Considering the life of Jesus this morning …

None of His life was done to help Himself, nothing was about making Him better, more popular, more sought out, or more “relevant”.

Everything Jesus did was for others.

The point of ministry then is not to fill the seats in our churches or to fill the void of preachers seeking approval. Or to increase the influence we may want to have.

The point is to bring people to the place God has for them.

Seeking God daily in prayer and study is not to have Him elevate us to become a guru or a buddha or enlightened one. It’s not to be prophet for people to admire and seek out. It’s not for people to make us gods among men.

It’s to elevate others to when / where they open their eyes to what God has for them. It’s to lead them to be seekers of the same truths we’ve found. We teach what we know only to make people realize what they do not know and become students of God as we are.

The man who was delivered by demons told Jesus, “Let me follow you wherever you go.” Jesus told him, “Nope. You stay here and do what I’m doing elsewhere right here in your town.”

Luke 8

38 Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he might be with Him. But Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.” And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.

Effective ministry is not to collect people who follow them, but to send out people who follow Christ.

Interesting that Jesus trusted the Father to educate the once demon possessed man. He did not hinder him to preach because he lacked experience, education, or, goodness, or that he was just delivered from demons.

Some ministries would have people believe they can’t do anything until and unless they send them out “ready” for ministry.

Jesus did not show concerns about the man’s history. Jesus wanted him to do immediately what He was doing: share the goodness of God.

Jesus instruction was simple: “Go to your own house and tell [them] what great things God has done for you.”

If we’re graced enough to be ahead of other’s journey in faith, if we now know more or have experienced more than what others know or have experienced; the task is to make others realize that what we have attained is not exclusively ours and that they’re not there so we can make merchandise out of them.

Successful business and creatives out there understand this.

From what I’ve heard and read, successful people don’t think about the viability or volatility of their business. They think about the need of people for the products and/or services they provide. If they can know what their customer/client needs, then they can provide effective, products/service to meet the need or be a solution to their problems. And if this becomes the heart of the company and if they can do that better than any other, then they will not only succeed but they will grow and stay relevant for longer periods of time.

The collapse of any successful business, as books tell us, start when the company begin looking at what it provides rather than what people need, and make products instead of people their core.

So in my musing concerning the ministry of Jesus, a few questions popped up:

- What are the needs in my community?

- Did God give me what I need to meet it?

- Do I trust God enough to do for people what’s He’s done for me?

We are in this thing together: we are all called to bring lost sons back to the Father. Some use God to help them grow their churches. They have God in their messages and their publications, but they use God to create “sons in the faith” rather than sons of God. They want to have a pedigree of followers where they are at the top rather than a community where they are the same. They want to be “fathers” when we are all called to be sons.