Four years ago, when my children were entering high school, I sought the Lord about what I was going to do when they were out of my nest. One of the things He directed me to do was to attend Proverbs 31 Ministries “She Speaks” conference. At that conference, I learned the steps I needed to take to have a speaking ministry. For the past six years, I have spoken and taught at my church, but I felt like God was calling me to move outside the walls of my church and speak in front of more groups of women.
I’ve spent the last 18 months implementing the things I have learned at the She Speaks conference. I have a blog. I have business cards. I have professional portraits. I have a logo. I have a “biosheet” that I can send to event planners. I know my purpose, my audience, my message, and my voice. I have everything I need but invitations to speak.
During a coaching appointment with a professional speaker, I asked her what I could do to be invited to speak outside of my local church. She told me to print some postcards to mail to churches and MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) groups in my area introducing myself and communicating my desire to speak to them. So I did.
And then began the quandary. The internal debate, the doubts, and the fears.
“WHO AM I to think that I have a speaking ministry? Who said that I could do this?”
I don’t know if it is just a struggle with semantics, but I struggled with the thought of saying “I HAVE a ministry.” Ministry is what I do, not what I have. I felt presumptuous. I do not want to be a striving or driven woman trying to be someone in God’ s kingdom. I want to do and be only what God wants me to do and be.
Has God put the seeds in your heart of a ministry? Is it a ministry to moms or children or the elderly or the disadvantaged? Are you also struggling with the questions of “Who am I?” and “Why me?” and “Who said I could?” Doubt is enough to stop us in our tracks.
This word that I struggled with so much – ministry – what does it mean? Here is a well known verse in the Bible that describes how we all have a ministry:
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation…” 2 Corinthians 5:17-18
When you study the word ministry in the original Greek language, it means service.
A minister is a servant.
To minister is to serve.
A ministry is a service organization.
In that context, I can make peace with the idea that I have “a ministry.” As a minister, I am a servant of broken women. When I minister, I am serving hurting women. My ministry is a service organization whose recipient is women.
If you are a servant, you are a minister. If you are serving, you are ministering. You, too, have a ministry.
Let’s not get caught up in the semantics of it. Let’s not disqualify ourselves because we don’t have a bunch of funny acronyms behind out names – those things you get at Bible colleges. Let’s not think that we can’t minister because no one called us out and gave us permission. Let’s not let doubt and second guessing stop us in our tracks
God gave us a ministry. Girls, let’s go and minister.
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