I’m grateful to a dear sister in Christ who asked some questions which brought me to do a short study:

  • I need to know what is ‘ Ministry’ in our Christian life.
  • Does it mean joining a worship team, choir, or being an usher in a church?
  • Does it mean getting something to do in a church so that you are seen ministering somewhere?
  • Is it doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord?
  • Can I minister outside church though not seen by church leaders?

Church is a word that is often used to identify the place where the children of God meet in a building, so the building is often called “the/a church”, but almost every time that the word “church” is used in the New Testament He is speaking about Christians gathering together for the purpose of praising God, teaching of Him, remembering Jesus in the breaking of bread and sharing the cup, or He is speaking about the activities of Christians or He’s speaking to Christians. Ref. Mat 16:18, Mat 18:17, Acts 5:11, Acts 8:1, 1 Cor 14:4…

The theologian Thayer said in regard to this context: church is “the whole body of Christians scattered throughout the earth”.

When John in the book of Revelation 2 wrote of the Spirit speaking to the churches, he was talking about the saints, not a building:

He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches;

Revelation 2:7

I enjoyed hearing a minister say that on a few occasions when he had been asked where his church is, he replied: “some are taking children to school, some are employed, some are managing businesses, some are working at home, some are studying at school, some are shopping for the families food…”

Christians are “the church”, the following verses speak in this term:

  • Romans 16:5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house.
  • 1Corinthians 1:2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their’s and our’s:
  • 1Corinthians 14:23 If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues,…
  • 1Corinthians 16:19 The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.

This leads to the next consideration: What are the responsibilities of “the church”?
Ephesians 2 introduces the aspect of each Church member having work to do for God:

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:10

Prayer can and should be a primary activity of every Christian as we’re told in Colossians 4:

Continue stedfastly in prayer, watching therein with thanksgiving; 3 withal praying for us also, that God may open unto us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds;

Colossians 4:2-3

Each Christian has responsibility to God in service through each day, not just on Sunday at a place where the church meet in a publicly recognised building or a less visibly recognised home, but the churches responsibility is to minister/serve wherever each member of the body is in their daily life…
In Romans 12, we’re told that the churches responsibilities as given by God are varied and many:

So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us,
whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering:
or he that teaches, on teaching;
Or he that exhorts, on exhortation:
he that gives, let him do it with simplicity;
he that rules, with diligence;
he that shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.

Rom 12: 5-8,13

Then in Romans 15 we’re told of a type of service that is mentioned in John as feet washing:

And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brothers, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.

Romans 15:14

Q. Can I minister outside church though not seen by church leaders?
A. Yes you can and should minister outside “church” though not seen by church leaders! Your week can and should be full of ministry.

One of the main responsibilities of a teacher or pastor of a congregation is to equip/help and teach the children of God from the Word of God, to go into their responsibilities and activities of the week as ministers taking the good news of the gospel, to the unsaved people they meet who are not gathering on Sunday with the church. The church work In humility to spread the Word of God throughout the community throughout the week, by the power of Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, holding the truth in love, expressing God in godly works and words, in the the strength that each individual member is equipped and called by God to do, as we read in Ephesians 4:

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; FOR THE PERFECTING OF THE SAINTS, FOR THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY, FOR THE EDIFYING  OF THE BODY OF CHRIST:

Ephesians 4:11-12

Ministry is a very big part of what It is to be children of God, we’re told in James 2 that faith without works is dead, but the church is alive and actively ministering in homes, work places, schools, markets, on buses, in parks and in many places of the world through Holy Spirit who lives in and helps each child of God every day, not just when there may be specific responsibilities given by the church leaders to members of the body of Christ, and not just within the times of gathering of the church when we are called together for worship, communion, teaching and fellowship for an hour or so.

Ministry in our Christian life has many different forms depending on what God has given each to do; but many people minister in the same way but in different places depending on where the God given responsibilities of life require we spend our time, such as the variety of places mentioned earlier. As we’re told in 1 Corinthians:

But now God has set the members every one of them in the body, as it has pleased him

1 Corinthians 12:18

Matthew 25 identifies some forms of ministry that Christians should be doing, the works of ministry are revealed here by stating what the people DID NOT DO:

42  For I hungered, and
YOU GAVE ME NO MEAT:
I was thirsty, and
YOU GAVE ME NO DRINK:
I was a stranger, and
YOU DID NOT TAKE ME IN:
naked, and
YOU DID NOT CLOTH ME:
sick, and in prison, and
YOU DID NOT VISIT ME.
Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we you an hungered, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and
DID NOT MINISTER TO YOU?
Then shall he answer them saying, truly I say to you,
Inasmuch as you have not done it to one of these least, neither have you done it to me.

Matthew 25:42-45

Then in Matthew 27:55 we’re told of women who ministered to Jesus while He was traveling from Galilee on His way to be crucified: “many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, MINISTERING to him:”

It’s likely these women were “ministering” to Jesus by providing food and drink, washing His clothes, providing place and/or bedding to sleep… similar to what was written of in Luke 8:3

And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which MINISTERED to him of their substance.

Luke 8:3

Luke wrote of Paul speaking to the church of his work in service to them in Acts 20:

And now, brothers, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace,
which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel.
Yes, you yourselves know, that these (my) hands have MINISTERED to my necessities,
and to them that were with me.
I have showed you all things, how that so labouring you should support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Acts 20:32-35

Paul worked to support himself and to assist those who were with him, but it wasn’t to cause people to rely on himself, notice at the start of Paul’s words he says: “I commend you to God,”. The Word “commend” is from the Greek word paratithēmi, Phonetic: par-at-ith’-ay-mee, which (in this context) means: to entrust, commit to one’s charge.

So although we’re told in 1Peter 5:5 “Likewise, you younger, submit yourselves to the elder. Yes, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble.“. We’re to remember that although our ministry is to men in service, we are principally and most importantly (firstly and ultimately) servants of God through and to Christ, because Romans 14 tells us we are His:

For whether we live, we live to the Lord;
and whether we die, we die to the Lord:
whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.

Romans 14:8

APO 7Jan&Apr2024