Relationship, Roles, and Minstries

This week, at Rockbridge Seminary, the course, The Theology and Practice of Ministry is focusing on the roles of minister as priest, slave, and steward (household manager).

When it comes to helping people discover their ministries, there must be an emphasis on relationship with Christ and personal passion. One pastor friend of one of the students made a good comment:“You can ‘serve without loving but you cannot love without serving...” This insight points to the need for relationship to shape our ministries.

Almost every ministry needs help in some areas that may not match people’s primary passion. One thing that will help when filling those needs is to describe them as “secondary ministries,” and to let people know they do not have to be locked into those positions forever. The goal is to have every Christian discover his or her primary ministry. Also, we would do well to eliminate as many programs as possible that do no match the primary ministries of people.

The “Yes, but how?” aspect of this is the challenge we face as church leaders.
In discussing our roles as priests, slaves, and managers, we will gravitate toward one of these because of the particular ways God has shaped us for ministry, but, in our desire to serve Christ, we will ask Him to make all three of these qualities known in our lives.

For a while at our church, we had unusual groupings for our Sunday School classes simply because we only had classes where the teachers felt led to teach instead of having the classes and trying to force someone into those positins.

What are some ways you help people discover their primary ministries?