We often divide the situation of a minister between what we call life and ministry in trying to differentiate what the minister does privately and what he or she does publicly in reaching out to people by grace.
Ordinarily there isn't anything like that because both the private and the public areas of his or her life are rolled up into one to present a platform to minister to people.
The areas we call the life of the minister aside his or her ministry include his family, finances, personal lifestyles, recreation and other choices he or she makes outside ministering to people.
Ministry then would mean how he or she manages his or her gifts to minister to people, manages his office, the administration of the organisation, public preaching and teaching and other engagements that has to do with delivery of spiritual contents to people.
One reason why this distinction is dangerous in fulfilling ministry is the aspect of the ministry that requires of people to follow our faith as ministers.
Hebrews 13
7. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
So we see how we aren't only meant to provide the word through speaking but to make our lifestyle of faith visible and tangible enough to be followed by God's people considering the purpose and the outcomes of their lifestyle.
It is clear that being examples to believers is part of our ministries. We aren't to just preach the word by speaking but by doing. So what we separate as life is still part of ministry, what we separate as ministry is still part of life.
The challenge is how to bring the two into one and not to be torn between the two.
Ministry is powered by gifts and calling. The Christian life is powered by the choices we make based on the word and the leading of the Spirit of God.
The gifts and the calling work with us to be able to deliver what God is saying to the people for whom they are meant, so that through the materials, they may build lives and lifestyles of faith and obedience in God's word.
And we can really impress people through ministry. That impression is important if they are to receive the word. But it comes with its own challenges. The challenge of high expectations. When we preach and teach the word, people forget that it's the anointing at work and so believe we have arrived and perfect.
And that calls for the other aspect of the situation, our own lives. Meaning we have to use the same word preached and taught to build our lives if the whole preaching and teaching won't end up as farce and fictions to the hearers.
Yet we face challenges in marriage, money, health, emotions, relationships, parenting, sinful temptations etc just as any other person. Sometimes even much more. The struggle not to fail God and the people is real and can be so excruciating.
Sometimes we want to use different means to cover our struggles and to always present a beautiful front, but that doesn't change the fact of the struggles.
That people don't see the struggles won't solve the problem, we can hide all we can, that's not part of the prescriptions for overcoming those struggles.
We must know that the struggles are part of our ministries. They present a platform or a pulpit to preach the word with our lives and choices. They aren't to be kept hidden, no one lights a candle to put it under a bucket. The challenges are meant to be opportunities for God to show the practicality of His word through us so that people can see His faithfulness and believe.
They are exclusively packaged to respond to the word of God. So we must be well prepared with God's word and Spirit to handle them in order to produce godly testimonies even in adversity.
Our successes aren't better testimonies than our failures. What God wants is how we use the word to handle both of them when they come so that people can see and glorify God.
Of course, we don't want failures but they are part of life, aren't they? People fail and they need our faith to follow at such times when words alone won't do. When they see how we handle our own failings, their faith is encouraged and they can keep holding on to God in their own circumstances.
When we present our lives as perfect, always rich, perfect homes, always healthy etc we create a vacuum, they have no examples to follow at such difficult times of their challenges. There's no faith to follow.
That doesn't mean we should make up the failures that don't exist. Sometimes ministers exaggerate their challenges to drive home points but we don't have to do that, it suffices that we had problems we overcame, others may even have tougher challenges than our exaggerated versions. The bottom line is that we too are people of like passions, tempted in every way as others but equipped with same weapons of God to overcome and in so doing become encouragements and examples to follow.
We need not be torn apart between ministry and life, we are to live the word of God and so make our lives a ministry platform for the world to see the faithfulness and love of our God.
We must live in this consciousness daily knowing that ministry is beyond the pulpit and the church office but into every area of our lives being used as platforms for dissemination of the word.
It's a great day. Let's live the life!
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