Reflections on 5 Years of Ministry

Time flies when your…doing ministry, apparently.  People often talk about how kids grow up before you know it, but it is true of a church as well.  It is hard to believe we have been here five years.  The mixture of excitement and uncertainty felt in that first year is still vivid.  Maybe it is because that mixture of excitement and uncertainty is still around in certain ways.  I am excited because I know that God is at work in our church.  Sometimes it is bubbling and crackling right in front of us, other times it is mysteriously working deep below the surface and all we have is the promise that it is happening.  There is uncertainty as well.  We really don’t know what God is doing in most of life, and so as a church we have to say what everyone else has to say, “If God wills, we will live and also do this or that.” James 4:15  And so we keep following Him as little children follow a strong and wise father.  He is conforming us to the image of his Son, and below are some reflections on what that has looked like over these years. 

• I think the first thought may be the one that controls all the rest. It is this:  Paul was right when he cried out in 2 Cor. 2:16 “And who is adequate for these things?”  This same sentiment continued to rise up out of Paul in 2 Corinthians.  3:5 “Not that we are adequate in ourselves…”  4:1 “Since we have this ministry, as we received mercy…”  4:7 “We have this treasure in earthen vessels…”  When you think about it, the truth is overwhelming.  We are opposed by the smartest, most powerful being ever created, who has massive influence in all the engines of culture.  He truly is the “god of this world.”  And our goal is to spread a passion for the glory of Christ, among people who are spiritual corpses.   So we have an impossible job while being opposed by the strongest being. What does this do but create humility and dependency?   I am clearly not humble and dependent enough, but I am thankful that the Lord is moving us in that direction. 

• I will never forget the tempting power of the new and exciting. On the first Sunday of ODF the service was nearly packed.  This was exciting and a bit concerning, simply because we were already at maximum capacity.  But within a month or two many of those people had evaporated away without a trace.  What had happened?  The novelty wore off.  We were a simple church to begin with and we still are in many respects.  I do believe that we could have kept those people, and brought in a lot more, if we kept the hype up with ever morphing concert-like meetings and an expanding list of faddish programs.  That takes a lot of resources so I don’t know that we could have done that even if we had wanted to.  But the point is, we didn’t want to.  We were committed to Biblical ministry and not a purely pragmatic ministry.  We want to plant and water and watch God grow things as we read in 1 Corinthians 3.  Sometimes he does that really fast, but normally it is progressive.  We don’t want to manipulate and conform to get things growing.  We want growth that is a response to truth, not novelty and hype. 

• Ministry is done by needy people. At every turn I find that I need people.  I have needed wisdom for perplexing circumstances.  I have needed rebuke for hard-heartedness and blindness.  I have needed a dose of reality.  I have needed people with skills I did not have.  We have needed outside assistance and direction and more.  I am so thankful for the people that serve and give.  I can’t imagine not working alongside elders and deacons and all the various men and women who make things happen.   Truly, this is a body with all different parts.   

• I have found over the years that you often can’t make things be what you want them to be. There are no perfect churches, and we clearly exemplify this.  There are things about our church that I would love to change.  So why don’t we change them?  Well, there are a host of reasons.  One, some changes require people that we don’t have.  Two, some changes require resources that we don’t have.  Three, some changes need wisdom that we simply have not prayed fervently enough for.  Fourth, some changes need lots of time.  And I am sure there are other reasons that could be added.  So what are we going to do?  One option is to ramrod things.  We can force things to happen and there is a temptation to do this.  But it is always counter-productive, isn’t it?  The sheep of God’s fold usually know when they are being herded along by a self-willed hireling.  When God leads, things often happen on a different time-table, in different ways, and with different results than we expect.  My prayer is that God would lead us, and when we start to get in the way he gently puts us back in our place. 

• After thinking about the difficulty of making changes, that leads me to think about prayer. When things do happen, it is always after prayer.   And we have seen this in our church.  This church exists because people were praying about it.  We have needed help with our music and after prayer, God provided wonderfully.  God used our prayer and fasting to heal a grandson connected to our church.  We have prayed for growth and God has begun to do that in surprising ways.  Prayer works!  It is effectual.  God truly has made us a real part of how things happen.  For this reason, we need to pray more.  The amount and fervency of our praying is the demonstration of how little or how much we feel our dependence.  I pray that God makes us into a praying church more and more.    

• Another thing I rejoice over is that this church has allowed myself and the elders to minister with joy. Hebrews 13:17 says “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.”  A church can make ministry a burden, with great difficulty and many tears.  What a blessing that is not the case here.  The profit that can be found here is in a large part due to people who are speeding things along with their prayer and joyful participation. 

So what is the summary of all of this?  I think it is summed up in that first point; who is adequate for these things?  Thinking through the above points we find that God has put us here with a task only he can accomplish, through methods he establishes, with people and resources he brings to us, on a time-table he determines, through prayer that he calls us to.  It is all about Him, and we are not adequate to serve such a great king.  And so, from top to bottom, ODF exists and operates because of mercy and grace.   God gets all of the glory, because the giver always gets the glory.  “Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”