Ministry Outside the Church Walls

We have 168 hours in a week. If we take out 8 hours a day for sleep, that still leaves 112. How much time do we spend in corporate worship? Anywhere from one to four hours. That's a small part of 112 hours; if that's the focus of our ministry, then we shouldn't be surprised when our lives are largely unfruitful.

Peter wrote to Christians about how the Christian life is lived. He said:

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1 Peter 2:12)

The Christian life is meant to be lived out among non-believers, living in such a way that they can see who we are and eventually glorify God. A Christian life lived inside a building will never accomplish that.

Christian leaders should be focused on equipping the saints for works of ministry, on spurring them on to love and good deeds. We need to encourage our people to explore their gifts, to explore different ways of serving and ministering to the people around them.

We need vision. We need imagination. We need creativity. We need to continually find ways to serve God outside of the assembly, as well as inside.

When all we see is the assembly, we are doomed to a lifestyle of power plays and doctrinal arguments. When we lift our vision and see what the church can do around our community and around our world, we'll soon be too busy serving to have time to argue over minutiae.

Get up. Get out. Go serve. Come together to worship God and recharge our batteries for another week of service.

Ministry is out there, not in here. Until we learn that, I don't see anything for us but fussing, fighting, and decline.



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This material comes from a seminar called "Church Inside Out" that is available through Hope For Life, a Herald of Truth ministry. For more information, visit www.heraldoftruth.org/seminars.