Barnabas File

In a casual conversation recently, a longtime friend in ministry said, “I’m no longer trying to change the world anymore.   Are you?”   The question immediately caught my attention.   This challenged me to reflect for a few minutes on my purpose at this point in my life. Perhaps there was a time when I thought that God could change the world through me.   When I heard Ross Coggins’ hymn, “Send Me, O Lord, Send Me” as a young person, I was moved to invest my life in changing the world and dreamed of ways that might take place.    My feeling about this changed when I came to understand Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 4:11-13 about the equipping ministry and realized that this was what I had been called to do.   My practice since then has been to attempt “to change the world” (as my friend said) by helping call out, equip, and encourage others to serve Christ in various ways.   This did not mean that direct ministry to people was no longe...