3 Phases to "Ministry"

This post was written by Larry Davis, a pastor at Oak Ridge Baptist Church in Salisbury, MD. 

The last two weeks at church have left me thinking about ministry and leadership and the connection between them. If you are in ministry I assume that you want to know that your service matters and that you are having an impact. In other words you are busy doing the work of ministry because you want to make a personal impact.

However, you will eventually discover that there comes a time where you will need to do less to accomplish more. I know on the surface that seems a little upside down, but many of the principles that Christ taught us are. They run counter to our culture as well as to humanistic thinking. To really understand what I am sharing all you need to do is look at the life of the Apostle Paul.

There are three very distinct seasons of Paul’s life that you can draw from. He had a season where he prepped to be a better minister, a season where he was busy church planting and doing more of the work of the ministry, and a later season where he spent time investing in the leaders that he had built relationships with earlier in his life and that share a common mission and vision. I think that Paul’s life can be a model for us for doing ministry and life well.

If you have the time, read 2 Timothy 4: 9-22 and you can get a glimpse of the last season of Paul’s life. As he knew that life was drawing to an end, he wanted to spend time with the people that he had worked so hard with to build the Kingdom of Christ. He also took the time when in prison to write more letters than ever before in his ministry. If not for this season where God slowed Paul down from all the doing, we would have not benefited form the authorship of his New Testament letters. All of this to say, that I see each season of his life as a model for me and for others in ministry.

I see myself as transitioning between the doing of ministry to the place of greater investment in those that are currently doing the ministry. I am currently enthralled with seeing them get to use their gifts and creativity to have more of the direct impact and becoming more content with my role moving to more of a personal investment in them. I can also look back and see how God used the first two seasons of my ministry to shape me and I am looking forward to this next season.

Where do you see yourself in this process? Each season has a unique blessing that comes with it. I also do not think that we should rush each season. But rather, we should enjoy it and allow God to have His way with shaping us. I hope and pray this week that you will give some time considering where you are in this process. I also pray that you will begin to map out a path that will include these three seasons in your ministry. I know that in thinking this way it has helped to shape very specific decisions in ministry for me.

I hope that and the end of your season of ministry, as well as mine, that you can say what Paul was able to say. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:7–8 (NIV)