Now there are
varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services,
but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same
God who activates all of them in everyone.
- 1 Corinthians 12:4-6
If
you’d dropped by my office sometime this week, there are any number of things
you might have found me doing: studying Scripture, talking with a prospective
member about faith in Christ, and praying for our church and surrounding
community, just to name a few things. Those, after all, are some of the duties
of a pastor. That’s what ministry looks like.
If
you’d gone just a few blocks down the road to my house, you’d have found my
wife engaged in a totally different world of tasks. You might have found her
calling to check on me while she changed our daughter’s diaper. You might have
seen her reading to our son while our daughter slept, making sure he got some
one-on-one time with Mommy. No matter when you dropped by, you’d have seen
tired eyes but busy hands, the marks of a person trying to take care of others.
Because that’s also what ministry looks like.
I’d
hazard a guess that, if you looked hard enough, you’d find acts of ministry
happening all over our city—at the dentist and the police station, in cubicles and
hospital rooms, on the DART train and the school bus. Wherever the lonely are
comforted, the hungry are fed, and the hurting are healed, the Lord is at work.
Wherever you see the love of Christ being modeled, you are witnessing ministry.
Sometimes
we fall into the trap of thinking ministry is reserved for the professionals,
that it takes a seminary degree or the approval of an ordination council to
make you fit for “real ministry.” But Scripture is clear that we are all called
to proclaim the gospel, to bear witness to the grace of Jesus Christ. So as you
go about your daily work, whatever it may be, do so not just with dedication
but with holy purpose, ready to live for Christ in everything you do—because that’s
what ministry looks like.
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