Philosophy of Ministry

I hope that someday, maybe in my obituary or eulogy, that it will be said that,“Eddie loved God and loved people, and he tried to bring the two together.” This is my philosophy of ministry.

As we look a little deeper I believe God provides to us, through Paul, what should be our philosophy of ministry. Scripture states in Colossians 1:24-29; “24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”

There are a number of first-person pronouns: I rejoice, I was made a minister, I might fully carry out the preaching of the Word, we—collective first person pronoun—proclaim Him so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose I labor.This is very personal.This is Paul’s personal perspective on ministry and a good place to begin. Let me just start there with a definition of what it means to be a minister. The word in the Greek is diakonos from which we get essentially the word deacon. It has as its basic meaning a table waiter; or, if you will, less than that, a busboy. Not even the waiter, the guy who picks up the dirty dishes. The guy who serves the waiter. I was made a server. This is a word that designates a very common duty, a very mundane duty. Diakonos speaks of its commonness.

The Apostle Paul also refers to himself with another word that we find a number of times at the beginning of his epistles. He calls himself a slave of Christ, and he uses the word doulos. Doulos refers to submission; diakonos to a common service, doulos to a submissive service. So I start with this notion of humility, this notion of selflessness, this notion of commonness, submissiveness and lowliness. I am simply a clay pot that contain this glorious gospel.

To get a complete view of this, the words of Paul need to be heard, “We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as your slaves,” (2 Corinthians 4:5). I am a slave for Jesus’ sake. Not only a slave of God, but a slave of others. We have this treasure in clay pots so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. I should never be the explanation for the impact that our ministry has. I am simply the clay pot. I know nothing, except Christ and Him crucified.

Now this is the definition I begin with, however what is the substance of ministry? The substance is reconciliation. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:14-21: 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God has called us to preach the message of reconciliation. It is our duty then to tell people they can be reconciled to God. That is the good news. It is possible for sinners to be reconciled to God. And it is our calling to preach that reconciliation. It is then the greatest work in the world, for it deals with the greatest issue in the world. It is the greatest calling, it is the greatest privilege to be given the responsibility to preach the message of reconciliation. That's what we live for. That's what we die for, that's what we preach for, that's what we serve for, that's what we nurture the saints for, in order that in the end the message of reconciliation might effectively reach sinners. It is the work that God began just after the fall of man, carried through all of the first testament, and culminated in the life, sacrifice, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Certainly we would all agree that no message equals this one in importance. We are servers, and we bring to the table of sinners the meal of reconciliation. We serve them the truth of reconciliation.

Christ stated that He came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10) and to offer divine life as an alternative to the death of sin (John 10:10) to anyone who believes in Him as Lord and Savior. He has also passed this mission onto those who follow Him, that we may unite with the power and purpose of our Heavenly Father. Therefore my mission is to become a “sycamore tree” so that others may come to see and know Jesus as the Christ, the son of the living God; to trust and obey Him. Furthermore, this is accomplished by following Christ’s example of loving God with all of our heat soul and mind, and by loving our neighbor as our self. Everything I do as a Christian and a minister should be aimed at accomplishing these tasks; to love and serve God by loving and serving others.

Further, however, as a servant not only of mankind but also of the Body of Christ, I as a minister have a calling to equip and encourage the church for every good work. We read these words in Ephesians 4:11-16:

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

I believe the word of God is powerful, and transforms us into the image of Christ Himself to continue the same mission which Christ labored as He walked this earth. As a minister and servant of the body of Christ I am pleased to labor alongside the Word of God and the Spirit of God as the person of God journeys through this spiritual transformation.

Like Paul, I can not say that I have completed this journey completely myself, but we can press on towards the goal together in true spiritual community. So, would you care to journey together?