like a fire

If you have talked to me much about ministry lately, it will come as no surprise that I have been changing my ideas about ministry. I have also been talking about writing a book about those changes and have been pouring over the internet and my own mind to find clarity and expression of those ideas. This is the beginning of that process.

This is a study of a shift in philosophy of doing ministry. Mostly, I have been taught that we should set goals in ministry. Those goals usually revolve around a certain program or event that has measurable outcomes. For example, we want to do a concert event where 500 people come and hear the gospel and 50 respond. Most ministries would think this is a good plan, but it is a pipe dream apart from God. That’s not a problem most of the time, since hopefully God is able to do His part.

However, what happens if nothing happens? It is very easy to get frustrated when things don’t follow outcomes. And since the outcomes are out of our hands, we can’t rely on them for a measure of effectiveness.

Better would be to focus on the process of preparing people to live out a mission and follow their passions that drive those missions. One way of looking at it is from the way business is changing. Old school business priorities are to deliver expert solutions to the customer that will maximize shareholder value and profit. New priorities in business are to love what you do and make enough money to keep doing it. In this way, the church can benefit from the new way of thinking. In the church, find what it is you are gifted and passionate in doing, then find the process that helps you continue to do it.

The church can do this in many ways; however, these tend to run contrary to some conceptions of church. One model of church suggests separating events into one purpose or one primary purpose. This could be an outreach event, a discipleship event, or even a fellowship event. The problem with these events is that most events don’t serve just one purpose. Instead of a segregated purpose for each event, what happens most often is a convergence of those purposes in almost all events. If you have a concert that is directed at outreach, it is most likely that it will also function as a fellowship event also. This way each purpose is a circle that overlaps others in many areas of events or programs.

All of this is to say that my thinking is leading me to a different way of doing ministry. Instead of committing myself and others to preparing for events and programs, I am committing to the people in the programs and developing them to do the ministry God leads them to do. This might not seem radical, but committing resources to people is a radical leap from what most churches do and encourage others to do.