Tug of war – Job vs Ministry
If you have been in ministry any length of time, you quickly realize that what you think you should be doing often conflicts with the expectations that others have of you. Sometimes these are minor things, but many times they are major differences.
The sad thing is that doing a good job at a church is not always the same as doing good ministry. In other words, when you are employed by a church, there are two spheres – the job and the ministry. Many times, they overlap or are complimentary. Sometimes, though, they have the potential to clash, or at worst can completely derail your ministry.
Here is the difference between doing a good job and doing good ministry…
GOOD JOB
Please constituents and board – When you’re doing a good job, you’re making these people happy. No matter what they are wanting or looking for you must please them.
Quality programs – When you’re doing a good job your programs look good, are professional, and are entertaining. They have few, if any, flaws and people are impressed by all that is going on.
Top down approach – To do a good job, you display proper leadership. You take charge, give direction, and are “the man” (or, “the woman” if you’re female). People look to you to take charge.
Numerical growth – If you’re doing a good job, your ministry will be growing numerically. We’re not talking a few people here or there, but considerable growth.
More stuff – When your job is going well, you can point to all sorts of different things going on. New programs? Check. Great activities? Check. The busy-ness of your calendar is the marker of your success.
GOOD MINISTRY
Please God – The primary focus of good ministry is pleasing God. You can have the best looking ministry in the world, but if it doesn’t please God and bring glory to Him, then its a waste. When you seek to please God in all your ministry does, then you cannot fail.
Life changing programs – Your programs should not exist just to look good. They should exist to change lives. If your programs are not changing lives, you should work to make them do that.
Bottom up approach – Good ministry happens when leadership works from the ground up. In other words, servant leadership. You need to be a servant, not a boss. Also, those around you show the same leadership quality of servanthood.
Spiritual growth – Good ministry happens when teens exhibit spiritual growth. You see them move from clueless kids to adults on fire for God. You can’t define spiritual growth as easily as numerical growth because you can’t put a number to it, and its frustrating because it might seem like your students take 2 steps forward and 3 steps back. Yet over time you can see that there is real growth.
More Jesus – Jesus does not equal activity. Sometimes Jesus equals resting, listening, and waiting. It does not show up on a time sheet, newsletter, or TPS report. But good ministry strives to have more Jesus, not more stuff.
Good ministry and good job are not incompatible. On the surface, there is nothing wrong with pleasing the people who pay your checks, creating quality programs, being a good leader, growing numerically, or even having a full calendar. The problem lies when you (or worse, church leadership) puts more weight doing a good job than doing good ministry. It is hard not to after all. Those first 5 are so much easier to measure than the second 5. People can talk about how happy you make them. God doesn’t get up and testify about us on Sunday morning. You can show pictures and video of how great your programs look. You can’t take a picture of how someone’s life changes due to your program. Being the out in front leader is easier to see than the servant whose right hand doesn’t know what his left hand is doing. Numerical growth can be counted. Spiritual growth can’t. More stuff can be seen on the website, the bulletin, and the newsletter. More Jesus is not easily seen.
It is not about finding a balance. It is about maximizing your ministry while trying to fit your job into it as best you can. Sometimes they will go in the same direction. Other times, they will be in conflict. In those times, If you are the one who is too focused on doing a good job,you will have to choose ministry or job. I encourage you to choose ministry. It might not be easy or popular, but it will be the best thing. If others (ie church leadership or congregation) are the ones who try to get you to focus on the job aspect more than the ministry aspect, it will be more difficult. If they are godly people and have just got off track, a simple correction could be in order. If they are not, then there is not much you can do. Do your best to make these people happy without violating your principles and damaging your ministry. Ultimately, you don’t answer to them, even if they pay your pay checks. You answer to God.
I encourage you to minister, not just do a job. Be the best minister you can be, not the best church employee. How have you seen the “job” and “ministry” clash?
Related posts: