Mark Batterson led off the Catalyst lab sessions with a few words from his upcoming book Primal, which led into a reflection on the foundation of ministry. (Kevin Miller was across the room blogging this session as well, and his report follows this one.) Mark’s emphasis:
“What is the primal essence of what we believe? Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That’s more foundational than the forms we employ to live that out. … There are ways of doing church that we haven’t thought of yet.”
Then Mark pointed out: “We come to conferences too often to find methodologies that we can take out of context and apply to our context. But that too often is misguided. We can learn ‘how’ but forget ‘why.’ “
He reflected on 1 Samuel 14-15, where Saul sets up a monument to himself. He suggests we need to erect not monuments to ourselves but altars to God, to remind yourself of the greatness of God and the cause to which you have been called.
Mark told about the moment he was aware of God calling him into ministry. He was in a pasture in Minnesota. Years later, he framed a photograph of that pasture and hung it in his office as his “altar,” to remind him of the greatness of God and of his calling.
All of us listening are forced to consider: Am I performing my ministry as a monument to myself? Or to show the greatness of God?
That’s a question that haunts anyone who has an ego and enjoys the positive responses of people. But the issue is still foundational.
It’s so easy to expect and long for God to empower MY ministry, when God longs for us to give ourselves away for HIS ministry.
Words to live by.
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