Service, the key to ministry

The Church lives in challenging times.

There are many who think the church irrelevant in the 21st century and who would be glad to see the church wither away. Confused and backed into a corner we turn in on ourselves and ask, 'What is our role in today's society?' We need focus and direction. Christ gives us both.

Christ founded His church declaring the gates of hell would not prevail against it. He commissioned the church to go into all the world and preach the gospel making disciples. The church has divine authority for its message and ministry. We may speak and work with confidence.

But there's a problem. It was brought into focus for me a few years ago when a colleague invited me to preach at his morning Harvest Service. I asked him for directions to his church. He instructed me, 'Come through the village, take the first right. At the next the T junction turn right. Look to the left and you'll see the church looking down at you'.

Often we are seen as patronising and overbearing. We live in an age that questions authority, and when authoritarianism is shunned. People do not ask 'By what authority?' but respond that we have no right to tell anyone what to do or not to do; how to live or not to live.

Our task is still the same but we need to reflect on how we do it.