Enabling or Entertaining?

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to my personal focus regarding ministry. Whether your an official member of the clergy or a layperson, everyone who calls themselves a Christian is called to some sort of ministry...whether we're aware of it or not.

Unfortunately, so much ministry today is so self-centered. We're so "media trained" that we approach religion and faith with the same attitude we approach our TV watching habits. Are we guilty of treating our worship and our service as entertainment? That scares me.

Approaching faith/worship/ministry as entertainment is shallow.

We know we fall in this category if we find ourselves judging "performances" on a regular basis. From the worship band to the preacher's message, if we're pulling a Siskel and Ebert after church on Sunday, we just may have a problem.  We also know we fall in this category if we're defensive about other forms of worship or methods of ministry that fall outside our comfort zone.

A church that views faith/worship/ministry as entertainment is doomed to extinction.

The church needs to wake up and begin approaching ministry as a form of enablement. Is that a word?

We need ministers passionate about helping people find their personal calling and then enabling individuals to pursue that call.

We may be enabling people to engage in ministry that looks nothing like traditional church.

We may be enabling methods that seem way outside our comfort zone.

This is challenging work, but for those willing to straddle the line the divides the modern and post-modern, know that your work, your enabling ministry, is the fuel that will build the Kingdom for coming generations.