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What effect has the practice of ministry had on your understanding of humanity and need for divine grace?
Ministry is practiced in a broken world. Everyone encountered in ministry, myself included, is a sinner sought by God to be renewed in relationship. All peoples have been created in the image of God, and God desires to be in relationship with God’s creation. Humanity has been bestowed with the gift of freedom to make choices, to utilize free will. Unfortunately, instead of choosing to remain in a loving relationship with God and one another, people choose to break the loving connection with God, as illustrated in the third chapter of Genesis. We have a proclivity to choose selfishness and conceit in our daily actions, incapable of renewing our relationship with God on our own. However, God has not given up pursuing us. Divine grace is a free gift from God. We are incapable of earning God’s grace, but rather because God loves us it is freely given. Through Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, we are able to be restored in the image of God. Grace is present our whole life, even before we are aware, awakening us to God’s love and calling us to turn away from sin and continuing to be with us as we become perfected in God’s love.
Through God’s grace I am able to practice ministry. On a daily basis I encounter people who may be caught in the grip of sin yet are striving to lead a life worthy of the gospel. God’s grace is a powerful reminder that even in those moments when people feel most isolated from God or one another, God continues to reach out. We, as sinners, need God to awaken us to Christ’s redemptive action on our behalf. Many times in worship we offer a Prayer of Confession, followed by Words of Assurance. For some in our congregation this has been a challenge as they have come to the ministerial staff complaining of our focus on our sinful nature. My response is usually one of listening to their concern and offering a framework of understanding the prayer as an acknowledgement of our sin followed with the joy of God’s grace working in our lives. Others have been appreciative of our including the prayer and the assurance that their sin can and is forgiven, even in the midst of a broken world. God’s grace is boundless.
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