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Your Small Ministry has Big Value

We like BIG in Texas and take great pride in the size of our land. Big Tex is the symbol of the State Fair of Texas—the largest in the country. Does smaller make other states lesser in importance? No. (I am aware that some Texans would argue the point.)

We usually equate bigger with better and newer with improved.

The Christian world often applies the world’s perspective to the spiritual. Even if we do not say it out loud, such thoughts are engrained in our thinking—bigger churches are better; starting a new church or ministry is doing something greater for God than serving in an established place; the larger the ministry and the donation, the more God values it; and big-name celebrity Christians can do more to reach people than we no-names can.

It is difficult in such a climate to imagine that God uses us in the everyday and the small. Maybe he does, but not to do big things.

Somehow I don’t think that Jesus assesses importance from size. When the widow give away two small coins, he remarked that she gave more than those who made a show of their great donations (Luke 21:1-4). Jesus took time to raise to life a twelve-year-old girl instead of being among the powerful and rich (Mark 5:35-43). He equated our care of the poor, sick, aliens, and imprisoned as caring for him (Matt. 25:31-40). He spent most of his time during his short three year ministry with twelve regular guys, not a celebrity among them.

When we place Jesus’s values on large ministries and churches, we may find that many of them come up short.

If we look at what we can do for God’s kingdom, it may seem small—much like Jesus wasting time on a child or feeding a stranger, but in God’s eyes those ministries may be more important than filling thousands of seats every Sunday morning.

That means that what you and I do is essential and important in God’s kingdom plan. We are the only ones who can touch certain people and bring them a taste of God’s kingdom. It is time to begin recognizing that each of us has a ministry, and we are here to fulfill it. We are needed for God’s work to go forth in this generation. We are God’s hands and feet in a world that needs to know that God loves everyone, the least of these and the celebrity.

 

This was originally posted September 30, 2014 on The Aroma of Influence blog.

Kay is a life-long Texan whose favorites are Tex-Mex, books that feed her soul or make her think, good movies and travel to new places. Her great joy is to serve God by teaching the Bible and developing women as servant-leaders. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Beyond Ordinary Women Ministries, which provides free videos, podcasts and articles as well as low-cost Bible studies to prepare Christian women for leadership. (beyondordinarywomen.org) Kay spent ten years leading women’s ministries on church staffs, most recently at Northwest Bible Church in Dallas. Kay is the author of From Ordinary Woman to Spiritual Leader: Grow your Influence, a practical guide to help Christian women influence others by applying foundational leadership skills to their lives and ministries, and a number of Bible studies for women, some are available at bible.org and the newer ones are found at beyondordinarywomen.org. Kay earned an M.A.C.E. from Dallas Theological Seminary and a D.Min. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Effective Ministries to Women. Kay’s family includes a husband, two grown children, one son-in-law, two hysterical granddaughters and a Goldendoodle.