Ministry with Balance
Living a balanced life is so hard! Some of life’s basic parts are family, work, personal health, friendships, and leisure. It’s so easy to get off-kilter where one part dominates all the rest. Sure, one area taking precedence over the others for a short span naturally happens every now and then. Cracks in the stability begin to show up if the unbalance lasts too long.
Ministry needs a balanced approach as well. When I first met with the search committee at First Baptist Huntsville, they asked me for my philosophy of ministry. My response was a healthy ministry is a balanced ministry with four primary areas — Bible study, relationships, service, and fun. That answer was in 2006, and I still follow this approach.
Let’s explore each of these a little closer:
Bible Study - The study of our Holy Scripture that we call the Bible must be a cornerstone to what we do. The Bible is where we learn about God, the story of God’s people, Jesus, salvation and the abundant life for the Christ-follower, the church, and the call to join God in loving the world. Bible study that takes Jesus’ message seriously is both life-changing and engaging with the people involved. BIble study gives the foundation and credibility to what we do.
Relationships - Whether we are extroverts or introverts, we are created as relational beings. From the beginning, God saw that humanity was not good living unconnected to others. A healthy, balanced ministry creates space for relationships. Within relationships there is needed balance here as well. My wife likes to call this the 3-P approach to relationships — Pacesetter, Peer, and Pupil. Let’s start with peer relationships because students will always think of their peers first. Healthy peer relationships are needed. Students need friendships with people their age to spur one another towards growth and to simply hang with each other. The flip side is that we need older and younger relationships. Again using students as our example, adults play a vital role in a student’s life. These adults believe in them, support them, and point them towards God along the way. Kenda Creasy Dean calls these adults God-Pointers in The Godbearing Life (a must read in my opinion). The adult plays the role of pacesetter, mentor, and role-model for the student. The more adults a student has in their network of relationships, their opportunity to stay connected to faith increases. These same students then turn the table to be examples to younger children. They become the mentors and have pupils underneath them. As they have people investing into them, these students become investors into others. This 3-P approach gives relationships and balance within the relationships.
Service - We live in a self-centered world. If the truth be told, it’s always been a self-centered world. Living beyond yourself actually is the exception. Jesus modeled the life of giving and living for others. He said, “I came to serve, not to be served” (Matthew 20:28). Serving brings personal growth, and it also gives a great way to connect the group. Acts of service can take place within the ministries of the church but also to organizations, groups, and persons beyond the church. Finding a season or pattern for service is key. Some times of the year are busier than others. In our context summer is the time with more calendar space to serve so we have branded those 8-10 weeks with “Summer is for Serving.” Eventually, service becomes a mindset of not allowing anyone to sit alone, helping setup or takedown, and doing the daily and weekly needs.
Fun - Let’s be honest, who wants to be a part of a group or organization that is boring? NOBODY! Regardless of age, nobody wants their group to be dull. We doneed to clarify the difference between fun and entertaining. Fun is enjoyable. Entertaining is a show. Fun is a communal gathering. Entertaining is a product-driven venue. We must create an environment where there is a natural fun and playful manner. Ability to laugh at ourselves while not intentionally creating laughter toward others is a key element. Fun can come from structured events or unstructured play opportunities. Ultimately, if your group can be described with a smile rather than a frown, you are hitting this balance point.
The key is to implement those four concepts enabling overlap with each other as much as possible. Do not think the ministry should have a service event, a fun event, a relational event, and then a Bible study. A better way to think is to ask how can a gathering combine all four? But different events can have a focus to one of the four areas. At this point we have to look at the ministry calendar to make sure it has all four areas represented. When individual events and the ministry calendar see Bible study, relationships, service, and fun all represented, you are experiencing a balanced ministry.