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Pursuing Excellence in Ministry

Your work has become dull.  You are finding yourself dreading Mondays and looking forward to time off.  Maybe you just feel tired and you want a break.  Work has become a curse in so many ways.  You were meant for something better.  Did you know that already?  If so, do you really believe it?  Work should be filled with creativity, joy, a pursuit of excellence, artistry.

The title of this blog is “Pursuing Excellence in Ministry” and the first place to start out is with work itself.  We give the Lord half-hearted efforts so often because work is a chore and so when we do work that is elective, like serving the Lord in ministry, we do a “good enough” job. This is not how the Lord told us to do any work, ministry work included. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,” (Col 3:23) Why does Paul tell us this? Is it because he wants us to be a blessing? Partly. Is it because he wants us to be a good witness? Partly. I think the greater part is that he wants us to thrive as human beings. In case you didn’t know, redemption with the Church starts now. Redemption is the process of reversing the curse. In heaven the curse is completely reversed but for now, we the Church, are to redeem all the areas of our lives, and this includes work.

Half-hearted work makes for miserable work. If you are only employing a tenth of your brain and a small amount of your creativity doing your job, then you will be miserable all the time. We weren’t meant to spend our time being mediocre. No one feels a sense of accomplishment or joy at a poorly done job. Our joy comes from a job well done, at accomplishing things that were challenging and significant. I will say it one more time: Half-hearted work makes for miserable work. Paul wants us to thrive, and the way to do that in our work world is to do our jobs with our whole heart. Be a perfectionist. Rethink your job. Employ creativity whenever possible. Use your brain. Your satisfaction in your job is riding on it.

I want to use a term here and develop it in the future: Redeemed Work. I use this term because I want you to understand that although work has become a fallen thing, a curse, it isn’t in and of itself a bad thing. Work was one of the things God gave to Adam and it wasn’t until the fall that it became a curse. (Gen 3:17-19) If work is fallen, but used to be a blessing, then there must be something that is redeemed work. What is redeemed work? What is it like? If there is redeemed work, then what is fallen work?  Stay tuned in, and find out.

Learn more about Kenneth Rustrum and his ministry with Vituramis