From the lectures of Pope Shenouda III at the Ministry Conference in Fleming, 24/8/1970

Does your ministry have effectiveness in the souls of those you serve? Does it have power, influence, and depth in people’s hearts? Does it have spiritual fruit that multiplies day after day? Do you have a fervent ministry, as if it were burning coals of fire? Or is your ministry inactive and formal, having a form of godliness?

Has your ministry been able to bring about a radical change in the Church? Have those you serve felt it, and have its fruits appeared in them? Has it leafed? Has it flourished? Has it borne fruit? What is its condition? Is it increasing or decreasing?

What shall we say about a ministry that has 200 students in primary, 100 in preparatory, and 20–30 in secondary, while the number continues to decrease?

The Lord Jesus Christ sent 12 apostles for ministry to all parts of the inhabited world, along with seventy others. According to worldly thinking based on planning, this number would not be sufficient for one country, let alone the whole world.

The Lord Jesus Christ did not plan based on the human ability of the servants, but on the power of the Holy Spirit for ministry.

Thus He appointed 12 servants, filled with the Holy Spirit, clothed with power from on high, and their voices were able to reach the ends of the inhabited world.

Stephen the deacon was full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. Therefore, when three philosophical councils stood before him,
“they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.”

So the matter is not in the number of servants, but in power, depth, and spirit—in the effective, living Word of God upon their mouths.

It was said about the Church in the days of the apostles: the Word of the Lord grew, and the number of churches increased day by day, and the Lord added to the Church daily those who were being saved… the ministry had influence, effectiveness, and power.

So, does your ministry also have power? Does it have the power of the Spirit in changing souls?

The Spirit who gives a word to the evangelists magnifies power. Let those who serve reflect on the word “power,” which was mentioned in the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles… The Lord Jesus said: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”

Perhaps we say: they were few in Your days, O Lord. But now we have tens of thousands of servants. Does the phrase “the laborers are few” apply to us?

Yes. The laborers who have the power of the Spirit are few. The laborers in whom the Spirit of God works, whose ministry has deep influence and multiplying fruit, are undoubtedly few… We have servants for ordinary classes. But those who serve youth meetings, university groups, and those who speak in conferences are undoubtedly few. The word “servant” is deeper than the word “teacher.”

We have tens of thousands of teachers. But the servants who work by the Spirit are few.

A servant like the Apostle Paul, for example—his selection was undoubtedly a serious event in the Church. He labored more than all the apostles, “besides the concern for all the churches,” and it is enough that he said: “Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?”… He who was called “the Apostle to the Gentiles,” whose preaching reached Spain in the west, and who wrote 14 epistles…

We are ready to dispense with tens of thousands of servants we have, in exchange for one Paul…

And his ministry would be more beneficial than thousands. The matter is not a matter of number, but of effectiveness, influence, power, and spirit. We may find in one branch thirty servants with no zeal at all in their ministry, then a new servant enters the branch and makes it a flame of fire…

The tongues of fire that came upon the disciples gave them a fiery tongue, fiery words, and a ministry with flame, effectiveness, fervor in spirit, fervor in prayer, and fervor in visitation. They are coals of fire that the world kept tossing until the whole world was set ablaze.

Believe me, the title “servant” is not deserved by many servants, and not every ministry has the spiritual qualities of service…

Therefore, at times I thought of gathering the old servants among whom we lived, in whom the Spirit of God worked, and making them a group that visits the branches and grants them a spirit—the spirit that was working in that time, when the ministry was a flame of fire. Look at what Augustine did, for example, when he entered the field of ministry. His influence was not limited to his generation; even now we still benefit from his ministry and reflections.

Theodore, the disciple of Pachomius, when he became a monk, how deep was his influence on monastic life in all the monasteries… Likewise John the Short, of whom it was said that he hung all of Scetis on his finger.

There are individuals in every generation distinguished from others—servants of a special kind, as the Bride in the Song said: “My beloved is distinguished among ten thousand.”

 An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in El-Keraza Magazine – Year Eight (Issue Thirty-Eight), 23-9-1977.
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