Is Ministry a Job?

This morning in Biblical Worldview class we were discussing a Biblical view of work. The class motivated me to do a bit of study about what Scripture teaches about a person’s view of ministry. Many of us are either in some type of part-time ministry, looking at full-time vocational ministry, or looking forward to ministering as unto the Lord in a “secular” career, so what God says about minsitry is important to us. After all, all of life is really ministry unto the Lord. Ministry may function as a job, but that should never be the mindset of the person in ministry.

Scripture shows both negative and positive example of people’s attitude towards the ministry. The apostle Peter writes about false teaches who “Have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.” These false teaches fell into Balaam’s sin – using ministry as a way to get money. He sold his prophetic ministry to a heathen king to curse God’s people to get money. Scripture consistently describes false teachers using the ministry to satisfy their greed for money (Jude 11).

The apostle Paul described the mindset of a person in ministry in I Peter 5:1-4; this passage refers specifically to leaders in the church, but the same mindset is to characterize all of God’s servants. “The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” God’s servants are to care for His flock willingly and eagerly, not doing it for personal gain, but out of love for God and people. Their job is not a set of tasks lasting from 9-5. It is a mindset of love and service for people flowing from love for God.

John Piper writes in Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, “We are most emphatically not part of a social team sharing goals with other professionals. Our goals are an offense; they are foolishness (I Cor. 1:23). The professionalization of the ministry is a constant threat to the offense of the gospel. It is a threat to the profoundly spiritual nature of our work. I have seen it often: the love of professionalization…kills a man’s belief that he is sent by God to save people from hell and to make them Christ-exalting, spiritual aliens in the world.” (3)

How do I recognize if I’m treating ministry as a job? When the “work” takes priority over the people. When people are an “interruption” to getting the “work” done. (ouch – that one hits close to home) When my motivation in ministry is my own agenda, instead of loving God by loving people. How can I change my attitude towads ministry? By repenting of self-centeredness. By praying that God would give me a love for people. By consciously putting helping people in front of doing jobs.