Ministries And Missions

THURS., JUNE 24, 1993, 5:19 AM
FARM, STUDY

You realized yesterday as you finally commenced this Letter that you needed… or may need… a transition Teaching on this theme. You hadn’t planned on this, but I got you up in plenty of time to accomplish most of it… and you can finish it later. When you need something for Our work together you can expect that I shall provide it. And, as you see, I can use pain and discomfort for My purposes.

I have defined ministries in several ways, with sufficient examples of Mine. You can certainly provide more… and, remember, the Ruminations should always be a balance of your thoughts and Mine. The common thread through these ways of describing ministries, however, is that the service you are rendering is for Me, ultimately. The main difficulty is in being conscious of this need to serve Me, as you are helping others. As I’ve said, this is difficult in your culture, because you’ve been taught repeatedly that you are the initiator of good works, and the deed has merit in itself. It is not yet natural for you to consider each act of serving others as a ministry… but it should be. With enough reminders from Me it shall be easier.

Mission is a spiritual term, but also a secular one, even a military one. A mission is a particular task that is yours to accomplish, be this self-prescribed, suggested by others, or offered by Me. As an example, you have a ministry as an educator, and included in this is a mission to encourage ecological thinking in relation to health. You have a ministry in emphasizing the spiritual as an important… even as the important dimension of health, and a mission to see that this is emphasized in relation to a study of motivations for use, non-use, and even abuse of alcohol and other mood-modifying substances.

A mission is a specific focus for a ministry, a means of giving substance to that ministering process. Though I would prefer to have it used in this way, referring to something you do for Me, I must also acknowledge that you could have missions that are legitimate but not directly related to My Being or Presence. You can have a mission to involve the students actively in the learning process, a good educational mission, but only vaguely related to Me… except as it is a primo way of abetting spiritual interacting. (You can finish this after your morning mission to get your mower blade sharpened.)

( 5:51 / 7:03 )

A minister can be a missionary. In a “church sense” a person called and ordained to a ministry may have a mission to a particular people in a particular place. Or a physician who ministers to people’s physical needs may have a mission to a people that truly need his services. A missionary is, clearly, a person with a mission, clearly or loosely defined. Yet the term mission is also used to name a military action designed to kill people and destroy property. It would be strange to say that such a military mission was also a ministry, oh, it could be stretched to consider that certain oppressors must be routed, killed, or captured in order to free and minister to those oppressed. It can be seen as a ministry to deliver food to those starving in Somalia, but this may require some military missions, with killing, to make this ministry possible and workable.

Thus, a mission may be anything you set out to do, with purpose. It may involve people… or not. (A small mission this morning was to cut a full box of clover. Mission accomplished, with no people involved.) It may relate to Me… and any mission could… or it may be almost entirely a secular task. In contrast, somewhat, a ministry almost always involves other people, and the action is dedicated to Me, in a somewhat to very conscious fashion.