Finding one’s ministry

It is only when we are in the right place that we can function at our maximum and be effective in our service. That is why it is so important to find one’s place in the fellowship and to find one’s ministry in the church and in relation to others.

In fact, it is often the case that we need help from others to discover which resources we possess both of natural and spiritual equipping. It is also a fact that our situation will draw out of us that which is needed for the context in which we stand. Most of us have a number of things we can contribute and the needs in the fellowship will influence the areas in which our ministry will develop. It is therefore important that we have good leaders who can see the potential each of us has as Christians and who can help us to make right choices in developing the gifts with which God has endowed us. Leaders who only exploit people’s efforts to reach their own personal goals for their church, do not show the same concern for helping people to develop.

God’s Word says that we are called to service from before we are born. This means that our ministry will fit in with the natural gifts and abilities with which we are equipped from birth. These must, of course, be refined and developed. We also receive a supernatural equipping with gifts from the Holy Spirit which enable us to serve in a dimension which goes beyond our natural limitations.

What are your call and your ministry?

It can be a good idea to sit down now and then and take stock of oneself with reference to one’s calling and ministry. All Christians have a share in a divine calling and task for God’s kingdom in the world. It is only as we live in accordance with this that we can find out our true ministry.

Exercise:

Ask yourself the following questions and try to answer:

Am I serving God’s plan for my generation as I am living today? Do I need to change my priorities?

What are my strong and my weak sides?

What do I like to do? What gives me a feeling of satisfaction? What do I want to be for other people?

What do other people accept from me? For what do I get positive responses? Do I get negative responses?

Is it the way I do things that should be changed or should I be doing something else?

When you have answered these questions as honestly and sincerely as you can you should go to a Christian who you trust and ask him or her to answer the same questions on your behalf and see if your answers are realistic. Together you can find God’s way and progress by taking new steps.

Take responsibility

God’s word makes it very clear that even if we need one another we have a personal responsibility from which we cannot escape. The apostle’s instruction is very clear:

Keep watch over yourselves. (Acts 20:28)

Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them. (1 Tim.4.16)

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed. (2 Tim. 2:15)

Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 1 Cor.12:14

If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." (1.Cor. 12:18-21)

If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1.Cor. 12:26-27)

Exercise:

Why is it wrong to think that all the rest are better than me?

Why is it wrong to think that I can manage without the other members of the body?

Continue to memorise Bible verses and add this one:

But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love. (Eph. 4:15-16)