Ministry
Ministry
† Ministry is not merely teaching or instruction. It is not merely information, otherwise it would be an intellectual work. Rather, it is love that fills the servant’s heart toward the Kingdom of God and toward all people…
Out of the abundance of his love, he desires that all people be saved and walk in the way of the Kingdom. Ministry, then, is an expression of the love that exists in the heart. It is the servant’s longing that every person be guided to God.
† Ministry is a spiritual experience that passes from one person to another. It is the state of a person who has been filled, and from his fullness overflows to others.
And none can overflow unless he has been filled…
The servant is a person who has tasted the sweetness of the Lord in his life. From the beauty of this experience, he calls out to the people, saying: “O taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8).
† Ministry is fellowship with the Holy Spirit in building the Kingdom…
The Holy Spirit works in people for their salvation, and for this we work with the Spirit. As the Apostle Paul said about himself and Silas: “We are labourers together with God.” We share with Him in the work, or we become God’s instrument through which He works.
† Ministry is a spiritual duty upon every person…
Every person who loves God and loves people must serve. He cannot see people perishing before him while remaining silent. When the Samaritan woman knew Christ, she preached Him. She did not only turn from a sinner into a penitent, but also into a servant. She went immediately, proclaiming to the people: “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did” (John 4:29).
Every person must serve, though ministry varies according to gifts:
One serves through teaching, another serves the poor, a third serves by good example. If you fall short in ministry, you ought to confess this before the father priest, for your shortcoming in ministry indicates that your love is not complete toward people, toward the Kingdom, and toward God and His children.
† Ministry is a holy zeal that possesses the heart…
As David said: “The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up” (Psalm 69:9). As the Apostle Paul said: “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16).
† Ministry is not only the work of human beings, but also the work of angels:
For the Apostle said about the angels: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14). Therefore the Scripture calls them servants: “Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire” (Hebrews 1:7).
† The one who serves offers part of the great debt that lies upon him.
He is indebted to the Church that taught him, refined him, guided him in the way of God, gave him the spirit of ministry, and filled him with the love by which he serves.
† The servant is not an official employee in the Church, but a heart inflamed with the love of God and of people. He is not governed by formalities, but by his conscience.
† The loving servant is like a highly attractive magnet; everyone who enters his sphere is drawn to him. His children respond to him with love for love.
† Alongside love and zeal, the true servant is distinguished by sincerity and faithfulness. This faithful servant is precise in everything—faithful in preparing lessons, in making the children understand, and in caring for them. Faithful in loving them, growing in love and in work; his ministry grows in number and in quality.
† The servant who grows in his ministry often reaches consecration.
He does not wish to consider ministry as an additional task in his life, to which he gives his spare time. Rather, ministry in his life is the foundation, and his other works he considers secondary matters beside ministry.
† The servant who loves ministry considers it one of the spiritual means, like prayer, fasting, meditation, and reading.
He sees that ministry causes him to grow in the love of God, not only to develop the lives of his children. He sees that in ministry he receives more than he gives.
Therefore he absolutely cannot dispense with ministry in his life. He thanks God who made him worthy to serve. In ministry he benefits from his lessons, perhaps more than his students do. He feels that the lesson he gives is for himself before it is for his students. He teaches them and learns with them.
The faithful servant cares for the single soul, as his Master cared—
Just as the Lord cared for one soul found lost among a flock of one hundred. Therefore he cares about individual work. The individual is not lost from him in the crowd of the group. He gives special care to each child, as though he had come especially for him, knowing that he will give account for every soul among his children.
† To know the seriousness of ministry, realize that one of you as a servant may be the only source of religion during this period of your children’s lives…
Perhaps they find no other source at home, at school, or in society that feeds them spiritually. If they do not find this spiritual nourishment in the Church at the hand of the servant, their lives may be lost because of the servant’s negligence.
† The true servant sets before him this verse as a motto in his ministry:
“For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth” (John 17:19).
For the holiness of the servant has its deep effect on the life of his disciple. The disciple takes from your life more than he takes from your sermons.
† The true servant is a living illustration of every virtue he teaches the children.
He is a practical model of virtues and of Christian life in general. Even if he does not speak, he can teach in his silence.
† The true servant is a teacher, a father, a guide, a friend, and a lover…
From the human side, he is everything to his disciples. He is the wide heart to which his disciple resorts and hides. His disciples are a second family to him, perhaps closer to him than his family by blood.
† The spiritual servant goes about doing good, as his Master did…
The spiritual servant continually grows. His disciples—however much they grow—feel that they receive something new from him and that he remains their example.
He does not leave the life of discipleship. Rather, he continually reads and learns, preserves his spiritual childhood, and refuses to wean himself from the breast of teaching.
† He is like evergreen trees that never wither…
Greenery flows always in his veins. Therefore he is ever blossoming and fruitful, ever living, ever fresh.
† The spiritual servant is a mediator between God and people.
He does not give from himself, but what he receives from the Spirit he gives to his children. He is always kneeling, asking from the Lord nourishment for them day by day.
He always says to the Lord: I do not want to give them from my humanity or from my ignorance, but the words that You put in my mouth are what I speak to them.
He is a sensitive ear to the mouth of God.
He discerns the voice of God and declares His will to the people.
Therefore his ministry is connected with prayer, because it is not a human work.
Ministry is not reliance on a human arm, but an expression of the work of the Spirit in the servants. How beautiful is the saying of Scripture: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Revelation 2).
The disciple goes to the Church to hear “what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Revelation 2). Wretched is he who goes merely to hear a human being.
What he hears from the teacher is what the Spirit says upon the mouth of that teacher. Therefore the spiritual servant prays to receive the lesson from the Spirit, and prays that the Spirit may grant understanding to the children, acceptance of the lesson, and ability to apply it. For lessons are not theories, but practical life, as the Lord Himself says:
“The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).
Have you received this Spirit, so that your words may be spiritual, giving life to those who hear them?
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