Am I A Minister by Jodi Serino Barbour originally written in FB NOTES May 9th 2012

---

Ok I am in rare form today,  lol. Here we go and I entitle this:

                                                      Am I A Minister

Am I a minister if:

…. I only want to be on the phone with you and “solve your problems” with my “wisdom” and yet I do not want to clean your bathroom and kitchen, vacuum your floor, do your laundry, or whatever else you might need me to do?

Am I a minister if:

…. I only ask you “do you need me to _____” out of habit and not because I really want to assist (minister:serve) ?

….When I ask you “do you need me to _____” and you say “no, but can you _____”, I don’t want to do that; or I do it, but in my mind I have negative thoughts about you for asking me to?

…. When I ask you “do you need me to ____” I am only doing so to look good to Sister So and So or Brother Watching What I Do, but in truth I am thinking “I hope you don’t ask me to do anything”.

Am I a minister if:

…. I only want to get called to preach, but I don’t want to be asked to help out within a ministry within my own church?

Am I a minister if:

…. I want to be where I can be seen by others, but when no one is around to see what I do, then I don’t want to do at all because that is ME TIME (lol)? (sorry I had to laugh on that one)

Am I a minister if:

…. When asked by another minister to help out I say “no, that’s not my job, ask Brother or Sister Such and So to do it”?

…. When asked by another minister to help out, I say “I’ve already served my time, let someone else do it”?

 Am I a minister if:

…. I only want to do the glory jobs (you know those jobs: the ones that get a lot of praise and attention, the ones that put you in the forefront of being seen [as long as it is something that a person will pat me on the back for and say job well done]), but I don’t want to do a job where I am not seen or acknowledged, where I do all the work and another gets the praise for my hard work, where I am stuck in an office all day long instead of ______?

Why do I ask all of these questions? Because I thought ministry was about service.

 I thought ministry didn’t have to do with standing on a stage or in front of people and expounding on some philosophy of “Christian life” that I only live when I am not under stress myself, because when I am under stress all those scriptures that I quote goes out the door. (ok I’m being sarcastic with that one but still…)

I thought that ministry was about getting my hands and knees dirty, ripping a shirt or two, exhaustion at the end of the day with a feeling of accomplishment not because I was seen and honored but because I did a good deed that blessed another.

I THOUGHT THAT A MINISTER WAS A SERVANT… yet it amazes me beyond words that minister for so many is simply a title. (Lights, Camera, Action…)

I know that ministering will take a servant into the quarters of a king where the servant is abstrusely blessed.

Yet…

As a minister…

…Do I want to skip over the hardships of the labor that trains me for the wealth that lays ahead of me?

… If I skipped past all of the hard work to get to the awards, standing ovations, and plaques, will I be able to stand under the weight of the lights and peering eyes?

I am just saying…

One of my brothers, on his fb post said “Be careful what you ask for because you might just get it” I agree with him…

…many are asking for the titles, and yet they don’t want the dirty work that goes with the titles, they only want the showy display of the title…

… and yet again, have they forgotten that to whom much is given, much is required. Thus at the end of the day, when they are being held accountable for how they handled their titles, will God reward them (or I) they same way people reward…

Hmmm…

I don’t know where this all came from… I was driving down the street headed to work when it hit me… but in obedience I recorded all that I heard and am posting it…

not for you, but as a reminder for myself…

That the ministry in which I minister is not about a title…  but about service…

And when I don’t feel like serving… I simply do not answer my phone.

I do not want to do my ministry of being a minister (servant) just to be seen or acknowledged by another. That is why I don’t mind working from home or working alone. Lol. My reward is in getting it done, lol and seeing the faces of others as they find things completed.

And if I really cant serve because I am serving somewhere else at the time…I apologize but it is what it is

…. booyah