Hey everyone! A warm welcome, wherever you are connecting in from. It’s Amanda and Mitch here, from Crown Jesus Ministries based in Belfast. And today we want to talk a little bit about doing ministry together as a couple. I’ve been a Christian for just over 30 years, Amanda, a little bit less than that. But since we started dealing together, we’ve been doing ministry together. We ran a young adults group together. We took mission trips to Africa. When Crown Jesus started, we did that together. I stepped in full-time and then more recently, Amanda has stepped into full-time ministry. So we walk together in ministry as a couple.
Amanda, let’s share some advice. So obviously, you know, as a Christian couple obvious things, praying together, pray together, stay together, reading the Bible together. Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath. But over and above that, Amanda, just some top tips to help people who are in ministry as a couple.
Okay, I think one of the key things is that understanding that our gifting is different. And so actually what we do should compliment one another rather than trying to compete. So I’m not trying to be better than you, you’re not trying to be better than me, but what we do adds value to what each other does, and understanding and recognizing our giftings and celebrating that is so important.
I think secondly, it’s really important to honor one another, to speak well of one another in private and in public. And whether that’s through celebrating what each other does through conversations, whether it’s in your family, in front of your kids and with your friends. It’s important to speak well of one another and to use language which encourages and builds up.
And then finally, I think for me is the thing is like us for setting boundaries in place, because it’s really easy whenever you do ministry and you’re in a workplace together all day, it’ll spill over into your life at home. And it’s not wrong for that to happen. But also, if it’s time for me to switch off and sometimes my brain switches off a bit faster than yours, that when you say to me, “Can we have a quick work chat?” That when I say “No,” that you’re like, “That’s fine, let’s leave it till tomorrow.” And it’s just honoring one another in that and knowing when’s a good time. And if we want to chat about things, setting time aside, honoring it and sticking to it. Good boundaries.
The fourth one is probably just, you know, we do ministry as a team and with a wider team here at Crown Jesus, and we don’t always agree. And so we’ve got to be very careful that when we disagree, the other people in the team don’t see it as like a husband and wife having a rat. So it’s like being sensitive to the people around us that they don’t feel a little bit awkward in those settings.
And the fifth one and final one, just to celebrate together. And we do that not just as a couple, but as a family as well, involving the kids in those celebrations. So hopefully those top tips will be an inspiration to you as you adventure into ministry together. Shalom, Shalom.