Where is the Good News???

Another friend came out to me today. While I am feeling joy for her and her new found love, my heart is breaking and my blood is boiling.

My friend is United Methodist. She cannot live openly and honestly about who she is as a child of God because our church says the way she was created by God is incompatible with Christian teaching. Go figure.

She has to live as half a person, someone with a secret that she can't share with her church. Does this sound like Good News to you?

If the church is called to be witnesses to God's grace and love; called to share the Good News; proclaim the liberation available to the whole world through Jesus Christ, then we have failed my friend. Right now The United Methodist Church is not proclaiming freedom or liberation, but secrecy and silence. Right now The United Methodist Church is not proclaiming grace and love, but condemnation and hate. Right now The United Methodist Church is sharing some Bad News - you cannot wholly be who God created you to be if you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered - sorry.

Joy has been replaced by fear. That, my friends, is a sin! Fear is never the Good News of Jesus Christ. Repent, United Methodist Church! Fling wide the doors of welcoming! Cast out fear and proclaim the GOOD News for ALL!

Job or Ministry?

So is what we do a job or a ministry? What’s the difference? These thoughts run through my mind as I continue to search not for a job, but a ministry position.

(Thanks to Group's Church Volunteer Central for articulating this for me)

If you do it just because no one else will...it’s a job!
If you do it to serve God...it’s a ministry!
If you quit because someone criticized you...it’s a job!
If you kept on serving in spite of criticism...it’s a ministry!
If you’ll do it only so long as it doesn’t interfere with other things...it’s a job!
If you’re committed to staying with it, even when it means letting other things go...it’s a ministry!
If you quit because no one ever praised or thanked you...it’s a job!
If you stay even though no one notices your efforts...it’s a ministry!
If you do it because someone else said it needs to be done...it’s a job!
If you do it because you sensed God saying it needs to be done...it’s a ministry!
It’s hard to get excited about a job.
It’s almost impossible not to get excited about a ministry!
An average church is filled with people doing jobs!
A great and growing church is filled with people involved in ministry!

Point to Ponder:
So what do you think? What's the difference between a job and a ministry? Is being a pastor a job AND a ministry?