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By Pastor Chuck Swindoll

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Ministry Is a Calling

“The ministry is not a job that you’re hired to do. It’s a calling that you’re compelled to fulfill. Furthermore, the ministry is not about you. It’s about the One who calls you. It’s not about what you can accomplish, or the money you can make, or the books you can write, or the people you can influence. It’s about Him and what He wants to do through you, since He has called you to do this, His ministry, to be carried out through you. It’s not about making you feel important or impressive. Those are silly goals for anyone in ministry. It’s about our Father, bringing Him glory, for He’s the one who has placed us in His work and called us to do it.”

He Wants to You—Warts and All!

He wants to use you as His example—warts and all, failures and all, gifts and all. You are the object of His attention. Ultimately, He wants to show others what He can do through an individual that’s marked by humanity, weakness, and even the flesh.

Nullify Your Flesh

No amount of education, no degree you earn, no spiritual gift you possess will ever nullify your flesh. It’s there. The secret is learning how to restrain it through the power of the Spirit. How to identify it, how to sense it in action, going on right now, and how to stop it from taking control. It’s with you every hour of every day and wants to be involved in every ministry you undertake and every decision you wrestle with. You must rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to guide you, to correct you, to use you, to shape you, to break you, to teach you. And the flesh wants none of that.

Don’t Corrupt Sacred Things

“You will dig into the Word of God. May it never become just a textbook. It’s sacred. It’s holy. ‘Heaven and earth will pass away; My Word will never pass away.’ I never open His Word on a Sunday morning without realizing the sacredness of it. I say to myself, ‘Swindoll, handle this carefully. Be careful here. You corrupt sacred things when you use fallacious arguments, or misrepresentations, and you falsify what God has written in His Word.’ We are to allow the Scriptures to say what they say, and not twist them to say what we wish they would say. That takes discipline, it takes study.”

We Need Others

“You cannot make it all on your own. You can’t do it. Nothing in ministry can be carried out all on your own. You need others. And you need to say so. Took me a long time to learn that last one because I’m so blame independent. But I finally learned to use that wonderful four-letter word ‘help.’ ‘Could you help me with this?’ And I found filling the church were people loving to help, but they were waiting for me to ask them. You’re called into a ministry. Remember, your flesh works against you, but the Spirit wants to use you. Let Him use you. Just don’t try to be Wonder Woman or Superman because you’re not. You really are not.”

Additional Resources

First, sign up for our Chuck’s Insights on Ministry email where we bring you his best thoughts on preaching, leadership, and ministry each week. By signing up, you’ll instantly receive a one-page checklist with 20 preaching insights from Chuck. See this page’s sidebar.

Second, check out our new Preach The Word articles and video series on YouTube where we’re teaching Chuck’s best insights on this important calling.

Third, listen to Chuck’s messages to those in ministry through our Seminary Chapels page. For decades, he offered students at Dallas Theological Seminary his best thoughts on church leadership and ministry. Now, we have put them at your finger tips. Also, you can find them through this YouTube playlist we created for you.

Fourth, if you don’t own a copy of Chuck’s book on preaching, Saying It Well, we highly recommend you add it to your library. It’s his preaching memoir that is also like a practical preaching manual. You won’t be able to put it down.

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