Engage in Ministry, Part 2: Looking for Work
Kevin Glenn
Part of A People and Place of GRACE—Sermon Series
March 20, 2022

Engage in Ministry, Part 2 - Looking for Work
Dr. Kevin D. Glenn – Lead Pastor

Sometimes what you do in your “vocation” is very similar to what you might do inside the church. In other cases, you may find God calling you to do an almost completely different sort of work in the church than you do out in the world. But looking at your gifts is not where to start in your search to serve. Today we’ll look at a four-part method for discerning a vocation, whether that work is inside or outside the church.

1. Look Up and In with humble

: Don’t start with a need to be needed.Philippians 2:3-5
• Just because you can serve doesn’t mean you should serve. Many of us need help before we can be of help. That’s totally okay and it’s the healthiest thing you can do for yourself and for others.
• Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero
• The Self-Aware Leader by Terry Linhart

2. Look out with affection: What needs do I

with? - Acts 17:16-17
• Look at concrete needs. Don’t ignore practical and immediate needs to get to what you think are “spiritual” needs.

Gabe Lyons suggests four questions to determine

needs in our communities:
• What’s wrong that needs to be corrected?
• What’s confusing that needs to be clarified?
• What’s right that can be supported?
• What’s missing that can be created?

3. Look within at

: What are my skills and deficiencies? - Exodus 28:3, Exodus 18: 19-23
• Mediocrity is poor stewardship.
• If it’s Christian, it ought to be better. – TobyMac

4. Look around for

: Where does my community indicate where I am needed?
• We cannot understand ourselves without paying attention to what our brothers and sisters can see about us.

Your life is not a series of random events. Your family background, education, and life experiences— even the most painful ones—all equip you to do some work that no one else can do. “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” - Ephesians 2:10

Questions to Ponder
• Kevin suggests examining our motives, issues, and expectations, before looking at our abilities. Do you agree?
• Have you ever connected emotional health with spiritual health? Why is this an essential consideration for serving?
• Why the insistence on concrete needs? How can well-meaning people ignore immediate needs in an effort to meet “spiritual” needs?
• Discuss the 4 questions suggested by Gabe Lyons as they relate to Jackson.
• Why do Christians so often settle for mediocrity over excellence? How do you respond to the Bible’s repeated insistence on skilled craftsmen, artisans, workers, etc… in contrast to an “it’s ok” attitude among Christians?
• How does the community help in identifying, equipping, correcting, encouraging, empowering, and holding accountable its own workers?