Ministry
Ethics
MORAL AND ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES
OF MINISTERS
By Dr. John Williams
The
Bible says that a shepherd should be willing to lay down his life for the sake
of the sheep. The moment a persons
steps out to be a servant of God he assumes some moral obligations, which are
stated below:
1.
To Feed and
Nurture them Spiritually:
The
primary responsibility or obligation of every minister to the people he
ministers to is to provide the spiritual help they need.
This will include helping them to grow spiritually, teaching them the
Word of God, discipling them, giving them God's counsel, feeding them with the
Word of God, dealing with and solving the spiritual problems they have.
The Word of God is referred to in the Bible as milk and meat. For the members of the church to grow spiritually, it is
essential that the pastor gives them an adequate supply of the Word of God on a
regular basis, and makes sure that the members assimilate them and get the
nourishment that they need spiritually, to sustain their spiritual health and
the strength and even to grow and mature spiritually. The ministers and particularly the pastors have the
responsibility to satisfy the spiritual hunger and thirst of the members and to
cause them to grow spiritually so that they may become stronger Christians.
2.
To Serve and Minister to them :
Another
important obligation of every servant of God is to be sensitive to the needs of
the people in their ministry and to minister to them immediately without any
undue delay.
When
we say "ministry" it means serving others who are in need.
A minister is a servant of God. Jesus
said that he did not come to be ministered unto, but to minister.
So also every minister should take the form of a servant.
Jesus Christ went about doing good everywhere (Acts10:38).
During His ministry, He fed a multitude of people, healed all manner of
sickness, opened the blind eyes, healed the deaf ears, made the lame to walk,
cleansed the lepers, encouraged and comforted the sorrowful, set the captives
free, cast the demons, raised the dead, forgave the sinners, etc. At the last Supper, Jesus literally washed the feet of His
disciples and then served them a meal.
It is important that every servant of God must be willing to humble
himself and take time to serve and minister to the needs of the sick, needy,
poor, troubled, discouraged, hurting, and sorrowful people.
3.
To Disciple them :
Another
moral obligation of those who are in the ministry is to disciple those whom they
minister to. Discipleship simply means training and helping others to grow
spiritually and to become more and more like them.
In order to disciple others, one should take interest in them and make a
commitment to do their very best to impart to them all they have learned and
gained over a period of time, in terms of spiritual truths, spiritual power and
spiritual qualities. Jesus
discipled 12 men during His ministry, During the three and a half years of His
ministry, He gave them an opportunity to learn from Him everything that He was
doing by way of ministry. He took
interest to teach them spiritual truths and to impart to them His power.
He encouraged, challenged, gave them assignments, and finally
commissioned them to go into all the world and continue the very works that He
did. The Bible says that disciples
cannot rise above their masters but they can become like them.
Unless
a disciple is interested in being a disciple and unless the minister takes
interest in discipling him, the discipleship training program will not be a
success.
4.
To Love and
to Care for them :
Another
important quality, characteristic or obligation of the ministers is to have a
genuine love and concern for the people they minister to. They should really
care for them. Ministry is not a trade profession or occupation by which one can
make a living. It is not a job to make money.
Money should not be the motive for entering into the ministry. Money will
be a by-product or a consequence. The Bible says that, whenever Jesus saw
somebody in need He was moved by compassion to minister to them. In the
ministry, there is no substitute for genuine love and compassion. Today there
seems to be a glamour for ministry because it is possible for a person in a
ministry to be in the limelight, to be popular and to be in a position to have a
lucrative income. Jesus spent most of His time with the sinners, poor people,
out-casts and down trodden. Today there is a tendency for those in the ministry
to associate themselves more with the rich, powerful and those in the higher
echelons or strata of the society.
5.
To be
Willing to make some Sacrifices for them :
It
is important that every servant of God truly loves and cares for the people they
minister to. In order to fulfill
this responsibility one should be both willing and prepared to make some
sacrifices for them. The Bible says
that the shepherd must be willing to lay down his life for his sheep.
Many Christian servants of God may express their willingness to lay down
their life for Jesus. But the question is whether they are willing to make
sacrifices for those whom they serve or minister to.
Dying for someone else is
the utmost sacrifice that anyone can make. Very seldom a servant of God may
really have to give his life for someone he ministers to. But there will be many situations in his ministry to make
different kinds of sacrifices for them. At times such sacrifices may include
spending time and spending money. There
cannot be any true love without sacrifice.
The Bible says in John 3:16, that God so loved the world that He gave his
only begotten Son. Jesus loved the
sinners so much that He died for them on the cross. Loving is giving and giving is a sacrifice.
One's love can be measured only in terms of the sacrifices that one makes
for others. Loving is serving and
we cannot serve others without making some personal sacrifices.
Sacrifice is the cost that one has to pay to serve or minister to others.
It is very important that all the servants of God count the cost before
they go into the ministry. The cost
may be very high but we should realize at the same time that the rewards will be
much greater.
6.
To have a
Real Burden for their Needs :
One
of the essential qualities of the servants of God is to have real burden and
zeal for souls and for ministering to their needs and particularly for their
spiritual needs. They should
realize that if they do not care for their spiritual needs, they not only will
suffer during this life but also will undergo ever-lasting punishment.
The thought that many souls may perish eternally without hope should be
the motivating factor for the servants of God to be in the ministry.
7.
To be
Sensitive to their Needs :
Normally
the servant of God may respond in some way to the requests of those he ministers
to. Even when needs or problems are
reported, one may respond reluctantly or slowly. Strictly speaking the servants
of God should consider
that as an opportunity to minister and respond swiftly and willingly.
The servants of God must be sensitive to the needs of others, and should
not only discern them quickly but also respond to them immediately.
They should develop a system of communication to know the needs and the
problems of the people they serve. In
other words they should take the initiative and go out of their way to minister
to their needs. The Bible says in Acts 10:38 that Jesus went about doing good
everywhere. He was looking for people with needs and ministered to them.
8.
To Do the
Ministry of Jesus Christ :
Every
servant of God is expected to do the ministry of Jesus Christ.
John 14:12 says, that he who believes on Jesus Christ shall do the works
that He did, and also greater works than that shall he do.
When Jesus Christ was ministering on this earth for a period of three and
a half years He did the following things:
(a)
Established the Kingdom of
God
(b)
Brought peace and joy into this world
(c)
Destroyed the works of the devil
(d)
Did the will of His Father
(e)
Taught the Word of God
(f)
Preached the gospel
(g)
Did the ministry of reconciliation
(h)
Healed the sick
(i)
Cast-out the demons
(j)
Performed miracles
(k)
Set the captives free
(l)
Gave counsel to people with problems
(m)
Discipled and trained people for ministry
Every
servant of God is supposed to do the same kind of ministry that Jesus did.
Further they are expected to be sensitive to the needs of the people,
recognize them quickly and minister to them until the need is met.
9.
To Serve as
a Role Model:
As
Paul said in I Corinthians 11:1, every servant of God must be able to say
"Follow me as I follow Christ". It
is wrong to say "Don't look at me but look at Jesus". The servant of God is not justified in saying as one popular
bumper sticker reads, "I am not prefect but I am just
forgiven". Every servant of
God is expected to maintain the highest scriptural standards both in his
personal life and in his ministry. It
is not right to always ask the people to look at the lives of Paul, Peter and
John, without themselves reflecting the image and the character of Jesus Christ
in their own lives. Romans 8:29
says that, we have been predestined to
be conformed to the
image of Jesus.
Ephisians
4:13 says that we must attain the stature and fullness of Jesus and become
perfect like Him. No minister or
servant of God is justified in teaching people to do something that they do not
or cannot do themselves. People
should be interested in following the leaders and patterning their lives after
the example of their leaders. If
people are not interested in following their leaders, in some case it may be
because they do not see any good reason to follow them.
Either nothing is attractive about them or they do not have anything in
which they are interested.
10.To
help Discover and Fulfill God's Will for their lives:
One of the most important responsibilities of a minister to those whom he
ministers to, is to help discover and fulfill God's will for their lives. Some of the most frequently asked questions are: what is
God's will? How does God speak and does God have a specific plan for everyone?
When a person discovers God's will for his life and starts fulfilling
them he will have absolute peace, joy, satisfaction and fulfillment in his life.
When a person is in the center of God's will he will have a very
meaningful, challenging and fulfilling life.
When a person is in that position, through his ministry, God's Kingdom
will be extended, God's name will be glorified, the ministry will be fruitful
and he will be rewarded for his works.
11.
To be Humble and Meek in
dealing with them:
Every
minister or servant of God has been called to serve the people.
He should be able to say as Jesus said, "I have come to minister and
not to be ministered unto". In
order to serve the people one should be humble and meek.
To the contrary, today many are proud, haughty, selfish and arrogant.
Such people just cannot serve or minister to anyone effectively and
meaningfully. The Bible says that
Jesus took the form of a servant and that He even washed the feet of His
disciples. The Bible also says that
Jesus was meek and He humbled himself to the point of laying down His life for
others. Meekness is not weakness.
When a person is meek like Jesus, even when others falsely accuse him, He
will not react, resist or retaliate. He will not even open his mouths to defend
himself even though He may be in a position to defend himself and prove his
innocence. One has to be
spiritually very strong and mature to be meek.
12.
Not to be Lords over
them:
The
position of the servants of God is not to be lords over God's heritage (I Peter
5:3). In other words, they
should not consider themselves as bosses over them.
They should not command, control, manipulate, humiliate, mistreat,
dishonor or disrespect them. They
should treat them with dignity and self-respect.
They should not treat them as servants or subordinates but rather as
clients or customers.
13.
Not to Exploit them or take Undue Advantage over them:
While
the ministers or the servants of God are expected to feed their sheep, many are
fed by the sheep and some even feed on the sheep.
It is not uncommon for servants of God even to feed on the sheep which
means exploiting them or enriching themselves at the cost of the people they
minister to. The motive of the
ministers should be to give and not to take from them.
Their attitude must be to serve, to sacrifice and to give without
expecting anything in return.
14.
Not to Keep them as
Followers Perpetually:
While
the servants of God are expected to disciple their followers, within a
reasonable time they should make them leaders.
When Jesus Christ invited some common men to follow Him he promised to
make them leaders (fisher of men). Those
men who were discipled by Jesus Christ turned out to be great world leaders. It takes a little while to train anybody, but within a
certain time the training must be completed and the trainees should be groomed
for positions of leadership and some special assignments must be given to them.
It is unjust, improper and unscriptural to retain the followers
indefinitely as members of their congregation, without developing them as
leaders and utilizing them in that capacity. Many pastors and Christian leaders
may be guilty of keeping the members of congregation too long within the four
walls of their churches and insisting that they should participate in all the
programs of the church regularly, give the tithes and offerings faithfully and
stay in the church forever and ever loyally.
Many pastors seem to be satisfied with faithful followers.
They do not attempt to make them leaders. It seems attractive to many ministers to have a large number
of faithful followers attend the weekly programs of the church regularly and
help them in a number of ways to keep the programs going. It is the attendance of the number of people that is viewed
as a mark of success. All the
efforts of the leaders are directed to get their own people to attend their own
programs while the mission of the church is to send them out to make them
disciples of all nations.
15.
Not to Threaten them:
The
members of the church or anyone that is ministered to by a man of God should not
feel intimidated or threatened by him in any way, either to submit to him or to
obey him, unconditionally and without asking any question.
It is improper, unethical and immoral on the part of the pastors to
threaten the people they minister to under any circumstance, for selfish gain
under the pretext of either a prophecy or an action of the Holy Spirit.
It is not very uncommon for some men of God to demand their people to do
something for them or for the ministry under a threat of reprisals or some
serious and dire consequences, in the event of failure to carry them out.
16.
Not to Merely Use them
for their Own Advantage:
Those
in the ministry should offer themselves as a living sacrifice.
They should not expect any pecuniary gain from those whom they serve.
It is totally improper to misuse, harass, extort, and misappropriate
anyone under any circumstance, of those whom they serve.
The true motivation for serving them or ministering to them must be the
love of God and the love for whom they serve.
John 14:13 says, that no one has greater love than this and that is to
lay down one's life for one's friend.
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The End-