I teach the youth Sunday school class at church and we just started reading "When There's No Burning Bush" by Gary Morsch and Eddy Hall a few weeks ago. The book has been great in pointing out how we are each called to be ministers, in whatever we are doing. Ministry does not, and should not, always happen on Sunday morning in a church service. In the book the authors quote a pastor who said that the church is most the church when the pews are empty, when the congregation is scattered during the week. We are all called to be ministers in our day to day interactions with others. Even those of us who have "secular" jobs, work not directly related to the church, are called to minister in those places.
One of the stories the authors shared in the chapter we discussed this week was about a man who worked in a funeral home. He was becoming very frustrated and dissatisfied with his work, always dreading getting up in the morning, until he went to a ministry seminar. Then he began praying that God would send at least one person during his day that he could minister to. And each day that prayer was met. This man began to look forward to going to work each day because he wasn't necesarily going to work, he was going to his ministry. It wasn't that his job changed, or even that the people he met changed. His entire attitude towards his work changed.
In this chapter the authors also gave three keys to creating ministry in a "secular" workplace: Meeting a need, engaging others with love, and striving for excellence. In the midst of all the busyness and rush of our lives, it can be easy to lose sight of our true purpose. Yet, even if we don't work in a place that is a Christian workplace or directly related to the church's ministry, we can still work with the attitude of a servant. We can still work to meet the needs of our coworkers, customers, clients, even family and friends. We can still meet others in an attitude of humility and love. And we can still strive to do our best work in everything we do.
My class decided to challenge ourselves through this week to change our attitudes in the workplace and in school to an attitude of servanthood, to ask God to bring into our paths at least one person to whom we can minister to. Join us in this challenge and see what happens. And let me know how it goes!
