The Effectiveness of the Ministry
The Effectiveness of the Ministry
Is your ministry influential and deep in the hearts of the people? Does it bear fruit that multiplies day after day?
Is your ministry fervent as if it were a live coal of fire, with its own heat? Or is it a lifeless ministry, having nothing but the outward form of service?
Has your ministry brought about a radical change in the Church? Or has no one even felt it?
Have the seeds that you cast sprouted? Have they budded? Have they blossomed? Have they borne fruit? What is their condition, and what is their effectiveness?
Let us look at the depth and effectiveness of ministry in the work of the Twelve, who within a few years, their words reached to the ends of the inhabited world.
One sermon from Peter the Apostle turned three thousand to Christianity, and they were baptized.
Or a ministry like that of John the Baptist, who in about six months was able to prepare the way before the Lord and lead a great people to repentance, confession, and baptism.
Or as another example, the ministry of Saint Stephen, the first of the deacons, who in a short period confounded many synagogues, and the word of God grew and multiplied, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith (Acts 6:7).
All these had effectiveness in their ministry because they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit was working in them with power.
Paul the Apostle—how fruitful his ministry also was… How many churches he founded, and he labored more abundantly than all the apostles, wrote epistles, and deposited the faith in the hearts of faithful disciples who were able to teach others also.
A saint such as Mark the Apostle entered Egypt when there were no Christians and not even one church in it, and after a period it was all transformed to Christianity, and his ministry brought forth much fruit.
What is important is not the large number of servants, but their quality, the measure of grace given to them, and the depth of their influence on others.
Let us therefore examine our ministry: Has it brought forth thirty, or sixty, or a hundred? Or has it brought forth nothing? Is it in continual growth, in number and in spirit? Has it led to repentance, or to the love of God, or to degrees of holiness and perfection, and has it made those who are served into servants?
Also, has your ministry had its effect on you yourself? Are you growing in your spiritual life, and by your growth does the ministry grow, and by its growth do you increase day after day?
How marvelous is what was said in The Paradise of the Fathers about Saint John the Short, that all of Scetis became hanging upon his finger, although he was still young.
The same effectiveness was very clear in Saint Theodore, the disciple of Saint Pachomius.
A ministry without effectiveness is a burden upon the Church, and it occupies a place that could have been filled by another person bearing fruit, depth, and communion with God.
In modern history, let us remember and take heed:
How great was the effectiveness of the ministry of our teacher Habib Girgis, and the Archdeacon Iskandar Hanna…
And how deep was the ministry of some branches that produced many men of the clergy.
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