I think I'm going to embark on a self-commissioned mission to eliminate Christianese phrases that don't make any sense. I'll try to be nice about it, but sometimes I hear people say things (or catch myself saying things) that mean absolutely nothing, or worse, they convey the exact opposite of what we hope they will convey.
Yesterday at church, a guy asked me when I "surrendered to the ministry."
Can we stop saying that?
It's like God caught me in a weak moment and pulled a gun on me, forcing me to "surrender" to ministry as if being in ministry is a bad thing, and as if ministry is something that all Christ-centered people are not called to do.
I love what I do. I love the fact that people invest their money in such a way that I get to do it every day. There was a day in which I said "I'll never be a pastor." But I'm not a pastor today because I had to surrender my dreams; God worked in my life and in my heart to where I would have to surrender to do anything else.
Full-time ministry, whether you get paid specifically for that or get to do it while you get paid for something else, is an unspeakable privilege. It's the greatest fun I can imagine and is perfectly consistent with the desires of my heart. It's not something I had to surrender to.
Other Blogs of Note
Archive
-
▼
2010
(183)
-
▼
August
(16)
- Job and Value
- Books in my Queue
- Winning on Purpose - Review
- Surrendered to Ministry?
- Preventing Group Elephantiasis - Part 4
- Preventing Group Elephantiasis - Part 3
- Preventing Group Elephantiasis - Part 2
- Preventing Group Elephantiasis
- Self-Help Heresy
- Why are you still in existence?
- Good Enough
- The Serious Sin of Procrastination
- Poor People and the Church
- Radical - Review
- Occupational Hazard of Over-Statement
- The Good News We Almost Forgot - Review
-
▼
August
(16)
Dialogos | All Rights Reserved | Chris Freeland
2 comments:
Great points, Chris. I'll go another one. I feel uncomfortable when someone says, "I led him/her to Christ". I don't think any ONE person leads another to Christ. Seems a little to self-serving and moves the focus from Christ to the person. I believe I understand what they are trying to say, but it's like an athlete on a team taking all the credit for winning a game. (Analogy breaks down quickly, but you get my drift.) I view that as if I am honored by God/Christ to have the privilege to play ANY role in a person's acceptance of Jesus Christ as their Lord & Savior....WOW!! Then I'M blessed!
Back to your comments. As Christians we've allowed the public media to try to portray us as "weak" (i.e., surrendering) and we use that vocabulary ourselves. God gave us free will to make decisions and I'm glad you willing made the CHOICE to go into ministry. Your messages are relevant & pertinent and I know you give all the credit to God.
Press on!
excellent. like when we say we don't give enough of our time to God. excuse me, but i certainly can't possess time. we can't give our time to Him anymore than we can give Him the Rocky Mountains.
but we Can choose to use the time with which God has trusted us to do His Will.
I realize that we all understand this concept, but we use these phrases and then wonder why some people don't understand us at all.
Post a Comment