Why Rod and Staff Ministries? Photo:What? BY VERONIQUE DEBORD-LAZARO CC BY-SA 2.0
I recently attended a workshop with over a hundred participants from various parachurch ministries (“para” means alongside…so a para-church ministry is one that comes alongside of the church in order to help the church fulfill her calling). All of us were encouraged to answer the why question–why does our ministry exist. Most people answered the “why” question with “how.” Instead of responding with reasons, most found it easier to describe “what” they do.
So…why does Rod and Staff Ministries exist? What is the reason for efforts? Below are my thoughts…perhaps some of them might inspire you–perhaps some of them might be compelling enough reasons for you to partner with us. Read on and see if God is igniting any passions within your soul…
Rod and Staff Ministries exists because:
1. Sanctification increases Satisfaction (Conformity increases Capacity)
2. Scripture’s Supremacy in Counseling Content and Methodology is grounded in its Sufficiency to reveal God’s aims and humanity’s aspirations
3. Christians are both Counseling every day and Called to Competency in that counsel
…or…in less words
1. Conformity increases Capacity
2. Scripture’s Sufficiency
3. Christian Competency
…or…in less words still
1. Capacity
2. Sufficiency
3. Competency
We exist because your eternal enjoyment of Jesus is tied to the degree to which you image Him. The more you are like Him, the more you will appreciate Him. Secondly, we exist because the Bible is sufficient (indeed, supremely so) to reveal Jesus to you…and in so doing hold out the prototype in whom you must be conformed. And thirdly, we exist because every person who reads these words IS a counselor. You are counseling every day. Indeed, you are counseling out of the perceived sufficiency of some authority…be it reason, empiricism, intuition, or Scripture. We exist because Christians are counseling every day from some paradigm with a goal in mind. We exist because that counsel must be grounded in Scripture with THE goal of conformity to Christ yielding greater capacity to enjoy Jesus…and there is nothing, nothing, greater than appreciating Jesus more.
We exist for your greatest joy–namely the formation of Christ in you. We exist because that transformation away from you and toward Jesus happens most exquisitely in suffering. We exist because we must be competent in helping people from Scripture see how God is using affliction for their sanctification.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.
For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Might God be calling you to the same “why”?
10,000 Blessings in The Wonderful Counselor,
Jim