Back in November, our session asked Jon and I to take some time for ‘recalibration’ within our ministry. Given that some of our session are gun enthusiasts, I thought it was a fitting Cariboo kind of concept. I went to a party once on Boxing Day which was a family shooting party. Not that we shot the family, but one family in our community had the tradition of all getting together
on Boxing Day and setting up a shooting gallery for young and old to practice with all kinds of fun targets. At that party, one of the family offered to help me set up the scope on my air rifle as I had been shooting without a scope up until that point. What a difference when I could look through the scope and see things so much closer and more clearly! But I also learned that if it wasn’t lined up properly, the scope wasn’t any help. Once it was calibrated, my aim got much better and there were more shattered close pins flying off my clothes line!
So how were we to ‘recalibrate’ in ministry? We are still on the journey but are asking questions. How do we measure the effectiveness of a ministry or mission? By how many people are coming to church or events? By how people respond to us when we interact? By how much money we are able to raise to keep things afloat? I often listen to others in ministry who, when they get together and ask, ‘how’s ministry going?’ respond with budget or attendance figures. Is this really how we measure ministry?
To recalibrate means to reset the guidelines that we use. Maybe we should be asking how much time are we spending building relationships, or what it meant for someone to have you conduct their mom’s funeral. Maybe the guidelines for effectiveness are more in how much love we’ve been able to share with someone going through a hard time. Those things are not as measurable as attendance or budgets but it seems that maybe they are more the kind of guidelines Jesus used if he ever felt the need to evaluate or take stock of his ministry. How many people were lifted up by a smile, a hand on the shoulder of a lonely person, by a conversation with someone who was drunk or smelled bad?
Or perhaps our tools for recalibrating are even more elusive than that? There are times in this ministry where it is difficult to point to any accomplishments, lives turned around, faith communities built or even sermons preached. But then we are just left with the question, “Was I faithful to what God called me to this week? Have I been Jesus to anyone this week? Have I just stuck it out here despite the discouragement?” Maybe that is the greatest target of all and the most important. Too often we associate ‘success’ in ministry with numbers or projects that are tangible. We interpret our call from the basis of how ‘effective’ we or others perceive that we are being through outward evidences. But maybe, just maybe, that isn’t how God decides if our call is valid. Maybe we are on target and properly calibrated when we are simply that light that refuses to go out, the love that won’t stop loving, and the faith that won’t stop hoping in a God who transforms and redeems on God’s own schedule.
Pray for us as we continue to seek to recalibrate and discover God’s vision for our First Nations ministry here in Ndazkoh, that we would be on target and see clearly where we are aiming and be content with what that target is.
Thanks!
