This is a paper I wrote for Church Ministry 201, I thought I'd share it now that I'm in the D term.
PART
ONE: My Fit in Ministry (Before): I'm
currently involved in several areas of ministry. At my home church
New Day I'm on the prayer team. We pray for the service every week
Sunday before it starts, and during the collection people write
prayer requests and turn them in. Then we pray for the various
prayer requests. Prayer is and will be a vitally important part of
ministry for me. Unlike many in the church I literally and actually
believe there is a God and that he answers prayers.
I'm
also on the launch team for a new church called “The Edge.” It's
a church designed to appeal to heavy metal rockers and music
enthusiasts. This is key for me, because I was once a rock
enthusiast. More so though, I was and am a drug addict and
alcoholic. That's a powerful area of ministry, reaching out to those
who feel like no one understands them and their addictions.
I have
been pursuing a general course toward one day starting a church for
seekers and lost people. I had a general major in religion and I
hoped to one day start a large church, hopefully with growth, and
eventually establish an international ministry. I've been observing
various church leaders in the area and learning from them. I've been
pursuing my own studies of apologetics, church ministry, atheism
arguments, and arguments against evolution to arm myself for
ministry. I do believe the primary state of mind in my church will
be evangelism. My church ought to be thought of as a launching point
only, to go into the community constantly. I had also been
considering being a Chaplain in the military or in a hospital, public
speaking evangelism, and incorporating 12 step recovery into my
ministry as much as possible.
PART
TWO: Spiritual Gifts: My three spiritual
gifts that tied for first were showing mercy, exhortation, and
pastor/shepherd. I would say that my spiritual gifts line up well
with my path in ministry. Showing mercy is huge for me. I need to
constantly be kind and compassionate and lift people up. I love
encouraging people and I agree with Ministry is.. when it says that
encouragement is hugely lacking in ministry. No wonder God called me
to ministry! I love encouraging people. It's one of my favorite
things to do. I also like teaching people how to encourage others.
Exhortation is very important and close to my heart as well. This
might fit with a more traveling public speaker mission of evangelism.
I very much love and feel greatly compelled in my heart to share
powerfully practical applications of scripture. Without practical
application you get ministers who yell at their congregations to
become holy, without explaining to them the process to see that
happen. The twelve steps are useful in this capacity. In Kirk
Cameron's film “Monumental” he analyzes a large statue left by
the pilgrims, and the first step to safe guarding Christianity and
liberty is inner transformation. My third key asset is
pastor/shepherding. This makes it clear to me that I ought to
eventually end up in a church preaching a consistent message week by
week. I don't know if that's how it will start, or how my mission
will conclude, but I'm sure it's in there somewhere. I try not to
nail down too much at this point, I'm just starting, and I don't want
to have a plan that I try to fulfill, I want to see God formulate a
plan and put his mission before me so I can follow his plan, not my
own. I did not score particularly well in serving, giving, or
evangelism. I'll need to have ministry leaders with me who are good
at gathering supplies and giving them to the public. I'll need
people who are strong in that area. I didn't score too bad in
administration, but I personally can't stand administration. The
message is what's important to me. I'll need plenty of leaders
around me who are good at organizing and who are good at getting the
message out. Unfortunately I didn't score that well in evangelism,
so I'll need to surround myself with leaders who are passionate about
getting out into the community and can help plan those types of
actions.
PART
THREE: Church Evaluations: I found myself
most interested with international ministries, public speaking,
mission trips, small groups, celebrate recovery, hospital ministry,
evangelism to non-believers, and giving sermons. I think I tend to
look for the most authentic and genuine forms of ministry and reach
for that. I also reach for large scopes in my ministry. I'm left
handed, I'm a global thinker and organizer. I also have huge ideas
for ministry rolling around in my head. I'm a planner and pioneer of
new ideas at heart. I'm not exactly sure how to translate that into
my ministry work, but I'm sure God placed those things on my heart
for a reason. Primarily I saw a very evangelical spirit in my
interest. I'm not interested in hiding behind the church walls. I
want to be welcoming in new believers and non-believers. I
especially want to be reaching out to drug addicts, alcoholics,
codependents, and people with depression issues. I've had these
issues first hand, and I know how devastating and confusing it is. I
see my spot in ministry to bring these kind of people into the fold
lovingly. Before my conversion I considered myself an intellectual,
philosopher, journalist, and author. I believe a big part of my
ministry will be speaking to atheists, agnostics, and idol worshipers
giving intellectual arguments, apologetics, for the belief in Christ
as Lord and savior. I feel a connection to confused and skeptical
college students. I'd like to have a seekers ministry if possible,
and encourage seeking. Celebrate recovery interests me, but I have
issues with it's application in my previous experiences with it. I
also enjoy small groups, and would want to incorporate them heavily
into my church or ministry. I do believe my findings fit with my
ministry path so far.
PART
FOUR: Interaction with Church Leaders: I've
noticed many things as I've interacted with church leaders and I've
drawn a number of simple and complex conclusions as a result.
Whether these church leaders know I'm watching them or not, I'm
constantly watching everything they do even more so than most because
I'm looking for tools to use once I graduate. I really like that
Pastor Aaron is so genuine and positive. That makes a huge impact on
ministry. The congregation will notice if a Pastor is being fake,
it's very easy to tell if anyone is being sincere or not. Pastor
Aaron is a powerful public speaker as well, and that stood out to me.
When reading between the lines, I notice Pastor Aaron finds little
ways to break through peoples apathy and religious skepticism. I
also noticed where Pastor Aaron is coming up short. The man is very
busy with a wife and five children, but he lacks a certain amount of
connectedness with the congregation. He's always “busy” so
people like myself have learned to just no longer even inquire about
assistance or questions we might have. That is a serious problem,
but I could see the same problem with myself. After investing hours
in writing a sermon, getting their early, presenting the sermon, and
taking care of all the other church business I'm gonna want some time
to myself. Developing friendships and relationships is a hard thing
to do, and an even harder thing to maintain. I've seen only a few
ministers who do it well, and they're usually highly relational and
charismatic in their style. They're people ministers. Aaron and I
are very much not so much people ministers, but message ministers.
I
learned a lot from my interactions with Pastor Dan as well. Once
again Pastor Dan is powerful in his message and presentation of
scripture, but lacks in general relations with the congregation. He
is not particularly charismatic and tends to be rather awkward. This
is something Pastor Aaron, Pastor Dan, and I have in common. I've
noticed that Pastor Dan doesn't seem to make a lot of use out of the
internet. The internet and internet outreach will be key in my
ministry and it already is. I've noticed something both pastors
could learn from is a style of growth used in politics called
grassroots activism. I intend to constantly promote a message of
grassroots evangelism in my church and/or ministry. Grassroots means
that since there isn't enough money to really go out in force, the
entire congregation takes on the duty of bringing in new people.
Grassroots is strong with constantly pushing the message on the
internet, hanging up posters and leaving business cards in the
community, making phone calls, and just bringing in friends. It's
been used effectively in political campaigns with short money such as
the Ron Paul 2012 campaign, and I intend to formulate a similar model
of evangelism in my church.
PART
FIVE: My Fit in Ministry (After): I believe
I'm on the correct path in ministry. I'm just getting my feet wet in
the various churches and organizations in my area. I'm just learning
at Liberty University what it really means to minister to people for
God. My conversion date was less than a year ago, so I feel like
studying and investigating a wide variety of ministry options is a
good idea. I'm learning so much day by day and it's an incredible
process. I've learned huge amounts of useful information in the
course and I hope and pray that the knowledge stays with me and that
I apply it well. I feel like I'm on a good ministry path so far.
I'm learning the value of prayer, church planting, 12 step recovery,
and personal Bible investigation. I've also found it highly
effective to journal in my blog about my growth, and share little
nuggets of wisdom I encounter on the way. This helps me to remember
what I'm learning and maybe help some people along the way. I
started my blog last March when I got baptized and I've had around
12,000 views on it so far. I'm very excited about the path before
me. The chapter on prayer and how the great ministers and
evangelists always prayed a lot deeply impacted me. I was praying
three times a day and I thought that was good, but after learning
that Martin Luther spent two hours a day in prayer, I realized I
needed to set more time aside for it. I've been getting better with
that. I transferred my major from religion to Christian counseling.
I figured I would learn more about practical application of Christian
principles by studying Christian counseling classes.
My next
steps in ministry are fairly clear to me. I need to continue getting
good grades at Liberty University. I need to continue to investigate
spiritual principles as much as I can. I need to continue to find
ways to be more relational and confident. I also need to break past
my fear of one on one evangelism and start talking to more people I
see throughout the day about the gospel. I would like to study
apologetics as much as possible as well. I asked God in prayer to
help me intellectualize my faith, and while watching the live stream
at Liberty University I saw the video from graduation last summer
where Ravi Zacharias spoke. In the last few weeks I've ordered
several of his books, watched a dozen of his talks at universities,
and starting incorporating his angle on evangelism into my blog
sermons and writings. The message of apologetics is powerful and
being a recovering self righteous intellectual, I could certainly see
myself ministering to others in that area.
I'd
have several key suggestions for people going into ministry. I would
urge them to remain humble first. I would also urge them to pray
constantly, and seek to have a strong message of encouragement and
practical application. I would urge them to be very evangelical in
their approach to ministry. I would urge them to consider inner
transformation as the first key when beginning. I would also urge
them to reach out and show uncharacteristic compassion and patience
with people who are lost. We need more of that in the world today.
