On Our Own

I was reading during my devotions a while ago, and I came across 2 Chronicles 12:1 - “When the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and strong, he and all Israel with him forsook the law of the Lord.” 

This verse caused me to stop and consider how easy it is for me to start relying on my own strength when things are going well. This is a common topic we are often reminded of in church, but I want to specifically draw out some applications for ministry. 

I have had this struggle my whole life. I love feeling like I have things under control and I can manage things. This seeps over into my spiritual life in many ways that I have to fight against, but I also noticed this problem creeping in during my time in vocational ministry in several ways. 

In ministry, the Holy Spirit-filled work is also your day job. The crafting of Sunday service is your mundane Monday duties (or Friday afternoon duties for some of you-you know who you are :). I think this can cause us to fall into a “check-the-list” attitude, where we are just performing our weekly tasks of ministry without really engaging with the Holy Spirit. The novelty wears off, and the church starts to run like a well-oiled business machine. We set up vision casting meetings, we assign tasks, and then we execute. And frankly, the American church has learned to do this excessively well.

Because the fact is, though there are certainly many difficult aspects of ministry here, we have it pretty easy in the United States of America. We aren’t running for our lives, we aren’t an underground church, our congregants aren’t getting slaughtered for their faith, and we pretty much have the freedom to do whatever we want to do. And in this space, where we have unlimited resources at our fingertips, ministry buddies are just one call away, and we have programs and productions galore, I sometimes wonder if we slowly push God to the back row. I have personally been in situations where God isn’t even consulted before making decisions. I’ve been a part of vision casting where there is barely a mention of Jesus among the church lingo. I’ve been guilty of doing this in my own life. And I would propose that just like Israel, this is a dangerous place to be. 

When things are going well, we can become complacent. We can start to trust in ourselves. In our procedures and programs that have yet to fail us. In our latest ministry management handbook. And sure, things might be running as smoothly as ever. But that doesn’t mean they’re running how God wants them to run. And how would we know what He wants, if we forget to even ask Him?

The fact is, when we trust in ourselves, whether personally or in ministry, we’re missing out. Because God wants it all. He wants our hard, and He wants our easy. He wants to be a part of the mundane and the exciting. He wants to be a part of every step we take. So let’s stop missing out. 

“I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5