Today our ministers and elders had our annual retreat, a time of prayer and sharing and vision casting. It was a great time for us to just be together and pray about what we hope God will do in our church in the coming year.

As a part of our time together, I led a session where we asked each other the question: Why do you love ministry? I wanted everyone to think about their passions in ministry. I asked, “If you had to identify, in one word, what fuels your fire in ministry, what would your word be?”

It was a great little exercise for our group: with 30 elders & ministers, it took an hour and a half for everyone to share. But I can’t think of a better use of our time. I’ve served alongside some of these men for nearly 8 years and I heard things today that I never knew about them.

For me, a lot of words came to mind. There were the fairly obvious ones: Love. Grace. Relationships. But those were all taken quickly. But when my turn came, I knew there was really only one place for me to go. My word was “The Word” or simply “Word”. Here’s what I meant by that:

1. The written Word. Over the past 5 years or so, my appreciation for scripture has grown exponentially. This is probably the greatest contribution graduate school has made to my faith. I can’t get enough of the Word. It means more to me than ever before. I’ll have more to say about that in later posts.
2. The spoken Word. Obviously, this is where preaching comes in. I see preaching as proclamation of the written Word. Again, I’ll have much more to say about this as we move forward here. But I love the way Isaiah imagined this: For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. — Isaiah 55. I love ministry because it is participation in the work of God, accomplishing that which he has purposed.
3. The Living Word. At the end of the day, ministry has to be Christ-focused, else it ceases to be ministry. In ministry, as in all things, we look to Christ as our example. I love ministry because its what Jesus was about. The written Word sustained Christ in his ministry (Luke 4:1-13); he came to proclaim the word that God’s Kingdom reign was breaking into the present (Luke 4:43). But the Gospel of John speaks of Christ in a new way, as God’s Word living and dwelling (literally “tabernacling”) among us. This is critical for ministry; without Christ-presence, we’re merely active. True ministry finds its source in the life of Christ.

As I said, I’ll have more to share about ministry in some future posts. But tonight, worn out from a day with my brothers and sisters, I’m quietly giving thanks for the life of service and ministry He has called me to and for the incredible ministers I work with on a daily basis.