Read this great post from Tim Schmoyer, and then think what a wonderful world it would be if your pastor asked you the question that Tim is posing.
The question, in case you didn’t bother going to the site is this (my paraphrase): “Church Volunteer, what ministry are you drawn to, and what passion is God wanting you to pursue in that area?”
After picking yourself up off the floor, you may just find your heart’s desire. I am convinced that God plants hopes and dreams for ministry into our hearts, and it’s up to us — and our church families — to draw it out, refine it, and plug it into the overall ministry of the Spirit of God in the world and in our church. Too many times we ignore or bury the desire, thinking “I guess it’s not God” or “it must be the wrong timing”. Those are, of course, the correct response for some desires, but it’s not always the response, and (quite literally) for God’s sake it shouldn’t be the default response.
One of my favorite verses is Ps. 37:4, but we ignore this! If you have been delighting yourself in the Lord (loving Him, being loved by Him), he will place desires into your heart! Yet we say, “it must be just me”, or, “I didn’t get a sign from God about it,” when it was God all along.
I was speaking with a friend of mine in the children’s ministry. I asked her to give her opinion about some directions in the children’s area that I was pondering, and her initial response was that she didn’t think much about it because the children’s area wasn’t where her interests really lay. So I probed a little and asked her what she did care about, and it was like releasing the floodgates! Ideas, hopes, and passion flowed out of her for a totally different area — but it was an area that our particular church hasn’t been addressing, so it has lain dormant. But where God has planted passion, I’m sure He is making plans to carry it out. I look forward to seeing what God has in mind for the desire He has given her.
So, ask yourself the question. What desires has God placed in your heart?