How much do we know about working in the ministry? In review of the few aspects of the ministry of Christ, we have a small sample of works that we are able to reference. In these writings we see the establishment of the ministry as He travels from place to place, bringing his students with Him and using the world as a classroom. We also so Christ sowing the seeds of the church that was to continue once He returned to His Father. If we leave the discussion only to the works of Christ, then we would have a church that would be heavy on evangelism and light just about everywhere else.
Truth is, the foundation of the church was already laid before Christ shows up on the scene. The books of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and later those of some of the Major and Minor prophets provide insight into the structure and organization of a stationary church. This is a very interesting point take into consideration, that in order to facilitate ourselves, we have gone to many of the ways of the old church and in some cases forgot about the other dimensions of ministry.
Jesus, among other things, was the Great Example. He provided for us insight not into things that we never saw, but just things that we didn't do as well. Truly we can say that there was evangelism in the old testament, and that there were miracles and prophecies alike. But the apperance of Jesus showed us that we had become too isolated on some of the aspects of God's desires for us to praise Him, and had forsaken many others. To counter that, Jesus starts from scratch and sets the standard for us to be able to follow.
We have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, or we will fall!
So to as the church, we must be able to preach and teach as well as evangelize at the same time, or we will fall. It is not OK just sit inside the walls of the church and expect the sinner to "seek us out". That's like saying that the wheat harvest will come knock on the farmers door in the morning and say, "We are here to be collected." NO! We have a work to do and some have realize that we must present the WHOLE ministry to the world in order that we win the WHOLE world.
