The Mission Is Yours

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.”