Developing Your Ministry Philosophy

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In a previous post (Church Work’s Governing Principles), I explained how church work or the ministry should be governed by some “working principles”. These principles are rules, internal yes, personal definitely, but none-the-less established procedures for doing what you do in the ministry. These rules should be based on biblical principles explicitly understood and stated by the pastor as the how and why we do what we do.

I want to expand on this concept and apply it to various areas of the ministry, not-the-least being ministry ethics. But I will wait until a later post to develop ministry ethics.

This commentary explores the development of your own personal philosophy of the ministry. How you do it, why you do it, what it is that you do.






We must understand that when we begin church work, we are often inexperienced, not so wise, and highly charged with problems that we are desperately trying to solve without much wits about us as to how. In this kind of chaos, just holding service at the established times, and getting up and talking is about all that we can hope for. But while this is fine when we are in damage control, or emergency situations, over the long haul, a Pastor should be on top of what his church and his ministry is.

Size versus Effectiveness

I have seen so many pastors “go off the deep end” in “being BIG”. These guys apparently equate “big” = good, successful, etc. Yet if you look at politics, most conservatives (I am presuming most pastors are conservative in their political outlook) consider big government as bad government. When we look at the history of Israel, we see the BIG GLORY DAYS of Israel as really their worse days because that is when they SHOULD HAVE DONE SO MUCH MORE, but they didn’t and God judged them for it. In the end, we see God’s loyalty and blessings on that remnant of God’s people. So everywhere outside of those glory days of Israel, God’s people are “framed” in the concept of being a very small minority, a remnant. How do these guys come to the conclusion that big is better?

I have no problem with big. But I have been around a lot of church work all of my life, and I have only been on the fringes of really big churches (I am talking about 400+ members). My observation is that they have their own set of unique problems that a small church is blessed not to have. Let me review some of the things that I see.

People get lost in Big churches

This is by design. A lot of people do not want to be faithful to church, to God’s work, nor in tithing or participating in “church”. They want to go to church when they have personal problems, and they want prayers of God’s people to change their situation, but they don’t want to “pay for it”. This is a common theme in big churches. A lot of people sacrifice a lot, so that a lot of other people can get benefits without their having to sacrifice at all. Look at the bus ministries of large churches, and ask yourself, where are the parents of all these kids? Why aren’t they bringing their own kids to church? Why are they sleeping in until noon on Sunday while their kids are in church?

But the point is that it is easier to be “anonymous” in a big church rather than a smaller or medium-sized church. They “are there” and can ask for help when they need it, but they are not really stressed out about making church work. It was very important on that day when God clarified in my mind why God created church. Church makes us what we are. We are here to do the work of God, and to glorify God, and it is by participating in that activity which is “church”, we become Christlike, we mature unto usefulness for God, and we become a part of the redeemed. Imagine one day you are standing before God with all of humanity, and you say you are one of God’s redeemed, that you are part of them. God turns to “the redeemed” and ask them, “which of you have worshipped Sunday by Sunday beside this person?” Nobody comes forward. He turns to you and asks you, “What church were you a part?” In silence, you stand with no other Christians standing up with you. You never identified with the body of Christ, really. You lived your life as you would, and you ignored being part of the body of Christ. When pressed, you insist that you attended such-and-such Church, but the people of that church never remember you. They never really sat down, talked to you, you never participated in or with the church in any significant, long-lasting way.




So many Christians see this as glorious, to be a part of the redeemed of Christ, but not costing them anything personally. I don’t know if that is decisive as far as being saved or not, we must publicly confess Christ in order to be saved, but I don’t know that not attending a church is sufficient for remaining lost in God’s eyes. But it does not bode well for the person. Getting into heaven, but nothing more.

My point here is that we are twisted into think “bigness” is better, but why do we think that? Can a church ministry better if it is bigger? If you count success as having a million dollar gymnasium for your teens as successful, then yes. If you count really working with your teens on a personal, helpful level, there are lots and lots of churches that are doing that without any gym of any size. So no it is not essential, and it doesn’t even promise success. It becomes the attraction, and the center of everything, instead of spiritual worship and growth. When you have a gym, the teens want to “play” in the gym more than they want to sit in a setting where they can hear the Word of God explained. There is the rub. One “excellent” thing distracts from the perfect thing on a spiritual plane.

What is Success in God’s Work?

We need to understand what success is in God’s work, according to God’s prescription of things. Firstly, God’s work is supreme in God’s perception of things. He does not care about earthly fame and glory, and even earthly buildings and money. Jesus came to earth (after God had designed and had constructed the wonderful OT temple of Solomon), and Jesus’ ministry didn’t have a building of their own that we know of. It didn’t have an earthly organization that was seated in someone place that had a hierarchy of bureaucratic under it. So many things we strive so hard for as a church today, Jesus’ ministry didn’t have.

Jesus did have popularity, but it was not exactly what church leaders today really want. These people wanted hand-outs, freebies, and when they didn’t get what they wanted, they turned to Jesus. Notice that Jesus gave to the poor and hungry. Even though there were people among these needy people, Jesus fed them all. But that was not the focus of his ministry by any means. He preached long and hard, and after the crowds were very weary, he finally furnished their earthly needs. Today churches work that backwards. First they draw people needing earthly needs, and then they try to get the Word into them after they are fed.

The Jerusalem church did not attract people to their services with free food and stuff, but the people who came to the church had their needs taken care of by the church’s generosity. Notice that the people integrated into the local church, and then their needs were taken care of. These people were in for the duration no matter what happened in their lives (suffering as a Christian) and other Christians responded with generosity to that.




Forming a Philosophy of Ministry

My desire for you is to form a biblical “Philosophy of Ministry” in that you work by biblical principles. By this we seek to do things in accordance with God’s will and way of working. Let’s take bus ministries focused on children. Did the NT church focus on children slighting the adults? I mean, do we see children exalted as the entry way into families? Jesus said don’t ignore the children, yes that is true. But the truth about bus ministries is simply this. We get the husband and then the wife, we usually get the entire family. When a bus ministry gets the kids, it is a lot of work and effort to get the mom. Getting the kids AND THE MOM is usually never going to get the dad automatically. That is another tremendous effort to get the father of the family to come.

Why are our churches focused on getting the adult members of the family first, and then providing for the rest of their families afterward? In other words, the focus is inviting and witnessing to adults, not children? It is because children are “easier” to get if you are only interested in filled seats in an auditorium and counting heads. But if you want entire families for Christ, this is just not the primary focus. Door-to-door witnessing, talking to the fathers and mothers of homes is the way to do it.

The basic idea here is to explain and apply Scripture to what we do in the ministry, with whom we do it, and how we do it.

We need to reach the unsaved people and explain the gospel with passion so that they truly receive Jesus as their Savior, having saving faith. We need to change people’s lives spiritually so that they live differently.




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