Proclaimer Blog
Ministry mates
I'm working slowly through Job in my devotions, making much use of Christopher's forthcoming Preaching the Word volume (available at the EMA). I've got as far as chapter 16 where Job replies to Eliphaz.
Then Job replied: “I have heard many things like these; you are miserable comforters, all of you! Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing? I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you. But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief. Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away."
It's an interesting passage. Job's friends no doubt set out to be helpful, but they are "miserable comforters." Job longs for them to keep quiet, assuring them that in their place, he would speak words of comfort and relief. And here's the surprise of the passage – Job cannot talk himself out of this situation. "If I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away." That's ever so slightly surprising. If Job has better answers than his friends, why can he not speak to himself? The answer is that he needs others. He needs truth to be spoken to him. We all do. We are not hard wired to be loners, and if we have no ministry mates, there is a recipe for disaster.
It is a mark of a disciple of Jesus and an heir and successor to Job that, even as we long to be comforted, our hearts contain a matching longing to bring comfort to others in pain. Faith turns us outward even in pain.
That's from Christopher's commentary. Put simply, we need ministry mates, and we need to be ministry mates to others. It's one of the reason we plan our conferences as we do. The EMA – to some extent – and especially our residential conferences, are chances to nurture and develop precisely the kind of relationships that God graciously gives us to keep us and others in ministry. We are not, we cannot be, loners. We are disciples of Jesus. And so we need, and need to be, ministry mates.