In reading the articles posted on this site, it’s pretty hard to miss the fact that God has called me into online ministry. What that looks like exactly is, well, figuring that out is half the fun! If you want to join me on this adventure, why not subscribe to my RSS feed, or contribute through the comments below.

As part of my serving at our local church (and I am strongly convicted that any believer should be part of a local, physical expression of the Church), is working with the Media Arts Team. Specifically within that Team, I am helping to birth a fully functional digital campus for the church. While thinking about what that may look like, and thinking about ministry in general within the local church, this thought came to mind:

When you spend a lot of time finding people to attend your ministry, you are really putting on an event. But when you put on an event to fulfill the needs of your people, you are then doing real ministry. (Tweet this idea!)

Let’s unpack that a little bit. Think about how many ministries your local church has. How many of those ministries actually minister to the body and to those in your community? But what does it actually mean to “minister to the body and to those in your community?” While in Ephesus, Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, “But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” (1 Corinthians 16:8–9, ESV). By this example, we see Paul ministering to the body when and where God showed him need for it.

MacArthur sums up the concept of serving where you are needed superbly,

You see, the will of God is not primarily a place. The will of God is not, first of all, for you to go there or work here. The will of God concerns you as a person. If you are the right you, you can follow your desires and you will fulfill His will.^[1]

What a groundbreaking thought! We are called to serve God by serving His body, when He shows us opportunity, where He shows us need. That is ministry. From my experience, many churches have ministries for one of two reasons:

1. “Because that’s what other churches do!” I.e. youth ministry, intermural basketball ministry, lock-in and retirement home ministry, etc.
2. “Because we have always done it.” I.e. anything that’s been done for so long that nobody can explain why it’s being done.

Before you rush to the comments section to turn me into flamebait, think for a minute. If item #1 bugs you, is your church really in alignment with Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 16:8–9 above? Are you doing ministry just to do it, or because the people where your church is needs that ministry to minister to their needs? If #2 offended you, read John 15:1–11. Jesus is the True Vine, and our Father is the vinedresser (or gardener) (John 15:1). He told us openly in John 15:2 that pruning is necessary for future growth, and that includes ministry. If you have a ministry that is no longer effective, it’s time to prune.

If you want to read a great book about maximizing your ministry potential wherever you are, I suggest Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby and Found: God’s Will by John MacArthur.

There you go my personal (albeit rather brief) view on ministry. I’m going back to dreaming about what online ministry looks like in the context of New Orleans.

---

1. John MacArthur, Found: God’s Will, 2ed ed. (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 1977), 60. [↩]