Ministry

What is a minister? It's not just a pastor, or a reverend, or a missionary. It is one who ministers to others in Christ's name. And as today reminded me, ministers come in all shapes and sizes.

This afternoon I was sitting alone in the church, doing a bit of paperwork, when I heard a knock on our door. A guy pokes his head in and says that he was traveling by and wanted to know if he could go into our sanctuary and pray for a bit.

Sure, why not, I reply -- it's what it's there for, right?

So he goes into the sanctuary, I return to work. A few minutes later, I hear music floating down the hall.

Correction: I hear music BOOMING down the hall.

I tiptoe to the sanctuary doors and look in -- this guy, Richard was his name, is at our piano just belting out gospel songs at the top of his lungs. He had a medley of about 20 songs that he was doing from memory (no sheet music!), just sitting alone, playing and singing.

Well, work can wait -- I went in and had a seat and just listened to him for ten minutes or so. He was quite good, and the old gospel hymns came alive under his care. After he was done we talked a bit. He told me that "this is what he did" -- he went around to different churches to pray over them (through song, I suppose), that souls would come to salvation in that church. He'd pray, then move on to the next church, and the next one after that.

His ministry wasn't a public one, even though what he did would've been very entertaining and edifying for others to hear. His was private, a "behind the scenes" one-man effort to cover the Lord's churches with prayer. I felt touched when hearing him and considering this, and knew I was blessed to encounter a true minister of Christ in the middle of this workday.