Ministry comes from the Greek word diakonos meaning "to serve"
Ministry is using what God has given me to build up His body by serving Him in helping to meet the needs of others.
"As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever." 1 Peter 4:10-11
We serve in three ways:
1. To and with THE LORD Acts 13:2
2. To and with OTHER BELIEVERS Hebrews 6:10
3. To and among NON-BELIEVERS Mattew 5:13
WE MINISTER TO 3 AREAS OF NEED
1. To people's PHYSICAL needs.
" I was hungry and you fed me,...thirsty and you gave me a drink... needed clothes and you clothed me...sick and you cared for me...in prison and you visited me...Whenever you have done this to the least person, you did it to me" Matthew 25:35-36,40
2. To people's EMOTIONAL, INTELLECTUAL and PSYCHOLOGICAL needs.
"Warm the idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with all."
1 Thessalonians 5:14
3. To people's SPIRITUAL needs.
"...God reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." II Corinthians 5:18
THE PURPOSE OF MINISTRY
"There are different kinds of service to God, but it is the same Lord we are serving. The Holy Spirit displays God's power through each of us as a means of helping the entire church. All of you together are the Body of Christ and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it."
I Corinthians 12:5,7,27
