How to do ministry better in the 21st century …

Some guys get loud — even downright rude — in trying to defend their common practice of looking to business leaders and business models to inform them on how to better do ministry.

They’re fast about registering for the conferences featuring business celebrities and quick to buy and intellectually devour their books. They read their email newsletters over breakfast, and listen to their podcasts during their daily run.

But they’re very slow to open their Bibles for examples of how to do ministry well in the 21st century.

Yet, we find in the pages of the New Testament some insight and wisdom from the greatest church planter and evangelist the world has known: the Apostle Paul.

How did Paul make the impact that he did? He tells us …

“When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. I came to you in weakness — timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God,” 1 Corinthians 2:1-5.

You won’t hear business celebrities giving church leaders that kind of leadership advice; in fact, what they have to say is usually the opposite of Paul’s wise words to us.

Maybe your ministry in the 21st century could be improved by dropping the influence of business gurus and, instead, giving some attention to Paul’s example. You certainly won’t do worse by following his lead. And if you achieved half of what he did by approaching ministry the way he did, I don’t think you would be the least bit unhappy.

Scotty