All to Him I Owe

Are you striving for ministry competency or maturity in Christ? More and more I realize that a large portion of my efforts in ministry are spent trying to gain a certain level of competency in ministry, rather than a maturity in Christ.

Striving for a spirit of excellence in ministry and being adequately prepared for the ministry God has given us is not inherently wrong. But if we are not careful, it can distract us from what should be our main concern—growing in our maturity in Christ.

I’ve noticed that most individuals in ministry find themselves devoting a lot of attention to five areas of competency.

1. Administrative skills
2. Schedule management
3. Sermon preparation and delivery
4. Counseling skills
5. Event and program planning

A quick look at my weekly schedule would show all five of these areas permeating my calendar and to-do list. Many would call this the work of the ministry! When the bulk of our efforts are spent trying to develop these five areas, we can subtly find ourselves “grading” our success or failure based upon these areas. For instance, I spoke with a pastor recently who told me how discouraged he was in ministry, because of the messiness of his desk and because he seems to keep planning events at the last minute. He was discouraged, because he was basing his success solely upon his ability to improve in his administrative skills and event planning. Though I’m an advocate of both, I challenged him with his standard of success. Is success in God’s eyes based upon his administrative skills and event planning, or is there something more important at stake?

Ephesians 4:15 reminds us that God’s goal for us is to “grow up into Him in all things…” So, what does maturity in Christ look like? This list is not exhaustive, but it is a starting point.

1. Maturity in Christ is having a right definition of success in the ministry. True ministry success is faithfully doing God’s will. Regardless of the efficiency of my office, the creativity and depth of a sermon, or the wow of a recent event, God wants us to be faithful! Faithfulness is doing the right thing consistently, though I’m not seeing fruit immediately.
2. Maturity in Christ is living consistently in a state of dependence on the Spirit. It is so easy to do the work of the ministry in the flesh. The longer we are in ministry and the more skilled we become at certain aspects within the ministry, the easier it is to depend on ourselves, apart from the Spirit’s enablement. Self-dependent people do not pray; dependent people do! I read recently that John Fletcher was described as “staining the walls of his study with the breath of his prayers.” Could that be said of our cars, offices, and homes? Do we demonstrate a prayerful dependence on the Spirit?
3. Maturity in Christ is maintaining a desire for Christ’s glory over my own popularity. One of the reasons we are so driven to maintain ministry competency is that we hate the embarrassment of doing the ministry in a feeble way. That passion to not look poorly in the eyes of men can often become a driving motivation in all that we do. Instead of being concerned with the opinions of man, let’s be concerned about the glory of Christ. Is He being lifted up? Is He preeminent, or are we competing with Him for attention? I so appreciate the little phrase that was given to me a number of years ago: “Nothing to prove, One to please!” That is what it should be all about.
4. Maturity in Christ is guarding a daily routine of fellowship with Christ. Notice it is a daily routine of fellowship, not simply a daily routine. Daily routines of Bible reading, prayer, and meditation can often become just that—routines that we do with little thought or effort. They are more a habit than true fellowship with Christ. Our Bible reading and prayer life should be growing our level of fellowship with Christ, not merely our knowledge about Christ. Be careful about merely “double-dipping” in your Bible reading. That means, be careful about just studying for your next sermon and hoping to let that count for gaining a little fellowship with Christ. Sometimes the best thing we can do for our souls is to pick up the Bible and let it speak to us about us. This is far better than picking it up to hear what it says so we can just tell others what it says.

Don’t become bogged down with focusing on ministry competency. Make your goal this week to be maturing in Christ. When we have become what God wants us to be personally, we will have become what our ministries need us to be!