The Kingdom of God is 24/7/365
When I was in college, it was normal to stay up late. People stayed up late partying, studying, playing practical jokes, and all sorts of other things. So it was natural for me as I was following Jesus and reaching out to college kids for my nights to be late. Ministry happened at weird hours.
Then I moved to Kansas City. Remember that I moved to Kansas City to go to a Bible college that was part of a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week house of prayer that has been going non-stop since 1999. That means you could (and still can) walk in at 3 A.M. Christmas morning and there would be people there singing their hearts out or praying over the city.
The culture of a place like that changes you. You loose a little of your American preoccupation with holidays as you watch people you know faithfully interceeding for the end of abortion on Labor Day. When you commit to one thing being important above all else, even your American break in the calendar, you begin to see how much time you’ve truly built in for yourself in your calendar.
While we were in Kansas City we joined a house church network where the leader continually emphasized that the Kingdom of God is 24/7/365. And we tried our best to live that out. We led early morning prayer meetings for the house churches that forced us to get out of bed, trek to the agreed upon spot, and then pray for an hour or better. We connected relationaly all the time and any time. We agreed that if there were sacred times and spaces it was because every time was a sacred time and everywhere was sacred space. The type of community we were aiming for didn’t allow for closed off spaces in our calendar.
The same has been true for our house church network in Iowa. We certainly have borrowed from certain elements of these communities. Our house church has a prayer meeting that starts way before sane human beings should be up. I just finished with a meeting of some folks from each of the house churches and it ended at 11:30 P.M.
But I don’t say this to brag. I tell you all of this to say God’s Kingdom touches every area of our lives. Sometimes we like to think when God becomes King of our lives, He leaves alone certain areas of our lives like the schedule or the budget. But when God comes as King He wants everything. And because we are incredibly busy Americans, many times that will mean we need to make adjustments to our calendars so we can do the things He’s calling us to do.
There are verses that talk about using your time wisely. But instead of quoting those, I’ll leave you with this:
If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.
-Matthew 16:25
How we use our time is a reflection of whether our life is surrendered to the Lord or not. How we spend our minutes, hours, and days determines how we spend our years. We can use them for ourselves—”me time,” excessive entertainment, etc.—or we can lose our life by giving of our time for the things that are truly most important. This will include time for prayer and reading the word, but also meeting with others, discipling them, and serving them.
How are you using your time for the Lord?
“…making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”
-Ephesians 5:16
Confession Creates Brotherhood
Every time someone new decides to join a house church in our network we sit down with the individual asking to join and talk them through what it’s going to be like. Many people are shocked to hear about our 2’s & 3’s (our small discipleship groups). Usually the shock has nothing to do with the large amount of Scripture we are asking people to read. The shock comes when I begin to lay out the questions we ask each other every week.
What do we ask every week? Questions like “Have you been exposed to any sexually explicit material or allowed your mind to entertain inappropriate thoughts about another this week,” and “Have you remained angry at anyone this week?” By the time you get done asking and answering these questions 2 or 3 weeks in a row, you start to get to know someone pretty well.
And that’s part of the point. We practice confession in the midst of our churches because it’s good for us. But the unintended but always present outcome when people are honest is that we become less like strangers and more like family. It reminds me of this quote from theologian Karl Barth:
When we confess our virtues, we are competitors. When we confess our sins, we are brothers.
-Karl Barth
Isn’t that so true? Bad religion in the human heart will cause all of us to want to look better than one another. True Christianity lived out among us, though, will not only bring humility and confession, but a bond of brotherhood. It’s like John the apostle says in 1 John:
But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
-1 John 1:7-9
It seems so obvious! But we live in such opposition to it! Claiming (or pretending) we have no sin is only fooling ourselves. Confession of sin, first to Jesus and then to others, cleanses us from our sin AND it restores fellowship with Jesus and those around us. Fellowship, true brother and sisterhood, starts as we take off the masks and confess our sins to one another.
Even now in the last few months, I’ve gathered with a few new guys and started confessing my many failings with them. I was fearful and worried that I would be the shameful one in the midst of the group. As things have progressed, not only am I not the only one with sin, but as each of us has opened our hearts to the others, friendships that weren’t there before have formed.
I know you’re in a different spot than I am. But if you’re not living close enough to another brother (if you’re a man, or sister if you’re a girl) to share your sins and pray for another, can I ask that you find someone who is loving and safe and start? Not only will you not feel as alone—but maybe, just maybe!—you might give someone else permission to bring their brokenness into the light and find healing.
It’s worth it.
How To Build A Ministry Platform
Step 1- Surrender your life to Jesus and ask Him to fill you with His Spirit.
Step 2- Acquire a holy discontent that will not let you rest until your life reflects the life of Jesus.
Step 3- Practice regular time alone with Jesus and His word.
Step 4- Join a local, Bible-believing church with messed up people who are pursuing Jesus with all their heart, just like you.
Step 5*- If you are called to marriage (note an implied step 3.1 that you’ve asked the question “Am I called to marriage” as a subset of questions 1, 2, & 3), pick a spouse that practices steps 1, 2, & 3.
Step 5.1- Pursue a healthy marriage. Sacrifice for one another. Make time for one another. Learn to trust one another and communicate openly. Practice biblical marriage roles.
Step 5.2- If you somehow find yourself in the awkward spot of having completed steps 1-4 but have married an individual who is not described in Step 5 or your marriage doesn’t reflect the realities of Step 5.1, stop everything and work on these issues. A wise Christian counselor may be necessary. Fixing the issue is crucial. A broken marriage is a landmine that will destroy your family, not to mention your ministry.
Working on these issues means working on you. Pray for your spouse. Work to communicate and trust. Sacrifice. Nothing will change with this situation until you change you.
Step 6- Assuming you have them, give appropriate time to your family and specifically your kids. You literally have the choice of letting your ministry steal you from your children or you giving them the appropriate amount of attention and them wanting to follow in your example. Don’t give them the opportunity to make the wrong choice. Raise arrows that will go farther than you.
Step 7- Listen to the Holy Spirit. When He speaks, obey.
Step 8- Serve people (especially by sharing the Gospel with them and helping them share it with others, whether they are already believers or not). Also, never forget the poor or those on the margins.
My guess is some of you who read all the way to the bottom you were hoping for something more “practical.” This is as practical as it gets. Ministry is service. Your platform is your life, nothing more, nothing less.
The word translated ministry throughout much of the New Testament means “to serve.” The problem with how we talk about “ministry platforms” today is that we usually are speaking about how to get more eyeballs looking at us or the things we say/write/sing/produce. Instead, we should be talking about how to surrender more to Jesus, encounter Him, be more whole and healthy human beings, and lay down our lives for others. This may not be the “how to” list you were looking for, but it may be the most important one you’ve ever read.
Further Reading: If you’ve read this list and are looking for more practical things to work on, you should consult the following resources: 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1
*(Steps 5 & 6 may come other places in this list, depending on if you’re married or not. Regardless, they are important to keep in the forefront of your mind.)
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 