This blog post was going to be a lot longer than it is now. At first I was going to wax poetic about my personal journey that ultimately led to starting the Parable Project. That isn’t necessary right now. Maybe the time will come when that is beneficial to someone, but that isn’t now.
Fourteen years in urban ministry and this is one thing I need you to hear: followers of Jesus, please do something.
Something.
Not everything.
Not nothing.
We are in an hour of history that requires Christians, followers of Jesus, to stop coming up with excuses and start overcoming the personal obstacles that get in the way of obedience to the Lord and the spread of the Gospel. What do I mean by “do something”?
First, doing something does not mean doing everything. This is good news!
- Overcome Self-Focused Motivations in Ministry Many people want to do amazing things for God because they are still searching for meaning, even after being in God’s presence and experiencing His love. Jesus is the Living Water, ministry is not. What I’m submitting here is that many decide not to do something because they feel (in order to be significant or important to God and others) they must do something magnificent and publicly notable. You were bought with the blood of Christ, adopted into His eternal family, and He is your portion forever. You have all that you need already and you are free to help in a multitude of ways. Consider your season of life, be realistic, be gracious to yourself, and choose to do something that brings about God’s kingdom in the earth. Singing songs, holding prayer meetings, doing discovery Bible studies, prayer walks, running a program or helping with one, sitting on a board or leadership team, giving financially and praying when you receive the newsletter, mentoring a younger person in your church – the list goes on! You have an abundance of choices and the freedom to choose.
- You Are Not Alone If you spend significant time in a particular context and look for other people doing Gospel work, you will find them. And you should be looking. They may not be doing what you do or what you would choose to do. But they are there. Do what you can and leave what you can’t do to others. This is why we only serve middle school students in Parable Project – many other organizations address other demographics. Don’t overpromise and underdeliver in the harvest fields of the Lord. Even if you’re the only person in your church serving a particular community or group, look for Christians from other churches who are active in serving. And take no pride in being some lone wolf. You are not the Savior! Again, this is good news that can compel you to sustainable action.
- Be Collaborative On the heels of knowing and believing that you are not alone, align what you are doing with the others who labor for the Gospel. This will catalyze each other’s work and be of great encouragement. This also becomes a space of accountability among leaders that ought to sharpen Gospel understanding and improve excellence in our ministry practices. In Parable Project alone, there is space for one person to mentor a student, for another to bring food, for another to pray, for another to visit the family members at home, for another to visit family members of our students who are incarcerated, for another to sit on our board, for another to help us maintain equipment, for another to teach from the Bible, share about their professional journey, or work really hard in their lucrative career to give financially. See how many different ways there are to serve? Each ministry can provide many ways for the Bride of Christ to be involved. And then…what might happen if multiple ministries pieced themselves together to work as a body? I would hope that such a reality would bring an increase to the percentage of Christians who are involved.
- Overcoming/Avoiding Burnout Too often, those who are paid to do ministry are asked to do everything as it relates to ministry (or at least be a part of everything). And volunteers who hold down full-time jobs while also serving on the margins of their time are tempted to feel two things at once: that they can’t give any more and it never feels like they give enough. What’s the solution? What if every Christian did one thing, consistently, with excellence, and merged it into existing efforts? What if we didn’t have a volunteer shortage or ministry burnout because a higher percentage of Christians were active and in more clearly defined roles (which requires greater organization among ministry leaders)? Do you see how we might be an always moving, constantly renewing, dynamic body that accomplishes the Lord’s will in the earth?
Next, say “No” so that you can say “Yes”. What do I mean?
- Doing Too Much The American way of life is a life built upon productivity, activity, and unhealthy busy-ness. I’m simply saying this: reject this way of life. Say “No” to some (not all) things so that you can say “Yes” to some aspect of kingdom work. Make margin. Do something, but not everything. Examine your life and start by eliminating what is meaningless or useless, spiritually or practically. Then, if necessary, remove the things from your life that are good but still stand in the way of you obeying the Lord’s assignment for your life.
- Life Centered on Jesus Centering your life on Jesus does not mean centering your life around ministry activity. Follow the Shepherd and go where He leads. Seek first the King and His kingdom. Your health, your family, your friendships, your finances, your ministry activity will all flow from there. Have priorities and let Jesus define them for you.
- Embarrassment of Riches I’m not even referring to money here. I’m referring to the plethora of choices we have when it comes to using our limited time. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. You could watch Netflix every night, tinker on that project car, perfect your garden, burn midnight oil to get ahead in your career, or you could serve a food pantry by saying “No” to those former things once a week. And if you’re going to start a formal ministry, plan to do this very often in the early years.
Last, I’ll say this. Christian ministries need the investment of Christian benefactors.
- Hostile Territory The Gospel of Jesus is not a central (or even peripheral) concern to the systems and powers that be. This includes many of the foundations that have long stood as beacons of community hope. Christian ministry needs to be funded by Christian people. Period. If you want a ministry to stay focused on the Gospel, fund them and hold them accountable as fellow followers of Christ.
- Integrity If you are one to passionately speak about the importance of the Gospel and you are not capable of serving actively, and you have the finances to support, it’s a given that you would allocate some to missions. This goes back to what was stated earlier: we are not alone and we need to collaborate wherever we can.
Here are some closing reflections.
The overarching narrative from the ministry sector, especially in the harsh urban environments of cities, is that leaders feel alone, leaders are burning out, and the most active volunteers (who are few) are discouraged.
Doing nothing is not an option. Not at this time.
What stands in the way of our involvement, big or small?
It could be worldliness. We’ve deemed the activity of life itself more important than the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. It could be that, since one person can’t do it all or actualize the whole vision right away, we just don’t bother to try. Perhaps we have left it all to the 1% of the church that are vocationally involved in ministry. Perhaps we don’t like the role God is asking us to play.
Whatever your reason, I encourage you to address this with the Lord. Too many Christians want change in the world and don’t realize the important part they play in bringing this to pass. Any contribution, no matter how small, is significant. And I’m urging us to step away from the usual course of action right now, which usually includes focusing only on ourselves, arguing on social media “for the sake of the gospel,” and being critical of society with no intentions to address any of them incarnationally.
If every Christian in every part of the world did something, no matter the size or role, if done in collaboration with the whole body of Christ, all needs would be met in local contexts, the Gospel would reach every unbelieving person, and we would see a dramatic decline in ministry burnout among workers as well as see healthier organizations that avoid mission drift for the sake of financial stability.
What can you do? How are you wired? What do you have? What are you willing to part with? Who in the body of Christ have you seen obediently respond to the Lord and you want to partner with them in your own unique way? Where could you enhance existing work? Are you supposed to start something new and invite others along? Are you a speaker or a doer? What equipment do you have that currently serves no eternal purpose but could be used for ministering to others? How can you alter your time and life activity and re-dedicate that time as worship to Him? We’ll get to these in future posts.
This is one way God is writing and telling better stories among devoted followers these days. We invite you to join us in that process.
Jason Seiple, President