A Passion To Share

[hldude33]

“A Passion To Share”
By Zach Wood
Acts 20:24 (NLT)
“But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.”

Paul is one of my favorite characters in Scripture. Not just because of the passion he had for sharing the Gospel, but also because of the transformation that happened in his life from being a persecutor and murderer of Christians. It is absolutely amazing what God can do with a life and how He can transform someone. Then, to watch the person build a passion in his or her life to do amazing things for the Kingdom.

Paul not only had passion, but he was willing to do anything and everything possible to make sure the Gospel message was spread. He did not care what threats came to him or what all he had to go through to get this accomplished. He was passionate, dedicated and determined. He was one bold man! With all the accomplishments Paul could thrive on, he made it very clear that his life was worth nothing if He was not completing the work of Christ. That’s a bold statement!

I cannot help but wonder why, in the church today, we don’t have the passion that Paul did? What keeps us from not only being so passionate, but also having no other desire other than to make Christ known to the world? Why do we care about so many other things that are really not important, but then focus so little sometimes on getting His Word out?

My hope and prayer for us, as Christians bonded together in unity as the Church, is that we develop a pure passion for Christ and a mission in our hearts to share His love and that nothing else will matter to us. There is no greater message we can spread, as the Church, than to share the Good News about our wonderful and awesome God.

 

[Born_Again]

I would have to agree. We are taken by so many distractions. The world too often takes our eyes off our Lord. The passion isn't gone from everyone but what I see in the church today is not the passion you would expect.

 

[Bishop]

The Apostle Paul is also one of the great mentors in my faith life. However, when we read of Paul and all he did and said we forget many times that he didn't do it alone. He had a support structure. He had fellow workers with him, Silas, Timothy, Mark, Luke and so on. But he also had support from the churches much the way modern missionaries do today. Believe me I would purely hate to preach to a church full of Paul's simply because the church would be empty. You might think this is a good thing but let me ask you: If every church member was a Paul, Who would those Paul's get their support from? Who would do local evangelism? Who would work the soup kitchens? Who would do all the things that serve a community if every church member was called to outbound missionary ministry?

Now i will say that every follower of Christ should strive to serve with the zeal and dedication and honor that Paul had. From the Church government to the local church staff right down to the members of the congregation.Here is what I think a large part of the problem is and if your not a pastor, feel free to ask yours. How often do people come to a pastor looking for an assignment? Looking for someone else to tell them how to serve? How many stick with ministry once one is given to them?

In the Church I lead , when i am asked for a ministry assignment I ask them a few questions. What are you good at?, What type of work do you enjoy? What limits would you like help overcoming? Once I get those answers plus a few others ( not giving away all my trade secrets ) I ask them if they can't think of anything in the church OR in their community where they could put the skills and work they enjoy to practical kingdom use. The Last one i asked so that I am try and team them with someone that has skill at something they admit they need help getting better at. By doing this I hope to help them to develop a love for serving because they enjoyed how they serve. Second I hope to expand what they enjoy doing through mentorship so that they can expand their options for serving. Otherwise known as equipping the saints.

Also, we have classes that help they the groundwork for taking an active leadership role on serving in ministry. Many I have found would love to lead but they just don't know how and are afraid of making a mistake. Let me tell you. I have made many many mistakes in my ministry. That's life, learn from it. Almost no one learn from a success but failure or at the very least, struggle, these help you grow into a stronger kingdom servant than all the success in the world.

In conclusion, I would say the biggest issue is a lack of wisdom on the part of church leadership to assess the skills and joys of those in their church and placing them in a place where they can not only serve with joy but to grow in ability as well as faith and understanding.

In Christ,

Bishop