A few more thoughts left out from the sermon and this week's texts

There is always so much more to say about any given text than what I can say about it on Sunday morning. For one reason I am not as gifted of a speaker as what I would like. Second, the attention span of the average person is not what it was some years back, thank you t.v.. Third, our wonderful people working downstairs with our little ones can only handle them for a certain amount of time, may the Lord bless them. Fourth, the reality is we can only absorb so much information, but I seek to have one main point not five or six. With that being said...

I am considering the nature of Paul's ministry. Paul had to defend himself against those inside the church and those outside the church. How do we define what is a successful ministry? We could spend weeks discussing this, but in reference to this specific text (2 Corinthians 2) a few things come to mind.

Paul teaches us that it matters much more who the person of God is, rather than what they can do. What I mean by that is God is much more concerned about character than He is performance. Paul's ministry was not based upon his enormous personality, nor in his resume of building large congregations. His ministry was based upon his own testimony of the transformational work of the Holy Spirit in his life. Paul understood that for the ministry to be healthy it could not be about him, rather it needed to be focused upon Christ. Too often we miss this point in ministries today.

Understand that if we have the wrong attitude about the nature of the church or the nature of those called into fulltime ministry (or part time for that matter) it can be detrimental to the health of the church, her ministers, and the congregation as a whole. The Church is called to seek the Lord, to worship the Lord, and to share the Good News about the Lord. We are to mediate God's glory to the ends of the earth. However, if we are not careful we can make the local congregation into just another group of consumers. In America we can have the wrong idea that going to church is kind of like going to spiritual Wal-Mart; meaning it can become a place where we look for our needs to be met rather than seeing it as a family that we blessed to be a part of. Please never see yourself as a religious consumer looking to the church and her ministers to meet your needs and if you don't get what you perceive you need you simply look at another church. (Please do not take that the wrong way. If you are not going where the Bible is taught, the love of the Lord is central, and love for the people is proclaimed it is not a healthy place.)

What did Paul see as his primary role? No doubt it was the preaching and teaching of the Word and prayer. While there are other areas of ministry are very important Paul understood that vital nature of these things. While there will be some managerial tasks, counseling, programing, and emotional cheerleading that needs to take place, the Word must be kept central. This can be difficult to do when so many ministers are trying to please so many people in so many different ways. Part of the answer here is lies in the reality that the role of a minister is not so much to do the ministry as a hireling, but to equip the people to do ministry. We are blessed in this congregation to have many that serve in many roles, though it never seems to be enough. We are blessed to have Elders that love the congregation and seek to minister to them as best they can.

Paul wants us to see the local body as a family. This is a family that serves the Lord, serves one another, and seeks to serve those outside the church. We are a church with a mission that is directly from God. We are called to be ministers of reconciliation. Well I could go on, but I will stop.

That being said, there will be more said about this when we get to Chapter 3 this Sunday. I love studying God's Word verse by verse and phrase by phrase. I hope you do as well.

Here is this week's texts:

August 22, 2013            Ps 58–62, Rom 12, Ps 99:1–3, Prov 20:29–30

August 23, 2013            Ps 63–67, Rom 13:1–7, Ps 99:4–9, Prov 21:1–3

August 24, 2013            Ps 68–69, Rom 13:8–14:13, Ps 100, Prov 21:4–5

August 25, 2013            Ps 70–72, Rom 14:14–15:13, Ps 101, Prov 21:6–8

August 26, 2013            Ps 73–76, Rom 15:14–33, Ps 102:title–5, Prov 21:9–11

August 27, 2013            Ps 77–78, Rom 16, Ps 102:6–11, Prov 21:12–13

August 28, 2013            Ps 79–81, 1 Cor 1:1–17, Ps 102:12–18, Prov 21:14–15

August 29, 2013            Ps 82–84, 1 Cor 1:18–2:5, Ps 102:19–28, Prov 21:16–18