by Anna Aven Howard
God calls ordinary people to do extraordinary things in his kingdom. If we look at what that looks like, we see Moses (Ex 3:4-12) interrupted in the middle of his daily routine to have an encounter with the living God, who had a job for him to do. And who was Moses? No one. God doesn’t actually say that, but when Moses asks, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” God doesn’t build him up, or try to tell him what a great personality he has or what a great leader he is. In stead, God replies, “I will be with you.” That’s the first thing that we need to realize as we step into this ministry that God has for us: we are nothing, but He will be with us.
When God puts something on our heart, we have to take action, for even though He will be with us, we still have a job to do. When Nehemiah went back to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem (Neh 2:11-20), he first took action, returning in the first place, and then scouting out the walls and the task that needed to be done before he talked to the people (see Neh 2:12, 13, 16, 17). After he had a grasp on the situation, he cast the vision to the people and the leaders and also told them about how God had made the way for him to come back and do this. After the people agreed, they started on this task. Hence we come to the second thing that we need to realize in ministry: God has called and equipped us, but we still need a game plan and the people of God to recognize the vision or nothing is going to get done.
There are three primary places in the New Testament where the gifts are mentioned: 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4. Each of these times it is clear that it is not the specific gift that is important, but rather, what is emphasized is that everyone is needed in the body. One gift or calling is not more important than another, for the body cannot survive without its internal organs that no one sees.
Despite that fact that God is no respecter of persons or of callings, there is the need for leadership roles. The leader is supposed to be the shepherd (1 Peter 5:1-3). As 1 Peter says, this is not a position to be flaunted, but rather, it is one of service where the leader is given the opportunity to be an example to the people God has placed under his/her care. Combine these thoughts on leadership and gifts with the idea that we, the body of Christ as a whole are a royal priesthood (1 Peter 3:9), then we get the idea that ministry is not what happens up front, rather, it ought to be a part of every Christian’s life every day. The job of the leaders is to equip, model, and serve the rest of the people in the body so that they can do what God has called them to do.
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