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Separating Life and Ministry

May 11, 2011

LEADERSHIP

This is a guest post by Noah Lomax. He is the Director of Student Activities at Maranatha Baptist Bible College in southern Wisconsin. You can follow him on twitter or check out his blog.

More than any other culture I have witnessed, Americans compartmentalize. We try not to mix work and pleasure, and we are told to avoid talking about religions and politics. We try to reach certain crowds through our job, our writing or our personality without mixing too much “Christian.” We try to separate work, ministry, family and our personal lives. But is that even possible?

Can Christians separate ministry from life?

Titus 2:14 says, “Who (Christ) gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

It sounds to me that a motivating factor in Christ paying the ultimate sacrifice was to thrust us into a life of ministry. Therefore, the more we embrace Christ’s work on the cross the more we will embrace the work He has for us on earth.

Life cannot be separated from ministry because life is ministry.

As we read from the famously misunderstood discourse of James 2, our life of faith should be evidenced by a life of faithful ministry!

The work that we are called to is so valuable that Christ gave His life for us to be able to perform it!

Where do you find it hardest to guard against compartmentalizing ministry from the rest of life?

 

 

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  • http://profiles.google.com/pastorbradgilbert Pastor Brad Gilbert

    I touched on this subject this past Sunday in my message as we have been going through Nehemiah. God never separates work as secular and spiritual. Examples

    I gave were Paul using his tent making abilities to fund his church planting ministry; Moses as a
    shepherd
    for 40 years before he led Israel for 40 years; and Nehemiah being a king’s
    cup bearer
    which put him in the position to get the funding needed for the rebuilding job.

    • Anonymous

      Good analogies!

    • http://www.noahlomax.com Noah Lomax

      Wow! Great illustrations! You said it far better than I did! Is that message online?

  • Stephen King

    There is a place for rest and family in a life of ministry; Christ says “come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The key is that we cannot balance our lives on our own–we wind up fitting God into our schedules.

    God delegates rest and family time to us. I am commanded to live my wife as Christ loved the church, and to train my children. Those are part of my role as a servant of God. If I am right with God I will spend time with family and (limited) time recharging.

    There are times that the burden of ministry can rob a full-time Christian worker of his or her ability to rest in the times that call for it. In those instances, I do believe it is important to “put aside” the burdens for a time so as not to shortchange your family. But to some extent carrying those burdens is a part of the job.

    • Anonymous

      My take on the article, @4f003ba28cdb10ad7bff72990a28770a:disqus , is that life and ministry are much the same thing. My family is my ministry. I don’t just “veg” for the my own sake when I am with my family. I should constantly be ministering to and with them.

      Noah and I would both agree that there is a time for personal and family, but they are not separated from a life of ministry. When we say this is ministry and that is personal, we draw a line that isn’t found in Scripture. I am always to be ministering, even at times to myself.

      Hope that makes sense.

      • http://www.noahlomax.com Noah Lomax

        @mattmcmorris:disqus , you nailed it! I’m sitting in Turkey right now and I’m witnessing this every day. Middle Eastern cultures simply do not separate things into compartments. Their responsibility to their family and even themselves is an outflow of their belief or ministry, not a separate entity.

        I completely agree with
        @markjmartin:disqus
        &
        @4f003ba28cdb10ad7bff72990a28770a:disqus
        . The thrust of the article, however, leans towards seeing every aspect of my life through “God-glorifying” glasses, if you will. While that does not mean carrying “ministry burdens” home at night, it simply means living a philosophy that should flow into and out of all facets of my life.

        Matt, said it perfectly, “When we say this is ministry and that is personal, we draw a line that
        isn’t found in Scripture. I am always to be ministering, even at times
        to myself.”

        Great thoughts!

        • http://markjmartin.com Mark Martin

          @NoahLomax:disqus Agreed!

        • Stephen King

          I guess I should specify that I was not in disagreement with the article, but rather indicating an area of the full-time worker’s life where “balance” is needed. I am wary of the word “balance,” which is often misused by people desiring to sound sophisticated to push God into a “balanced” compartment of their lives. I preached about “balance” recently when our Pastor was away, and the point I made was basically this:

          You don’t find balanced people in the Bible. Paul was not “balanced” by any current understanding of the term. Neither were the other apostles. Neither were the old testament prophets. The only time you hear about Israel’s greatest King, David, getting some R&R is when he’s about to make a devastating mistake that damages his life, his legacy, and his family.

          What you find in the Bible are people utterly consumed with God in every aspect of their life. Philippians 3:8 (“I count all things but loss”) is not a verse of someone who is carefully balancing work and family and rest and God. Romans 12:1 does not call us to balance Family and Work and God. Jesus did not command us to take up our cross on Sundays and Wednesdays.

          Modern Christians, including those in strong Bible-believing churches, try to “balance” their lives by giving some of their time and money and attention to God, but also giving attention to jobs and hobbies and other groups. It doesn’t work–people are busier and less happy, not rested and joyful. I believe many are going the wrong way.

          It is only at a place of complete surrender to God that one finds real “balance.” That balance is not achieved by man but delegated by God–for example, I am commanded to love my wife and train my children. I cannot be surrendered to God without doing those things. I must care for my body, the temple of the Holy Ghost. A command of God. And we are all commanded to work. Paul, who “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,” made tents.

          And in following God in this way, there is real joy and rest, just as Christ promised. Because we know we are doing His will.

          • http://www.noahlomax.com Noah Lomax

            Great thoughts, Stephen! In fact, that’s a great post!

    • http://markjmartin.com Mark Martin

      I think it’s not an either/or, but a both/and.

      In order to have time for family, I believe it needs to be set aside.

      The fact that it is set aside doesn’t compartmentalize it from the need to serve them.

  • Daniel Hopkins

    God says that if we lack wisdom(everyone does), that we should ask of Him. Each man’s life/schedule is unique. if point #1 is that we shouldn’t compartmentalize, then maybe point #2 could be that we shouldn’t categorize (stereotype) because God allows us to be unique. Though our hearts and minds should always be centered around the Lord, sometimes we need rest from the physical aspect of church ministry. it is a wonderful thing when the Lord allows us to take a few days to recalibrate and renew our vision for our ministry both to our church/Pastor and our families.

    BTW, when Christ was by Himself praying for 40 days, I wouldn’t call that a vacation. He was in the wilderness (not quite the resort) and he was fasting (not relaxing). But we do see passages that allude to the fact that he did depart for rest and prayer in his 3 1/2 years of ministry.

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