240. Ministry Month
Ministry month is starting this week. It is a three-week yearly event at The Seed to allow our members to find their team ministry. Instead of asking people to serve, we help people to volunteer. People enjoy what they do when they sign up for it, not forced on them. We ask our members to commit at least one year. Last year, we had to cancel the ministry month due to the pandemic, and our serving members willingly extended their commitment one more year.
Currently, we have 30 serving members. Given that we have 39 members who are eligible to serve now (active adults who are registered members and youth who are grade 9 and above) majority of our members are actively participating in church ministry. It is a very high percentage and a sign that our church is running healthy.
North Point Ministry released a research result and what they discovered is that people need 5P to start or have thriving faith. One of them was “Personal” ministry. Without having a role in the church you are attending, it is difficult to believe that you “are” the church, which Paul calls “the body” of Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:27) The body is not a lump but a delicately divided part that functions as one. Every body part is interconnected, and if one part is missing or damaged, the whole body suffers. (Remember, when your toe got jammed, your whole body felt it!) When we choose to serve, we give ourselves a better chance to feel like a church, not an attendee of a church.
When you first start serving, it feels like you are doing something for the church. But when you understand that you are a body part of the body of Christ, you will also experience that the body you served ends up serving you. We have many people who are nourished and encouraged by the ministry they currently serve in. It is proof that when we function according to God’s design, God satisfies our needs.
The world tells us that we should find ourselves from within by looking at our passion and interests. But God tells us to find ourselves by using our skills and personalities for the body of Christ. The more we use what God has given us, the more precise our purpose becomes.
