In some cases, we have made following Jesus too complicated. We need to find a way to return to a simplicity that will invite everyone to the table of effective service, not just those who have "gone into the ministry".
Paul said the evidence that a believer has been matured under the training of the five equipping gifts listed in Ephesians 4 is their ability to speak the truth in love. Our voices have been assigned to make their unique sound on one of the 7 mountains of culture (Government, Religion, Economy, Education, Arts/Entertainment, Media, and Family).
As you read this, you are standing on one of those mountains. You don't need to "go into the ministry" to get there. You already stand in a place of ministry. Some of you may end up becoming a pastor or missionary, but that is such a small fragment of the overall potential of the Church, not the Mt. Everest of personal calling. We need everyone on assignment speaking the truth in love in coffee shops, corporate boardrooms and in the break room of a big box store. Those are the places where the sound of reformation needs to be heard - outside the walls and programs of a religious institution.
2018 is just weeks away. It is time for all of us to discover the simple truth of our calling. God is inviting us to leave behind the complicated perceptions we have assumed about what constitutes a ministry and the place of its delivery. It is for that reason that I wrote The Sound of Reformation. It is time to get simple so we can begin to move forward.
(If you are interested in purchasing a copy of my book, The Sound of Reformation, there is a link to the book and others on the homepage of this blog.)
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