Today many people make their living operating computers, powerful machines, or similar advanced equipment. These are not exactly skills that transfer well in a non technical / non modern society. If "the big one" hit today, and we all had to go back to farming to survive, many us would have a steep learning curve. While thinking about that, another thought came to me. We are so dependent on doing things or being involved activities that many times we can completely miss the humanity behind what we do.
High tech, high complexity jobs are important, and they allow many other people to make a living, but many times they create a distance between people, and it is easy to forget the humans behind the jobs. I am afraid at times the church can do the same with ministries. We get caught up in the fact that we are "doing a good work" or "involved in the body" that we miss that we are helping real people. We do not rejoice in the lives that we change, we rejoice in the fact that WE did something or that WE got involved. Being excited about being used by God is not bad, but it just should not be the primary benefit we get from our ministries.
Our ministries should, and hopefully do, impact people. Those people should be the central reason that we rejoice and the central reason we do ministry. In other words, our motivation to minister should not be for our ego, but for the benefit of the people we impact. How terrible it would be to minister all your life, but only do it for self ego benefits.
God is what makes our work useful, must of us know that. Without Him our works are useless and vain. Unfortunately, our self vanity can be one of the biggest detractors too our ability to minister effectively. We always point out open sin or rebellion as being a central detractor to our ministries, and they are at times. However, many times we fail to mention, or do not want to notice, some of other less visible or less palatable reasons like self ego, vanity, wrong motivation, and grandstanding. These are just as destructive to our ability to minister as the more visible and more commonly noted ministry destroyers.
I am not saying that there is only one style or way of ministry that is right for everyone, in fact I know it is not. God has a special and unique plan for each of our lives, but I know for me that a key to keeping my ministries effective is diversity. I try to keep a diversity in my ministries by doing some ministries that are very visible, some that are somewhat visible, and some that are virtually invisible. If I find myself only doing ministries where I am in charge, or where I am the one in the spot light, I begin looking for some less visible ministries too do. I guard against my own ego by trying to do some things that I never get noticed for. Again, it may not work for everyone, but for me a balance of spot light role, supporting role, and invisible role ministries helps to keep my ego from becoming too powerful.
Nothing that I have mentioned today may have be earth shattering to you, but hopefully it has made you think about your own ministries, your own motivations, and the ministries that you regularly participate in. Maybe you need to take a few more leadership roles in ministries, or maybe you need to take a invisible role in a virtually invisible ministries. Maybe you even need to reevaluate your entire churches motivation and ministry system. Pray to God and see if what He is telling you about your ministries and your motivations.
Mainly I want this post to just encourage you to continue to minister where ever God is leading, regardless if someone notices or not. God notices, and He does use our invisible work for His glory. I am reminding you of this you will remember that the real purpose of your work is the people you touch, and too encourage you to continue to work at the duties God calls you too in the body, regardless of their visibility. Our ministers are worthless if we forget the people that we are trying to help, and the God that we are serving while we are working. The fact that we get to be excited about participating in changing the world is not the motivation, but the result of an active ministry life within Christ's body.
