Paul's Ministry ManualMuestra

  

Ministering in a Broken World

It doesn’t matter whether you are “separated to the gospel” in full-time ministry, helping a neighbor, teaching a children’s class, discipling a friend, or doing any other kind of service, you are doing ministry. And if you are doing ministry, you need some guiding principles.

Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth, especially the first half of it, is where he opens his heart the widest and describes his own ministry. From this letter we can mine fundamental principles that can guide anyone who is seeking to follow and serve the Lord today. 

Paul begins his letters with something that fits what he will write about. Here he addresses praise to “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,” and goes on to say ministry can involve intense suffering (1:1-9). 

Centuries ago St. Augustine wrote, “God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.” Several centuries before Augustine, Paul wrote, “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death” (1:8-9). These two great saints introduce us to two sources of suffering: the common suffering of mankind and the additional suffering of the Christian who is serving the Lord. We serve God in a suffering world.

If you participate in ministry, you can expect the additional suffering described by Paul (Phil. 3:10). It may not be the kind of harassment or physical attacks he experienced. It may be the criticism of others, sometimes just a word someone blurts out that keeps you awake at night, sometimes a direct criticism that wounds your soul, or sometimes a rumor that someone spreads about you.

That’s why Paul introduces the Lord in this letter as “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles” (1:3-4). We receive God’s comfort “so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (4). So much of ministry is comforting others in this broken world.

Surely Augustine is right, and God has no children who do not suffer. But beyond this, we can say that those who commit themselves to serve the Lord are inviting additional suffering. The enemy does not sit by and smile when we are attempting to serve the Lord. One of his means for attacking the kingdom of God is to make you suffer in any way he can.

If the enemy attacks you, turn to “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles.” Then you, like the apostle, will be able to “comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (1:3-4).

Prayer: Lord, I pray for that vast army of believers who are serving You across this world in whatever capacity. Many are hurting in ways I can’t even imagine. Be near them and reveal Yourself as “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.” And help me, Lord, when I suffer, to direct my pain toward You and receive Your comfort.