I read something radical this morning...
"Some in ministry view the church (or want to) as a well-designed, well-led, successful organization. But when I look at the church, I see a hospital full of people in various stages of dealing with the disease of sin." (Paraphrased from Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands by Paul David Tripp.
While typing this, Chris Tomlin's version of "Amazing Grace, My Chains are Gone" is playing in the coffee shop I frequent on Thursday mornings. (One of the blessings of this shop!)
This combination impacts me. You see, I've been going through a period of vocational burnout. Overall, I love ministry work, but for various reasons, I've been tired emotionally in the last few weeks. I think that part of it may be this very viewpoint. I want my ministries to be well-designed, well running, with obvious and tangible fruit. Sometimes, they aren't (or at least not in the way I expect) I neglect to look at my work as a sort of medicine for the heart--a ministry of healing in a way. I think I need to change my thinking. Everyone is at a different stage spiritually--including me. We are all in need of "Amazing Grace." And I have the privilege of helping to deliver it daily. So do you! So I will keep deliveriing it, taking time to rest and be healed myself, and let God take care of the fruit and provision.
So instead, I can look at ministry as Tripp suggests "The church is messy and inefficient, but it is God's wonderful mess --the place where He radically transforms hearts and lives."
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"Some in ministry view the church (or want to) as a well-designed, well-led, successful organization. But when I look at the church, I see a hospital full of people in various stages of dealing with the disease of sin." (Paraphrased from Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands by Paul David Tripp.
While typing this, Chris Tomlin's version of "Amazing Grace, My Chains are Gone" is playing in the coffee shop I frequent on Thursday mornings. (One of the blessings of this shop!)
This combination impacts me. You see, I've been going through a period of vocational burnout. Overall, I love ministry work, but for various reasons, I've been tired emotionally in the last few weeks. I think that part of it may be this very viewpoint. I want my ministries to be well-designed, well running, with obvious and tangible fruit. Sometimes, they aren't (or at least not in the way I expect) I neglect to look at my work as a sort of medicine for the heart--a ministry of healing in a way. I think I need to change my thinking. Everyone is at a different stage spiritually--including me. We are all in need of "Amazing Grace." And I have the privilege of helping to deliver it daily. So do you! So I will keep deliveriing it, taking time to rest and be healed myself, and let God take care of the fruit and provision.
So instead, I can look at ministry as Tripp suggests "The church is messy and inefficient, but it is God's wonderful mess --the place where He radically transforms hearts and lives."
Print This
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