My Philosophy of Ministry

Biblical texts:

Isaiah 43 – “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. (2) When you pass through the waters, I will be with you…when you walk through the fire you will not be burned…For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One, of Israel, your Savior.”

This Isaiah text speaks to me of God’s providence. Our God is a living God and chooses to live in relation with us. This text echoes the theme of covenantal relationship throughout the scriptures, where God promises to walk along side us, even through the dangerous waters and fires of life. This text is significant to me personally because it reminds me not only who God is, but who I am – a beloved child of God. God has chosen me and given me hope far better than I could imagine. This love that God shares with me is the love I am called to share with God and with others.

Matthew 22:36 The greatest commandment: “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”

This text combines two commandments in the Old Testament: The shema “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” (Deut 6:4) and Levititcus 19:18: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This is my philosophy of ministry. I am called to love God with my whole being through worship and praise and service. Out of my love for God, I respond by fulfilling the call (obedience to God’s law) to love others as I love myself.

Pentecost – Acts 2 – In the event of Pentecost we learn that diversity is a gift of the Holy Spirit. We learn to value different languages and that communication (sharing Christ’s love) is only possible by the power of the Holy Spirit. This text is formational for how I do ministry because I believe that we can only minister to others if we posture ourselves first toward the Triune God. The Holy Spirit is already at work in our world and it is our calling to listen and pray, asking God how we can join in God’s mission.

Context:

My context is currently seminary. The fires and rough waters I have faced include broken relationships in need of forgiveness and reconciliation. These broken relationships sometimes include the death of a loved one, the distance between friends and family, and most often broken relationships as a result of our own human sin. It is through these rough times, that scripture especially the Isaiah text has become my rock. I have rested in God’s providential grace, knowing that in Christ there is ultimate forgiveness, reconciliation, and resurrection.

My most recent context of Presbyterian Campus Ministry taught me the values of love and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In our Campus Ministry, we were in relationship with the Muslim Student Association and the Hillel Jewish Student Association. Together we embraced loving the “other” by learning about one another and doing service together. On the anniversary of 9/11 we gathered together to praise God together asking how we can be agents of peace, love, and reconciliation on our campus and in our world. I am reacting against fundamentalist evangelicals that have condemned friends of mine in the international dormitory for not being “saved.” I react negatively to this language and find myself skeptical of believers who seem to push their agenda over God’s.

I appreciate the ambiguities of scripture – that Jesus preached on the Mount of Beatitudes blessing the poor and that he also loved the rich man. I love that Jesus’ parables resist reduction to one meaning and that the Hebrew language gives us several definitions for one English word. I believe that God works through different languages to communicate and reveal Godself to us.

I react negatively to exclusivism, “I am in and you are out” theologies. I do not believe that God calls us to judge, but that God calls us to love one another. I do not deny God’s judgment, I just deny our human attempts to claim the knowledge, or worse power, of judgment.

Implementation:

I believe in the importance of creating space. I like to arrange the physical space of room so that people are in circles. It puts people physically equal to one another and I think this is a visual symbol of how we view and value one another. I believe that it takes away power plays in which one or a few try to dominate others. Creating space allows room for us to posture ourselves toward God and not try to control or dominate God’s work. This reflects the spiritual value of loving God and loving neighbor. By having more people around with equal access to contribute, there is more accountability to one another and to God. As humans, we are prone to sin and take more than our fair share (money, power, etc), but in community we are forced to care for those outside of ourselves. In Jesus’ ministry, I see that he created space among his disciples and followers for praxis (action and reflection). Often in the gospels, we are told that Jesus acts and then provokes his disciples to reflect upon the action. When someone asks a question of Jesus, he rarely responds with a direct answer, but creates space for the person to figure it out on their own (Matt. 19:16-30; Matt. 21:23-27; John 4).

I also think that creating space in a community allows for us to benefit from the diversity of God’s people. God communicates to us through different languages, thus we must not limit ourselves to one cultural or linguistic understanding. We must expose ourselves to the “other” in order to gain more perspective – to see a more holistic view. My philosophy of ministry is to connect people beyond barriers. In this process, it is important to meet people where they are by taking their needs and concerns into consideration. This is how scripture teaches us to recognize them as children of God, regardless of how different they may be from us. Caring for our neighbor in this way is how we can love them (Matt. 23:26). Then, I believe it is important for the diverse people to interact, to eat together, to worship together, to come into conflict, and to learn from one another. This reflects Jesus’ ministry. The root of the “border crossing” part of my philosophy of ministry is grounded in the Pentecost story. I trust the Holy Spirit to work among the interactions between diverse groups of people and I trust that when we are focused on the deeds and powers of God (as they were in Acts 2), that we will truly be able to live into full community promised to us in Jesus Christ.

My ministry is focused on participating in God’s mission. God is already at work and we must be a people of God, attentive to God, praying and watching to see how we might participate in God’s work. God acts first and then we respond. My leadership style is one that is shared. I believe that we better discern the Spirit in our midst and better recognize the nudges to move forward when we work together.

--- Question for Steve:

There is a lot of first person (“I”)…is this ok? Does my language communicate how I want to lead?