What is your ministry in the church? Often when we’re asked this question, it is easy to answer simply in terms of task and function: “I work in children’s ministry…I help with music…I’m a part of the college group, etc.”
But while tasks and functions are an important part of our life together, they are not the real essence of ministry. What is? Loving one another in the love of Jesus Christ. Actively pursuing this love with one another (1 Cor. 14:1) is not just a part of the Christian life, it is the Christian life. As we’ve seen throughout the summer in our study of 1 Cor. 13, the active pursuit of this Christ-exalting love is central and non-negotiable for believers in a local church. God has not gifted every believer equally, but He has commanded us to love excellently.
So as you think about your ministry in the local church of RCG, be thinking of it primarily in terms of the specific ways that God wants you to be “pursuing love” with the specific people who are a part of this church. Let 1 Cor. 13, along with other passages like Rom. 12, Eph. 4, 1 Pet. 4:7-11 (just to name a few) inform the specifics of what this love should look like. And if you serve in specific areas like those mentioned above, let this love be the focus of your serving…for the glory of Christ.
I praise God for the many evidences of His love at work among us, and count it a great joy to grow in Him with you!
Greg