I had never
spoken to an adult Sunday School class before,
and as a young seminary student I was anxious to
make good. I had worked hard on my talk, choosing
as my topic koinonia love.
But now I was late getting to the
church and, of all things, stuck behind a Sunday
driver. The nerve of him, doing thirty-five in a
thirty-mile zone! This is Washington, D.C., not
Kansas, and I've got an important ministry to
perform. I edged my bumper within a short
distance of his, hoping he'd catch the vision and
accelerate.
No such luck. Within a few blocks
he had slowed down practically to the speed
limit.
Then several minutes later, I
watched with horror as he turned into the parking
lot of the church where I was to speak. When I
got up to speak, he was sitting in the front row
of the class, and he seemed to be giving me a
knowing stare. I flashed my best pastoral smile
and went ahead to talk about the importance of
loving each other with the love of Christ. He did
not seem terribly impressed.
The Real Message
I've always known that ministry
is not something you simply prepare for and do
but a way of life. People listen much more to
what you are than to what you say.
But the Sunday driver experience
dramatically demonstrated to me what ingenious
ways God has of letting people know exactly what
you are. In a large metropolitan area like
Washington, the odds are infinitesimal that
someone whom you're tailgating is heading for the
same destination you are. But as Einstein once
put it, God doesn't play dice. He wanted to
impress upon me, I'm sure, that he intends to
communicate to others not just through my words
but through the small aspects of my life.
Fortunately, I had an experience
in my earlier days with the Sons of Thunder which
showed me the positive side of this truth. I was
driving on a busy highway late one evening when I
saw a couple standing beside a stalled car. I
stopped and offered to help. They asked if I
would drive them home, which meant a trip of some
distance into the country. As we drove, the man
asked me about myself. I mentioned I was a
seminary student and told him a little about my
ministry in music, but didn't witness to him
directly.
About a week later he shared with
me that this act of kindness had restored his
faith in Christ.
Walking Is Talking
Experiences like these, of
course, are rare. But I believe that God allows
us to have them occasionally to give us a window
on an ongoing phenomenon in our lives--the fact
that he is continually using our example to make
an impression on others for Christ.
This fact should concern us. If
we desire to have a ministry for Christ, then the
most essential thing we can do is to watch over
our relationship with him.
But we should be encouraged by
this as well. For if our relationship with Christ
is what it should be, we can rest assured that he
is creatively using our life to influence others
for himself. "I am the vine, you are the
branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he
it is that bears much fruit," Jesus promised
(Jn 15:5 RSV). As a healthy branch in a vine
bears fruit naturally and spontaneously, we will
unavoidably be effective for Christ when we are
rightly related to him. Ministry will be inevitable.
We fail to appreciate this fully
most of the time, I think, because we see only a
faint picture of all Christ is doing through us.
I became a Christian initially because several
people on a summer job during college shared with
me about Christ and demonstrated his love to me.
I lost touch with them shortly after that summer,
and to this day I doubt that any of them have any
idea that their lives changed the course of mine.
View from the Top
Too often we think of ministry
purely in terms of doing certain things--reciting
a memorized evangelistic routine, giving an
impressive talk, counseling with a proven
approach. Or ministry is something you go into
professionally, through the pastorate or
missionary service.
God does call some of us into
such positions, and these roles are vital. And
all of us can profit from learning how to
minister to others more effectively. But we must
not think we are ministering only when we are
involved in "ministry activities."
I suspect that when Paul was
imprisoned in Rome, many must have felt he had
now been deterred from his ministry. That was not
how Paul viewed things. "I want you to know,
brethren, that what has happened to me has really
served to advance the gospel, so that it has
become known throughout the whole praetorian
guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is
for Christ; and most of the brethren have been
made confident in the Lord because of my
imprisonment, and are much more bold to speak the
word of God without fear," Paul insisted
(Phil 1:12-14 RSV).
Many of us look at our jobs or
our time in college as a prison to be endured,
keeping us from having a real ministry. Paul's
experience suggests that our ministries are going
on at this very time in our relationships with
those in our work, in school and in every area of
our lives.
Christ also uses each of our
lives and our unique gifts to help other people
in countless ways, and this is an important part
of our ministries as well. The ministry of Christ
touches every area of human need. He gives to
each of us a unique mix of abilities and
opportunities, which enables us to extend help to
others in ways no one else is as well-equipped to
do.
Each day brings with it the
opportunity to use our gifts to help others, and
to let others know about Christ through the
example of our life. As we are faithful to these
opportunities, God gives us special openings to
speak with others about Christ. Yet--and far more
often than we think--our life is speaking volumes
to others about him, and Christ is using it in
remarkable ways to awaken others to their need
for a relationship with him.
Ministry is not something out
there somewhere; it is now.
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