I never expected that George from Seinfeld would teach me something important about Free Grace ministry. More on that in a moment.
The Free Grace movement faces a challenge: our young men often feel held back from ministry because of the lack of institutional support.
If you look around, there are far more opportunities for ministry in other theological traditions that have been around for much longer and have spent centuries building churches, colleges, seminaries, mission agencies, and charities. That’s understandable. The Catholics and the Reformed have had hundreds of years to develop their networks, while our movement only began in the 1980s. We’re just getting started! That means if you feel called to Free Grace ministry, you must adopt a different attitude toward ministry work.
That’s where George comes in.
I listened to an interview with actor Jason Alexander, who played George, in which he explains that modern actors need a different mindset:
“If you really want to be in our business—the business of being an actor—the days of thinking only as an actor are probably over. The most frustrated actors I know are the ones that are waiting for someone to give them the gig. You must make the gig. You must get the writers. You must get the directors. You must get the designers. If you’re going to do it on film, you must get the cinematographers and everybody that makes filmed storytelling happen…You build your companies. You build your support systems. And you go out and make stuff. You hire yourself…But to sit there and wait for someone to give you the chance…the likelihood is you’re going to watch the calendar pages turn waiting for that opportunity because you didn’t make it yourself.”
Watch it here.
This is good advice for anyone wanting to do Free Grace ministry.
You should not have the mindset that someone will hand you a ministry gig. Instead, be prepared to create one.
Remember Jesus’ parable of the talents (cf. Matt 25:14ff)?
In that story, a man gives his servants money to do business until he returns. But he doesn’t hand them an investment opportunity or a ready-made job. He evidently expects them to create opportunities for themselves.
Likewise, Jesus also expects you to do business until He returns. That means you must use your resources, take the initiative, and create opportunities for ministering the gospel in a world hungry for good news.
So, the choice is this: you can keep working for and supporting legacy Evangelical institutions that preach a mixed message at best and a Lordship Salvation message at worst, or you can think of yourself as a spiritual entrepreneur or like an angel investor, helping Free Grace ministries make their own gig.
Send your questions or comments to Shawn.
You hit the nail on the head, Shawn!
You have to push for it.
That’s what Dan Robb and I did with “The Sanctuary: Booze and the Bible” podcast.
There are so many folks out there who feel that they lost or never had eternal life because of their inability to live up to someone else’s ideal “Christianity” . No one “respectable” was going to support this podcast because we drink and rate beer on the show. So we just forged ahead, and so far God has blessed the effort. We tell people that salvation is about belief in Christ and that He offers eternal life freely. We discuss that sanctification is about doing those good works everyone is so adamant about. We talk about how one is free and the other costs us. Our hope is that folks who may not feel comfortable in a church environment will be more receptive to God and His grace in a “bar”. Oh, I can hear the Pharisees now…