Friday 17 June 2011

EXTRAORDINARY MINISTRY

'I want to redefine extraordinary. I don't think it is wrong for church planters and church revitalizers to long for an extraordinary ministry. After all, we serve an extraordinary God who has procured an extraordinary salvation by extraordinary means. We should expect extraordinary things to happen when we serve him. Yet we need to come to grips with the fact that the extraordinary thinsg that God does may not be immediately and outwardly extraordinary in the eyes of other people.
What should we count as God's extraordinary work? It's not a stadium-sized building, a multi-million dollar budget, or satellite feeds to multiple venues. That's how the world measures and acheives extraordinary. Rather, it's extraordinary when God converts our neighbors, coworkers, children, friends, and family. It's extraordinary when proud, angry, selfish people have their hearts changed by the gospel. It's exraordinary when new churches selflessly invest their time, money, and prayes to establish and multiply even newer congregations. It's extraordinary when marriages are restorted and cultural predudices give way to unity in the gospel of Christ. It's extraordinary whenever God uses "normal" pastors and church planters, faithful men with ordinary gifts and talents, to do all this work.'
Mike McKinley, Church Planting is For Wimps, p.110.