Ministry Minded

What a good day it was!

The day was arranged in order that people who are considering full time ministry could focus in on that notion and be educated in various ways as to the issues they should be considering.

The day ran as follows...

Arrive
Talk on what is Gospel Minstry
Small group discussion
Talk on Who should do Gospel ministry.
Lunch
Small group discussion
Q & A session with a forum
Talk on Why go into gospel ministry.

I have been considering the idea and this was my first steps along this path.

Every Christian should sooner, rather than later, decide whether or not the full time christian ministry is for them. When I use the phrase full time Christian ministry I refer to the formalised role which involves spending the working career engaged in formal chrisitan ministry and be paid for that. Church pastors for instance, fall into this category. The reason this distinction is important to make is that all christians involved in full time christian ministry. That is what being a Christian is about.

The decision that is made should in fact be to answer the questions "why not?". In other words, a christian should respond to the question by saying why they are not going into that career, rather than why they are.

To give you a feeling for the day...

There were about 160 people there. I was very impressed by the turn out, it shows you how important a day like this is, as well as how much on the fore front of the church members thinking this is. I did not expect there to be so many people there. I do however feel that it was marketed particularly well, the other thing is that it was for everyone, no matter where you are in your thinking on the subject.

The talk on Who was both the most important as well as the best...

It presented the issue in the form of four questions...
1. Do you see it as a noble task?
2. Do you have the gift of teaching?
3. Do you generally conform to the requirements for a pastor/teacher as laid out in Timothy and Titus.
4. Do you have the desire to do it?

If you can answer yes to the above questions then that is what you should be doing. You may not be able to answer the questions above at this stage, and if that be the case then possibly look at ways in which you can find out more about yourself in order that you can answer the four questions. Get involved teaching Sunday school is a good start or leading a bible study/youth group. They are not easy questions to answer.

My struggle with the above is that I do not want to let the financial/security issues cloud my judgment. Something that is not easy to achieve. It is very easy to stay on the one path, changing careers is always going to be stressful no matter which way you look at it.

The Christian life however, is about being brave, no matter how scared you may be. Test the truth has often been the call on this blog, and it should not be surprising that that is once again the required mantra.

Matters of Life and Death!

Recently I have had to consider the world from the atheist's point of view. This is because I have an atheist friend and we have discussed the world together. It has been an enlightening and challenging experience. I have realised that apologetics ont he christian faith is not so cut and dried as the famous christian apologists would have us believe. For every christian argument there are counter arguments such that it becomes a complex and not so cut and dried issue.

But I digress...

Viewing the world from the atheist's point of view I notice something very convenient - and it is not simply that God does not exist - but rather sin does not exist. Now the world is full of what are termed "practical atheists", those are people that believe that God exists but don't live that way. The key to the world view of these people is not that they believe God exists but don't live that way, what they don't believe is that Sin exists. That is the key to their behaviour.

Now, if the atheist's world view says that sin does not exist, if sin does not exist I can behave however I like without any consequence of any kind because there is nothing keeping me from a God who doesn't exist anyway. The Christian's world view must be that Sin does exist, and so there is something keeping me from a God who does in fact exist. That is the key to the epiphany. If we believe that God exists, then we must believe that sin exists, and if sin exists, then mankind is in dire straits.

I know that Christians are supposed to be involved in evangelism, that is something that scares me to the core. I do not want to go around confronting people with the truth and getting their backs up. That is not a "nice" thing to do. Now I understand that we're supposed to be polite, winsome, and not rude, but how can you tell someone they're under the judgment of God in a nice way. No matter how sweet you might be, it's going to be offensive.

Evangelism is scary and it is something that we fear. I think that those people that are examples to us still fear, but they have overcome that fear. When a fireman sees a helpless civilian caught in a blazing furnace he fears for his life probably less than we would do in his situation, but he still fears. In fact, if he doesn't then it will affect his performance as a fireman. The reason however that he fears less than us is that he's done it before and knows what he is capable of. The first time he went into a burning building he was terrified but maybe the comfort of a more experience fire fighter helped him through it. The way he overcame that fear was be confronting it and placing his desire to save the threatened person over the fear he experiences.

Now overcoming that fear is the key - it is when we see sin for what it really is - we realise how high the stakes are. It is literally, a matter of life and death. A Christian world view sees two kinds of people in the world, people that are saved and people that are not saved. When it comes to eternity that is the fundamental issue. That is what Jesus died for. Most of us do believe that, but to really believe that is hard because it means staking our lives on it. Staking our lives on something which cannot be proved through scientific or any other method. There are very few things in life for which it is necessary to apply that degree of risk to. What I mean is this, what other fact is so important that you are required to place your well being at risk in order to prove you believe it? When I say something and someone responds with "how much are you willing to bet that what you just said is not true?". My typical response is "no thanks". Why, because I don't see why I it is necessary for me to go to such lengths to prove something so arbitrary to be true. In this case it's not that I don't believe the statement I made to be true, I am just not willing to go to such great lengths to _prove_ the statement I made to be true. The notion of man's predicament without Jesus is similar.

That old shopping list...

Recently while at bible study, the scenario was proposed... What would you say, based on this passage, to the guy who wants a promotion at work?

My response was, I would tell him to pray hard for that promotion!

Sacrilege you might say? Not so fast, hear me out.

Firstly, we serve a God who is good and loving, a God who is benevolent and is in the practice of showering blessings on us. Not only did he save the world, but he also sends rain and keeps us alive. He gave us chocolate, movies, dance, music, all for us to enjoy. He gave us the ocean in which we can play.

Secondly, what about this? Why do we pray for things? As soon as you pray for something you are acknowledging God's role in what you're praying for. Fallen man does not want to pray for things because fallen man believes he can get that promotion by himself and does not need God's help! I would encourage someone to pray for what they want because it means they are acknowledging God's role in their lives. However, they must pray for a _long_ time, and can't be disappointed when God does not give them what they want.

The thing for the person to remember is that no father will give their children a poisonous snake no matter how much they ask for one! He knows what is good for his children, and likewise our Father in heaven. Let's face it, if you're asking for something that is going to lead you away from your Father, you're practically guaranteed not to get it - you might get it, but you don't have much to base your prayers on so I don't think your prayers will last very long.