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Ministry-Minded - part 1 of 2 Unfortunately for many, the church has become a professional business of which people are members. Perhaps we could compare some churches to social clubs, requiring fees and providing a place to meet friends and get acquainted. This is not at all what Christ meant the church to be. Instead of being business-minded, professional-minded and social-minded, the body should be ministry-minded. For us to understand what it means to have a mind of ministry, we must see what the Word says about it. Ministers of the Lord are called to be tender. Tenderness toward the heart of God brings strong convictions: 1 Sam. 24:5 (KJV) “And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.” Our tenderness then in turn will move God to minister through us: 2 Kin. 22:19 (KJV) “Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD.” David perfectly expresses the feeling of having the Spirit of God minister through him: Psa. 22:14 (KJV) “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.” Unfortunately, being a minister of the Lord causes us to be misunderstood. Eph. 4:32 (KJV) says, “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” To be ministry-minded means that we are like-minded with those we are ministering with and to. Like-minded is “phroneo” in the Greek. It means: to exercise the mind, set the affection on, be careful; be like, be of one, be of the same, mind. Phil. 2:2 (KJV) “Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.” Phil. 4:2 (KJV) “I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.” To be like-minded is to have the same common goal. We should often ask ourselves: What are our ministry goals? Then we should write them down and keep a journal of what we accomplish and what God changes. Rom. 15:5 (KJV) says, “Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:” Don’t be critical. Challenging another’s ministry is challenging the very word of God. Blasphemy is questioning or challenging if the ministry was God when it was God. If we are critical, we are not like-minded or ministry-minded. Be careful not to put ministers on a pedestal. 1 Cor. 4:6 (KJV) “And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.” By the definition of being like-minded, we see that we are also to be Christ-minded or like-minded with Him: Phil. 2:5 (KJV) “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:” Being Christ-minded calls us to perfection as we see in Phil. 3:15-16 (KJV), “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. 16Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.” The result of being like-minded in ministry is unity. God works in unity of His body. If the body is not unified, its members would act independently of one another and even possibly damage one another. May we work together with the common goal of ministry: Like-minded, Christ-minded and unified. -S. Chad Ross
May Newsletter 2002 | Latter Rain Outpouring part 2 of 2 | Talking to God Pastor's Journal May 2001 | Ministry-Minded part 1 of 2 | Signs and Tokens part 2 of 3 |
Biblical Counseling for Leaders
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