Quotes About Ministry

It is my fifty-fifth year of ministry and forty-fifth of labor in America. . . . But whether health, life, or death, good is the will of the Lord: I will trust Him; yea, and will praise Him; He is the strength of my heart and my portion forever—Glory! Glory! Glory!"16

The initial enthusiasm for the idea in the Ministry of Education had waned by the time the text was delivered and it was never used.

If I received a calling to serve in the church, then I have sheep to whom I have a divine obligation to minister and to serve.

It seems that those God has called to lead often face much opposition and much temptation. Pray that their ministry will be powerful, and pray genuinely that they and their families would thrive under God's protection.

Ministry is following Jesus and fishing for people. It is being a disciple and making disciples. It is growing and going. It is learning and evangelizing. It is being saved and leading others to do the same.

Is it worth it?" Whether you are serving in a paid position or as a volunteer, ministry is hard. It carries a cost. Doing it right takes great expenditures of time, money, energy, and effort. Working with people can be frustrating. The enemy will creatively and relentlessly attack. You may face opposition and persecution. You won't make it if you haven't come to grips with the true motives for ministry. The highest motive for ministry is the worthiness of Jesus.

The heart of ministry is shouting the worthiness of Jesus.

It was E. M. Bounds who said, "Talking to men for God is a great thing. But talking to God for men is greater still."5

God reminds us that doing ministry without taking time to feed off His Holy Word will leave us frustrated and unfulfilled in ministry.

Jesus led His protégés through three distinct stages: (1) investigation leading to repentance and faith in Jesus (declaration); (2) immersion, abandonment, and apprenticeship into ministry (development); and (3) intentional global commissioning (deployment). We can say that the person who has completed stage one is a believer. The product of level two is a disciple, and the person who is living at level three is a disciple maker.

He took, He blessed, He brake, and He gave. These four steps follow in progressive order in the lives of each of His disciples. He takes us into His arms when He saves us. He blesses us with the Holy Spirit. He breaks us at the cross. He gives us to others in ministry. We must experience the breaking of our self-life, however, before He can give us to His body as a ministry gift.

indeed but little is said of Him by secular historians of His time. Few and short as are the allusions to Him made by non-scriptural writers in the period immediately following that of His ministry, enough is found to corroborate the sacred record as to the actuality and period of Christ's earthly existence.

That there was an actual giving of His own strength to the afflicted whom He healed is evident from the present instance. Passive belief on the part of a would-be recipient of blessing is insufficient; only when it is vitalized into active faith is it a power; so also of one who ministers in the authority given of God, mental and spiritual energy must be operative if the service is to be effective.

If old covenant believers were regenerated by the Spirit, what is new about the new interiority promised in Jer 31:31–34? The newness does not consist in the Spirit's regenerating ministry of enabling people to hear God's word and believe. What is new is the indwelling ministry of the Spirit and the spiritualized view of the temple.

If all you are doing is spending time with the struggling members of your church and you are not building proactively into your church's culture, and you are being shortsighted and limiting the effectiveness of your ministry.

Suffering related to circumstances beyond my control, suffering related to consequences of my besetting sin, and suffering caused by others who refused to see their own sin. In all these instances, the Lord has been at work, refining my focus upon personal holiness, amplifying my ministry through very humbling experiences, and reminding me repeatedly to extend grace not just to the gracious but to those who lack a grace I took too long to come to myself.

Our job is to get people to Jesus Christ and to get them back to Him in profound, life-altering ways every week.

Many pastors would rather preach God's Word and keep their distance than invest in a personal one-on-one counseling ministry. Most pastors counsel because they have to, not because they want to.

If spiritual formation is the purpose of the church, then personal transformation should intentionally be the purpose of the small group ministry. Bible study is great. Fellowship is wonderful. Evangelism is essential. But changing and growing to be more like Christ should be the purpose of the small group ministry.

We preach so that people will be better worshippers, so that the nature and story of God proclaimed will result in an amplification of what provokes glory to come down. A church's ministry extends, of course, beyond the weekend worship service, but if we fail there, nothing else can succeed. That single service in a Vertical Church is like the wood-burning furnace in a factory or warehouse.

Spending too much time in one's individual silo can produce pride, isolation, and a stagnated ministry.

Unplanned occurrences are reminders to check your tendency to think that you're the one in control. In reality, it's someone else.... It is a vivid reminder that in ministry, no matter how hard you work, ultimately it's God's work, not yours. All this puts our work in perspective.

the Bible permits women's ministry under normal circumstances and prohibits it only under exceptional circumstances. Because Paul's letters to Timothy address a specific situation

The music is the message, the message is the music. So that's my little ministry that the Big Man upstairs gave to me - a little ministry called love and happiness.