"Confirming" the Gospel
I don't know much about what others think, but in the busyness (and business) of doing ministry things, I have found it is sometimes easy enough to get caught up in the tasks you are doing, and to place them at supreme importance.
To challenge this, I was confronted in an unusual way by the Apostle Paul (and indirectly in preparation, by Don C as he discussed Paul).
Discussing Philippians 1:1-8 today with a friend, I was struck by how little Paul was actually currently contributing in a real sense to the partnership in the gospel. He wasn't planting churches or speaking to large crowds, he wasn't really doing any of the great "church growth" activities of his apostolic ministry. (I must admit he was writing his letters for us, imparting through his hand the God-breathed word).
What Paul was doing however, and this is perhaps the most important thing he ever did, was to confirm the gospel in his life. I only really saw the significance of it today as he discussed the work the Philippians were doing, but it struck me as something so incredible.
It is so easy to think that what matters is how much I can contribute financially, how much I pray, how much I evangelise, whether I pastor a church. While all these things are good, and allow others to know Christ, it is an essential part of our partnership in Jesus Christ with him and all believers through the ages that we make the gospel the centre of what we do. We need our lives to show that this is what we are committed to.
Please pray for the task-oriented blokes. Pray that their gospel proclaiming tasks would be matched by gospel confirming lives.
To challenge this, I was confronted in an unusual way by the Apostle Paul (and indirectly in preparation, by Don C as he discussed Paul).
Discussing Philippians 1:1-8 today with a friend, I was struck by how little Paul was actually currently contributing in a real sense to the partnership in the gospel. He wasn't planting churches or speaking to large crowds, he wasn't really doing any of the great "church growth" activities of his apostolic ministry. (I must admit he was writing his letters for us, imparting through his hand the God-breathed word).
What Paul was doing however, and this is perhaps the most important thing he ever did, was to confirm the gospel in his life. I only really saw the significance of it today as he discussed the work the Philippians were doing, but it struck me as something so incredible.
It is so easy to think that what matters is how much I can contribute financially, how much I pray, how much I evangelise, whether I pastor a church. While all these things are good, and allow others to know Christ, it is an essential part of our partnership in Jesus Christ with him and all believers through the ages that we make the gospel the centre of what we do. We need our lives to show that this is what we are committed to.
Please pray for the task-oriented blokes. Pray that their gospel proclaiming tasks would be matched by gospel confirming lives.
posted by Pete at
9:56 PM
