Staying Christian While Being in Ministry

I have found that one of the hardest things about being in ministry (for me now for over two decades) is maintaining my faith.  Yes, I just said that.

The ministry is a wonderful calling—an adventure in walking with Christ that’s a little off the beaten path compared to most vocations.  In being called to full time ministry I have been invited to walk a path similar to the path Jesus walked—dependent on God through His people for my salary, called to serve and lead this fabulous, messy group of people called the Church. 

Written by Stefa Chappell

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Ministry is not unique in having intense pressures.  What makes ministry unique is that it is so intricately bound with our faith.  If I did not love God, why would I be in ministry?  But the pressures, criticism, unending workload, typically lower pay and higher expectations can have an adverse effect on a person’s spiritual life.  Outside of a daily, protected time with Jesus, there are a few things I have found to help me keep my faith in Jesus central to my life as I endeavor to serve in this wonderful ministry. 

Take intentional time away from the ministry to be reminded that you are first and foremost a child of God.

Several years agoI took a six-month sabbatical—I was burned out and too young to be that way.  For much of my sabbatical I traveled and stayed with dear friends who just loved me.  Without question, the most valuable thing that the Lord did deep inside me was to remind me that I am first and foremost His daughter.  I don’t think you need to take a sabbatical to learn that lesson (although I think more ministers would be healthier and more fruitful if they did!), but it must be learned.  I was called into relationship with God before I was called to ministry.  I was called to relationship with God before the earth was founded.  That’s got to mean something. 

Have friends outside of the ministry.

My friends are lawyers, image consultants and nurses—they own their own businesses and work at places like NASA and somewhere that has to do with Defense (which I may or may not be allowed to know about). :)  As I interact with my friends we don’t talk much about what’s going on in my job (insert Selah here!).  We talk more about our relationship with God than my To Do list.  I am not the leader in our friendship.  I am a follower of Christ.

Remember that God really doesn’t need you.

The simple fact is that God can do this work without me.  Yes, He wants me to be involved (which is why He asked) and He wants to partner with us mere mortals to see His Kingdom come to earth (and He always will), but He really doesn’t need me to make sure it all happens.  When I keep this in mind I can’t help but respond with gratitude for being a part of this work.  There are times when I literally say to God, “Thanks for thinking of me.”  Gratitude nurtures a healthy relationship with God (or with anyone, really), and that’s a great way to stay Christian in the ministry!

Building a Discipleship Culture

Jesus was a master teacher and in creating our own culture of discipleship, we'd be wrong to stray too far from his example.  He invited those who would follow Him into a pattern of transformation. Dallas Willard in Renovation of the Heart describe His 3 basic steps: vision, intention and means.  

Jesus shares the vision of the kingdom through the parables.  They’re in a sense the doorway for a new way of thinking about God and the world.  That's great, but by itself a doorway serves only a decorative purpose. It does nothing unless it’s used. That’s where the intention comes in.  

 Written by Mike Godzwa

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Intention is catalyzed when our will responds to the vision presented. Jesus shares a parable, a teaching, performs a miracle and presents a picture of the world first century Israelites were unfamiliar with, but at the same time were captivated by.  There were those who chose to just relate their experience with others. “Do you remember the time when Jesus healed that guy who was born blind--that was amazing!”  There were those who stood on the sidelines keeping track of the rules.  “Yeah he may have been healed, but it was done on the wrong day.  Jesus is a phony.”  Then there were those who knew Jesus’ actions and teachings were pointing to something more.  As Jesus spoke, they recognized the seed of truth and responded to the stirring that was in their hearts.  They were the ones who pushed through the crowd, who dropped their nets, who asked the questions.  That’s intention at work. They weren’t satisfied to sit on the sidelines and criticize or capture a memory--they wanted to be changed.  

Then Jesus presented the means: “Follow me.” And that’s what they did, literally. They gave up their old way of life and followed Jesus around, absorbing his teaching, discussing the details of the kingdom and helping to bring it about through their direct action.  Little by the little that action, coupled with the means changed everything about them.

That same process is available to us. Jesus' teachings are compelling, but they're not meant for just inspiration, they're meant to produce action. As you allow your intention to respond to Jesus' vision you begin to put his words into practice. Where there's a step of obedience to take, you make it. Where there's a habit to implement, you start it. Little by little the kingdom grows in us in both our understanding and our action.  

When we do this as individuals, we grow to be more like Jesus.  When we share this pattern with others, it develops a culture of discipleship that can deeply impact the society around you.  

From Forgetting to Remembering

          Emily Packer

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Though I’d like to deny it, I forget about God’s love more often in my life than I remember it. Lucky for me, when I do remember, I’m amazed all over again. It’s kind of like learning to play an instrument in elementary school, having a terrible middle school band teacher, then picking that instrument up again in college. You can talk all you want about how you played an instrument (because we all know music makes us smarter, right?), but bragging about the past is never as satisfying as busting that baby out in worship and showing people you play. Likewise, loving God can become an instrument you claim to play but never practice. It’s even worse when you remember the feeling of playing, and settle for the memory of it. You’ve still got bragging rights though, right??? Of course! But that memory becomes a barrier to the upfront-in-your-face kind of love available to you everyday. In fact, right now.

Sometimes, when I feel God’s love “slipping” from my reach, I’ll think of a time He really came through for me. With this thoughtful plan of mine I construct the perfect way for God’s love to only become real when I want it to. Unfortunately, the hard truth is God’s love is said to be constant and consistent, and so even as I write this post He is proving my plan defective by showing me His love. Will I think back on this moment whenever I feel God’s love waning? Probably not, because my mind will be searching for that one time at beach retreat when we all sang “Oceans” while slowly and figuratively walking into the ocean (not kidding, true story). However, I do have hope that one day, as I sit in my office chair or on an airplane seat or regrettably watching Transformers 5, I will feel the same gratitude for God’s love as I do in the middle of small group on a beach in North Carolina. After all, it’s as simple as ditching my faulty plan and realizing it was unnecessary all along.

Who Are You Cheering For?

Who are you cheering for? No, I'm not talking about college football (although the season does start in 50 days). I mean, who in your life are you cheering on? Or what does that look like? I've got a few thoughts. 

Living in the DC and working in campus ministry at an elite university, sometimes I'm suffocated by the amount of competition (while other days, it can be so easy to sucuumb to the temptations of ambition). When I first moved to the city for the DC Chi Alpha CMIT Program, I was looking for ways to serve the students in my small group and others that I'd met on campus. I was a little bit at a loss because these students didn't necessarily have the needs I was familiar with: knowledge, resources, vision. 

Written by Blane Young

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For several years, I'd primarily worked children and teenages in low-income neighborhoods where the needs seemed to be more obvious. This was an entirely different scenario! 

But as I processed the story that God was (and is) writing at Chi Alpha at American University, I noticed something. It was later confirmed by several seniors as we discussed their time involved in our ministry.

Our community became a place where people found affirmation without competition. 

I don't know if you've ever been in a community like that. I hope you have. But in some ways, I think all of us have at least one person in our lives who is a cheerleader (for lack of a better word). Like, whether you tell them that you're going to a concert or you're spending a year helping children to learn to read overseas, they're excited for you and want to pack you a snack. 

So, how do we do this? 

Like most things in life that matter, it's going to require intentionality. In other words, it won't happen without us putting thought as to how it'll happen. 

I think we have to engage in the discipline of listening, for starters.  I mean, how can we support people in what they're doing if we're only focused on what we'd like to see them do. 

Perhaps you have a friend trying to be an artist or someone committed to a certain cause like Relay for Life. Whatever it is, I'm finding that being an influence in someone's life is more nuanced than simply painting a picture of what you'd like to see them do and asking them to make it happen. 

Instead, it's about supporting them as they pursue their dreams, as their potential leaks out amidst a competitive society, they'll need someone clapping behind them as they run towards doing something amazing. It takes more time than applying a cookie-cutter to people but the results are always better. 

I've got to admit, I'm not the best at this, but I've had a handful of people in my life that have done this for me and I can tell you, it makes a difference. 

The next thing we have to do is find ways to express to this person that we're rooting for them, that we're on their team. So, telling them is a great option. It's strange how often we expect people to know how we feel without ever telling them. It sounds obvious, but how many of us do it? 

Yet there's another level you can take this to. Find ways to engage and participate in the things they're passionate about. 

This is what affirmation, in my opinion, looks like at its best. 

Its people intentionally and deliberately recognizing how God is working in people's lives through their giftings and talents, then simply yet boldly using our voices and our time to let them know we as committed to them as they are to whatever they're doing.

We've probably all heard the cliche, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." Although I believe it's true, let's take it a step further. People are most influenced in the context of relationship (see Mark 2) or as I've heard it more recently, "People may not remember what we tell them but they'll never forget how we made them feel."

The last and perhaps most difficult thing it takes to make this sort of impact on someone, is the continual refocusing from self to others. Yet, it's so essential to the message of Christ, we can't ignore it, no matter how many times we failed or how tiring it is.

I hope that you experience the joy and fulfillment of cheering on a friend, loved one or relative. And remember that as you do, you're embarking on a journey to become more like Christ while infusing courage (the definition of encouraging) someone else who's also somewhere on that journey.  

A Life of Distraction

Since I have returned to DC from Missouri, I have been shivering in my boots (rhetorically speaking; it’s summer, why would I wear boots?).  No, not because I walk in from the blazing heat in Noah-inspired levels of perspiration to the Arctic Circle (isn’t that what AC stands for?).  It is that blasted DC traffic.  In a simple month I’ve lost all capacity to tango these metal rapids.  Oh, but I’ve overcome y’er tidalous waves before City, and I’ll do it again!  

What I find most helpful is focus.  

Surprise.  

Written by Nick Holmstedt

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Simple focus can suppress your flighty arms from flailing and fumbling.  The streets are just so filled with distractions, though.  It’s really important to watch that robin feed its chicks.  Or the kayakers in the Potomac.  Or my sandwich.  And suddenly I’m swerving.  Sometimes I’m on the highway, and what brings me back are those obnoxious CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK strips on the side of the road.  Sometimes in the city I get a honk… or a thumbs up (wrong finger, strangely).  In any case, these interruptions bring me back from my distraction.

I think this held true in my lifestyle.  My focus was torn between the real interests of my life as I stepped into college.  Education, relationship, church, campus ministry, jobs, books, creating lists of interests.  My life was filled with distraction.  Not bad things.  Just many things without focus.  

One summer I faced my first interruption.  More or less on a whim I attended a leadership retreat with our campus ministry.  Someone must’ve changed the angle light was entering me, because my image was clearer.  In this interruption (from life), I was free to leave behind distraction.  I was pleased to have a fixed focal point.  

I needed this more than once.  As I grew more involved in my campus ministry, taking on leadership, I discovered the picture can always get clearer.  Miscommunications.  Broken relationships.  Missed opportunities.  Interruptions.  No moment off your path seems right.  But without the interruption of campus ministry, I would have been off kilter (do people still use that?).  Campus ministry not only provided the interruption to my life, but it was the LASIK machine.  

God is an excellent eye surgeon.  Over the years on campus, He managed the ministers (in title and otherwise) well.  He repaired my eye’s uneven lens.  He gave me friends.  He gave me focus.  He gave me the capacity to walk His path.  Without campus ministry I could not define my life now.  I was uncertain, floating in mysterious mists.  But now I stand with the joy of the Lord, to share His good news with all the purpose and provision He delights to provide. 

Don’t go blind.  All you college folk go out and find your campus ministry!