<a href="https://biblicalmissiology.org/blog/author/patrick/" target="_self">Pat D.</a>

Pat D.

Pat and family have been involved in ministry in for 25 years, 10 of them in the arab world. For seven years they were involved in a church planting team in North Africa. They are currently involved in missions mobilization, church ministry , and education on South Florida.

5 Comments

  1. myra

    encouraging post. I am so encouraged and I am also excited to what God has been doing in our ministry in Cambodia.

  2. Karl Dahlfred

    Great post. I work among Buddhists in SE Asia but most of what you say here is directly applicable to our situation as well. Thanks

  3. Pat D.

    I definitely agree that ministry is more than character. You do have to preach the word and point people to Jesus , not to yourself. However, bad character can definitely bring down your ministry very quickly. I think the key is to have integrity. I don’t think people look at missionaries or ministers as perfect people, but they do want to see that we love Jesus and that is to be shown in our lives.

    Just a thought on the idea of incarnational ministry. I don’t totally discount it, but I think it is much more biblical to say that we are to minister as servants of Christ. I think too much we buy into an American view of ministry that is dominated by professionalism. We do not need to make a big deal out of ourselves, but let’s make a big deal out of Jesus.

  4. John Span

    Good evening Pat:
    Excellent post. It makes me think of how necessary it is to combine Orthodoxy–right thinking; with Orthopraxy–right action, with Orthopathos—right feeling.

    Carl’s post did remind me of something that is hard to put a finger on. It is an emphasis that I have seen in recent years on having the right character and correctly incarnating things in our mission work. I fully agree that these are vital as Christ’s ambassadors, but have their limits. In the final analysis, it is not my character that matters so much, nor my integrity that matters so much, but His integrity and His character. Otherwise I can set myself up as the standard of both character and integrity that people should aspire to, and this is a potentially disastrous setup. Would it not be much better to point people to Him whose character is flawless and whose integrity is 100% blameless? Like John the Baptist said, “He must increase and I must decrease”

  5. Carl Medearis

    Pat

    Excellent. Couldn’t agree more. I’ve seen this throughout our 27 years of being involved in the Arab world (12 years living there). Lots of fad-chasers. On all sides of the spectrum. I think it’s human nature to want the latest and greatest. Purpose Driven. Seeker Sensitive. I can remember my dad – who has been a pastor all my life – talking a lot about having a “New Testament Church” in the 70’s. That was the deal then!

    Character and integrity trump everything else, for sure!

    Blessings
    carl

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