How often does the word ‘Ministry‘ come up in your conversations about life and work and church? I don’t seem to hear it as often as I used to.
I used to use the word ‘ministry’ when I did one-on-one training my recruits in direct sales. I also used the word when I trained co-workers at my other jobs. Sometimes they would ask me what I meant. That gave me an opportunity to talk about motivation and what I was motivated by – in direct sales and in retail sales quite often the motivation is placed on position and ranking. You can have this position, you can rank here and you can make this much and you can win or earn this! In formal training times the discussion centers around ‘customer service.’ If you are good at customer service you’ll make good money. The training is often about what you can get based on what you do.
With ministry it seems to me the tables are turned. The focus is on what you can do for your customer, not what you can get. The focus is on what you can do, or what the product can do, for your customer – not on what you can get. When I trained my consultants I tried to connect the words customer service with ministry. My favorite sales director used to say ‘You may be the only Bible your customer reads today.’
As a Christian I am motivated by Christ to want to serve people in my life in the ways that he did. Sometimes it seems that I fail on a regular basis – especially if I’m struggling with illness or weakness. When I was younger one of my ministries in the church was to visit ‘shut – in’s’, people who weren’t able to get out of their homes or the nursing home or hospital for a period of time. I always included some young moms in that ministry as I had experienced a period of time as a shut in as a young mom myself. It was easy to carry ministry into my direct sales when making house calls and I never minded if someone didn’t order anything that day – I never felt my time was wasted because it was all God’s ministry anyway.
Several years ago when I experienced serious illness I became a part time ‘shut in. What I mean by that is the only places I went were to the clinic, the hospital, physical therapy, the chiropractor, the hair salon to get my hair trimmed and my toenails cut. Eventually I was able to start getting back out to the grocery store. I went to church every Sunday and sometimes during the week. During that time I learned the value of the ministry I had done all those years. There were many days I went without a phone call or visit. Radio and Television Ministry and the Internet helped me to stay connected to the outside world. But there is something that those ministries cannot do – while they can touch your heart, mind and soul, they cannot touch your hand. Direct Sales people can do that and so can the lay ministers of the church who go on home visits. When I was a part-time shut in, I would see notes that people went to visit this person or that person and saw photos posted of people hugging and laughing and holding hands. Sometimes it made me yearn for the days that I was healthy and my children were young and our home was filled with people and touch.
I guess what I’m asking is for you to think about this in your homes, in your places of work and in your church. Part of taking care of orphans, widows and the lame is going to them just to visit for 20 or 30 minutes. Or maybe to offer to bring a snack and watch a movie with them, or play a game of cards or look through photos or talk about what’s on their mind, the news, their family stories, or maybe they want to you to talk about something because they are tired of talking about themselves. You’ll figure it out – some churches have formal training for these ministries – others don’t – a little training is helpful – and make sure you don’t gossip about the people you visit – make it a friendship. While most of these relationships will be fleeting, some might turn out to be long-lasting. Either way they will be a blessing to you as well as to the other person.
Now – back to Ministry, Mystery and Work – It is a mystery how healing touch can be.
Maybe you can’t hug everyone – but a soft touch on the back, a hand on a shoulder, a touch on an arm, a hand shake or simply placing your hand over theirs can do wonders for healing lonely, broken hearts and minds. There is a story in the bible about the mystery of touch – Jesus walked out of the temple and went to Peter’s house and he touched a woman who got up and began serving again. You can read about this story in Matthew 8:14-17. There is another story about Jesus touching a man with leprosy that you can find in Mark 2:40 – 45. Another story about touch appears in Luke 22:47-51 where you can read about Jesus healing a man’s ear. These stories are intriguing and to understand the full ministry of Jesus you should read them in context – the parts of the story before and after the selected verses. We can choose to work in the world with making worldly goals our priority – earning paychecks, paying bills, buying things, storing up stuff; or we can choose to work in the world making ministry our goal.
How much would change in the world, at work, at home, in a small church and in the streets of your community – if we started thinking more about the Ministry of Touch? What if we thought of touch as one of God’s ministries and a revelation of the Mystery of God’s Presence with us? It is, after all, the presence of the Resurrected Jesus, that inspired the disciples and still inspires people in this and every generation, to do the work of all the ministries that people are equipped to do.
It seems we live in a world that is consumed with darkness, hatred and death; some people despair about this; but as Christians choose to partner with God in Christ we do not give in to despair. Instead we work, wherever we are, to help build up a heavenly kingdom of light and love. We work because, like Jesus, our motivation is to lead people off a dark path that leads to death onto a path of light that leads to life. Our motivation is to help people experience the mystery of God’s presence and healing. I hope you’ll choose to partner with Christ in helping others onto the path that leads to life.
Lord, thank you for touching people not only with your words but with your hands as well. Thank you for using your hands to heal and not to harm. Lord, I want to be more like you in the work I do, I want to serve others because I love you, help me to share your love for them with them. Help me to understand the mystery of your touch and to live and share the depth of it’s meaning in our generation. I ask this for the sake of the building up of your heavenly and holy kingdom on earth. AMEN
