What Is The Purpose Of Ministry?

[Michael The Disciple]

Why does God provide ministry for his people? What do you expect from your minister?

[Michael The Disciple]

The Apostle Paul told the Churches the purpose of his ministry.

Whom we preach , warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: 29 Whereunto I also labour , striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily . Col. 1:28-29

His job was to present every man perfect in Christ! Friends everything he was doing for the saints was for this goal or agenda.

Is this your ministers reason for being in the ministry?

[Michael The Disciple]

Ok lets take it a little further. There IS a certain purpose for ministry. Here he more fully expands on it.

Ephesians 4:11-15

11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro , and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness , whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

There it is. Are you receiving this kind of ministry? To perfect you? To build you up as opposed to making you weak? To bring you to the unity of the faith?

Do not most modern teachers OPPOSE these things?

Did you know the goal of your walk is to come to a perfect man? Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ?

We should be hearing this a lot if we were learning from TRUE APOSTOLIC MINISTRY!

[Aquila]

I don't think any minister "opposes" these things. I think the problem is that there are many interpretations of what these things mean. For one minister it means one thing... to another these things mean something else. For example,

"the perfecting of the saints"

To one minister this has a lot to do with dress codes and denominational standards. To another this has more to do with an internal theosis without emphasis on dress codes or any denominational standard. When they meet, they look at one another and think the other guy opposes the work of ministry.

[MarieA27]

I don't think any minister "opposes" these things. I think the problem is that there are many interpretations of what these things mean. For one minister it means one thing... to another these things mean something else. For example,

"the perfecting of the saints"

To one minister this has a lot to do with dress codes and denominational standards. To another this has more to do with an internal theosis without emphasis on dress codes or any denominational standard. When they meet, they look at one another and think the other guy opposes the work of ministry.

Why can't the ministry deal with both equally? Standards and internal? Why do it have to deal with either/or? Or one way over the other? They're not perfecting the saints, if all they harp on is outside standards, without equally showing you the "why" of said standards.

It's not enough for a preacher just to tell a saint to not wear a very deep, low cut shirt, with only the instructions, "it's not holy nor of God, don't wear it." With only that information, they'll, dress in other similar ways, but refrain from wearing the shirt, not thinking about all the other ways that they dress which is similar to the wearing of that shirt.

But if the preacher would get into the heart of the matter, getting the saint to look at their heart, and to look at why they would want to wear such in the first place, if they're honest, they'll look at everything else that they wear with that understanding in mind, and be able to judge their self accordingly.

I know this seems to be simple enough, but for some reason there are a lot of people in the church, who dress in overly revealing clothing, and think that just because they're following the "rule book" that they're fine.

[Amanah]

We are the body of Christ, and members of His body in particular.

God has always set some apart for particular callings and leadership over his church.

And while we are able to seek the Lord, and hear from him ourselves, we need men and women of God in our lives to bring the word of the Lord, to preach the gospel, to reprove, rebuke, exhort, to pray for the sick, to organize an administration for meeting the needs of the poor, missionaries, elderly, youth and others.

I can seek and hear from God in my prayer closet. But the faith, power and anointing that is present when the body of Christ comes together to pray, praise, worship, fast, seek, minister to each other, is so greatly magnified above the individual.

The church was designed to function as a body.