I don’t know about you, but I’m always asking the Lord to help me be more effective in the ministry. It seems that with every passing year, the challenges we face are greater, the time constraints more pressing, and the needs around us enlarged. Through God’s grace, I want to be the most effective servant possible in the midst of these challenges.
In this growth points video, I share five characteristics that I am always seeking to develop in my own life and that I look for in the lives of those laboring here in our ministry as well.
(If you you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, you can watch it here.)
Here are the points that I develop more thoroughly in the video:
- A heart for God—I want to continually maintain a heart for God and live with a Christ-centered focus every day.
- A life of distinction—I know that to some extent this plays out differently in every life and ministry, but Scripture does teach us that the life of a Christian servant should be very different from that of the world. In this day of confusion, we need to give a clear sound from our lives as well as our pulpit ministries.
- A servant’s heart—I find that people today are often experts at seeing needs for others to follow through on. Be someone who anticipates the needs of others and has the servant’s heart to get involved personally.
- A passion for souls—It’s easy to begin in ministry with a passion for souls but lose that over time through self absorption. Renew your passion through prayer and consistently speaking to the lost about Christ. May we never be passive with the gospel.
- A love for the local church—If you’re going to have a truly effective Christian life, it’s going to be in, by, and through the local, New Testament church. Even if you serve in an educational ministry or a para-church organization, fully engage in the baseline responsibilities of the body life of the local church—attendance, soulwinning, partaking of the Lord’s Table, tithing, and serving your church family. It is the church that was established by Jesus and commissioned to reach the world with the gospel and to be the pillar and ground of the truth.
