I was called to pastor a small dying church in rural South Carolina. After being there a few months a friend that I had worked with in the past joined me there. I was delighted for me to come be a part of our church. There was literally no one at this church that capable of teaching the Bible; And very few people willing to try. I was thrilled to have such a godly fellow and gifted bible teach in our midst.

About a year and half later I was devastated when I met with him in my office and he and his wife informed me he was in big trouble with the U.S. Department of Justice: Porn, underage girls at that.

Long story short, after much biblical counseling (some with Dr. Schaumburg at focus on the family) my friend is headed to federal prision for 7 years to teach the bible to federal inmates.

My brother is being restored to the faith. His marriage has been saved. Other Federal inmates can now be discipled by a “peer”.

I ended up leaving my pastorate at this church. I was kicked around a little on a local newspapers website as a result of going to federal court with my friend.

Was it worth it, a thousand times yes! It was very messy, and personally a little hurtful and maybe even embarrassing. But isn’t that what God called us to do? Meet peoples needs?

nHim,

Scott

Listening to other’s pain and of course there’s the whole prayer ministry thing too.

Part of what is making ministry for us messy these days is being so involved with our current church body and yet being prepared to leave. There’s that whole - we love the body we serve with, but are looking forward to the new body as well. Of course, it is totally worth it. I’ve been asked if my husband becoming “the pastor” of a church is the goal… No.. it is part of the bigger plan. Not the end all be all…

Most of our ministry is in the messy category.  The police know us well now And we’ve sat in court with several who went to find out what their sentence would be.

We are comforting a family whose son has gotten two girls pregnant at once (they are due within a month of each other) and now he’s in trouble with the law.  Meanwhile, he and the rest of the family, have made professions of faith, as has one of the girlfriends.

We have a women who was dealing drugs to high schoolers, got caught, truly repented of her behavior, and is now in treatment, therapy, and court mandated appointments, etc.  We’ve given them Christmas, and they both made professions of faith, as they deal with the consequences of their behavior.

I could go on and on… the elderly alone woman, who has an alcohol addiction, and now is going blind.

The 14 year old teen who was pregnant and her father forced her to have an abortion.

Ministry should be ugly.  If it’s pretty, I don’t think we are touching the lives of the lost.

My grandfather used to own a farm with a handful of pigs, a few cows, a couple of horses - and 7000 chickens. Every summer we worked with him on the farm… It stunk to high heaven and was messy. Every night we came back to the house messy and muddy.
But we never complained about the fried chicken on Sunday, the bacon and eggs every morning or the smoked country ham biscuits.

Later in life I had the great misfortune of being around sheep. These creatures behavior and smell made the 7000 chickens look like a rose garden. Sheep bite each other, they defecate on each other and are about as dumb as any animal you will ever see. But the wool is warm and the occasional leg is tasty.

Is it any wonder why God calls us the “sheep” of His pasture?
Wrangling sheep is messy, smelly, you might be bitten a time or two and you will on occasion get some “poop” on you… you can bank on it.
But when one of them comes to Christ, when a brother who has fallen is restored, when a family is strengthened to overcome someone’s addiction… it is all worth while.
One “sheep” coming into the fold makes all the mess seem petty.

Just my two cents… hang in there - we’re in this together…

Ministry is messy because people are messy.  All the more reason to be healthy in mind body & spirit.