With the arrival of another year comes the rush to assign meaning to all we experienced in the past 12 months. Did it matter? Did I make a difference? Was there impact? What was the point? If you're like me, this time of year can tempt me to place more value on my strength than on God's sovereignty. I can focus on my faults more than God's faithfulness-forming goals to be better, do better, and increase my own influence and impact.
Here's the problem: ministry isn't about my goals; it's about the Gospel.
Don't get me wrong-God can use our goals for good. But we lose our edge goals become the primary power by which we serve students. The Apostle Paul understood this well when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:
"Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."
In other words, our human goals are nothing compared to the power of the Gospel. Paul writes these words in the midst of a monologue about divisions in the Church-how leaders are disunified because they took their eyes off of what truly mattered: preaching Christ and Him crucified.
As we welcome another new year, may we heed the words of Paul by pursuing a new kind of ministry-one that relies on the power of the Gospel more than the greatness of our goals. In shifting our gaze to the One who calls us, we will accomplish more together than we ever could apart.
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Maggie Johnson is the Communications Consultant for NNYM, who is a working mama in the trenches of full-time ministry. If you're going to be friends with Maggie, you should know about her three loves: coffee, carbs, and cardio-in that order. Find out more about Maggie at https://www.honeycombcreative.co