Nineteen

Deciding What Ministry to

Engage In

“I’ve lived a block away from you for six years. Don’t

you ever get to know your neighbors?”

The truth is that in all these years I have rarely

knocked on my neighbor’s doors. Let me take that

back, the first month or so on the job I did a little of

that. I hated it; I would stand at the door and smile,

introduce myself and hold out a brochure for people

to take. And nothing ever came of it; not even one

person ever came to church. I gave up on that.

         

This is a far more complicated subject than can be

adequately dealt with here. There are many wise

and experienced people who have devoted lengthy

volumes to this particular issue. I do not mean to do

much more than talk about how Miller Avenue

developed a few ministries.

In my mind, there is one ministry above all others

and that is the preaching of the gospel so that people

might come to Jesus for salvation. To have all the

ministries conceivable and possible in operation yet

not preach a strong conversion oriented gospel, in my

view, is no ministry at all. Worse than that, it is

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What Ministries

deceptive and dangerous. If, with the ministry of the

Word in place, and there is yet strength, time, and

money for other ministries, very well.

Whether a new church is begun or a new pastor

comes into an ongoing church, it is probably helpful

that nothing be developed early on except the worship

service, Bible study, and prayer meeting. Several years

may be required before an adequate evaluation of a

need for other services and ministries can be made.

“Field Study” is a term for such an evaluation and many

denominations will help local churches develop a

ministry strategy.

It may take several years before a pastor can become

familiar with a community in terms of the kinds of

services and outreaches offered by other churches and

social/political agencies. In addition, it takes time to

assess the capabilities and gifts of a congregation on

the one hand and the opportunities afforded and

limitations mandated by a building, owned or rented,

on the other. A careful evaluation is a time consuming

process and not something to be rushed into.

Money is often a limiting factor; however, it is

possible to develop significant outreaches and

ministries with a small budget. Our Divorce Recovery

Workshop program, for instance, which is in its fifteenth

year, was started with $500.00, and it has paid for itself

ever since. The television ministry is essentially cost

free. (There is the possibility of sending videotapes of

the program all over the country, but this would be

costly and demand the creation of a major enterprise.

My preference is to remain local and avoid the

entanglements that would come with a large television

ministry.) Our website cost us a few thousand dollars

initially, yet we now maintain it with just twenty dollars

a month. (There are now means of beginning a website

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For Pastors

for a fraction of what we spent.) Our Saturday lunch

program required a couple of hundred dollars at first

but it is virtually cost free now.

There is a need for a Sunday school at Miller

Avenue. There are a lot of kids in our community who

would benefit from our having a strong Sunday school.

I would simply love to have one, but we have only an

adult class at present.

We have a wonderful choir. In the congregation

were people who were gifted musically so that it was a

natural ministry to begin. Growing out of our small

Sunday morning choir is an annual gospel concert, and

we fill the place up. This is an outreach as well because

people are attracted who would not otherwise be

exposed to the gospel. The choir, especially the annual

gospel concert, is a major effort for our small church

and well worth everything we put into it.

I am attracted to a ministry that can involve a

number of people and is the reason I like the San

Quentin Prison ministry. The television program

operates with two or three people. The Divorce

Recovery Workshop again requires only a few people.

But the choir can involve a large number of people,

and the prison ministry is open ended, too. In addition,

I am interested in a ministry that does not require a

capital fund campaign to get it off the ground.

Ministries will occasionally fail and almost always

there will be difficulties. This is understood going in.

Not every ministry survives, very few survive for any

length of time. Every ministry or outreach involves a

certain amount of risk and a pastor must be a risk taker,

in fact, the whole congregation must be willing to

assume some risk. A church is not a business and can

not be run on business principles though much is said

to the contrary. Many things done at Miller Avenue

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What Ministries

are not cost effective. At this point, the website we

maintain, for example, is not bringing in any money

and so far, very few “hits.” (Since I wrote that last

sentence the website traffic has increased at least ten

fold.) This is a ministry that requires patience and a

vision for what it may be. The website may turn out to

be a failure; we may abandon it one day. So what!

Ministries will fail and when they do there will be

something new to explore. Even if a particular program

survives for only a short time, it is better to have made

the attempt than to have done nothing at all. By way

of illustration, it is a sad and unworthy baseball player

who will quit after an unsuccessful season. Pastors and

churches take risks. Assessments are made, plans

developed, then “to the work,” and the programs are

continued for as long as possible.

People make mistakes in ministry; they will

sometimes make rather large mistakes. Hopefully a

program will have some checks and balances, but this

is not always possible. Particularly I watch anything to

do with children; it is necessary to be very careful with

anything to do with children. Also, I take care to

examine legal liabilities since we are in California and

have to be aware that some people engage in insurance

fraud and are quick to exploit any real or imagined

injury.

When mistakes are made the pastoral response is

critical. One lesson I’ve learned the hard way is to not

immediately accept negative criticisms about any

outreach. A fact finding process must sometimes be

set in motion all the while conducted in a nonthreatening,

non-accusatory manner. A third,

uninvolved person may be brought in to serve as a

facilitator in a conflict resolution process. The goal is

not always to continue the ministry, a larger goal may

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For Pastors

be to maintain fellowship and bring healing to any

injury.

Newly converted people who are excited about

serving Jesus may get involved in some ministry.

Youthful zeal is a wonderful thing, but down the line

the inexperienced person may get into some difficulty.

Everything is not going to run smoothly. Pastoral

response to trouble must be calming, reassuring,

deliberate, fair, and reasonable. It may well be that the

pastor must take responsibility and pick up the slack;

pastors often pay the price for something that goes awry.

The pastor, as shepherd, must protect the sheep from

the wolf. Knowing which is which, however, is not

always obvious.

The first church I pastored was in the heart of a

vast agricultural area. A second year seminarian, I only

had the weekends to be “in the field”. For the two

and one half years I was there our ministry consisted

of two Sunday services. That is not completely correct

either; after a while I shut down the Sunday evening

service due to lack of interest—mine and everyone

else’s. Did I fail? No, I think not. I did what I could

with what I had. Some people were converted,

baptized, taught, and married. We prayed, sang, and

worshipped the Lord. Those were good and wonderful

years, years of fruitful ministry.

Let me emphasize one last point. I have a particular

interest in engaging in a ministry for the long run.

Ministry for the short run is questionable in my mind.

By way of illustration we have engaged in these

ministries: the Divorce Recovery Workshop—15 years,

the television program—16 years, gospel choir—10

years, the ministry at San Quentin—fourteen years. We

started the Saturday lunch four years ago. We are into

our fourth year of the website ministry. If something is

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What Ministries

worth beginning, it is usually worth continuing,

whether it seems to be successful right away or not.

Circumstances can change very quickly. Several

years ago the Divorce Recovery Workshop went

through a period where hardly anybody came. Some

of our leaders quit and the money ran dangerously low.

I determined to keep going and now, all of a sudden, it

has grown some.

It is easy to work hard when there is obvious

success. The real challenge comes when seeming

failure looms. Now we are encouraged with the divorce

recovery workshop, but we did not quit when things

were going badly. I remember the very second

workshop, only one person attended, and, all our

leaders quit. People said, “Well, this won’t work.” But

we kept it going. The workshop after that we had about

five, and after that we had about twenty, and then

twenty-five, and so it went. (At the time of this writing

it has dipped again.) When a decision is made to begin

a particular ministry, it should be given every chance

of working. It may be years before any “fruit” appears.

As long as there is a motivated leader, a ministry

may continue. That is the criteria: when there is no

leader, the ministry is finished. But not before.

         

In your mind you may have ministries you hope to do.

Make a list of them in order of importance to you

personally.

  Is there a ministry you begun that failed?

  What happened then?