Measuring Ministry
Rev’d Rob Anning writes: In the Autumn of 2003, Pat and I received a telephone call telling us that our next appointment would be in Felixstowe: Workplace Chaplain to the Port of Felixstowe and pastoral charge of four churches.
Our first question was: Where is Felixstowe? And now we know. Our second question was: I wonder what the people are like? And now we know.
At the same time, you were probably thinking much the same: who is this minister called Rob Anning? And now you know!
As I have reflected on the last five years, and wondered how do I measure my ministry in the time I have been here, I have been drawn to Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians chapter 4.
I could measure the time here in the number of weddings, baptisms and funerals, or I could measure it in terms of the numbers of people sitting on the chairs each Sunday, or I could measure it by the number of sermons I have written. To go down this road would be to suggest that success or failure is an issue of statistics, and depends on me.
Instead, I take heart from the words of Paul: “God in his mercy has given us this work to do . . . for it is not ourselves that we preach; we preach Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake”.
And you will notice that all of this is written in the plural. The Church does not depend on the Minister alone. In the Methodist Church, we believe in “the priesthood of all believers”. In other words, we are a team, all called by God, to work together, to work faithfully, to do his work. So at this stage, we all need to review what the last five years have been about.
So while I am prepared to take my share of the responsibility for where we are today after five years, we all have to recognise we are where we are because of what “we” have done or not done in order to build up the body of Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul goes on to describe us as “common clay pots”. In other words, we are not perfect; we are chipped, cracked, tarnished, and yet God continues to use us. But the outcome of our work is not to glorify ourselves but to bring glory to God.
For my five years in Felixstowe, I have discovered once again, that we believe in and worship a faithful, loving God who sticks by us in the tasks to which he calls us.
God will not measure this period of time by what we can see we have achieved but by what is unseen: “For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts for ever”.