The Ministry of the Church
by T. Austin-Sparks
Recorded Mar
1967
"What we shall have to settle is the inevitability of afflictions if we're going to mean anything to the Lord at all, if the Lord is going to have anything by us of value. That is the meaning of service and ministry. Don't think of that word ministry as something official. Just rule that right out. Don't think of the pastor, the minister, a ministerial class and profession. This language is phraseology which has crept into the service of God, and is all so false and misleading when people say, 'I'm going into the ministry.'"