I'll be heading up to Alton, NH on Friday with a little under 200 teenagers and over 30 youth workers for a winter retreat. I'll be leading the worship team and caring for 5 middle-school boys.
It's that last part that I'm least prepared for. I've been thinking about songs, set lists, arrangements, and kids on the worship team; but I must admit that I have not begun to pray for those 5 boys or for myself as I lead them. In the world of ministry, it is tempting to think big-- especially when you're part of a thriving program that does lots of events. You tend to equate success with slick programming or numbers. But at its most fundamental level, every ministry is about individuals. The Holy Spirit may work in large-scale movements; but it begins with the opening of individual eyes and softening of individual hearts.
In the gospels, Jesus ministers to the crowds; but often appears to shun the crowd, too. There's a tension about his public, large-scale works of healing and exorcism: the more public he becomes, the more he tries to spend time alone with his disciples. Maybe its because he knows miraculous works and mass-teaching are necessary, but only insofar as they support the work of making disciples. So he tries to spend whatever time he can teaching his small group. Then, when all has been accomplished on the cross, he leaves his disciples with the imperative to "go make disciples of all nations."
For one who is called to minister, that call is to make disciples-- to care for individuals and feed them with God's means. But when some of us think about what it means to "do ministry" we think of planning games, having meetings, factoring logistics, designing worship, lesson or sermon planning, etc. Especially for pastors and lay-workers who have been involved for a long time, ministry begins to take on the veneer of a large enterprise that we have to keep afloat. There are advantages and disadvantages to the large model, but God forbid that "doing ministry" would distract us from Jesus' call to make disciples.
May the fewer outweigh the grosser during this weekend so that our work would not be in vain.
