Have you ever asked yourself "how can I be an effective door-to-door minister?" Probably not. I know I didn't. My first experience with ministry was driving a van for a downtown shelter. Every other Sunday or so, I picked up whomever wanted to come to church from the shelter and drove them back afterwards. Then my wife and I went to L.A. and spent a week at the Dreamcenter. Being there opened my eyes in many ways. First, that God was working to reach everyone everywhere. Second, that there are so many needs in the world to limit yourself by tackling just a couple. Third and most important, all God wants from us is obedience and our best effort (He'll take care of the rest.)

Only until recently did I realize it's not my responsibility to save the world. Jesus Christ did that already. He's provided the way through His work on the cross. By taking that responsibility for myself, I burned out very quickly and our ministry disbanded. We moved out of town. That was almost four years ago.

Now I know my biggest mistake was trying to do God's work for Him, to "help" Him (as if He needed it) by pushing for results. All along He just wanted me to show up, give Him my best, and leave the rest to Him.

Jesus said He came to give us abundant life. He wants us to live. I'm not saying to live for yourself. No, Paul said to live is Christ, to die is gain. In other words, our lives are His. We are His vessels. What I am saying is you have to love it. The ministry has to be part of you, or rather, a showing of the work of Christ in you.

Operating in ministry under anything else than God's love and power is just flesh and therefore sin.