with insight). as i was pouring through some of the articles, i came upon one that hit close to my heart. it is a thought that has captured me as of late and i believe it is directly from God. the thought is this... "my ministry will only go as deep as i do." that's as simple as i can put it. rob bell points to the scriptures to lead to what i believe is a similar thought... "what does it profit a man to gain the whole church, but lose his soul?"
john ortberg, a guest columnist for 'leadership journal' also addresses this thought by posing this question... "Is my involvement in ministry helping Christ to be formed in me?" please give this article a read. i will be developing this theme occasionally in the future. here are some of his other thoughts in regards to this topic.
I remember a church-planting consultant who warned a group of us that we would need to pay the price if we wanted a successful church plant. We'd have to do whatever it took: let our marriages suffer, put our children on hold.
But it seemed to me then, and it does now, that this cannot be the way God intended ministry. If the purpose of ministry is to convince people to live the kind of life Jesus invites us to live, how can the church be built on people who give up living the kind of life Jesus invites us to live? . . .
. . . If ministry is being done right, it will aid in having Christ formed in me. My involvement in ministry (using ministry in the narrow sense of service to the body of Christ) needs to be seen in light of an overall way of life designed to help me become transformed. If it is not doing this, something, somewhere, has gone wrong.
1 comment:
This article that you quoted from seems to go along with what we were talking about last night. Can I live what i say I believe. Only if i am really whole and right with God and all the people in my life.
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