“Discipleship Takes Place in Ministering”

“Discipleship Takes Place in Ministering”

We have seen that every member is supposed to minister, and we have seen that we need to be disciple-making disciples. How do these things come together?

Advancing the Kingdom

What type of ministries should we as a church be involved in? In short, anything that advances the Kingdom of God. In Scripture we see believers laboring to glorify God in many ways. This includes ministering in jails, caring for the sick, taking care of the poor, evangelism, missions, and a host of other ministries.

Every member is gifted to serve

God has given to each member of His church a different spiritual gift. Each one of these gifts is to be used in conjunction with the rest of the church. If we neglect one person’s gift, the whole church will suffer. Each person needs to be ministering in the way God has gifted them.

Budgeting for ministry

Americans are known for throwing money at problems. Unfortunately this idea can be very prevalent in the church. We can believe that we are ministering as a church because we are giving money to a cause. However, are we really ministering if no one is actually doing anything? We must as a church align our giving and our ministry. In other words, we need to give financial support where our people are ministering and we need to drop financial support where our people are not ministering.

Discipleship takes place within ministry

If you look at Jesus and the Apostles, discipleship took place in the midst of ministry. Jesus taught the disciples how to minister by ministering along side them. The elders need to equip mature men and women to lead ministries. We need other believers to serve in those ministries and be discipled by the more mature believers. The elders need to do this as well as they lead by example.

Application:

There are many different ministries available to the members of our church. These include theological education of indigenous pastors, ministry to the disabled, greeting visitors, corresponding with missionaries, serving in local Christian ministries, etc. Each member of the church needs to meet with one of the elders, see how they have been gifted by God, and then serve alongside other believers. As they are ministering they should both be discipled and be discipling others within the same ministry.

  • What is your spiritual gift?
  • Are you using it?
  • How can you minister?

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