I am a firm believer as a seminarian and ordained minister who engages ministry on a day to day basis, that the only way to categorize your ministry as effective is when you've made a lasting impression and have penetrated the surrounding and abroad community in a positive way.
If your ministry stays within the four walls of the church, than you are not being effective towards Kingdom building. You are doing no more than sitting on tools that can be used, and need to be used in the community.
My local church ministry has been and is engaged in street evangelism and crusades. It wasn't until we stepped into the outside that we began to see change in our community. In some instances we found out and realized that some people weren't coming to church, because we weren't taking the church to them.
Effective ministry involves your moving out of your comfort zone into unknown space, so that the Good News can be spread and not sat upon. What more is the mission of the church than to bring in the lost sheep? If you don't focus on the outside, than what you have on the inside will become stagnant and repetitive...and eventually die out all together.
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I wholeheartely agree that effective ministry involves moving out of your comfort zone - which could be considered the four walls of a church building - into unknown space - which could be the streets. Unknown space could also be your workplace, your community, or even your own home. These places could be considered unknown spaces because the entire depth of the beliefs of those in the space is unknown.
ReplyDeleteOnce the move is made into the unknown space, it is of importance to make sure that the Good News is shared so that those that hear it will want to become a part of the fellowship, most commonly maintained within the four walls of the church. Our duty is then to make them feel welcome in that space that is known to us so well, so that they will feel that since we have brought the church to them, they can accept the church within themselves.