Realistic Ministry

Often ministry has unrealistic expectations. Ministers expect that they can transform their congregations at speeds far past what is possible.

In many congregations the church begins to stagnate because the leadership has unrealistic beliefs about sanctification and spiritual growth. Instead of having a church full of sick people needing transformation there is now a church full of sick people who either hide their sickness or are unaware of their sickness.

The problem with unrealistic expectations by ministers is that people quickly feel judged. And they pull back from bringing up any issue in the church or their lives. The unrealistic expectations often have a highly negative impact on spiritual growth.

In ministry a balance is needed between expecting people will grow and also realizing the depth of the problems in the human condition. Jesus demanded growth but always met the truly authentic sinner with grace and compassion.

That should be the spirit of ministry. To not be surprised by the depth of sin in the world but to meet it with compassion and understanding and desire to transform us into the image of Jesus.

Doing Something Definite

Doing something definite is almost always to be preferred than planning something grand. Often in life both in work and religion we pass over good opportunities which seem a bit mundane in search of the grand.

There is no shame in dreaming big. Often it is easy to fail by dreaming to small. But often when we dream big and fail frequently we should set our sites on the definite albeit small opportunities around us.

It is easy to get so caught up in doing something big that we do nothing at all. Maybe we could volunteer at an organization for a few hours here and there but we see it as small. We look for something bit and accomplish nothing.

Maybe we have a certain dream career we wish to have and it never seems to work. We prefer to sit at home and keep pursuing the dream which is not working instead of taking that which is practical and realistic.

Often we need to have a bit of a sober viewpoint of ourselves. Maybe we are held back in life at times because our plans for ourselves are too grand. It is certain that there a people whose plans are too small, but it seems more people fail because of plans which are too grand rather than too small.

Doing something definite in the world in whatever we do is to be preferred to unrealistic dreams and doing nothing. Everything in the world is God's. Whatever we do we should do to the glory of God.

God does not see the way in men do. He does not view obedience to his will in terms of how prestigious a man's work is or how much recognition he receives for it. He looks at man's faithfulness in life.

We can be faithful in small thing. Sometimes we must first be faithful in small things before we can be faithful in large things.