Readings:
Genesis 28:1 - 29:35
Matthew 9: 18-38
Psalm 11:1-7
Proverbs 3: 11-12
Matthew reading: "[Jesus] said to his disciples, 'The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields'." One of the challenges of being a minister is to balance the expectations of the people with what is physically possible, given that we have the same 24-hour day that everyone else has. Often I make the glib comment that I don't mind doing all the work of the ministry, as long as people don't mind that the church then won't be doing much ministry work at all.
We read in Ephesians 4 that the task of the full-time minister is to "equip the saints for the work of the ministry". One person cannot do it all, and for that matter, one person alone is not called by God to do everything. In the Methodist Church we call it "the priesthood of all believers"; other churches refer to "every member ministry". Either way, as Christians we are all called to be ministers. A few just happen to have been theologically trained, set aside to do the equipping of others in a congregational setting, and (occasionally) wear a piece of Tupperware in their shirts.
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