Summary – What Is Ministry
What is ministry? Have you ever felt torn between wanting to follow Jesus full-time and still working your day job to support yourself and your family? Well, Mike did. Mike Henry is the founder of Follower of One and he struggled with this very question for years, which lead him to start this ministry, right where he was, at work. He began to minister, or serve, his co-workers every day. In doing this, he was following Jesus and helping others move closer to Jesus while maintaining his spot in the workplace.
Follower of One is an online community designed to equip believers to integrate their faith and work.
Transcript:
Leah: Hi guys! It’s Leah again. So what exactly is ministry? Let’s listen to Mike as he explains exactly what Jesus said about ministry and what part we play.
What Is Ministry
Mike Henry: Hi, I’m Mike Henry with Follower Of One. What is ministry? When I first became a Christian, I started wondering about that because I wanted to live my Christian life fulltime. I felt like if I could be a full-time minister, then I could get to be a Christian all the time. But I was stuck in a job. I had a mortgage. I had a family. I couldn’t just quit everything that I was doing and so I felt this tug of trying to go into full-time ministry, but I was still in the workplace.
I would hear pastors and missionaries talk about being able to go into full-time ministry and when they were called to go into full-time ministry and I wondered if Jesus didn’t call me to part-time ministry. I’ve since learned better. I know that Jesus said in Mark 10:45 he said, “The Son of Man came to serve, not to be served.”
Jesus Intended
And that word translated, “serve”, means the same as “minister”. It’s often translated minister just as well. And so I realized that Jesus intended for me to serve people in my workplace just like I would serve people if I were working for a church or a para-church organization.
One Notch Closer
And so I started trying to figure out, okay, well what does a minister in a workplace look like? And the conclusion that I came to was, I wanted to help people move one notch closer to Jesus. I don’t care if you’re a Christian or a non-Christian, I can help anybody that I come in contact with move one notch closer to the Lord. And so that became my ministry in my workplace, was how to help people move one notch closer to Jesus.
My Goal
My goal is to help followers of Jesus see themselves as full-time ministers, whatever their job is, whether they have discretionary time or nondiscretionary time. When we pray for our coworkers, we begin the process of helping everyone around us move one notch closer to Jesus.
Closing
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