Is the church telling the complete story?
I have a confession … I have been telling an incomplete story.
People are drawn most often to stories that involve conflict, drama and even some sensationalism. That’s why People Magazine and TMZ are so popular.
A big way our ministry accomplishes our mission is to tell people’s stories. I bet our team has filmed over 1000 stories in the past 10 years.
Anyone who is a storyteller is always looking to tell the best story possible. But sometimes in our pursuit of the “best” story we create an “incomplete” story. Here’s what I mean …
If you asked most people in the church what kind of “ministry” they are doing … chances are they would give you a ministry activity that shows up on their calendar.
- I teach a Bible study on Tuesday mornings
- I volunteer with YoungLife on Monday nights
- I am going on a mission trip in June
- I tutor kids on Thursday afternoons
These are all great ministries. Certainly ministry can happen as a scheduled event on a calendar. But if we only see ministry as something that we can schedule then we have an incomplete picture.
I believe people have this view of ministry because of the stories we are telling. Most of the stories that we (church leaders) highlight about ministry involves the missionary overseas or the YoungLife volunteer or the team that feeds the homeless. These stories are dramatic, powerful and sometimes even sensational because of the visible results … 200 people came to Christ on that mission trip … that drug-addicted teen turned their life around … over $15,000 was raised for the project. These are great stories and they are fun to tell. But if we only tell these kinds of stories we fail to show people that ministry can happen in the everyday pathways of life too.
I have been guilty of this. As I look back at the stories our team has captured in the past 10 years we have showcased a lot of people doing incredible ministry that shows up somewhere on their calendar.
Last fall we realized we might not be telling a complete story. Our stories might be conditioning people to think of ministry as a compartmentalized part of life and not woven through all of life.
We captured these two stories as a first step in redefining ministry.
Ministry on the everyday path of life:
Ministry in and through your job:
YES! and AMEN! These videos are what sharing the Gospel is all about. Jesus said to “Go into all the world…” and modeled that for us. Yet so often we Christians are guilty of the plan “Build a big program or a great show and they will come”. We expect people to cross their comfort zones when we are unwilling to cross ours. People, non-believers and believers alike, are more apt to come to a church when they are INVITED by someone with whom they have a positive relationship. If that is true for going to a new church, is it not more true for hearing the Gospel?