Thursday, January 31, 2008

Reclaiming the idea and the simplicity of Ministry

In the first evening of the new training track Peter Read gave an excellent introduction to the idea of Christian ministry, discussing what ministry might involve, and where the agenda for church ministry might come from.

He poked fun at the idea that “Christian ministry” meant working full time for a church organisation, asking us to think far wider than that.

Though we’d all agree with the idea of the priesthood of all believers it’s easy to lapse in our minds into a hierarchy – full time workers, then the keen and gifted, and then the rest of us. Peter used the image of a cruise liner, where 5% of the people onboard doing all of the work, while the rest sit and try to relax, while the ship sails round in circles. He encouraged us to think of a battleship instead, where everyone plays their part, on a journey with a purpose!

His teaching style was to talk for a bit, then ask simple but thought provoking questions for us to discuss in twos and threes, and then gather feedback. He finished with a short video to make us consider what ministering to one another in a loving community might involve – particularly in the area of antique cars!

3 comments:

andy said...

The idea of the cruise liner is good. What a shame church is mostly like this. We could do our best not to allow this to happen at emfc,lets find out what Gods calling is for each of us and use it to create the battleship that was spoken about.

andy said...

To make the course more spiritual, i would recommend a jolly good curry. This i believe would assist us all to concentrate and ultimately increase the growth of the congregation. I m sure you all agree?

Unknown said...

'The ministry of a church is the sum total of everything which everyone of its members says and does in every situation in which they find themselves on every day of the week'...notwithstanding that there should be some punctuation in that sentence....I think that this is one of the most thought provoking statements I have heard in some time. It truly challenges any notion that I can compartmentalise my life...I KNOW that this is true but I don't always live it...mmmmm!This would revoltionise our City.