Church Ministries Class 1

Goal: My goal is for this class to be, not so much a transferring of information, but rather, a "behind the scenes" look at ministry.

If at any time one of you have a question or comment, feel free to raise your hand.

As a middle age minister, there are some things that I've learned in the last 20 years of ministry that hopefully will help some of you.

Let me just say this here at the beginning as well, we cannot teach you everything about ministry here at Bible school.

There are some things about ministry that you will only learn from experience.

We will try to deal with the framework of ministry- that inner part that nobody sees, but is absolutely necessary.

If you think that ministry is just preaching, or singing, or testifying, then you are in for a big surprise.

Question: Are you a minister that must have everything spelled out for you?

Answer: This is a dangerous mentality!

As ministers, we must be mindful of the perils that we face.

II. Introduction.

3 Keys to Effective Ministry:

1. Recognize your place.

Do not overstep your bounds as a young minister!

Illustration: Young evangelist preaching revival at a church somewhere in the United States. Gets up and begins to blast the people for not responding like he thought they should. I’ve heard of one preacher in our movement that when he finished a sermon where they weren’t backing him well enough, He said after a few moments of silence at the end of his message, “Well…What are you looking at?” And stormed off the stage.

Why was this wrong?

Did the people need to be exhorted to respond better? YES!

Did someone need to address the situation? YES!

But it wasn't this young evangelist's place to do that. He should have left that to the pastor.

Don't overstep your bounds.

Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will your ministry!

"It takes years to build a ministry." -pastor friend of mine

I Timothy 5:1 Rebuke not an elder, but I treat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren.

I Timothy 4:12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

So what does that mean?

It means that you're not always going to be the head hog at the trough, but you still have a place.

Be zealous of the ministry, but understand that you have a place.

Sometimes we allow our zeal to be extinguished if our position is not what we think it ought to be.

Be yourself and watch God use you.

Ministry- such a broad topic, but there is one common denominator- YOU!

You have to ask yourself frequently, "Do I know my place in God's grand scheme of things?"

Ministry is not about what you know, but it's about what you do with what you know.

(continuing 3 Keys of Effective Ministry)

2. Accurately evaluate yourself.

Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man (that includes ladies as well) that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think...

There are two extremes that a lot of people fall into when evaluating themselves.

· Self-Exalting.

· Self-Destructive.

Strive to evaluate yourself ACCURATELY!

3. Be a continual learner.

An effective minister must be committed to continually learning.

I think some people believe they get extra credit for ignorance, but that is not the case.

Ignorance is just ignorance.

As you seek to continually learn, recognize opportunities for learning.

Illustration: I constantly am finding ways to learn…Podcasts…Audible… Right now (1/4/24) I am listening to “Leading from the Second Chair” by Mike Bonem, “Winning the War in Your Mind” by Craig Groeschel, I am reading “Overcoming Life’s Disappointments” by Rabbi Harold Kushner, as well as “Ever Increasing Faith” by Smith Wigglesworth.

In the past week I was listening to the Lecture “Leadership Lessons I’ve Learned from Major Mistakes I’ve Made” by Bob Russel, and the sermon “the other side of leadership” by Chuck Swindoll.

Illustration: Max Lucado, says that he is constantly "hitchhiking for truth", whether reading the newspaper or an inflight magazine on an airplane, he is always looking for something he can learn from.

Also, don't ignore familiar material!

Illustration: Somebody said one man got up on Sunday morning for several weeks in a row and said, "I'm going to take my text this morning from the Reader's Digest." One man asked him after church when he was going to start preaching from the Bible. That preacher looked at him and said, "Well,

when you start living up to the Reader's Digest, then will move on to the Bible."

That's kind of a humorous story, but don't ignore the Reader's Digest just because it's familiar.

Often, we want to be told something new and glamorous when, in reality, we haven't effectively digested the old and the familiar.

As a minister, always be looking to learn.

Comments or Questions?

So let me ask you this question.

Question: What is ministry? How do you define ministry?

Get feedback from class.

Answer: Ministry is helping people!

If you are not helping people, then you must question whether or not you really have a ministry.

The Dictionary defines "ministry" as "the work or vocation of a minister of religion."

Now, that's a pretty vague definition.

But listen to this- Encyclopedia of Christianity defines ministry as "the carrying forth of Christ's mission into the world."

So, the definition of ministry is not that it is a PART of the Gospel, but that it IS the Gospel.

I said this earlier, but too many times, we define "ministry" as singing, or preaching, or playing an instrument, or testifying.

While these are definitely aspects of ministry, ministry is so much more.

And let me just say this, ministry is not always going to be easy.

Ministry is when you must go to the hospital and minister to a family that's just experienced a tragedy when you yourself are in shock and you yourself are hurting.

Ministry is when you have to go to the psychiatric hospital to minister to one of your church members who has had a mental breakdown.

Ministry is when you have to look in the eyes of a church member that is exhausted from their fight with cancer and you still have to pray and believe God to help them.

Ministry may be cleaning the bathrooms, or mowing the lawn at the church.

So yes, singing, and preaching, and testifying are all great, but that's the fun side of ministry.

Ministry is so much more than those things.

Just because you can't see progress in your "ministry" doesn't mean that it's not being successful.

Success in ministry should not be measured by man's standards, but by God's standards.

A successful ministry can only be built on the foundation

Besides, when you reconsider the routine, there is probably something new there that you have never realized before. Even if there isn’t anything new there, you probably need to be reminded of that which you have forgotten.

We talked about “What is ministry?”

Ministry is helping people!

Success in ministry should be measured by Gods standards, not man’s standards.

A successful ministry can only be built on the foundation of the altar!

Intro to Ministry-Cont’d

I want you to keep an open mind, because these classes at OBI do you no good unless you apply them.

Information that is retained is much more profitable than information that is simply heard and received.

A big part of retaining information comes when one will apply that information personally.

Some topics we will cover in this class will seem ordinary and familiar to you. I rarely assume that you know things. You will find yourself thinking “I already know this (yawn).”

However, the issue is not about what you know, nearly as much as it is about what you are doing with what you know!

So, before you dismiss information as common knowledge, stop and

consider what is being said, then evaluate yourself.

Body:

You, as a minister, have an obligation and a responsibility to be a man, or woman, of God.

The alliterated sermon outlines or titles that you come up with, won’t amount to a hill of beans if you are not a man or woman of God.

The intellectual abilities, or smarts that you have, won’t be worth anything if you are not a man or woman of God.

The talents, skills, or gifts that you have, aren’t worth diddly-squat, if you’re not a man or woman of God.

Your first and foremost responsibility as a minister, is to be a man or woman of God!

Illustration #1: Story is told of a man wanting to have D.L. Moody preach a meeting, another minister responded, “Does Mr. Moody have a monopoly on the Holy Ghost?” First minister responded with, “No, but the Holy Ghost seems to have a monopoly on Mr. Moody.”

I’ve heard men, get jealous of other preachers, and say something along the lines of, “Man, He preaches all of the meetings…they should give someone else a chance.” Some of the men that they are talking about, preach a lot of meetings, because the Pastor that has scheduled them knows they have heard from God, and their people will get help.

Illustration #2: W.E. Sangster, a preacher in the early 1900s, sat on a committee that interviewed and gave credentials to young ministers. One day, he interviewed one young man who in his arrogance remarked, “I could set the Thames River on fire with my preaching.” Sangster responded with, “I’m really not as concerned that you can set the Thames on fire, as I am concerned that if I were to drop you in the Thames, the Thames would sizzle.”

In other words, the fact that your sermon is on fire is not nearly as important as YOU being on fire!

And people should have the same sentiment about you and your ministry.

It ought to be evident that the Holy Ghost has a monopoly on YOU and YOUR MINISTRY!

And it should be evident not by WHAT you say, but by HOW you live!

If you have to try to convince people that you’re a person of God, then you’re probably not.

You must be a minister of God!

See, it’s possible to build a church and NOT be a spiritual person!

On man—“The character of the minister will cause the methods of the ministry to succeed or fail.”

The Theme Verse of Our Ministries:

John 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

If you will keep this always before you, then you will have a powerful ministry.

Never forget whose ministry this is.

It is His kingdom that we are advancing, NOT our reputation!

John 1:29 “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”

John had a ministry. He had followers. However, he points them to the Source of his ministry.

Never waste an opportunity to point men to the Source of your ministry.

Any ministry that is not about Christ is not ministry.

Make Him big, then hide in the shadows.

“When you come down from the pulpit, will people comment on what a great preacher you are, or on what a great Savior you serve?” Man in seminary preaching to Bill Bright (pg. 111 from Witnessing Without Fear)

This is an intriguing question indeed!

So, let's talk a little bit about Christ as the Source of YOUR ministry!

How is Christ the Source of ministry?

Get feedback.

Let me give you three things (You will want to know these for the test!):

1. Without Christ, ministry has no motivation.

What do I mean by that?

As ministers, and even as Christians in general, we are motivated by Christ's command to focus our attention and efforts outward on a lost world.

If you are not motivated by that command, your effort and your attention will be focused inwardly on what benefits you!

As ministers, we are motivated by the love of Christ to those around us.

You're probably not going to do "ministry" activities without the love of Christ!

2. Without Christ, ministry has no message.

We talked last class about ministry being about helping people.

And how that ministry is not just a part of the gospel, but it is the gospel.

Your job as a minister, notice I didn't say preacher, but as a minister, your job is to take a message of hope, peace, joy, mercy, love, etc to a world that is lost, broken, hurting, and confused.

YOUR job as a minister is to tell them about Jesus and what He can do in THEIR life.

So when Christ ceases to be the Source of ministry, that message of hope and peace is withdrawn.

3. Without Christ, ministry has no minister.

Wow, Bro. Jeremy, that's a deep statement. 😊

I know that's simple, but here's my point.

Without Christ, you as a minister aren't even saved.

And if you're not saved, you're not part of the church.

And if you're not part of a church, then you're not at Bible school

Without Christ, you and I are simply existing on this planet and hurtling towards an eternity without God and we have no inclination whatsoever of helping anybody else to avoid such a terrible end.

So, therefore, we would not be ministers if it weren't for Christ.

So, first and foremost, as ministers, we must remember that Christ is the Source of our ministry.

It is Christ that makes the motivation, the message, and the minister of ministry possible.

And if at anytime, we get to the place as a minister, where our source of ministry is anything other than Christ, it is then that we put the effectiveness of our whole ministry at risk.

So, if you don't get anything else out of this class, get this- Jesus must remain the #1 priority in your ministry.

Anything less will lead you down a path that will eventually result in the destruction of your ministry.

Let Christ be the Source of your ministry!

Conclusion:

That's all that we're going to cover today.

Read Chapter 1 of the textbook

COMPLETE “Your Call To Ministry”

(Write one 4-page paper over viewing your calling and other spiritual highlights in your life. Focus on the Hand of God at work in your life.)