A few weeks ago I applied for a job with a local church (I know shocking).  More about that later.  At the suggestion of the guy who disciples me, I provided them a personal Philosophy of Ministry.  I thought it might be cool to share it.

Matthew 28:18-20
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” [emphasis mine]

In my interactions with people, I most often impart the love that Jesus has for his own people, stirring people up to love one another and to become connected in relationships with one another.  My calling is to the Church, helping people develop authentic, deep relationships of great love with God and with one another where they have freedom to seek after Him with reckless abandon, that is disciple-making.  I desire for people to come alive in their relationship with God—for Him to be the tangible and core reason for being and doing and the ultimate decision maker in their lives.  Often this requires people to leave the control, safety, success, and comfort they perceive themselves as having and simply trust what God has told/shown them to do.  This can only happen when people have a deep and abiding knowledge that they are children of God and that, as such, He loves them and desires for their best.  Having been loved and liberated by Christ, people gain freedom to reveal the sin and brokenness that afflicts them that they may be healed and set free to go and love more and more like Him—self-sacrificially.  As they love more and more like God, God uses them to make disciples and thus the Kingdom grows.

So practically, what does that look like?  For me it looks like (and I’m far from perfect at it):

  • listening
  • praying
  • seeking to actively love all I come into contact/surrounding them with love
  • sharing meals with people in groups and individually
  • spending time with people one-on-one
  • coming to relationships with the understanding that we both have things to teach one-another
  • hearing people’s passions and connecting them with people of similar passions
  • being available to people
  • helping people discover/understand their spiritual gifts and helping them learn to use them
  • helping people understand that they worship a God who speaks and learn to recognize and obey His voice
  • helping people to allow faith to guide their actions/make God the decision-maker in their life (moving from belief in God’s existence to faith in God’s promises/identity)
  • listening to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to guide my conversations
  • seeking to learn and grow each and every day
  • seeking to chase after God with reckless abandon myself, making Him the decision-maker in my life
  • being “discipled” myself
  • living and functioning in community
  • walking alongside people on their journey/getting on their sinking ships with them and helping them plug the hole instead of simply bailing out the water

Unfortunately, disciple-making is a messy, time-consuming, labor-intensive process that requires depth of relationship to be developed and, as such, is impossible to do in mass or quickly. The good news however is that, as people become disciples, the Holy Spirit will equip them and provide them opportunities to make disciples themselves… thus the Kingdom grows both exponentially and with power.