Ministry Dreams

"I have so much business, I can not get on without spending three hours daily in prayer." - Martin Luther

Thinking about ministry while I'm trying to finish some work. And listening to the Hallelujah chorus too. =)

But more seriously... I've been assessing how I'm doing ministry. One thing I realise about ministry, especially operations ministry, is how easy it is to just focus on the process of serving and forget the purpose of why we serve.

I remember there was this brother, Ward, who was one of William Carey's missions teammates in India in the 19th century. He was in charge of maintaining the printing presses so needed for printing gospel tracts and Bibles. Basically, he was the "new media geek" / the techie of his time... but he didn't just see himself as the guy who has to do the printing. No, he saw a higher glory in what he was doing:

"God has given me, a man less than the least of all the saints, the grace that I should print for the heathens the unsearchable riches of Christ!"

Imagine how this would transform operations ministries, if I started thinking more from God's viewpoint. To print nothing less than the unsearchable riches of Christ. To convey the unsearchable riches of Christ through new media. Through drama. Through sound. Through MM. Through ushering. Through video... anything and everything for His glory! "...all things were created by him and for him..." (Colossians 1:16b)

So I'm thinking about the directions and where we are going in terms of the drama/creative team ministry. God knows how far we have to go... what is the vision for the team? How does each team member see his purpose in this team? How can I be more intentional in discipling (not disciplining!) my fellow team-mates? How can we aim for excellence?

And honestly, I am so limited in terms of aiming for excellence. But I must remember to aim for God's standards, not men's standards when it comes to excellence. To please the Lord in all that I do. I know I struggle every day with punctuality. Man. Been struggling with punctuality even from the day I was born... literally. Born late, talked late (started talking only when I was 4 or 5 years old), grew up late, last to finish my work in class, last to hand in... teachers chasing me for late homework even since primary school... (Amazing. How did I ever make it into RI and RJC and NUS? I think God really loves me. :P Totally by grace alone...)

So God giving me strength, He'll help me also find a way to maximise my strengths in creativity and writing and seeing the big picture too. But yeah, I'm just His servant. So amazed to see how God can use even someone like me, less than the least of all God's people, to actually lead and inspire a team... totally Christ in me and not I, but Jesus Christ, the hope of glory. So God, so not me. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! and the Lord God omnipotenteth shall reign for-ever and ever...

Anyway, think one important step I need to take is to get my team to spend at least 15 minutes in prayer first before we start planning. And I need to start recruiting and canvassing for more scriptwriting volunteers too! Ha... not easy, not easy. And I begin to appreciate the other operations ministry leaders even more - their work in the Lord really is not easy at all! :)

Ah. Remember Hong Teck's advice. Aim for multiplication of strengths! Gotta refer to his advice again. :)