The other day someone called the phone line for Sabbath Pulpit Ministries with an interesting question. It was a Seventh-day Adventist woman who wanted to know who authorized the website. She wanted to know if I had had proper permission to publish to the web from some denominational or ecclesial body. When I told her that my authorization comes solely from Jesus Christ’s command to “go ye therefore,” I could tell that the ministry had lost credibility in her eyes.
Still-Born Ministries – No Authorization
Initially, I saw this as simply one person’s indictment of this ministry. However, as I thought about this, the gravity of the situation hit me. This individual has a mindset that would preclude her from pushing forth her own God-given dreams of ministry because it was not “authorized properly.” And more, she would discourage anyone from pursuing their own ministry, if not “properly authorized.” Could it be that part of the long delay is that all of the God inspired ministries of our members are waiting for “proper authorization?”
Your ministry may not qualify you to be a member of ASI, but your is still a God given ministry. You may not have the right to call your ministry “Adventist,” but it is still a ministry. You may have people call you on your line and question your authorization, but yours is a ministry.
God’s Ministry Plan
The organized structure can’t contain the variety of the work that is to be done. When Joel 2:28 is fulfilled and God’s spirit is poured out on all flesh and our sons and daughters prophesy let us not be a hindreance to the work that God is doing. Whether authorized by the brethren or not…
So I encourage you to find the ministry that God has tailored you to. If that ministry is a department in the church, praise God and work in that. If that ministry is a new work that your church or conference wishes to support and promote, Go on ahead, in God’s grace and do that ministry. If you have been baptized, you are authorized for baptism is your ordination to the ministry God has called you to. If you are experienced in a field, find a way to use it for ministry. And if, yours is a ministry that the church cannot support due to financial or personnel reasons, go on ahead and do it. Just make sure that when someone asks you “who authorized this ministry” you can say with conviction, “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”