I have been thinking about a lot of what you have said. I think that you are right in that these years are the years in which our views on ministry are getting shaped the most by those around us and i certainly think that over the past year my views on ministry have really been developed and molded in a more solid way. I can see that even as i listen to sermons i am starting to see differences in approach which stem from different views of ministry. And that is just one context within which ministry happens. It was most interesting to visit Napier over the weekend of the 3rd and have talks from two different individuals. One was from our host, a Malaysian man, speaking about leadership and the purposes of ministry, and another was a talk about relating to parents from the pastor of another church in Hastings. That weekend in Napier was our leadership retreat and was actually a really intriguing week for me. It made me think of many things in terms of ministry that i am still really thinking about and trying to work through and i guess is one of the reasons i thought to start a blog.
When i think of all the sources that have built into me in terms of ministry. I think TSCF has been instrumental, my parents - naturally, also Xiao Ou and the trip to china, also Kingston St and this new teaching approach and seeing some of the behind the scenes stuff, another recent push is the difficulties that are facing another church at the moment and having discussions about how to move forward through them, but i think that the most influential thing for me has just been in working through OCF. Seeing the needs that arise in individuals and using my skills or those of others to try and meet those needs, seeing my incapability in some areas, seeing something work and others fail, seeing new issues that arise from them all. It is these things that are truly causing me to think deeper and deeper into how to minister in truth to the needs of people. How did Christ minister to people, how does the Spirit guide us and help us and empower us, in what ways can we both help and guide, and in what ways does any of this differ from person to person, situation to situation. I think one of the things that i find most helpful is just the breadth of people that i have been able to talk to over the last year, with so many different thoughts. Some have been positive, while others have caused me to learn through my disagreement, and my evaluation of the disagreement.
One of the things that i am trying to do at the moment is to take a few sermons from different people and approaches and really look at what makes them different. I am also going to pass it on to my mentor and see what they would think as well. (I have one on transcript and will try and get the other one or two i want to do from audio onto transcript this week so that i can compare them both through the same medium and thus be a little more methodical).
When i look to next year, i can see here in Palmy many from whom i can still learn much from, be they right or wrong. I see much opportunity here through individuals whom i respect and individuals whom i see growing in their faith and in their grasp of what it means to follow and serve God. Through doing bible studies here and through seeing young Christians come to and through difficulties and questions.
One of the reasons i would really like to work with Kingston St is that there is within it a diverse group of leaders, all thinking hard about what ministry is, and from whom i can learn a lot.
In that then i guess i am really quite set on staying here and on the possibilities that are here. I think that though, as a friend shared with me, that no matter what situation we are in, it is our attitude that really shapes our views on ministry as well. For how willing we are to learn, how we learn, and the personalities of people that we are able to connect most easily with are what most shape our ministry approach. And so i pray that God will continue to work within me, opening me up and leading me to listen to those that He wants me to listen to, to be able to hear and discern what is best.
In Him through whom all things have their being.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Passion
Definition: A commitment and enthusiasm for someone or something.
This is the original definition for passion as a friend and i would define it. But i think that when looking into Christian ministry the definition needs to change slightly:
Definition: A commitment and enthusiasm for someone shown through something.
This definition for passion stems from a discussion we had on a leadership retreat when looking for what it meant to have a passion for the group we are leaders in. I think that there is a lot of things that can be brought out of this quote. I think that first it can be seen that neither commitment or enthusiasm is enough on its own. Both are great but with only one, whats the point. I think one of the things that i have felt when reflecting on ministry from the Bible is the idea of joyful sacrifice. (This also touches on the idea of giving and tithing found in Matthew). Commitment will engender sacrifice but it is a worthless offering to God if it is not from your heart with joy and enthusiam. The most marked change between the two definitions comes now though in the next part. Here you see that the sentence has been significantly changed. I think this came about from our realization that action is always secondary to people. But then when we started to look at the who, it also brought to light that the only appropriate who was one person: God. When looking at the practicalities, sure, you can put others into that sentence as individual ministries focus as such, but i think that it is an important realization that all ministries need to come back to. The focus of any of our passions should always be God. Not the actions we do, not the people we meet. All these will at times tire us, at times fustrate us, and at times our passion for them will seem to die. That is when we must return to the realization that our passion is centered on God. God can ignite any passion. What we are doing should always and only be a reflection of our passion for God. We commit to something, because it is our way of serving God, of sacrificing ourselfishness for Him, we are enthusiastic about something because we know that God is enthusiastic about it, that it is building into God's kingdom. And so passion must always stem from the someone, which is why personal time to grow your own faith must be put at the top of any list of priorities above any ministries that people get involved in. Because your passion for that ministry needs to stem from your passion for God which stems from your growing relationship with Him.
This is the original definition for passion as a friend and i would define it. But i think that when looking into Christian ministry the definition needs to change slightly:
Definition: A commitment and enthusiasm for someone shown through something.
This definition for passion stems from a discussion we had on a leadership retreat when looking for what it meant to have a passion for the group we are leaders in. I think that there is a lot of things that can be brought out of this quote. I think that first it can be seen that neither commitment or enthusiasm is enough on its own. Both are great but with only one, whats the point. I think one of the things that i have felt when reflecting on ministry from the Bible is the idea of joyful sacrifice. (This also touches on the idea of giving and tithing found in Matthew). Commitment will engender sacrifice but it is a worthless offering to God if it is not from your heart with joy and enthusiam. The most marked change between the two definitions comes now though in the next part. Here you see that the sentence has been significantly changed. I think this came about from our realization that action is always secondary to people. But then when we started to look at the who, it also brought to light that the only appropriate who was one person: God. When looking at the practicalities, sure, you can put others into that sentence as individual ministries focus as such, but i think that it is an important realization that all ministries need to come back to. The focus of any of our passions should always be God. Not the actions we do, not the people we meet. All these will at times tire us, at times fustrate us, and at times our passion for them will seem to die. That is when we must return to the realization that our passion is centered on God. God can ignite any passion. What we are doing should always and only be a reflection of our passion for God. We commit to something, because it is our way of serving God, of sacrificing ourselfishness for Him, we are enthusiastic about something because we know that God is enthusiastic about it, that it is building into God's kingdom. And so passion must always stem from the someone, which is why personal time to grow your own faith must be put at the top of any list of priorities above any ministries that people get involved in. Because your passion for that ministry needs to stem from your passion for God which stems from your growing relationship with Him.
Monday, September 11, 2006
Monday, September 04, 2006
Ministry in brief
What is ministry? What is the role of a pastor? What is the role of a leader in a christian group? How do you help in the changing of peoples lives? Questions all for thought. Recently going through my mind as i have talked with people and also watched what has happened in many different areas of ministry. Each church or group has different ideals upon which its practice is run and different groups that it works with which also affect how it targets and practices the teaching of Christ. What are the foundation principles upon which these should all reast or are they fluid?
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