The Fallacy of 'The Great Ministry Out There'

By Steve Jones

Since I first began undertaking the Christian life in earnest, I've held the idea that there's some grand work "out there" that God has called me to. Something that would justify my existence on this planet.

I never even knew what it was — but it would have a major impact on lots of people. Maybe a powerful pastorate, or counseling ministry, or the launching of some great theological awareness that would imbue multitudes with fresh understandings. Or the setting up of some worthy ministry that would keep operating generations after I'm gone.

To that end, I'd been preparing myself for decades. Reading, studying, memorizing, meditating, debating, discussing. While my kids needed help with their homework, I had my nose in some thick book, preparing for what lay on my horizon. When my wife wanted to talk, I was soaking up the words of some long-dead theologian and didn't want to be disturbed.

I've passed 50 now. My children are grown. The prospects of my ever doing this monumental work to which I aspired since age 24 are fading. And I'm faced with a sobering fact: The hundreds of seemingly insignificant things I could have been doing turn out to be extremely significant when totaled up over time. Like stocks slowly gaining dividends over the long haul, they make all the difference.

Those are the areas to which I should have been applying myself: those long-term investments in the people who inhabit my small corner of the earth. My family, friends, co-workers, fellow church members. Not only have I not done "the Great Thing," but I've left so much undone.

Not long ago, I had one of those epiphanies that reshapes our thinking from time to time. No burning bush or voice from the clouds, just a realization that the nebulous "thing" to which I expected to be called probably involves the unexciting things that lie around me. Things that when taken together add up to a great work. I wish I had realized that a long time ago.

It has also occurred to me that what we become should be a greater focus than what we accomplish. Character trumps achievement. In modern America, with our achievement mentality, that can be an elusive perspective. Too often, we honor the deed over the person. Even the church sometimes perpetuates the idea that personal greatness lies in achievements. But it's possible that God wants us to visit seniors in a nursing home more than He wants us to fill stadiums with people clamoring for our preaching. Maybe he values our giving a child a cup of water more than our writing a theological tome. His ways are not our ways.

One of the things I admire about the monastic orders (Franciscans, Benedictines, etc.) is their belief in the nobility of common work. Sweeping a floor well is a sacred act. Ministering to others in small ways is considered a high calling, like Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. The older I get, the more that perspective resonates with me.

A young man once told Albert Schweitzer that he was considering going into the African rain forest to minister (which Schweitzer was doing at the time). Schweitzer dissuaded this person, telling him to attend to the unexciting things all around them before considering such a ministry. The allure of doing something grandiose, he said, can actually be an impulse that is more about self than about service.

Not that God doesn't sometimes call people to a grandiose work. God has raised up men and women who have left an indelible mark on redemptive history. Notice, however, that many of them were not looking for greatness when they were called. Like Moses and David, they were minding their everyday business when the call came.

Most of us are ordinary Christians, much as we may wish to be something else. But our problem is one of vantage point. An ordinary Christian has the potential over time to be an extraordinary blessing in this world. If we practice the words of Jesus, we can’t help but be. Steve Jones has made his living as a writer since 1989. He spent part of his career as religion editor for a daily newspaper. In the mid-1990s, he also was an interim pastor for a small congregation in Michigan.