7 Things You Need To Have A Successful Ministry

Ronnie shared the above titled message at church this evening. Very good and thought provoking. It is based off of Matthew 14:13-21. So here we go...

1. Compassion: verse 14a. Jesus had just found out that John the Baptitst was dead. He wanted to rest, but there was a crowd that needed help. Jesus had compassion on them even though He needed compassion after hearing of the death. Compassion is different than sympathy and empathy. Sympathy asks: "how do you feel?" Empathy asks: "how would I feel?" and Compassion asks: "what can I DO?"

2. Be sensitive to/minister to physical needs: verse 14b. We are to meet people where they are. Must meet both physical AND spiritual. Jesus was very sensitive to physical needs.

3. Meet needs to honor Christ not honor the state or any other entity: verses 15-18. The disciples thought somebody else should take care of the hungry. So often we think somebody else other than the Church ought to meet the needs of the needy, often times we expect the state to do the job (welfare and other social programs). We should not send people to the state, but rather the Church ought to meet those needs. People often look toward those who meet their physical needs for other needs (which is why we have become so dependent on the state: the state gives us food and then we look to the state to provide us with emotional well-being as well as further physical well-being).

4. Prayer: verse 19a. Everything we do must be undergirded by prayer. We must pray God will work through us.

5. Give the love of the Gospel: verse 19b. We need to be a giving body not concerned with reciprocity. The Gospel was freely given to us, so we ought to freely give to others whether they have the potential to be useful to us or anyone else in the future.

6. Minister with impartiality: verse 20. EVERYONE ate and EVERYONE was satisfied. Not just the poor, not just the rich, not just the smart, not just the ignorant, not just the potential church members, not just the potential missionaries (get the point?).

7. Minister by faith: verse 21. Must trust God to provided what is needed. When we minister, we grow in faith. When we are needing compassion and someone else needs it also, we must rely on God to give us the strength needed to minister.

I thought this was a great message, worthy of sharing. I felt conviction with every point!