Ministry Is a Responsibility

When I immerse myself in reflection on spiritual growth, many questions arise in me concerning the people I see in my church: among the leaders and among those who bear responsibility for various kinds of ministry. It naturally seems to me that these people have already grown spiritually, have reached the summit of their development, and that their faith rises above our world like an impregnable rock. But as I become better acquainted with them, I understand that they are people just like everyone else, who have simply been entrusted with more and who bear greater responsibility before God than ordinary church members.

Ministry is not a status that makes me a special person and opens the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven to me. Rather, it is a great responsibility for the light I have received and for the opportunity to share revealed blessings with other people.

In our church, it is not customary to appoint young and inexperienced people as church leaders or to entrust them with a ministry for which they have not yet matured. Although there are exceptions, we see that the church watches very carefully whom it puts forward for pastoral ministry. Who is a pastor? As a rule, he is an ordinary person with many years of experience living within the church community, who knows how to build relationships with people, understands the teachings of the church, and lives in accordance with them. He is a person in whom the church places its trust by appointing him as a leader and organizer of church life and various projects within the church.

Such terms as theologian, bachelor, master, doctor, professor, and teacher have entered our internal vocabulary. We understand that these titles are not given without reason, but testify that these people have received specialized training in theological educational institutions and possess greater knowledge than many other church members.

But all of us together, with all our leaders, pastors, presidents, and secretaries, are members of one beloved, warm church to which Jesus addresses His special message. To Him, we are all members of His body. He desires not only to give us knowledge and freedom from sin, but also to draw us nearer to Himself, making us overcomers in the coming struggle that all of us will have to endure.

Ministry entails an enormous responsibility before God for the salvation of those souls whom God entrusts to church leaders. Someone may understand this to mean that the status of a leader makes a person the unquestionable superior of others, giving him the right to command and make decisions single-handedly. But this is not so. According to the teaching of Christ, the great one is the person who makes himself a servant to those who are weaker in faith, who know less, and who need a wise mentor.

Spiritual growth does not depend upon a person’s title or status in the church. A conference president may reach a certain stage of spiritual development and, without growing any further, continue to perform his ministry in the leadership of the church organization. Spiritual growth is a personal relationship with Christ in which the Faithful Witness invites me to rise above myself and my concerns and to receive the love that will make me hot in every sphere of church life.

I may be an ordinary church member who responded to Christ’s call and entered into a trading relationship with Him, acquiring everything that Jesus counsels me to buy from Him. As I purchase these blessings, I grow spiritually without noticing it and begin to see what was previously incomprehensible to me. The Lord reveals to me great and inaccessible things that I did not know. He leads me from glory to glory, transforming my character in love, faith, meekness, and humility. If, at the same time, I am a church leader or hold some leadership position in a division, then my relationship with Christ makes me fit to perform fully the ministry entrusted to me, and I love with a pure heart those whom the Lord has committed to my care. Then all my instruction and deeds will be permeated with the spirit of Christ’s love, which I will no longer be able to conceal within myself.

At one camp meeting, I listened to a representative of the General Conference who spoke about the interesting ideas some ministers in exotic countries have regarding their leadership status. They believe that the more important a person is and the higher his position, the more slowly he should move and the smoother his movements should be. The leader of one of the divisions in that region moves so slowly that everyone else must wait a long time for him to take his place and pass among his fellow believers. When one sees something like this, one may get the impression that this is an especially holy person who understands something about life that you do not.

Every culture has its own distinctive features, which we have no right to condemn or hold up to ridicule. But if Heavenly love is absent from these features, then there is no benefit in anything we offer through our culture. Faith which worketh by love is the distinguishing characteristic of every overcomer who fights against himself and overcomes sin from within through the power of Jesus Christ.

If a minister in the church is also a well-known preacher whose testimonies touch hearts and stir people’s minds, this still does not mean that he has grown spiritually and abides in love. It is very easy to determine whether love is present in a person: he always speaks about it, lives by it, and brings it into every relationship and every interaction with other people. For him, words about love are something desirable, something he speaks about with interest and wishes to hear from others. He will not miss a single lecture on this subject and will study everything that is said and written about the message to Laodicea. He is open to learning something new and accepting everything that will help him grow spiritually. As a rule, such people do not seek leadership positions or administrative work, because they understand that the main thing is to build close and strong relationships of love and friendship among people and fellow believers, while everything else consists merely of organizational matters that may change according to circumstances.

But there are also leaders who, upon attaining a certain position, become unreachable and elusive to ordinary church members. They are constantly traveling on business and attending sessions, meetings, and councils. They have so much to do that almost no time remains for personal relationships. And, strangely enough, someone really must do this work. Yet I, not understanding what takes place in the upper echelons of church leadership, may decide that only a person who is especially close to God is capable of such activity. And my culture prompts me to honor especially those who have achieved much in this life. If administrative work compels me to travel constantly and makes me unreachable to my friends, that is only half the trouble. But if I begin to think that, having attained a certain position, I have become some kind of special person and therefore isolate myself from those whom I consider mere mortals, then perhaps I have missed something very important in spiritual growth, become stuck at one of its stages, and fallen into trouble.

1. Please read Mark 9:33–37; 10:42–45; Luke 12:42–48; 17:7–10; John 13:34–35; Philippians 2:3–8; 1 Thessalonians 2:7–8; Hebrews 13:17; 1 Peter 5:1–6.

2. What other Bible verses came to your mind?

3. What did you understand?

4. Do I understand that every leader remains, first and foremost, a human being in need of God’s grace?

5. Do I idealize church leaders, expecting spiritual perfection from them? Do I judge a person’s spirituality by his fame, education, or position?

6. Why does spiritual growth not depend upon a position in the church?

7. Why does a position in church leadership have no connection with spiritual growth, and how does spiritual authority differ from administrative power?

8. How do I relate to people who hold a higher and more responsible position than I do?

9. Why did Christ call the one who becomes a servant the greatest?

10. Am I able to serve people without expecting gratitude or recognition?

11. Do I use my knowledge or experience to feel superior to others?

12. Do I love people more than my position among them?

13. What qualities make a person a true spiritual leader?

14. Does my ministry draw people closer to Christ, or primarily to me?