Managing Ministry

A few years ago, Billy Graham told the story of how he was on a flight from Chicago to Charlotte, North Carolina. Occupying the seat directly in front of him on the airplane was a rather large man who had obviously been drinking before the flight. Once the plane was airborne, this man immediately rang for the flight attendant and asked her to bring him a drink.

She said that she would not be serving drinks for another few minutes. He became very upset and began to curse the situation. A little while later, the drink cart finally came along, and he bought a number of drinks. The more he drank, the louder he became, the rougher his language grew, and the stories he told got more offensive by the minute.

The people who were sitting near him were becoming extremely annoyed by his obnoxious behavior. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife.

Finally, one of the other passengers decided to take matters into his own hands. Rising to his feet, he said to the drunken man, “Sir, do you realize that the great preacher Billy Graham is sitting directly behind you?”

With that, the bleary-eyed man staggered to his feet, slowly spun around, stuck out his hand and said, “Billy Graham! Let me shake your hand. I’m really glad to meet you. You have no idea how much your sermons have helped me!”

Well, I hope that these sermons on stewardship have been helping you. By the way, you can get them on cassette tape through our tape ministry. Just fill out an order form on the literature table in the foyer. You can either borrow or purchase a tape, which will be placed in your mailbox within 2 weeks.

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been looking at the issue of stewardship. A steward is someone who takes care of something that belongs to somebody else. A steward is a manager. A steward is entrusted with managing resources that are not his—he is not the owner—but he has been placed in charge of managing those resources for the good and the benefit of the owner.

And we have seen that, when it comes to our relationship with God, this concept of stewardship applies to every aspect of life. There is no area of life where I can say “This is mine. I own it and I am accountable to nobody but myself for what I do with it..” Because God owns everything!

He gave me the gift of life. He gives me health and strength. He gives me my daily bread. He gave me my talents and natural abilities and he enables me to use those to work and be productive and earn money. He gave me the gift of time. (Someone has said that that is why this very moment is called the present—because it is a present; a gift from God.)

God gave me my spouse. He gave me my children. They don’t belong to me, they belong to him.

And God has put all of these things into my hands so that I might manage them for his good, for his goals, and for his glory. That’s what stewardship is all about. And one day, he’s going to ask me what I did with all of these things.

Now if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, there’s something else that God has put into your hands. And that is a ministry. Now when I talk about a ministry, I mean that God has a unique job for you to do that relates directly to his mission and purpose for this world.

God’s mission for this world is to bring people into relationship with Himself through the person of Jesus Christ.

God wants those of us who already know Jesus to help other people get to know Him. He wants us to help others to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. That’s what ministry is all about. And the word “minister” means “to serve”. So we are all ministers of the good news of Jesus Christ.

You say “Wait a minute! I’m not a minister. I can’t get up and preach sermons. I don’t wear a dog collar and have people calling me Reverend. ” Well, maybe not. But you are a minister nonetheless. God has a ministry for every Christian to do. It may not be a visible ministry—it may not be an “up front” kind of ministry—but it is a vital ministry nevertheless.

Have you ever heard of a man named Edward Kimball? Didn’t think so! Edward Kimball was a Sunday School teacher in a little church in Boston in the mid 1800’s. One day, a young man walked into Kimball’s class as a visitor. He came for a couple of weeks, and then Kimball went to see him at the shoe store where he worked.

Kimball didn’t have the gift of evangelism, and he wasn’t great with words. About all that he could say to the young man was, “I’m concerned for your soul.” After he left, that young man thought to himself “If Mr. Kimball is concerned for my soul, then maybe I ought to be concerned too.” So he went to the basement of the shoe store and invited Jesus Christ to be his Savior.

That young shoe salesman was Dwight L. Moody, and he became one of the greatest evangelists who ever lived. And Moody’s ministry, in turn, influenced another young man whose name was Mordecai Ham. Mordecai Ham also became an evangelist. And under his preaching, another young man named Billy Graham was saved. And Billy Graham has probably touched the lives of more people on this planet than any other person.

But you can trace it all back to an obscure SS teacher named Edward Kimball. Nobody remembers Edward Kimball—nobody except God, because Kimball was a faithful steward in the ministry that God had given him. It wasn’t a visible ministry, but it was a vital ministry.

So as Christians, we each have a ministry that God expects us to do. There are eight principles that we need to understand if we are going to be faithful stewards in that ministry. And these principles come from Mark 6, so let’s turn there.

Jesus spent approximately the first year and a half of his public ministry just building relationships with people. He hung out with them, he socialized with them, he let them begin to get to know him. And in the course of this relationship-building process, they became more and more attached to him—they began to want to spend more and more time with him; they wanted to learn from him.

That’s when Jesus challenged them to a deeper level of commitment. He asked them to make some sacrifices—to lay aside their present occupations in order to follow him more closely. He said “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” He was going to equip them for ministry. So that began a phase of more intense involvement. They left their jobs and they followed him.

And over the next several months, Jesus took his disciples along with him as he ministered to the crowds. They got to see him in action, but they also got to see him in prayerful preparation before he went into action. They got to see the hand of God at work through Jesus’ miracles. But they also got to see the hand of the enemy at work through the opposition of the religious leaders. The disciples began to appreciate the fact that ministry can sometimes be very, very good; but it can also be sometimes very, very hard.

So that’s where we’re at when we come to Mark 6. And in Mark 6, Jesus says “OK guys. You’ve seen what ministry is like. Now it’s time for you to switch roles: you’ve been observers, now you’re going to be practitioners. Now it’s time for you to have some hands-on experience.” Let’s read about it in Mark 6:7…

Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits.

These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them.”

They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known.

This brief passage serves as a kind of blueprint to help us understand what it means to be stewards of ministry. There are eight very important principles about ministry that God wants all of us to learn.

1. Calling

Where does ministry begin? It begins with the call of Jesus. Jesus called the Twelve to him and gave them their ministry. They didn’t volunteer. They didn’t put themselves forward for this project. It happened at Jesus’ initiative, and according to his timing.

Why is that important? It’s important because any ministry that you and I might have must begin that same way—with the call of God.

In every case in Scripture where you see someone having a powerful ministry, that ministry began with the call of God. Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, the Apostle Paul. These people didn’t volunteer; they didn’t put themselves forward as candidates for ministry.

In fact, in some cases (like Moses and Jeremiah) these people were extremely reluctant to undertake a ministry because they felt they were totally unsuited to the job that God was calling them to do. But they obeyed the call of God, and God used them mightily.

Why is this principle so important? It’s important because there are a lot of wrong reasons for you and I to become involved in ministry.

For example, you might get involved in some sort of ministry simply because you want to. Perhaps it involves something that you like to do. Maybe you like to teach. Maybe you like music. Maybe you like administration. And that’s all well and good.

But if God hasn’t called you to that particular ministry—if you’ve simply put yourself forward for it—then your involvement in it will not only be ineffective; it will hinder the overall ministry of the church. Because you’ll be occupying a position that God really intends for someone else. And you’ll be ministering simply in your own power, not with the power of God.

There are other wrong reasons to become involved in ministry. Some people get involved in ministry for selfish reasons. Maybe they have unmet psychological needs—a need for recognition, a need for appreciation, a need for love. So they get involved in certain ministries in order to get those needs met. But God hasn’t called them.

Another reason to be involved in ministry is guilt. Maybe someone comes to you and says, “Look, we really need a Sunday School teacher in the Jr. High department. If you don’t do it, those kids aren’t going to have a teacher.” And so you do it because there’s a tremendous need and you’ll feel guilty if you say “No”.

But maybe God hasn’t called you to that ministry. He hasn’t gifted you for that ministry. And pretty soon, you realize that you’re like a square peg in a round hole.

Never let need determine your involvement in ministry. Listen for the call of God. God in his sovereignty has a plan for every one of us. And if we would all just listen for his call, then all the needs will be met.

2. Sending

Notice that it says in Mark 6:7 that Jesus “sent them out”. That is a significant phrase. Where had they been up ‘til then? They had been together as a little, intimate group with Jesus.They had been like a little Bible study group. But now, in order to have a ministry, they had to go out.

They had to break out of their comfort zone. A ministry that God calls you to will always take you out of your comfort zone.

Look at Moses. God said “Mo, you go and talk to Pharaoh.” And Moses said “No thank you, God. I’m not a public speaker. I’ve been talking to sheep and goats for the last forty years and I don’t know how to talk to a king.” God was sending him out of his comfort zone.

Look at Paul. A highly-trained orthodox Jewish rabbi. Spent his whole life studying the Jewish Law. Jesus gets hold of his life and says “Paul, I want you to go to the Gentiles.” Remember, for the first half of his life, Paul had been doing everything in his power to avoid the Gentiles! God was sending him out of his comfort zone.

Any ministry that God calls you to do will take you out of your comfort zone because that’s where you will have to rely on God’s power to get the job done. If your ministry only involves you in doing things that you feel pretty competent in doing by yourself, then God probably hasn’t called you to that ministry.

Jesus sent his disciples OUT into ministry, because that’s where the needs were, that’s where the lost people were, and that’s the only place they could learn to trust God.

3. Teamwork

It says in v. 7 that Jesus sent them out two by two. Ministry is all about teamwork.

If I want to be involved in ministry, but I only want to work alone—I don’t want the hassle of having to work alongside other people, I don’t want anyone else telling me what to do, I want to be my own boss, I want to make my own decisions—then I’ve just proved one thing: I don’t understand the first thing about ministry.

Ministry is about learning to work with people. It’s about learning to work together as a team.

You want to know why there are so many parachurch organizations out there? So many little ministries with their own founders and presidents? It’s because people have a hard time learning how to work together. They figure it’s easier to just go it alone, so they found their own ministry.

There’s nothing more fun than working on a ministry team. But there can be nothing more frustrating than working on a ministry team, too!

You want to know the number one reason why missionaries come home from the mission field? It isn’t because of the language. It isn’t because they can’t get used to living in a foreign culture. It isn’t because of medical problems. It’s because they can’t get along with the other missionaries.

Teamwork can bring out the best in us, but it can also bring out the worst in us!

But at the end of the day, ministry is about teamwork. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says…

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.

That’s why Jesus sent his disciples out in teams.

4. Authority

Look at verse 7: Jesus gave them authority over evil spirits. They went out into ministry with authority.

Once upon a time there was a professional photographer. He did a lot of work for a national magazine, and one day they assigned him to shoot a great forest fire that was raging in Yellowstone National Park. They told him that a small private plane would be waiting at a little airport in Wyoming to fly him over the fire.

Well he arrived at the airport just about an hour before sundown, and sure enough, there was a little Cessna 152 waiting, with its engine warmed up, and a young man sitting in the pilot seat. So the photographer ran out to the plane, jumped in with all his equipment, and shouted “Let’s go!”

The pilot taxied out and took off. Once they were airborne, they could see a great pall of smoke from the forest fire in the distance. The photographer said “I want you to fly me over the north side of that fire and make several low-level passes.”

The pilot’s hands began to shake, and he gulped out the question “Why?”

The photographer replied “Because I’m going to take pictures, that’s why. I’m a photographer and photographers take pictures.”

Well the young pilot really began to shake now and he gulped: “You mean you’re not the flight instructor?”

That young pilot was flying that airplane without the proper authority to do so. And there are a lot of people in ministry like that too. They are trying to minister to people’s spiritual needs without having the authority to do so.

Authority for ministry comes from the call of God. When God called Jeremiah to be his prophet, he didn’t just give him a job to do, he gave him the authority and the power to do it.

Jeremiah said “the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

When God calls you to undertake a ministry, he will give you the authority and the ability you’ll need to do it.

5. Provision

Look at verse 8: Jesus said Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic. Why did Jesus give them a big list of what NOT to bring?

Because he wanted to teach them that their provision for ministry was going to come from God. He didn’t want them to go out into ministry with a big backpack on, feeling self-sufficient. He wanted them to learn to depend upon God’s provision for their needs.

If you ever get to the place in your ministry where you feel that you’ve got what it takes—you’ve got everything you need to get the job done—then your ministry is probably going to have very little impact. Because you won’t be depending upon God.

And that goes for churches too. Did you know that the best churches go from financial crisis to financial crisis? It’s because they’ve learned to step out in faith; they’ve learned to attempt great things for God; they’ve learned that God will supply their needs in the process of doing ministry, not beforehand.

Show me a church where the budget is always met; where they’re sitting on a surplus of funds, and I’ll show you a dead, complacent church that probably isn’t having a dynamic ministry.

God will provide for us if we step out in faith in obedience to his call.

6. Consistency

Verse 10: Jesus said Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.

In other words, establish your ministry from that base. Don’t be jumping around from house to house. One of the key factors to being a faithful steward in ministry is consistency over the long haul. Faithfulness involves showing up for work every day.

William Carey was a pioneer missionary to India in the 1800’s. He spent forty years there, ministering to the people and teaching them about Jesus. During that time, he translated all or parts of the Bible into 34 of the different languages of India.

One day, someone asked him about his remarkable career and accomplishments. He said “I am not a genius; I am just a plodder.” William Carey had learned the secret of consistency.

Many people nowadays seem to be afraid of making long-term commitments. It’s getting harder and harder to find folks who are willing to sign up for long-term ministry involvement, because they are afraid that it is going to cut down their “options”, it’s going to restrict their “freedom”.

But your ministry won’t really be effective without consistency.

7. Opposition

One of the toughest lessons to learn in ministry is that you’re not always going to be appreciated. Not everyone is going to welcome your ministry with open arms. .

In verse 11, Jesus said “There are some towns and villages out there that are not going to welcome you. They’re not going to listen to you. But that says more about them than it does about you. So don’t let that deflect you from your calling. Just shake their dust off, and move on.”

A few years ago, the Space Shuttle was grounded because of an insulation problem on the main fuel tank. It seems that the foam coating used to insulate that super-cold fuel tank was made of a material that proved to be irresistible to a certain species of woodpecker that lives in Florida. The woodpeckers were pecking the foam off the tank, and that’s what grounded the shuttle.

Think of it—the world’s most sophisticated and powerful flying machine grounded by a few lousy woodpeckers!

There are woodpeckers out there waiting to peck holes in your ministry. They are on the devil’s payroll. What are you going to do when they start pecking at you? Are you going to say “Oh dear. I’m getting criticized. People don’t like me. People don’t appreciate my ministry. I’d better quit.” Are you going to let them ground you?

Or are you going to simply re-commit yourself to being faithful to the ministry to which God has called you? Jesus said “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too.” So don’t be surprised when it happens.

And the more effective a ministry is, the more likely it is to become the target of criticism. Because the enemy sits up and takes notice when people are being won to Christ. And he rolls in his heavy guns to try to stop that from happening.

See what it says down in verse 12? “They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. And King Herod heard about this.” Herod was the king of the woodpeckers.

Opposition and criticism is part of ministry. It comes with the territory.

8. Results

Look at verse 12: They went out and preached that people should repent.They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

When you are faithful to the calling of God, good things happen. People are helped, people are healed, broken lives are put back together. And most importantly, as it says in verse 14, the name of Jesus becomes well known.

That’s the goal of ministry—to get people thinking about, and talking about, and wanting to know Jesus. He is the focus. He is the center of attention.

Beware of any situation where people come away from your ministry talking about YOU. If your ministry is all that God wants it to be, they will come away talking about Jesus, excited about Jesus, thrilled with what Jesus is doing.

Because ministry is about getting people in touch with Jesus.

A few years ago down in Tucson, Arizona, there was a Gem and Mineral show—a sort of convention of amateur rock collectors. A certain gem dealer was strolling the aisles, looking at the exhibits, when he noticed a blue-violet stone about the size and shape of a potato. It was for sale on one of the tables.

He asked the fellow manning the table how much he wanted for the stone. The seller said $15, but realizing that the stone wasn’t as pretty as many others going for that price, he lowered it to $10. That’s the price the gem dealer paid for it—$10.

That stone has since been certified as a 1,905 carat natural star sapphire. That’s about 800 carats larger than the next largest sapphire ever discovered. It now sits in a velvet lined box in a bank vault in Arizona, because it has been appraised at over 2 million dollars. That gem dealer knew exactly what he was buying, because he was a lover of stones and he had seen thousands and thousands of them.

Ministry is something like that, only with people. It’s recognizing that people are like gems in the rough just waiting for Jesus to take them and transform them and polish them. And God wants you to be a steward ofs ministry so that you can be a part of that process.