Ministry in no way is a privilege...it is the core of the Christian life. No Christian is a Christian without being a minister.
Interpretation
Ministry is essential to the Christian identity and not merely a privilege.
Henri Nouwen emphasizes that the essence of being a Christian goes beyond personal faith; it involves active service to others. Ministry is presented as a fundamental aspect of Christian life, suggesting that true Christianity entails a commitment to serve and minister to others, thus reinforcing the idea that every believer has a role in the larger community of faith.
In practice
In a church sermon discussing the role of laypeople in ministry.
The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. God loves us, not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love.
The immense joy in welcoming back the lost son hides in the immense sorrow that has gone before....our brokenness may appear beautiful, but our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it.
Suffering invites us to place our hurts in larger hands. In Christ we see God suffering β for us. And calling us to share in Godβs suffering love for a hurting world. The small and even overpowering pains of our lives are intimately connected with the greater pains of Christ. Our daily sorrows are anchored in a greater sorrow and therefore a larger hope.
To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, welcome, to accept.
Waiting is a dry desert between where we are and where we want to be. (Finding My Way Home)
Becoming the beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above down into the ordinariness of what I am, in fact, thinking of, talking about and doing from hour to hour.
None of it gets to be 'old stuff', for it is Christ in print, the Living Word. We wouldn't think of rising in the morning without a facewash, but we often neglect that purgative cleansing of the Word of the Lord. It wakes us up to our responsibility
If leading worship is just about bringing a group of people into a room so we can get goosebumps and sing songs together, there's not much value in that. But if leading worship is a means to an end, that we leave this place as a different kind of people, as part of a new humanity that God wants to create... then that matters.
Dearest Jesus, holy child, make thee a bed, soft, undefiled, within my heart, that it may be a quiet chamber kept for thee.
Faith is a living, daring, confidence in God's grace.
In revival, God is not concerned about filling empty churches, He is concerned about filling empty hearts.
Without the Eucharist, the Church simply does not exist.
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