My faith not only presents me with a inward knowledge of right and wrong, but guides me in knowledge of good and better. A real faith can discern between things in my life that are okay for me and things that are helpful in my growth to be more like Christ. Although, as with most people, daily routine can sometimes make me forget that I could be spending my time in a better way, having faith helps me to see more clearly when growth opportunities arise and allows me to step outside of routine and/or religion.
True Christian ministry in an organization needs to also discern between good and better in the same way, where our organizations need to step outside of routine and religion in order to figure out what God is telling us to do inside and outside of those settings, regardless of how things were done in the past.
Part of my vision of ministry is to help build a Christian organization to become more of a real example as part of the body of Christ – using His hands to help, His words to speak, His heart to show love.
That involves more than just greeting people at the door, saying “How are you? I’m good”, singing in the worship team, watching the kids in the nurcery. And it also involves more than sending people across the world for a few weeks to get people to “pray the prayer”. Those things are all important, but God didn’t just send Jesus to look good and hang around for a bit until we said a prayer; God sent Jesus so that we can have a personal relationship with Him. Does that mean we are supposed to have personal relationships with the people we serve? Does that mean we get real in our churches and discuss what’s really on our minds? Does that mean we reveal ourselves to others without fear of looking bad? In answer to those questions, I’d say probably.
The Church is the body of Christ. All of us togehter! We all have to pull some weight to keep the body functioning. That doesn’t mean that everyone will be called to go serve a family overseas in a third world country. It doesn’t mean that you won’t be called to do that either. Not everyone can be the hair of the body – looking all shiny and glamerous in Christs name. Some of us have to be the bowels. (I’m thinking I’m not part of the bowel, cause God’s given me a pretty clean life thus far – but that doesn’t mean God won’t send me there later in my life).
So I lost my train of thought from where I started, but I want to join this together somewhat by saying that the church and it’s members need to figure out what’s not only good for the body and outside the body, but what is better or best for us in how we usethe body God gave us.
I want to challenge everyone to pray and ask God where they are supposed to be in the body as a whole, the body as a smaller church community, the body of your family, and to not be discouraged if you think that you got stuck in the bowels. God has called us all to be a part of the body, and we need to figure out where we were put and live that out to the best of our abilities that God continues to give us until we either get called home or God puts us somewhere else in the body. Don’t decide yourself what’s good, but listen for God to tell you what’s better.