Some thoughts on getting involved in ministry in local
church and beyond...
People get involved because
1. They believe the mission is theirs and
2. That their participation in it makes a difference
They not only believe in the mission, but they own it. They
accept that it’s not just a worthwhile mission to be done by someone, but that
it’s for them to participate in.
And they are motivated not just because they should (because
it’s theirs) but because they see that they are needed - that their involvement
isn’t just a nice thing to do that really doesn’t affect anything. No! They can
see tangible ways that their life makes a positive impact.
All believers are ministers.
The apostle Peter writes to all Christians:
1 Peter 2:9
“But you are a chosen people, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you
may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light."
In the Old Testament, to put it super simply, a priest
connected God with the people and the people with God. There were priests for
the nation of Israel who interceded or were the “in-between” to reconcile the
imperfect Israelite and the perfect God.
THEN God told the whole nation of Israelites in Exodus 19:6
that just as they had priests, a chosen group of people to connect them with
God, God made them, as a whole, a priesthood to all the other nations. These
Israelites had experienced the reconciling grace of God and now it was their
job (the farmer, the merchant, AND the priest) to connect all people with the
means to experience the same thing.
God through Peter now tells all Christians that just as
Israel, as a whole, was a priesthood to the nations, we are all part of the
priesthood (in the business of connecting people with God) - "to declare
the praises of the one who brought us from darkness to light" – so as many
people as possible can experience the same thing. (The farmer, the lawyer, the
nurse AND the pastor).
The big difference now is that we don’t need to go through a
priest and make sacrifices to be reconciled to God because Jesus came to be the
ultimate sacrifice once and for all so that we could be reconciled with God
permanently and have direct access.
2 Cor 5:18-20
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself
through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God
was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins
against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We
are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal
through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
