motivation for ministry: to get or to keep

The error we make when we draw our box too tightly in refugee ministry is that we require others to meet a certain standard before we extend them our fellowship and love.

We should think again about what it means for us to obey and serve the Lord. I am indebted to Dr. Scott Hafemann for challenging me to consider this truth,

We do not obey to get a promise we do not have. We obey to keep a promise we already have.

I think this is the key to our ministry. Remember the promise. Show the promise. Move towards the promise. Refugees are people of promise. We are as well. The connection is relationship. We have this in Christ. We are the crucial link then for the refugee's promise in Christ.

It is a mistatke to think of our own or another's obedience -effort to love and please God- first as a means to some end. In this instance we will forever be in legalistic, indebted relationships to one another. I want myself and others to get away from this.

Instead, I want to obey -or keep a standard- because of the promise found inside the relationship which we have. Our obedience, standard and moral -our ethic- therefore is relationship driven and not works driven.

I think it is revolutionary and crucial for our ministry to refugees to think of our service as relationship centered and promise driven.