The Holy Spirit and ministry

From David Hansen’s book The Art of Pastoring:

The Holy Spirit carries out the will of God to build the church. This is the objective truth of the pastoral ministry: the church is the work of the Holy Spirit…

My ministry isn’t work, really. The Spirit lifts, gives vision, direction and power…

Pastoral ministry is not work. Pastoral ministry is riding on the free winds of the Spirit. It is catching winds that lift us to heights we cannot climb on our own. We can’t stay in the air very long on our own strength, but we can seek thermals. Our soul-wings are made large that we might catch the Spirit.

We are incompetent to be ministers of the gospel. It is implicit in the call to ministry: what we attempt is impossible. We are not competent to carry out the task of gospel ministry. We are made competent by the Holy Spirit of God.

I’m thinking about how much would change if we really believed this.