Finding your place in your church home
Updated: Apr 25, 2018
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
When you have received Jesus Christ into your life as Lord and Savior and became a Christian believer in God, you receive your inheritance as a child of God and with this new identity in Christ your spiritual gifts were also given to you to be used for God’s purposes.Every time you write a post, you can add it up to 3 different categories. Those categories will then appear in your blog’s navigation menu, so choose categories that you normally post about and also serve as the main topics of your blog, e.g., Food, Fashion, Travel, etc.
Spending time seeking God through your personal devotion and quiet time, meditating and declaring the promises of Scriptures, fellowshipping with fellow Christians in church, volunteering in missions, are some of the ways that you can easily learn what area of ministry in the church is best for you and find God’s purpose for your role in ministry. A word of caution, sometimes you may come across those in ministry who may feel that because you started in one role you should remain there forever.
Well, you just need to let them know that you are just “trying out the ministry” to be sure that you are gifted in that area before making a final decision on where you fit. This is really important or you will be stuck doing things in the church where you’re not gifted and someone else with those gifts may not move into that role because you are there.Ministry requires service without any financial remuneration so it is through the love of Christ that you serve others with your giftings.
Some of the areas of ministry where you could serve include deacons, ministers, evangelism ministry, church administration, going on mission trips, hospitality ministry – greeting visitors, preparing meals & refreshments, prison ministry, homeless ministry, ministering to the elderly, children’s ministry, prayer ministers, and visitation team to the sick. Ministry is basically anytime you help the church whether it’s in front of others or in the back performing a service that is needed. It’s ministering to the needs of others – that’s ministry.
Sometimes your life may already be quite full with family, work and school and you may feel that you don’t have the time or capacity to take on another task. Well, there is always time! You just need to do some careful planning. Ministry can happen at any time, if you are praying for people over the phone then you can do that at any time 24 hours per day, you can pray for people over emails for 1 hour per day or just once per week. You can arrive at church one hour earlier so that you can greet the new people who are coming to church. There is always some time that you can volunteer. Start slow with only 1 hour per week and then go from there. The spiritual reward from this service is huge! And, it will certainly allow you to grow even more in your relationship with the Lord.
Let me encourage you to approach God and seek His will, purpose, vision, and mission for your life. You will hear God when you are in a posture or position of rest. Decide to spend some time like a week to commune with God in prayer or better yet in fasting. Meditate on His Word and declare them for your life.
Perhaps, you need to get honest with yourself and assess your own skills, talents, gifts, and anointings. Take note of the people involved, activities, events, and undertakings that you enjoy doing and are capable of accomplishing. This will give you a clue on the kind or type of ministry God has in mind for you. Here is a Spiritual Gifts Test that will help to highlight the areas where you may be spiritually gifted.
Do you enjoy speaking before a crowd and training people?
Or do you like being with kids or gifted with singing or playing instruments?
Do you have the knack for giving advice or counsel or listening longer periods at a time to someone with problems?
Do you love praying and interceding for people?
Do you delight in planning programs or taking admin roles?
How about visiting the sick, prisoners, or evangelizing on the streets?
Or do you love to travel and impact places and people for short or long periods?
Do you love to write, journal, and inspire people through your words?
Do you have a kind or generous heart to support missions and ministries financially
Do you want to mentor churchmates on financial planning or debt elimination?
These are but some of the ministries in Clubcreek church. There are people who are not directly ministering inside the church but they are ministers altogether. You may have some brief times to text people of prayer requests and praise reports. You may also do email or phone brigades if requests are longer than usual. You may also use the internet and social media to write blogs, articles, testimonies and Facebook posts on what God has been doing in your part of the world. Some people when they receive their salary, will buy meals and distribute to the homeless on the streets. For people tied at home, they can counsel and pray for people over the phone or through chats.
Remember that anything you do for anyone as unto the Lord pleases God. (Colossians 3.23) You do not have to minister under a ministry label or tag, just go on and do what God tells you to do. Many times we are becoming ministry-centered performing God’s work as a routine and obligation like Martha.
God wants us to minister like Mary who sat at the feet of Jesus listening attentively to everything He has to say. (Luke 10.39) Through this posture of basking in Jesus’ presence, listening to His voice and leading, spending time with Him, and doing what He exactly tells you to do, you become the hands and feet of Jesus to someone.