Serving Christ Through Adversity

Here at SFA, our movement is growing. We are seeing students trust Christ, they are taking steps of faith as they walk with God. God has given us opportunities in the Greek system and with athletes to share our faith and disciple students we had no connection with a few years ago. More students are attending our weekly meeting and small groups, but it wasn’t this way just a few years ago.

In 2006, I was ready to give up, throw in the towel, jump off a bridge. Okay maybe that last one was too far, but I was considering a career change. Our ministry at SFA almost seemed non-existent. We had very few students involved, no money, and very little enthusiasm for the future.

Through prayer and continuing to trust God at SFA, we have seen God bring us through some very lean times. I stop short of using the word commitment for our part because we were ready to quit. We just stuck around long enough to be able to see God change our situation. Maybe it’s more like standing outside in the middle of winter. If you don’t die from the cold, the weather will eventually get warmer. That may sound like I’m taking God out of it, that if you just hang in there long enough, you will see results. That’s really not what I’m saying, because there are followers of Christ that labor for long periods of time but may never really see any tangible fruit from their effort.

What really frustrates me is when believers compare that person to others who are seeing great tangible results. I use the word tangible because I know God is always at work, we just don’t always see or know what he’s doing. We are in the wrong if we see a ministry, missionary, or church that is not seeing the same results as others and assume they are doing something wrong, or not putting forth enough effort, or maybe even living in sin. Now, sometimes, that may be the case, the group or person in question could be in need of change. However, I have seen in our ministry, times that we have prepared well, prayed fervently, and worked hard and then seen miserable failure. But we have also seen ministry poorly planned, hardly a prayer whispered, and thrown together at the last second yield incredible results.
I don’t want to judge someone else’s ministry by the numbers and statistics they report whether those numbers are increasing or decreasing. Instead, I would rather know if those involved are growing in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

So I guess I wrote this for those who are experiencing adversity in ministry, not seeing what you had hoped; and for those who would criticize them for that. Press on. Maybe God is doing something in your life through this adversity and dry time in ministry, I know He did in mine. Hopefully soon, the weather where you are will get warmer because our movement here at SFA is a lot more fun now. No matter what, continue to trust and follow God, He sees that which takes place in secret (Matt 6:6)

And yes, I know the picture doesn't fit the blog, but I'm just too excited about the game this Saturday. Axe'em Jacks!