What is ministry?
The word "ministry" in the Bible simply means service, but Christendom has narrowed it to a profession, a title, or a class of men. The writers below press three questions instead: what ministry actually is, who gives it, and what it is for.
Ministry Is the Exercise of a Gift
The starting definition is short and it fixes everything else in place.
William KellyMinistry then may be defined to be the exercise of gift, and therefore it is evident that these gifts of grace are bound up with it in the most intimate manner. There can be no ministry of the word (properly speaking) without gift by the Spirit from Christ.
That means a gift is never private property. Holding one puts you into a relationship with the Lord who gave it.
J. N. DarbyBy the possession of a gift I become the servant of Christ, from whom I hold the gift by the Spirit, and whom the Spirit reveals as Lord. So every gift in exercise is a ministry — service carried out under responsibility to Christ.
The Source Is Christ, Not the Church
If gift makes the servant, then no group of people can manufacture one. Ministry comes down from Christ, who has gone up.
Edward DennettThe gifts were not given to the Church, but to men for the benefit of the Church. So those who have received them are responsible for their exercise, not to the Church, but to the Lord. It is impossible therefore for the Church to appoint pastors and teachers, or any of the gifts named, since in fact the responsibility of the Church is to receive the ministry of everyone the Lord has qualified for its edification.
The practical result is a division of labour between the Lord and His people.
W. T. P. WolstonYou cannot make a minister of Christ. It is Christ alone who can make him, and if he is made by Christ, it is the privilege and responsibility of the saints to receive him, not to remake him.
Not Only Preaching
Public speaking is one branch of ministry, not the whole tree. Some of the most needed service never happens from a platform.
William KellyBy ministry I understand serving the saints — kind, loving, self-denying interest in their difficulties, snares, sorrows, needs and trials. It is not preaching or teaching, but helping the saints in other ways. This is set down as a real gift. Do you not know that there are people who teach admirably, whom you would never think of going to if you were in trouble?
Widen that out and the shape of the whole is not a stage with an audience, but an exchange.
Frederick William GrantThis is the simple character of ministry — the service of love, according to the ability which God gives, mutual service of each to each and each to all, without jostling or shutting one another out. Each gift was thrown into the common treasury, and all were the richer by it.
The Aim Is to Equip Others
Ephesians 4 says the gifts are given "to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ" (ESV). One writer, reading the older rendering "for the perfecting of the saints to the work of the ministry," draws out what that ordering does:
Samuel RidoutThe more public gifts exist to perfect or prepare the saints for their work. So the evangelist, used by God in the salvation of a soul, has by that very act prepared another channel of gospel testimony; the pastor, in caring for a sheep of Christ, is preparing that one in turn to care for others; the teacher who opens up God's word is putting the key into other hands, who will pass on the precious things to still others.
Measured that way, prominence is not success:
Leslie M. GrantIf the more prominent gifts do not encourage the saints in the use of their particular gifts, then the more prominent gifts have failed in their work.
Everyone Has a Place, and a Charge to Keep It
Since God has reconciled believers to Himself and given them the ministry of reconciliation, no Christian is left as a spectator.
J. G. BellettBut every saint has some office to fill. We are all to be found in the great divine ministry of reconciliation which the Lord is now carrying on in this world of sinners. If we are not ambassadors, we are still appointed to fill some place in the great ambassador's train, even if it is only washing a saint's feet, or being in some way a fellow-helper of the truth.
And the charge given to Archippus — take heed to the ministry you have received, so that you fulfil it — cuts off comparison with other servants:
Michael VogelsangTo put our phrase a little differently: take heed to your ministry, the one you have received. When Peter was too taken up with another servant's ministry — "Lord, what about this man?" — the Lord told him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!"
Summary
- Gift. Ministry is the exercise of a gift; without a gift given by the Spirit from Christ there is no ministry of the word at all.
- Giver. The gift comes from the ascended Christ to individual men, so the servant answers to the Lord, and the church's part is to receive him, not to make him.
- Range. It reaches far past preaching — quiet help in another's trouble is a real gift, and every gift goes into a common treasury from which all grow richer.
- Goal. Public gifts exist to equip other saints to serve; the evangelist makes another witness, the teacher hands on the key.
- Charge. Every believer has a place in the ministry of reconciliation, so take heed to the ministry you received and fulfil it, instead of watching another servant's.