Ministry Activity vs. Ministry

For some reason, E on Entourage reminds me of Kr1s S0ng. Jieun concurs.

Here’s one thing in Neighbour’s book that really challenged me – he notes that doing ministry activities does not mean you’re really doing true ministry. I’ll say that again: doing ministry activities does not mean you’re really doing true ministry. In fact, ministry activities can even insulate us from doing true ministry. We can get so caught up in these activities and roles that we don’t have the time or opportunity to really build relationship with fellow Christians to love them and equip them or with non-Christians that we can reach out to them. We become insulated in a ministry bubble.

I’m not saying this is true for anyone else I know, but it definitely cut me to the core. One example: as you may or may not know, I love cleaning up equipment on Sundays. One of the reasons is, it gives me an out from having to talk to and get to know people, which for me is awkward and something I have to work at. I’d much rather get out of it by saying I have to go clean up equipment, especially since not many people like to do tear down.

It seems all good and right to “serve” in that way, but both in motivation and execution, it’s all wrong. I was taking pride in doing ministry activity, but it was actually taking the place of true ministry. As someone in my small group said when I shared this, I was being a Martha.

Anyway, it’s an idea I was challenged by a lot and I’m still thinking about it. Whether in the ways I’m serving, if it’s truly doing what Scripture tells me to do, or if these activities are actually distracting me from doing true ministry.

That said, I do think I’m an anomaly at church. Most people would do anything to get out of setup/teardown. And that’s probably not a good thing either.