Meaningful Ministry

Every group of people has their own vernacular. Here at CFC, we have “observations” that we share with other and “evidences of grace” that we see in each other. We get “released” from meetings and we don’t just say “thanks.” No, we say “thanks for serving.” Before coming to Covenant Fellowship Church, and to Sovereign Grace Ministries, Gina and I walked in different circles. One common phrase in one of those circles was “meaningful ministry.”

You may ask, how could any ministry lack meaning? This, of course, is a good question, but not what they meant. This term applied to mothers. “Meaningful ministry” is what mothers experienced when they left their home and took part in evangelism or discipleship or Bible study. So, the picture was that a mom with young children would have to leave her home, and her children, to go take part in “meaningful ministry.”

I understand where that comes from. It can be far less fulfilling changing diapers or cleaning up the living room floor (for the seventh time) than it does leading someone to Christ or counseling a troubled sister. There is a temptation to see that type of ministry as meaningful and the “home” orientation of a mother’s life as mundane. Or, perhaps, the constancy of home life seems dull compared to the fulfillment that awaits participating in the workforce.

There is nothing quite like an eternal perspective to fix the sorrows or challenges of today. To that end, consider these words from Samuel Rutherford:


How soon will some few years pass away, and then when the day is ended, and this life’s lease expires, what have men of the world’s glory, but dreams and thoughts? O happy soul for evermore, who can rightly compare this life with that long-lasting life to come, and can balance the weighty glory of the one with the light golden vanity of the other.

A time is coming when the golden vanity of this life will pass and we take only the eternal into the life to come. The eyes experience clarity when gazing at what is truly of value as “life’s lease expires.” In that moment, the mundane rigors of home life glisten brightly. Each task done, each nose wiped, each diaper changed, each correction and each discussion serve as bricks. When assembled, they form the lives of our children…the one truly eternal possession we’ve been charged with.

When we lose sight of eternity, the loud, shrill voices of daily urgencies drown eternal perspective…and our faith for it. But, when we view our children as possessers of eternal souls, the weighty glory of the long-lasting life serves as ample motivation for each brick.

According to Samuel Rutherford, the soul that can rightly understand this life compared to that one…this temporal glory compared to that eternal, weighty one…will be a happy soul. And that mother, up to her eye balls in mundane bricks, will find herself surrounded my meaningful ministry…greatly meaningful indeed.