Setting the Ministerial Priorities of Your Calling
Many in ministry with the call of God on their lives make an unbiblical decision about the priorities of their callings. In the zest and fervor of the call of God on their lives, they go all out for God and make the mistake of confusing their relationship with God with their ministry for Him. They are not the same. God always and in everything must have top priority within your life. It is to Him you owe your unswerving dedication, loyal service, and unceasing love. On the other hand, your ministry, or calling, is not your relationship with God; it is your service to God’s people. No matter what your giftings or calling may be, your work for God is not the same as your relationship and worship to God.
The Lord Jesus Christ is without question your first priority in life, called or not called. Your second priority of calling should be your immediate family: wife, children, and parents—and in that order. The pressures of ministry and the tremendous demands it makes on your life cannot be confused with your responsibility to your family. All too often we find the family of the minister being neglected because of the unceasing demands of ministry. To be guilty here (and most are) is to sin because of wrong priorities. The husband and wife, according to God’s plan, are one. Those in the ministry are no exception. Your ministry is not holier or better than your relationship with your wife and children. They come before everyone else under your charge.
This responsibility is not limited just to divine order in the home, although it includes it. Your wife is the balance to your call in ministry, no matter how public her role may be. The needs of your family—spiritually, emotionally, physically—must stay prioritized above everyone else within the jurisdiction of your ministry. As you make your family your second priority, your ministry will be released to a new level, both personally and publicly.
Your work for God must remain third place in your priorities of life. All too often a costly mistake is made at this point. The minister is tempted to set his ministry priority too high, as discussed above, or too low. Let me explain what I mean by too low. If your ministry is your job, then you treat it like the world treats a career. Prestige, power, or remuneration become goals in place of God’s will or people (lost and saved alike).
Telltale signs that your ministry is in the wrong priority slot include the following: (1) professionalism, the skilled application of your ministry gifts with selfishness or insincerity (just ask three people in your congregation that are not personal friends, or better yet counted as enemies, about this); (2) secularism, a carnal lifestyle revealed by what your mind normally runs to, what your topic of conversation usually drifts to, and what your favorite pastime is (sports, politics, finances, hobbies, etc.); and (3) lack of vision, as you plod along each day, just following a routine and doing what needs to be done. Your ministry has become little more than rote and routine. There is no plan, no vision—just the “same-o, same-o.” I call this failing faith.
Set your priorities according to the principles of God’s Word. Jesus Christ is first, without exception, always before task and time. Make the love of your natural life, God’s gift of family, second only to the Lord Himself. Endeavor, thirdly, to make your calling and/or ministry the greatest gift to the world it can be, for Jesus’ sake.
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