Ministry is not worth it (unless we consider the future)

I was listening to a sermon by D.A. Carson yesterday and was so moved by one paragraph that I actually transcribed it. I’ll include the paragraph below, but here’s my loose (and expanded) paraphrase: Ministry is hard. Really hard. That’s true not just for paid ministers, but for all Christians who minister to others (and we are all to be ministers). Ministry is hard because people are broken, people are messy, people are cruel, people are thankless, people are angry, people are mean, and people are strongly opinionated. In short, people are sinful. That’s why ministry is hard.

The only thing that ultimately makes all this hard ministry actually worth our effort and tears and time and money and passion and loss of pride and heartache is that, one day (we know not when) Jesus Christ will return and will receive glory before all the universe for how he was worked in the lives of those to whom we are ministering. That, and only that, makes all this ministry worth it.

If you’re lacking motivation in ministry, look forward. Look to the end of history, to the glory that is coming to Jesus, and live toward that day.

Here’s Carson: ‘…as we serve, we must remember always these two perspectives [doxology and eschatology], bear them constantly before our eyes. We minister, we preach, we study, we give ourselves to people with eternity’s values in view that Christ may be praised. And our whole heartthrob is that on the day of his unveiling, when he returns again, he will be praised amongst the people whom we have led to Christ, and we will give them to him as his honor, his due, his glory. Our desire is not for eminence, our desire is for the praise of Christ. And we cry with the church in every generation, ‘Even so, come Lord Jesus! Come, Lord Jesus!’ Let us live with those eternity-values in view. That is why leadership is so repeatedly connected with eschatology and doxology in Scripture…leadership is never merely professional…it is rather a life lived out…in light of the eschaton, in light of the Lord’s return and for the praise of his glory and the good of his church. Otherwise, the whole thing just isn’t worth it.’

Posted by Stephen Witmer on Jul 1, 05:09 PM