The Power of Informal Ministry

Connie and I were reading a book entitled “Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hand” by Paul David Tripp and he made mention of the idea that far more ministry takes place in informal settings than in formal ministry settings. I thought about some of the ramifications of this statement. For one, I certainly agree that this could be true, and from a biblical perspective, I believe that this should be true.

 Indeed this is not a novel idea; it was precisely what the Lord Jesus did with his disciples. He trained the twelve then sent them out to minister in Matthew 10; He sent out the seventy in Luke 10; after His resurrection He issued what we commonly refer to as the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) and His last words to His followers before His ascension was to be witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

Paul, writing in Ephesians 4:11-12 said “And he gave some… pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” In essence, Paul was saying that the work of the minister is to equip and mature the members to go out and do the work of the ministry. I wonder how many of God’s people feel this is their job? I wonder how many think that’s the job of the pastor and the church staff; isn’t that what we pay them to do?

Think about it, what would be more effective; one man doing the work of ten or ten men actively involved in the work? Could one pastor possibly cover the same ground, meet the same number of people, write the same number of letters, make the same number of calls, meet the same number of needs, and pray for the same number of people as one hundred active members?

Perhaps some may think; if all of us are supposed to do the work of the ministry, why do we come to church? The church facility is the training station for ministry work. We come to church to be edified, encouraged, equipped to effectively serve. Certainly there are many opportunities to minister to one another every time we get together in the house of the Lord, this is what we would call a formal ministry setting; but let’s go to next levels and unleash the power and potential of conscientiously serving in the endless array of informal ministry settings.