All for Jesus

https://odb.org/MY/2023/05/25/all-for-jesus

As I’ve said before in these pages, I grew up as a believer in a church that emphasises the core group, believing that a church should be 80% core rather than 20% as is the norm. The church had aspirations to plant churches everywhere, I think by then we already had around 20 branches nationwide and was looking at 100 churches. Thus, quite a few of us had aspirations to serve God by going into full-time ministry. By then, we already had 20-30 full-time workers (most already commissioned and a few still in training). Theoretically, it was possible to support such a large pool of pastors as the financial structure was that tithes were exclusively for full-timers fashioned after the Levites of old. Thus, if we were to dedicate our lives to serving the Temple of God, the people of God would be the source of our support. Corollary to that, there was an expectation that the congregation who are working in the secular world will give 20% of their income to the church since it is a congregation that is 80% core. It was the era of the powerful move of the Holy Spirit in Malaysia circa late 70s and early 80s which led to the establishment of many independent churches, and many believers were inspired to give their lives to God, to serve Him fully in the church and ministry.

Over the years, however, the universal church realised that we will actually be a more effective witness if we are in the world rather than exclusively in the church. Colossians 3 is one of those teachings that support the contention that we should give all to Jesus wherever we are. In whatever we do, whether in word or deed, we do it all in the name of Jesus (Colossians 3:17). We are serving Jesus full-time even in our day jobs, in our career in the secular world. If we are ambitious in our career, we are ambitious for Christ, and it is not giving God second priority. It is not putting our job first and ministry second as our day job is our ministry for Christ. We are the light of the world. So, how can the world see our light if we are only in the church? Remember always that though Paul is an apostle, he was a tent-maker. Although the church supports him, he also has his own source of income to live on.

The other thing is that from what I have gathered from the experiences of those in full-time ministry; working in the church is not radically different from the world. They face the same issues like politics at the workplace. There are KPIs and sometimes favourites among the leaders and power struggles. They deal more in the issues of life and general administration than spiritual matters. Of course, the motivation is never the P&L, and yet finance and support is a big topic in any church. All of this is not surprising as the people running the church in full-time are all humans, too. Pastors are flesh and blood like you and I.

The message today is thus Colossians 3:17. Whatever we do, we do it for Christ. At work, in school or college, in ministry or church, we do it for Christ. We need not give up our day jobs to serve God. We can serve God fully in our secular day jobs. But if we have a calling to go full-time, by all means, go ahead. Just that it is not for everyone and we need not feel we are lesser in the Kingdom of God if our calling us to remain in the secular world, toiling at the “land” God has given us. Whatever our “land” – we must allow God to flow it with milk and honey for His glory!