Church Ministry is Important, But Not Everything. There’s a Difference

I have an obsessive personality. 

While this trait helps me to do things with passion and focus, there’s a downside: I can quickly lose perspective and treat one thing as everything. 

This dynamic is constantly at play for me in my role as a pastor. I love pastoring. I’m passionate about the people and responsibilities the Lord has laid before me. But I can end up making church ministry the “real” ministry in my life.

But it’s important for church leaders and pastors to put church ministry in perspective: To treat it as something important, not everything. Church ministry is significant, but it should not be the singular thing. 

An example we can draw comes from a book entitled Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success by Hall of Fame basketball coach Phil Jackson. In the book, he shares a story of his legendary coach for the New York Knicks, Red Holzman.

He recounts: “What I loved about Red was his ability to put basketball in perspective. Early in the 1969–70 season, we went on an eighteen-game winning streak and pulled away from the rest of the pack. When the streak ended with a disappointing loss at home, reporters asked Red what he would have done if the Knicks had won, and he replied, “I’d go home, drink a scotch, and eat the great meal that [his wife] Selma is cooking.” And what would he do now that we had lost? ‘Go home, drink a scotch, and eat the great meal Selma is cooking.’”

For Holzman, basketball was significant, but it wasn’t singular. Basketball was important, but it wasn’t everything. 

As a Christian, I am tempted to believe in the superiority of church ministry above all things. After all, aren’t I doing the work of God?

But here are two reasons why it’s important to view ministry as significant, not singular: 

1. Your ministry goes far beyond your church ministry. 

Coach Holzman recognized the existence of life outside of basketball. While he took basketball seriously, he also took his family life seriously. No one should live out this dynamic better than followers of Jesus.

For believers, there is no divide between “the secular and the sacred” since all of life is spiritual. Worship is not compartmentalized to mere singing in the church. We can worship through mundane activities such as “eating and drinking.” This means all of life introduces ministry components into our lives. So if you’re married? Marriage is one of your ministries. Have children? Parenting is one of your ministries. A son or a daughter? Honoring your parent(s) is one of your ministries. 

Church ministry is a significant ministry, but it’s not the whole of our ministry.

2. Your ministry beyond your church ministry is more important. 

There is strong evidence for extra-church ministries as being more significant than church ministry. For example, the very qualification of an elder in 1 Timothy 3 lays a framework for the management of one’s household as the pace-setter for church management. In other words, Paul makes an assumption which infers a logical priority: Home management is a tell-all and will ultimately reflect church management. 

The reality is my role as a husband and father is more important than my role as a pastor. My engagement and intentionality in the prior role determine my qualification and capacity for my latter role.

This is why the Reformers rightly understood the essence of our calling as the call to follow Jesus (primary calling) which then produces a call to serve God in one’s daily work (secondary calling). Our secondary calling includes church as one of the domains. But it also consists of the human family, the community we live in, and our professions.

Conclusion

If you’re someone who struggles with making church ministry everything, I want you to know you’re not alone. It’s great to be passionate about something, but it can be challenging to express prioritized passion.

Practically speaking, I encourage you to the following practices: 

1. Spend time with Jesus. Nothing will pull you back to reality more than being present with the one who knows everything about you and is working to transform you. Spend time in Scripture. Pray. Fast. Get a journal. Pay attention to what He’s teaching you in a given season. He will satisfy you more than any ministry ever could.

2. Be in a spiritual community where you’re not actively playing a professional role. It is a gift to serve others from positional authority. But it can be a curse if we become addicted to the sense of importance we receive from it. Be in environments where you can be a Christian amongst other Christians. We may never be able to take our hat off, but at least we can put the mic down.

3. Get a hobby. It doesn’t have to be something intense and high commitment like rock climbing or slam poetry. But bake something into your routine that you can enjoy for yourself and something that you can routinely accomplish. 

4. Be tethered to your family (or friends). Be present with the closest relationships in your life. This doesn’t mean only being mentally present when you’re with them but making the effort to be more physically present as well. The first impulse should be to be with our loved ones, not away from them to be with others in the name of ministry.

From my experience, no matter how amazing a church activity might be, in the end, we still go home, grab something to eat, and engage with our other realities.

But deciding whether it’s having to go home or getting to go home? We get to play it how we want.