What You Should Kill So That Your Ministry Can Dwell
Shortly earlier than J.I. Packer died, he was requested what his last message to the church can be. His four-word response was spot on: “Glorify Christ each approach.” If you add in six phrases from Philippians 2:3—“Do nothing out of egocentric ambition”—you have got the system for a profitable lifetime of ministry. Embolden, underline, and italicize the phrase “nothing,” meditate on it, and don’t deviate from it, and also you’ll have a reasonably stable platform for ministry.
As one who’s on the older finish of life (63), having seen many rise and lots of fall; many succeed who I type of want wouldn’t have, and lots of work from a comparatively small platform that I feel needs to be elevated a hundredfold however they proceed to labor primarily in quiet, I’ve arrived at just a few conclusions about ministry, notoriety, and repair.
I’ve preached in a number of the nation’s largest church buildings, and sure a number of the world’s smallest (about 30 in an Italian church final 12 months). As doorways open and shut at this level in my life, God has more and more challenged me to consider alternatives by means of a distinct grid than my “pure man” would have me. For nonetheless lengthy God grants me not simply life however the means to minister (J.I. Packer’s final couple of years had been quiet ones, ministry-wise, resulting from well being points), I should be (and I hope, you may be) vigilant about killing pleasure and egocentric ambition. Satisfaction and egocentric ambition should die if true ministry is to stay.
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