Ephesians 4:11-12/ The Meaning of Ministry
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, Ephesians 4:11-12
What comes to mind when I say ministry? I think we normally think of our churches' recovery program, or the children's ministry, or the teams that put out the chairs on Sunday or do the media.
Modern interpretations of biblical words tend to narrow the meaning of those words. For example—when I say worship, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Often, we think of singing in church. In fact, on Spotify the entire genre is called "worship music." And it is worship, but that is a very narrow view of worship biblically. We know from the bible that many things can be worship for a born-again believer.
I think we risk narrowing the meaning of ministry in the same way. We tend to think of ministry as something church staffs do or something we do when we serve on Sunday. But Paul casts a wide net with his meaning of ministry here in this passage.
First, ministry is the work of "saints." That is anyone who follows Jesus. So, ministry is broad in the sense that it is for everyone who follows Jesus. Secondly, the work of ministry is "for building up the body of Christ…" There are infinite number of ways we could minister to someone to accomplish this goal. Sure, if we set out a chair and someone sits in it at church to hear the word of God then we have helped build up the body of Christ. But we could also pray, cook meals, share scripture, rebuke, disciple, give money, and so on.
My point is that biblical ministry is very broad and we must be vigilant to always see it that way in order to obey Jesus. If we only see ministry happening at church and never see our life as a ministry, we risk not making disciples at work or elsewhere. If we only see church staff as ministers and not ourselves, we risk leaving the ministry up to them.
And Paul really clarifies the ministry over in 2 Corinthians 5 lest it become to opaque to see and do--he says:
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. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
The ministry, according to Paul, is helping reconcile people to God. We have the Gospel as the message and means to that end: reconciliation. Sin severed our peace with God and our work is to share Christ, who—as it says in Colossians 1—"…all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross."
So, how is your ministry going? First, do you see yourself in full-time ministry? Secondly, are you spending your life reconciling people to God through Jesus Christ?
If you stop to think long enough about how God has entrusted the Gospel to you to carry forward, you will feel humbled and inadequate. I encourage you to embrace those feelings and cry out to Jesus:
"Lord, thank you for inviting me into ministry. I need you to live this out. I can't do it without you and I wouldn't want to because I love you too much. You know my faults and you still gave me the ministry of reconciliation—what a gracious and loving God you are! Who would you like me to minister to? Lead me to them Lord. Make it clear who they are and help me to obey. For your glory. Amen."
If you want to dig deeper into this, need help, need prayer, or have questions—please reach out to us here: Roots Help & Prayer Form(https://www.rootscc.com/covid-19-help)
In Christ,
Pastor Kevin