The Religious Nerd

In part 1 of my series on Christ centered ministry I told you my personal story of how I came to make a commitment to be involved with my churches food bank.  In part 2,  I want to encourage you to serve your church from a different perspective and to provide you with some practical examples of how you can do that.

This perspective will require you to set your comforts aside, to get your hands dirty, and to prepare your heart to be wounded.You will have to make sacrifices, miss your favorite TV shows and prepare yourself to give 100% while expecting nothing in return. You will have to make commitments and stick to them and be more aware of the needs of those around you.

The race is long and you will need to be smart about how you are going to run it.  I want to provide you with 5 insights into how you can do ministry with a Christ centered perspective. I believe from the bottom of my heart that if you implement these ideas in your ministry right now, you will find much more joy in the ministry and your faith will be extremely contagious too!

1. In your ministry, find ways to love people instead of despising them. People who are hooked on drugs often hate themselves because of it and harbor tremendous guilt for the damage it does to their families and friends.  People who are addicted to pornography often are ashamed of it, and really want to quit it. Teenagers who are sexually active, hooked on drugs, or who are disrespectful to their parents also feel guilty and want to change. It’s easy for an outsider to look down on and despise people who are involved with these sins.  It’s also very easy to forget that you may have been involved with these sins in the past yourself!You can serve these people in your life by loving them, praying for them, encouraging them, being firm with them, and by being there for them (spending time with them). Jesus doesn’t expect you to be some kind of genius counselor that is capable of handling every situation that comes up. But He does expect you to have compassion for them. You will often encounter these people in ministry from the middle school age groups on up.  It’s best to prepare your heart for when you will encounter these difficult situations.
2. Being fed spiritually is more important than being fed physically. This is a lesson that I have learned while serving clients at my churches food bank. It is easy to get caught up in the process of moving clients along quickly, getting food in their carts, and sending them on their way.We live in a culture obsessed with speed and productivity and we often forget what matters most – Jesus.  No matter where you serve, whether it be in a food bank, a preschool room, a nursery,etc, always look for opportunities to slow down to feed the people who are around you spiritually. Feeding people spiritually often requires them to trust you first.  In order for someone to trust you they need to spend some time with you and see what kind of person you are.  Be yourself, be natural, but be respectful and honor Jesus at all times.Poor people need Jesus.  Rich people need Jesus.  Christians need Jesus! Just because you are at church you shouldn’t assume you don’t need more Jesus! Your stomach may be full when you go to bed at night and you may own a lot of possessions, but if you don’t have a personal, saving, relationship with Jesus christ, then you are broke, and you will eventually starve spiritually and die. We are all gifted with the ability to share the good news of Jesus Christ.  I encourage you that if you aren’t already comfortable talking about Jesus with strangers, work at it until you are, and watch and see God provide you with opportunities to share the good news!
3. Compassion is always better than criticism. It’s easy to think things like “that guy smells like cigarettes, if he quit smoking he could buy some more food” or “she is driving too nice of a car for someone who gets free food at a food bank”.  People are very quick to condemn others and slow to look at themselves.  Maybe that smoker is battling the sin of addiction and has already come a long way in the battle? Maybe this woman bought this car in cash during a season of her life where the Lord provided for her abundantly?  I’m not saying that it wouldn’t be wise for her to sell it and re-prioritize, what I’m saying it’s best not to jump to any conclusions. Pastors are often victims of this too.  Anytime a policy is changed at a church, or things get changed up, people are quick to criticize their, and in some extreme cases, call for the pastors resignation. Just like your pastor, you will likely face some criticism yourself during your ministry.  Prepare your heart for it, and remember, manifest the light of Christ in how you respond to it.
4. People will try to take advantage of you because you are nice no matter where you are serving. People often burn out in ministry because of disappointing experiences. They often start something with enthusiasm and zeal, and as time passes and difficult situations come up, they get fed up and quit.  Ministry is not a sprint, it is a marathon and you must maintain a healthy speed if you want to make it to the finish line. The scriptures don’t make ministry look easy either :
   “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church (Colossians 1:24 ESV)  Just because you are operating out of a church and most of the volunteers and clients are really nice, compassionate, and loving people, does not mean that there won’t be the occasional difficult situation that makes the volunteer experience frustrating. Don’t set yourself up to fail, have realistic expectations in your ministry by setting your heart on serving and pleasing Christ first, followed by your neighbor second.  If you are pleasing Christ in your ministry, than you have already won the race anyway.  You don’t have to be Mr. nice guy just because you’re a Christian, but you should be Mr. good guy in that you hold firm to your biblical values especially when encountering challenging situations. Jesus never said it was going to be easy, in fact He said you must lose your life in order to gain it! Luke 9:23-24.
5. Find your gifts and put them to use! If you don’t know what you are good at, ask someone. After spending 20 minutes with a person I am usually able to determine some things that they are good at and passionate about. Personally,  I am gifted in teaching and communicating, and I use these gifts to pray with people and in getting to know them especially at the food bank.  If you put me in a room with preschoolers and said “do ministry” the rest of my hair (what small portion is left) would fall out because I am not gifted in that capacity. Your gifts may be something like serving children, hanging out with youth group kids, doing construction work for your church, a mind gifted in business, technology, teaching bible studies, running the MOPS program, making neat crafts projects, cleaning up the church after service, etc.  Find your gifts and put them to use now!  There is nothing worse than encountering someone who say’s “I don’t know what I’m good at so I don’t volunteer for anything”.  Your church needs you and most importantly Jesus needs you!  If you attend a big church and feel like one in a thousand, don’t give up.  Keep volunteering and putting your name on the list.  Keep in mind God may be doing a work in your heart now that will prepare you for ministry later.  Don’t give up just because you didn’t get a call or email back. I’ve never met a Christian who didn’t possess some sort of gift that can be used in the local church. No excuses, make a commitment right now to serve.

Hopefully this post has encouraged you to get involved, and look for ways to feed both your spiritual appetite and the appetites of those who you serve.  I’d love to hear about your gifts and what you are doing in ministry as well!  Blessings.