My Plan for Ministry Nick Maples October 24, 2013 REL482 David Vardaman

INTRODUCTION This paper is essentially one that I have been working on for a while. In fact, ever since I have been interested in ministry and theology, which began around the age of twelve, I have been working on the content that will be written here. In the next few pages I will seek to clarify what I see my role being in a church, and the way in which I will develop specific ministries. Other people have heavily influenced the majority of my views, either through books I have read, quotes I have heard, or conversations in which I have partaken. Above all of these, the Bible has been the source that I have placed the most value in during my life. Some of these quotes and verse will be found in this paper and will be expounded on to explain what it means to my ministry. FRAMEWORK OF MINISTRY The first quote that has held particular value to my view of ministry comes from Martin Luther. When Luther stood at the Diet of Worms, he was being tried for his beliefs of Scripture and the way they related to the Church. He believed that the Church was disobeying Gods Word and needed to change many aspects of the way the institution was run. When asked to recant from these beliefs he said, I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen. Later he exclaimed, Here I stand, I can do no other. This was all said in a circumstance where he recognized that he could lose his life for his beliefs. If those measures were not taken, he knew that he would at the very least be severely punished by the law. Certainly, what Martin Luther said was bold and could easily be one of the most climactic lines of any movie scene, but

that is not necessarily what I value in his words. I do believe the boldness he embodied is important when sharing the Gospel with a variety of people, but what I really appreciate from his words is his convictions. What I want for my ministry is the spiritual conviction to stand by my beliefs no matter what the consequence. The Gospel is not easy to comprehend for some people, and is extremely offensive to others. That means that at some point, I should find myself in a situation where I am telling the Gospel to people who are not receptive. They may not be ready to kill me for it, but they may. I must be able to live with this reality. Even if I never face opposition to the Gospel my entire life, that does not mean my convictions should be any weaker than those who are persecuted regularly. For example, say one person orders a pizza with pepperoni and another person orders pizza with mushrooms. While both may taste completely different, they are still pizzas. You would not want to give one of them the wrong pizzas, you would not want to give them half a pizza, and you would be making a serious mistake if you gave them a hot dog. Our convictions, if they are biblically and theologically sound, must be unchanging. It may look different in the way it is presented and lived out, but it is the same Gospel no matter what. We are not to preach part of the Gospel, or a gospel contrary to the Word of God, but the whole Gospel of Christ in whatever way we can. This is my first philosophy of ministry. I believe that I must be convicted to the point of death when it comes to the preaching and living out of the Gospel. I do not think this is just the call for the few, but I believe this applies to every Christian, especially those in leadership roles.

Another extremely important quote for my ministry philosophy comes from C.H. Spurgeon. When asked why his ministry was so successful, Spurgeon said, My people pray for me. I think a very interesting point can be made here on how simple of an idea this should be. Scripture is filled with the teaching that prayer is powerful, and that God puts a high priority on its importance. So, while this should be obvious to me, I can say from my own experience and watching other people do ministry, I have struggled to make this a focus of my life. I have decided to spend a significant time in higher education in order to study ministry and to study the subjects that will be necessary for me to have a successful ministry. Therefore, a natural thought for me is that the harder I try then the better I will be at ministry. If I get a good score on my tests in college, then that must clearly mean I know how to serve God rightly in the Church. This is not at all the case. I have seen pastors stand before a congregation and preach a well planned sermon. It is clear that they spent a great amount of time studying and preparing the sermon, and they are great presenters of their study. However, when it is all said and done, the sermon reaches very few people. I have had a few of these pastors explain that they never prayed through their sermon, they just found a passage and tried really hard to make it into a good speech. In the end, what we see in Spurgeons quote is that he has no power in himself to build a really good ministry. If he did, he would care very little about who was praying for him. I know how desperately I will need a body of believers to all set time aside solely to pray for me and the power I need to move a church in the right direction. It is in fact a humbling experience to ask others to pray for you, and at times it can feel selfish. However, prayer is the means by which God does amazing

acts, and why should we ever neglect this in our own ministries? I want to seek prayer for every area of my life as a pastor from multiple different people. The more prayer that is offered on my behalf, the more affective my ministry could be for the Lord. A verse that means a lot to my philosophy of ministry is 1 Timothy 2:15 which says, Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. I have valued my education greatly throughout my life, and that will not end when I am done with school. I will look back on the things that I have studied, the notes that I have taken, and the papers that I have written, and they will all benefit my ministry. However, I also recognize that my study does not end there. The study of Gods word is something I must be committed to my entire life. Even the study of what I have learned in college must be relearned at times because there will surely be areas that slip my memory. The point is, because I have committed my life to ministry, I have also committed my life to study. Too many churches have departed from major truths of the Gospel, and one major reason is simply due to the lack of faithful study of Scripture. This is where I believe the word rightly is very important. For example, the issue of homosexuality has become focused on a lot in the world and it has infiltrated the beliefs of modern day churches. An argument is made that God loves everyone, and that we are all sinners anyway. This is saying that if someone is attracted to people of the same sex, then they should be allowed because Gods love would never withhold them from what they want, and if it is a sin, it is no worse than anything else, such as lying or lust. There are some truths to these statements.

God really is a loving God and he does want what is best for his people. It is also true that we are all sinners and we all fall in a variety of ways. However, homosexuality is actually contradictory to Gods love and he wants us to stay away from such sin because he loves us. Also, not all sin is in fact equal, even though we do all struggle with sin. It is not that the people who teach these things have never studied the Bible. In fact, I would argue that plenty of them have probably studied it more steadfast than I have. Where they have gone wrong is in he right study of Gods word. They have taken a seemingly true theme of the Bible and inserted it into a teaching that God directly teaches against. What I must stay away from is the study of parts of the Bible, or the study of the Bible in order to find what I want. It is easy to take sections of the Bible and apply them to teachings that they were never meant to support. I must constantly study God and His Word in my ministry, but I must do it in such a way that brings forth correct doctrine and aligns with the teachings of the Creeds and the entire Church. The next quote comes from a man by whom Calvin and Luther were heavily influenced. Augustine said, What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like. There are two main teachings I find from this quotes that will impact the way I view ministry. The first is the way this reflects the great commission. It seems like it is common today for most teachings on the great commission to be centered on growing new believers, which is extremely important and critical to the Christian faith. However, going out into the entire world to find these disciples is still a

prevalent aspect to that passage! We live in a time where it can be common to find churches with thousands of people. You could probably look down the pew and find three people younger than you who could learn from the wisdom you have been taught in life. So go and disciple those people! However, that should never be an excuse to finish the rest of the command. There are people all over this world, no matter where I will live in the future, who need to hear Gods Word and are ready to turn to Him. They will almost certainly be poor and needy, but that may have much more to do with their spiritual lives and not the physical world. The second teaching this hits from scripture is the idea that we must take care of the physically poor and needy. Once again, while there may be spiritually poor people all around the world, there are also physically poor people within a very short drive. God has called the Church to be active in these peoples lives. I have heard too many people say that they do not serve the poor because they care more about the spiritual well being of human beings than the physical, as if they are more theologically astute than those serving in soup kitchens. It is a shame how we use God as a deterrent to show God. The truth is, we may serve someone our entire lives and never see spiritual change, but that is not in our hands. We must follow God and his commands and leave everything else to Him. This quote will shape my ministry in the way I seek to physically go out in the world and find the poor in all areas of life, and bring them to a place where they have less need. I certainly may not be able to complete this in every person I meet, but that will never be my excuse not to try.

GOALS The first goal I have for my ministry comes straight from Spurgeons quote on prayer and is one that I have already begun. I have decided to ask a group of people to pray for me whenever I feel like it is important. I have about thirty people who have committed to doing this. I told them that I will generally ask for prayer when I am about to preach, when I find myself in difficult situations, when I am going to present the gospel, or any other time that I could use prayer for specific life situations. I believe that people praying over my entire life is a good idea, but I also believe it is important to for people to be praying for one concentrated purpose at one time. I will simply text this group of people the word pray, and while they may not know exactly what I am doing, they will know that I need the Spirit to fill my life and work through me in a unique way. The truth is, my works are not sufficient enough to do much good for the Kingdom. I can create a really good sermon, preach it dutifully, and have it mean nothing to a congregation. I desperately need prayer in order to be filled with Gods spirit and His power. I must also remember that when I send out that text, I need to be petitioning on my own behalf to the Lord, ultimately seeking to bring as much glory to Him as possible. Another goal I have for my ministry is based heavily in small groups, and is a way that I believe the great commission can be practically seen in the local church. First, if the church I am not a part of does not have small groups, then it will be something that I will seek to bring to the congregation immediately. It is so easy to see church as a once a week experience with no thought about the body of Christ if there is no presence of small groups. Small groups bring accountability and

community to a church, which is so important. It gives a place where discipleship can be easily attainable and provides a sense of openness to its members. I have experienced discipleship most in small group settings, and this is one of the main reasons why I know it can be valuable to any church. However, I believe that many churches often overlook the value a small group can be to a local community. Small groups of ten to twenty people can do great things! I want the small groups in my church to be actively involved in service projects. I want them to go out and attract others to God through their words and deeds. It is much more comfortable at times for people to enter a church when they start off in a small group with people they like, and go from there. If people can enter a church with the understanding that they are already being discipled, then that could have a huge impact on their lives and the life of the church. So one of the primary plans for my ministry is to set up small groups that are discipleship and evangelistic focused. CONCLUSION I know ministry will not be an easy task. It will be trying and difficult, but it will be the most fulfilling work God has ever called me to. Everything that I have learned and lived through, and everything I will learn and live through, will be used to make my ministry better. God has instilled a vision in me for the way my ministry should look, and now that I have written these views out, I will be able to keep them close in my heart and mind for the rest of my life. While my view of ministry may grow, I never it should change anything that I have written here.