Praise God that it is finally occurring. After years of training enough pastors to fill positions in churches we are coming to the point where we have enough people well trained to be able to work in new evangelistic areas. 

With this delight comes the need to think outside the square about where to minister and also the need to fund these new ministries.

In recent years the burgeoning numbers of trained pastors has meant that more chaplaincy evangelism ad ministry can be conducted. So now, under God’s good hand we have ministers of the gospel in schools, prisons, retirement villages, workplaces, sporting teams and to specific sub cultures. Praise God for this.

But there are still so many groups that are unreached and the financial constraints so great. Here are two stories about how two men are having others those they are ministering to fund their evangelistic ministry.

A ministry of death

I heard of a church pastor in a country town who had a vibrant church he was pastoring. What troubled him was that though the church was full there were so many of his town who never came to church… except for weddings and funerals.

And so what this man did, was to become the local undertaker. He resigned from his ministry and was replaced by another good pastor to become the town’s funeral director.

As funeral director he had input to people’s lives when they were asking the big issues of life. He was able to care for them in the difficult days and naturally became the friend of those he served. After the time of intense bereavement was over he would visit those he had served and share the gospel with them. Many who were not regular church attenders came to faith through his ministry. A ministry which they had funded.

A ministry of weddings

This week at Moore College Richard James spoke at our Ministry & Mission Hour. Richard is Weddings Evangelist at St. Thomas’ North Sydney.

Richard’s salary is entirely paid from the weddings he conducts. He does a great job with the wedding, but more importantly Richard and his wife Judy explain the gospel of Jesus in their home to every wedding couple over six weeks.

Richard is a great evangelist, warm relationally and delivers a fantastic wedding service – but he has worked out how to position himself so that he is offering something that people want and are willing to pay for that gives him the contact with people so as to share the gospel.

If you want to see what Richard is doing visit his website at www.GreatChurchWedding.com.

The task before us

There must be many other opportunities like weddings and funerals that fund ministry. Let’s put our mind to think what they might be and pray that God will provide the people to do them.