Christ's Love: The soul of the matter

Finding the proper motivation for our ministry

By Philip Nation

Why? It’s the question that evokes the most emotion. The questions of who, what, where, when, and how all serve to give us the facts. But “why” uncovers something deeper—the soul of the matter.

Every week, my Inbox fills with ministry newsletters telling me how to be more effective, who I should reach, and when to send out my next mass mailing postcard. Recent history betrays our great obsession with the how of ministry. Decades ago, we added A Million More in ‘54. By the 60s and 70s, the Church Growth Movement became a solid entity. The 80s saw the public rise of seeker-sensitivity and church marketing. The 90s gave us digital technology and the push toward postmodernism. And the new millennium—well, we’ve got a little of everything. Prosperity preachers tell us of God’s desire for our wealth. Emergent speakers say relativity is the key. Traditionalists call for a return to what they remember as effective. House churches are all the rage. And many are staking their ministerial future on the word “missional.”

As always—there’s no shortage of paradigms for your church. Terms come and go. Models are temporary at best. But, most days, what we really need is someone to remind us of the why.

As ministers, we all know the truth we face on Mondays. Sunday is when we celebrate Christ’s victory. Monday is often the day frustration boils over and we offer our resignations—again. But then His why comes crashing into our view.

John 3:16 puts it simply “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…” It is from the love of God that sacrifice is given. Our sacrifice of ministry should be driven by the same ethic.

As a missionary with NAMB, I am seeking to allow the sacrificing love of God to direct me through our Big Three: Sharing Christ, Starting Churches, and Sending Missionaries. The truth be told, you can go through the motions of all of these without love. Just look at Jonah. He was a missionary sent to share the message of God’s arrival. But he did it with a spiteful heart and hoping for God’s wrath upon a people he loathed.

As we serve God as his missionary ambassadors, we must find the proper motivation to our ministry. 2 Corinthians 5:14 reminds us that it is Christ’s love that should compel us “because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.” The love of Christ reached us by his death and compels us to reach others through the death of our self-absorption.

Sharing Christ can be done with a manipulative apologetic and having the right report for Monday night visitation. Or it can be done for something greater. I’ve found that my lost neighbors do not care about any visitation program our church offers. But you know what has worked? Having them over for dinner. Showing genuine interest in their children. Spending time learning about them. In other words, real love offered through a friendship. As we offer the love of Christ in us, then the gospel of Christ will be plain to see and hear when we confront them with their need for faith and repentance.

Starting churches takes the desire to love a community. The sending church must love enough to “lose” leaders and members to plant a church. The planter must love enough to move his family somewhere new and strange for the sake of God’s kingdom. And a core group must love the lost more than they “need” the programs of the church they left behind.

Sending missionaries also requires love. There must be a love for the world so great that we would never hold back our friends and church members—or even children—from spreading the fame of Christ to the nations. Let those who share Paul’s provoked heart for the cities filled with idols be sent to every corner of the world to proclaim the love of God. Hopefully those of us who stay at home base will love the mission fields and the missionaries enough to pray without ceasing.

Ultimately, all three of these areas require love because you are involving your life into the midst of the messy lives of lost people. Perhaps having a passion for Christ’s glory in their lives will be your greatest act of love.