This should be a no-brainer …

If you don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing, you probably shouldn’t be doing it.

That’s especially true when it comes to ministry.

One of the most critical elements of effective, biblically-based ministry is too often missing in many churches today. That critical element is a well-developed theology for the ministry you lead.

At the start of my ministry, one of my first responsibilities was to revamp the entire educational ministry of a church. What surprised me when I first examined what was in place was there wasn’t a theology for Christian education developed to give biblical guidance to the church for discipleship and teaching. What had been produced was created from one man’s philosophy — what he thought should be done — rather than a biblically-based theology for what scripture says about the ministry of teaching and discipling in the church.

I changed that very quickly!

It has been my experience that ministries built from a biblically-based theology of ministry tend to more consistently produce outcomes scripture tells us we can anticipate.

The difference between developing and leading ministry from a theology or a philosophy sounds like a no-brainer, but you might be surprised at the number of church ministries in existence today that operate without any theological context at all. As I visit with ministers of different churches and ministries and ask to see their theology of ministry, I am routinely answered with a puzzled look.

Maybe this is just another reason why the church is in decline?

What are you building/have you built the ministry you lead (or serve in) upon: your own philosophy of what ministry should be, or a biblically-based theology?

Scotty