One of the lesser recognized tasks of a preacher is to mobilise ministry from others.  The up-front roles in the church are not the exhaustive list of ministry roles, but the ones tasked with equipping others for the ministry.  Part of that is mobilisation.  I’d like to share a list of seven counterproductive traits from an article I read that related to mobilising people for cross-cultural missions.  I’ll widen the scope slightly, but the points should still be helpful for us all.

1. Arrogance. The notion that those of us involved in ministry are somehow God’s A-team.  This is particularly prevalent among those with a passion for a certain kind of ministry or a certain focus.  It could be the 10/40 window, or it could be one of the church’s local outreaches.  It is easy to advocate with an imbalance that borders on arrogance, suggesting that only one form of ministry commitment counts for anything.

2. I know God loves my stuff best. This is closely tied to the previous one.  It is easy to do.  I was speaking at a missions conference last weekend and it would have been easy to always illustrate things with reference to the organisation I work for.  Instead I tried to throw in references to other organisations to avoid falling into this trap.  In the local church it is easy to over-illustrate, or over-push, or over-emphasise some aspect of ministry close to your heart (and give the impression that all other avenues of service are less of a concern to God).

Can I make a missions specific side comment here?  Actually, let me just cut and paste a very important sentence:

Can I be blunt here? Outreach to Muslims, outreach to international students, outreach by national pastors, outreach by anyone not American – not one of these things is the end-all-and-be-all of God’s work on the planet.

3. Info-vomit. What is true for mobilisers for world mission can also be true for mobilisers for church ministry and for preachers in general.  The internet allows for more information than anyone can handle.  Don’t think that just blasting people with stats and facts and figures and info will suddenly stir them to action.

What does stir people to action?  I’m looking forward to number 4, but will get there tomorrow in part two of this mini-series of posts.  (I will also cite my source tomorrow, just so you don’t sneak a peak at number 4 – it is a good one!)