Adams: amateur minister?

Friday, May 19, 2017
    Feast of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988
Meditation:
    For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
    —2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Can the love of Christ move a Christian to fruitful, effective, full-time, unpaid service to those who belong to Him? I have no hesitation in answering, Yes, it can, and it must. St. Paul wrote, “The very spring of our actions is the love of Christ. We look at it this way: if one died for all men, then in a sense, they all died; and his purpose in dying for them is that their lives should now be no longer lived for themselves but for Him who died and rose again for them.” There is the motive. Can anyone doubt that St. Paul’s ministry was fruitful—in wisdom, in Christ-like character, in testimony to the power of the Spirit of Christ—or effective—in conversions, in churches planted, in men raised up to carry on the work? Yet St. Paul spent long hours working with his hands to support himself. He served Christ, therefore, as an “amateur.” Dare we say he was not really a “full time” worker? Or was he not really “unpaid”?
    ... Robert MacColl Adams (1913-1985), “Amateur Ministry” (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 5:14-15; 1 Cor. 4:12; 9:6-18; 2 Cor. 12:14-16; 1 Thess. 2:6-9; 4:11; 2 Thess. 3:8-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to examine my ministry. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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