Pastor Rick Warren: Whatever You Do, Do It as a Ministry

By Rick Warren

“Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17 NIV).

God has called you to be a minister.

Maybe you’ll never preach a sermon. Maybe you’ll never officiate a wedding or a funeral. Maybe you’ll never lead a church.
But make no mistake about it: If you’re a follower of Jesus, you’re a minister.
God has called you to be a bi-vocational minister. What does that mean? Think of the word “bifocal.” Those are the glasses that allow someone to see two things at the same time—both far away and up close—with clarity.
When you follow Jesus, you do everything for two reasons, not one: to help others and to honor God. That makes you a bi-vocational minister, whether you’re a truck driver, an attorney, a janitor, or a stay-at-home parent. You have a job, but in that job, you work to help others and to honor God.
The Bible says it like this in Colossians 3:17: “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (NIV).
That Scripture reminds us that anything we do can be a ministry and a blessing if we honor God and help others through it. Whatever you do, do it in the name of Jesus. Taking out the garbage, changing a dirty diaper, and cleaning the living room can all be ministries.
As long as your motivation is right, the Bible says that whatever you do can become a ministry. That means menial tasks become meaningful tasks when you do them out of love for God.
When you look at life from this perspective, everything you do becomes significant.
PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick
Talk It Over

How does the Bible’s teaching to do everything for the Lord change your perspective on tasks you might otherwise consider unimportant?
How does your calling as a bi-vocational minister impact how you look at your work?
What’s a task in your life that you struggle to think about in terms of helping others and honoring God? Why do you think that’s so?