Ministry Focus & Equipping | Christian Ministry Training Blog

Defining Effective Ministry That Brings Glory to God

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Ministry Tools Resource Center — 9 Comments ↓

Effective Ministry Done All for the Glory of God
As pastors, teachers, leaders, people helpers, evangelists, prayer warriors or any other kind of servant of God, we all know that we can glorify God through effective ministry. What we may find harder to grasp is how to define effective ministry.

How We Might Define Effective Ministry

Do we quantify ministry by looking at the number of converts, the attendance records, or the proliferation of programs we offer?

If so, does that mean churches and ministries with greater quantifiable results are more effective?

Do we measure by the quality of our programs and ministry efforts?

If so, does that mean churches and ministries with more qualified staff, professional musicians, high technology, standards of excellence, or bigger and better facilities are more effective?

Let me suggest that while the quantitative and qualitative dimensions can be indicators, effective ministry goes beyond both aspects.

Ministry Objectives Based on God’s View of Effectiveness

What brings the most glory to God is when we do ministry based on His heart, His ways, His means, and His design. Effective ministry aligns with Him.

His Heart:

First, God is more concerned about people and their love relationship with Him than He is about programs. The greatest commandments, according to Jesus, are to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbor.

Ministry Objective for Us: Focus on Personhood

Second, God is more concerned about who we are than what we do. “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7)

Ministry Objective for Us: Focus on Internal Change, not simple external conformity.

His Ways:

God’s ways and our ways so often differ. What we consider wisdom, He views as foolishness. Because He knows all and sees all, God looks at the big picture, not simply what is happening in the moment. (Prov. 14:12; Isa. 55:8-9; Rom. 11:33-34; 1 Cor. 1:20-29) Our philosophy of ministry governs how and why we do what we do. Philosophy is often at the core of many church and ministry conflicts. If we could all somehow get on page with God, why and how He operates, perhaps we could learn to “be of same mind with one another” (Rom. 15:5).

Ministry Objective for Us: Build your Philosophy on the Word of God

His Means:

When God was about to accomplish a work among people, He often took time to prepare people for what was ahead. In an effort to get on with things, we can sometimes skimp on this process. Then we wonder why we have run into so many problems. This is especially important when we are trying to initiate or revitalize a ministry.

Ministry Objective for Us: Prioritize Preparation

His Design:

According to God, the church “grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work” (Eph. 4:16). The church is a living organism, a priesthood of believers. God designed the church to function as a body, a team. Interdependence is God’s plan for effective ministry.

Ministry Objective for Us: Encourage Participation

May we truly learn to do ALL we do for the glory of God by focusing our ministry on what matters to the heart of God. And, may we to it in accordance with His ways, means, and design.

Helpful Resource: Ministry God’s Way

3 Important Lessons for Bible Teachers from the Master Teacher

Posted on September 2, 2010 by Ministry Tools Resource Center — 6 Comments ↓

Jesus Teaching - The Master Teacher
Jesus’ teaching ministry provides many valuable lessons for Bible teachers today.

What Bible Teachers Can Learn from Jesus, the Master Teacher

Here are just three of the many lessons we can learn about teaching God’s Word from the Master Teacher:

His Power Source: submission to God as seen in His prayer life

Jesus enveloped what He did with prayer. He prayed before, during, and after. “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Lk. 5:16). He made prayer a priority. He had purpose in praying. His disciples learned the value of prayer from His example. “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray'” (Lk. 11:1).

Question for Bible Teachers: Are your students learning from your example of submission and dependence on the Father?

Help for Bible Teachers: Praying Like You Truly Believe HE is the Source of All You Need

His Character: servanthood as seen in His selfless acts of love for others

Jesus laid aside His heavenly glory, “taking the very nature of a servant” (Phil. 2:7). “For even the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mk. 10:45). “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (Jn. 15:13). Jesus invested into the lives of His students. He did not merely teach lessons.

Question for Bible Teachers: Are you truly there to serve students and not merely teach a lesson?

Help for Bible Teachers: DISCIPLESHIP: Isn’t teaching a lesson enough?

His Methodology: storytelling as seen in His constant use of parables

While Jesus used a variety of methods, His primary means of reaching the masses was through parables (stories) as seen in Matthew 13:34-35 and Mark 4:33-34. Jesus used familiar objects and situations from their culture in stories to make connections. People were able to identify with the characters or situations which challenged them to want to understand more (Mk. 4:10) or make up their minds about what they would do with the Truth (Matt. 21:45-46).

Question for Bible Teachers: Are you effectively using stories to connect with your students?

Help for Bible Teachers: Keys to Visualizing the Story Without Visual Aids

More Lessons: 3 More Important Lessons for Bible Teachers from the Master Teacher

Ministry Objective: Not Mere Management

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Ministry Tools Resource Center — 3 Comments ↓

Ministry Objectives Not Mere Management
In leadership we work with ideas, schedules, strategies, finances, and people. We could easily get caught up in managing it all, making sure we have a smooth running program.

In teaching we have a lesson plan to accomplish. We could easily set our goal on having a perfect class which requires good classroom management.

In outreach we want to see people come into the kingdom. We could easily focus on being at the right places, saying all the right things, and doing what is necessary to win people for Christ which requires us to manage our time, tongue, and talents wisely to accomplish results.

When excellence, efficiency, and efficacy become our overriding goals, we can lose sight of the real reason we should be doing what we do, our overriding purpose … loving people which spills out of our love for God. When that happens,

Problems become obstacles to surmount rather than opportunities to help people grow.
The end tends to justify the means and we lose integrity in the process or walk on people to get where we want to be.

Our ministry objective needs to be loving people, not mere management of them.

We shoot for excellence to get people’s attention and to adequately provide for their needs. We strive for efficiency so we have more time to focus on people. We want efficacy not so we can gloat in numbers or other results but rather to rejoice that people have come to know the Lord and are growing in their relationship with Him.

According to 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, it doesn’t matter how well you do something or how spectacular the results are, if you have not love …. You finish it: What do you have? Really, what do you have?

Ministry Objective: Not Mere External Conformity

Posted on August 25, 2010 by Ministry Tools Resource Center — No Comments ↓

Do these phrases characterize you?

Attentiveness to God’s Word
Commitment where it Counts
Participation in Serving
Growth and Usefulness in Life

Do they describe the people to whom and with whom you minister? Do they portray the dynamic of your church body?

If it’s what you want to see, then your ministry objective needs to go beyond mere external conformity to making it about the heart.

Why Our Ministry Objective Needs to be about Heart Transformation, Not Mere External Conformity

Spiritual life and fruitfulness is a result of abiding in the Lord Jesus (Jn. 15:5). If you want to see people, yourself included, attentive to God’s Word, committed to the right things, participating in service, and growing and being useful to the kingdom, then you need to keep the focus on what is happening in the heart, in one’s relationship with the Lord.

Too often we seek to change behavior without heart change. It is little wonder that people’s attentiveness seems so short, that their commitment grows cold, that their serving is minimal, that their growth becomes stunted, and that their impact is barely felt.

The heart is the “wellspring of life” according to Proverbs 4:23. If the heart does not have an increasing Godward-orientation, its resources will be like a shallow or dried up well.

Your ministry objective needs to be heart change, not mere external conformity. Don’t expect much out of yourself or others if external conformity without internal change is all there is.

More: Why Don’t We Get That It Is About the Heart?

Ministry Objective: Not Mere Knowledge

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Ministry Tools Resource Center — No Comments ↓

Ministry Objective is Application We live in an information age, proliferated by the Internet. I can’t tell you how many newsletters about the Internet I have read that stressed some variation of “Content is king.” Is this true of ministry? Should that be our objective?

What good is knowledge without application?

Solomon in his quest to understand earthly knowledge concluded that it was like chasing after wind. He said “…the more knowledge, the more grief” and “much study wearies the body.” He ended his search, “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Eccl. 12:13).

The more we know the more it should lead us to realize that there is so much more we don’t know. God should seem bigger as a result.

Knowledge is important, according to Solomon who also said, “wise men store up knowledge” (Prov. 10:14). But, he also stated that “every prudent man acts out of knowledge” (Prov. 13:16).

The conclusion: Knowledge for knowledge’s sake is not the answer but rather its usage, particularly in getting to know God better.

What priority is knowledge as a ministry objective?

Knowledge is not the starting point, nor is it the end, according to 2 Peter 1:5-9 —

“add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.”

We begin with faith. The object of our faith is the God who saves us and equips us for life. We end with love, the greatest commandment according to Jesus (Matt. 22:37-40). Knowledge is only a part of the process of getting from faith to love. But, we will be held accountable to the level of knowledge that we have. — “Anyone, then, who KNOWS the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” (James 4:17)

The conclusion: Knowledge is important but in itself is insufficient to make you effective and productive in “your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

You ministry objective needs to be the application of knowledge, not mere knowledge. Without knowledge, you will simply have emotionalism in the Christian life. “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge” (Prov. 19:2). But, if you make it all about knowledge, you will simply have puffed up people for “knowledge puffs up” (1 Cor. 8:1).

Also be aware that In Some Cases Knowledge Really is Power.

Whose Responsibility is Discipleship?

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Ministry Tools Resource Center — 2 Comments ↓

Some people have spiritual gifts best suited for the discipleship of believers, like those with the gift of pastor, or perhaps exhortation. Some will be more impassioned toward it. But, we’re all responsible to disciple which begins with leading people to a saving knowledge and then helping them grow (Matt. 28:19-20). We can begin where we are with those in our sphere of influence.

Venues through which We can Fulfill our Discipleship Responsibility

Here are a few relationships that open the door to discipling those in our sphere of influence. Each has it own set of challenges, often time related, but the potential impact can be great.

Parents can disciple their own children.

Question: How are you supposed to work to provide for your children, take care of the home, run kids to all their activities, and teach them besides all this?

Pastors and elders can disciple members of the Body.

Question: Doesn’t preparing sermons and overseeing the ministry take up all your time, leaving little room for discipleship?

People in a small group or men’s or women’s ministries can disciple their own peer. Workers in children’s or youth ministry can disciple those younger than themselves.

Question: When are you to fit this in when you barely have time for your own family?

Teachers of Sunday School or other Bible classes can disciple their students.

Question: How much should be expected of you? Isn’t teaching a lesson enough?

Suggestions for Discipling Those in Your Sphere of Influence

This post can’t answer all the particular questions one might have in a specific situation but will give a few broad suggestions.

Understand the priority of discipleship. When something is important to us, we usually find or make the time for it. It’s about teaching others to follow the Chief Shepherd. Are our many activities more important than that?

Use everyday life, teachable moments. Discipleship is about sharing the Word with people but also praying for them, encouraging them, being an example for them, and spurring them on which does not require a formal meeting but can be done in any setting.

Utilize a network of people and opportunities to help you. Don’t think that you can do it all but certainly do what you can do. Networking is not about relieving you of the responsibility to disciple but rather of helping you do it better.