The Gospel We Share: How It Transforms Ministry

As this is published today, this evening, you will find some individuals at our church gathering for community service at a local transitional housing complex. It's something we do once every month, and our church has been part of it for the last 25 years or more. Long before my arrival as pastor . . . in fact, long before I was ever a believer, our church has reached out here by providing food and serving a meal to those who lived here.
Admittedly, I’ve been slightly critical of this ministry. There is a reason for that. Though it had been advertised as one of their most critical and successful outreaches, when prompted, nobody could point to the last time, if ever, anyone had committed their life to Christ as a result of this ministry. Such an assessment is unfair because this is the Lord's work, and if nobody commits to Him though His people are faithful, then we trust the Lord's plan. The concern here, though, was not merely that they had not seen anyone submit to Christ's lordship but that when prompted further, nobody could even remember the last time anyone had shared the gospel or any Scripture with this group.

That was a problem. Permit me to ask this: is it truly the Lord's will if we engage in what we call the Lord's work but do not share the Lord's word? I'll allow you to pray through that alone and draw your own conclusions. For me, though, I was concerned that we were claiming to impact people for Christ and yet had not even endeavored to share Christ. Therefore, I came into my second year with an agenda: to better equip our people for disciple-making, beginning with a series on evangelism.

By the Lord’s grace, I have had the privilege of watching hearts and minds open up to the conviction about sharing more of the gospel, more frequently. And what we have gotten ourselves into is a ministry that is slowly beginning to become more gospel-oriented because the people themselves are transforming into Christ-followers who are gospel-oriented. It has changed why we serve, what we serve, and how we serve.

‍Why We Serve

‍If you had asked many of the people involved in this ministry why they served together, a good number of them would tell you it was because of the fellowship. They simply enjoyed being together. Though they were out in the community, the purpose of serving was not outreach but in-reach. It was a ministry to develop relationships with one another and feel good about themselves while doing it. As the gospel has become more central to their own lives, though, so has the conviction that the gospel needs to be more central to this ministry.

‍What We Serve

‍This is a ministry that physically serves food to those in need. That has stayed the same. We still serve food. But what is beginning to happen is that serving food isn't the primary focus. Serving the gospel is the goal. Our vision is transferring from meeting physical needs to meeting spiritual needs. The focus is slowly becoming about trying to use serving food as a means to serve the gospel.

‍How We Serve

‍Finally, the gospel in our own lives provides direction to how we serve. Again, providing a meal and serving it to strangers is still very much part of what we do. However, now people are looking for other means to serve. There was a time that our people would serve the meal, and that was it. Afterward, when the time for them to eat came, they would pick out the least empty table and gather in their group. Now some are starting to sit with others and learn their stories.

The participants are looking for other ways to serve the people in order to meet more of their needs, but again they are doing so as an avenue for sharing the gospel. So incorporated into our service are times of prayer and Bible teaching. This also means that it requires our people to be involved on other days and at other times, allowing us to increase our involvement and see different aspects of the people's lives so that we may serve them better.

The transformation in ministry has come about by making it Christ-centered rather than man-centered. Ministry is about people, and I do not deny that. But the central tenet needs to be Christ and His truth. Interestingly, the more we have become gospel-centered, the more we have become people-centered.

There's still work to do and ways to improve. We want to take the opportunities the Lord has given us and glorify Him (1 Corinthians 10:31) by making it about Him. I have no idea if these advancements will stick around. I do now know where they may lead. And I am definitely uncertain about what it may mean for the future. But I am encouraged to see where we are at because it is evidence that the Lord is working both in our people and through our people. Therefore, I would tell people the gospel of Christ defines our message, it defines our motivation, and it defines our method.