Crucify Your Ministry...Continued from page 1

Abide in Jesus. Realize that, apart from Jesus, you can do nothing. Determine to stay closely connected to Him, abiding in that close relationship. Practice spiritual disciplines (like prayer, Bible reading, Communion, and worship with others) often. Invite Jesus to transform your mind. Read, meditate on, and study the Bible daily so its truths will saturate your mind and help you start to think more and more from God’s perspective. Ask Jesus to convert your will. Get rid of wrong motivations and be intentional about fulfilling God’s purposes for your life and ministry. Live with integrity. Put your faith into action in every aspect of your life, and seek to have your private actions be just as faithful as your public ones. But live in the power of the freedom you have as someone whom Jesus has forgiven and deeply loves. Know that nothing you can do in ministry (or in anything else) can cause Him to love you any less or more than He already does, so don’t try to earn His love. Make everything you do in ministry simply an expression of your love for Him.

Be grateful. Regularly remind yourself that it’s Jesus who makes your ministry work possible. Thank Him often for His work in your life, and the work He’s doing in other people’s lives through you.

Be joyful. Remember that your ministry isn’t an obligation to fulfill, and that you don’t have to prove anything to yourself or others through it. Rejoice in the freedom of Jesus’ love and the power of His Spirit at work through your ministry.

Bear witness to Jesus’ presence. Before entering any ministry situation (a hospital room, a counseling session, a worship service, a committee meeting, etc.), pray and ask Jesus to reveal what He’s doing there and how He wants you to cooperate with His work. Discern what Jesus is up to in the specific context of a certain person on a particular day in a given situation. Ask Jesus to help you figure out how His story relates to the story of the person to whom you’ll be ministering – and how He wants you to help join those stories together. As Jesus’ ambassador, help each person experience His love through your words and actions. Make sure the person feels cared for by meeting him or her at the point of need with Jesus’ grace. In relevant and appropriate ways, point out what Jesus is already doing in the situation, and present the hope for redemption in the situation.

Interpret situations in light of the Gospel. Help the people to whom you minister examine and reflect on their life circumstances in light of the Gospel, to gain deeper insight into how its truth relates to them. Help them discover a new perspective, based on the Gospel’s message intersecting their lives.

Use symbolic actions. When you’re ministering to people, sometimes do more than just talking with them, praying with them, or reading Scripture. Understand that, while those are valuable pursuits, you can enrich your time with people even more by engaging in some actions that symbolize the faith. Consider celebrating Communion with people, anointing people with oil, singing songs with them, or other creative actions that express faith. Let the Spirit guide you to know what actions would be most appropriate in what situations.

Adapted from The Crucifixion of Ministry: Surrendering Our Ambitions to the Service of Christ, copyright 2007 by Andrew Purves. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Ill., www.ivpress.com. 
Andrew Purves holds the Hugh Thomson Kerr Chair in Pastoral Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. He is the author of numerous books including Reconstructing Pastoral Theology: A Christological Foundation.