Addressing the Damaging Effects of Professionalism in the Local Church

"The way to fix a church suffering with professionalism is not to do away with the gifted, well-trained, and experienced ministers but channel their ministry in a different way. This is the genius of the early church leaders. They understood their calling not as ministers but equippers. Their end goal was to have apprentices who can duplicate their life, work, and calling so that as the church continues to grow and multiply, there are new laborers and competent leaders for the mission."

Read more: http://timmybrister.com/2010/03/16/addressing-the-damaging-effects-of-professionalism-in-the-local-church/

HT: Trevin Wax

Quote of the Day: Darryl Dash

"When Jesus came down from the mountain, he didn't find a golden calf. He found technique-driven, prayerless ministry. Same thing (Mark 9)."

Ministry Can Be Dangerous to Your Spiritual Health

Tim Keller has an eye opening article on this subject in the Reedeemer Report (March 2007). I especially like his point that one can "mistake the operations of your spiritual gifts for the operation of spiritual grace in your life" (page 1) the danger being that:

we can look to our ministry activity as evidence that God is with us, or as a way to earn God’s favor and prove ourselves. If our heart remembers the gospel, and is rejoicing in our justification and adoption, then our ministry is done as a sacrifice of thanksgiving —and the result will be that our ministry is done in love, humility, patience, and tenderness. But our heart may be continuing to do the same self-justification it has always done—seeking to control God and others by earning and proving our worth—through our ministry performance (page 4).

For more Tim Keller Resources and links to articles such as these go to this site.