I've just returned from a weekend on another mountain, and a exactly week (from now) before I hit the road again to head down south. The last time I ascended this mountain, I was 10 a year-old boy. This weekend, I went up and stayed in exactly the same inn that I lodged in 20 years ago. Such trips provoke intense memories from the past, and hence, propel me into extremely deep nostalgic reflections.

But beyond mental and emotional recollections, there was a sustained reflection on the life of ministry. Ever since I emerged with a more comprehensively thought through understanding of ministry, I've consistently maintained that ministry is not an activity. Instead, it is a natural expression resulting from a missional friendship that takes place within a community of believers.

Ministry isn't something we do as good Christians. As good Christians, we become friends. Yes, that's simply it, no matter how unbelievably simplistic it may sound. But then, the spiritually intimate exchanges that take place within such spiritually guided friendships are bound to result in an overflow. That which naturally overflows from such relationships without having to be humanly engineered is what I call "ministry".

When we begin to understand ministry as an involuntary result of a missional friendship, we soon realise that no one can say "We're starting a ministry" because deliberate attempts to attain a desired result is not a kingdomic definition of ministry. Any such sort of institutionalised rendition of ministry, if it can even be considered legitimately reflective of God's heart, often slips into an actionary-based series of rigidly legalistic, politically guided, constitutionally regulated, pragmatically motivated activities.

If you have had me speaking, sharing, teaching, or preaching in your faith community before, then you'll know that I consider at least somebody there a good friend of mine. Because it has been a long time since I accepted speaking engagements based on a public "reputation" that is sometimes ascribed to me without people truly knowing me as a person. Therefore, I generally turn down requests for "ministerial engagements" presented by people who know me only by reputation... I'd rather not talk about "ministry" first and be known as a friend. Friendship is, for me, the prerequisite for any ministerial expression.

Gone are those days when I was impressed at opportunities to preach at crowds of people who were merely nameless faces to me. I've switched from the ministry of authoritative dogma to one of the ministry of friendship and presence. Or at least, I've tried to and will continue to do so.