What is the best guidance you received on how to minister to others?
Along the way there are many good exhortations and helpful advice I have gratefully received. Some of the most obvious ones are theological: show people how every text points to Christ, always give people the gospel, the gospel is for both Christians and non-Christians. Some of the most obvious ones are ministerial: listen to people, be present with people in need, listen for the facts and the feelings, etc.
There are many other indispensable points of guidance I have been given over the years but in the end I still think of the advice Pastor Ken gave... LOVE YOUR PEOPLE.
Ken was right, you have to love your people. It can be easy to not see the depth of this truth. At first this truth helped me immensely because it got my thoughts and focus off of the content, programs, and product of ministry and onto the people I was ministering to. Ministry is about the people, and you have to love your people.
As I kept reflecting on the truth I needed to love my people I saw this truth was much deeper than I initially recognized. The fact I am so often confronted with is that I don't love people. If I am honest, I can't really love people as I should. And when I realize this the Gospel really does begin to work in me. I see just how great Jesus was, and still is, as he intercedes for us. I see just how desperate my condition as a sinner is. I see just how dependent I am on God moment by moment. I see just how prideful I can be and how humiliating my condition really is. I am humbled by God's greatness and my weakness.
And it is when I begin to see these things I can be freed from being so focused on myself in all the wrong ways. I can be freed from caring about my ministry, my image, my desires, my thoughts, my feelings, and my (insert practically anything here). This exhortation to love your people ends up helping me kill off the part of me that is consumed with building the kingdom of me rather than the kingdom of God.
As I am freed from the vice grip of self-centeredness that my sinful nature produces in my life then, and only then, am I able to truly love anyone. LOVE YOUR PEOPLE is some of the most helpful advice, practical advice, theologically rich advice, and soul saving advice I ever heard. Its a deep truth. Whether you are a pastor, lay minister, church member, or brand new Christian heed these words which Jesus gave LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
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