Everywhere I turn these days I am hearing about the impact of relationships.
Today I attended an event called “Healing Communities” and the focus was on ministering to those who have been/are in prison and their families. One phrase really stuck out to me today. We don’t need prison ministries as much as we need a “ministry of presences”.
For some reason it is so easy for the Church to focus on ministries that we think we need to create instead of making a commitment to being ministers wherever our lives are stationed. For some reason it is easy for me to get distracted on what we should be DOING versus being who God wants me to be. I get distracted on DOING and often I forget about who I am doing it FOR.
Last night is a prime example of what I mean. LifeStation gathered for a time of prayer and somehow we all missed the anniversary of a couple that was among us. We came together for a ministry of PRAYER and missed ministering to this beautiful couple who was there to pray with us. I gotta be honest God has been rocking me with this all day.
So what if we trained people to be present in the lives of others?
Yes, relationships are hard. They take a lot of time and very seldom do we see the immediate results. But what if we trained the Church to do relationships well? Would we need all the different ministries that we currently find in our Churches?
