The Thrill of Ministry

I think, again, that it is essential to the preacher's success that he thoroughly enjoy his work. I mean that in the actual doing of it, not only in it's idea. No man to whom the details of his task are repulsive can constantly do his task well, however full he may be of it's spirit. He may make one bold dash at it and carry it out over all his disgusts, but he can not work on at it year after year, day after day. Therefore, count it not merely a perfectly legitimate pleasure, count it an essential element of your power if you can feel a simple delight in what you have to do as a minister, in the fervour of writing, the glow of speaking, in standing before men and moving them, in contact with the young. The more thoroughly you enjoy it, the better you will do it all.

This is all true of preaching. It's highest joy is in the great ambition that is set before it, the glorifying of the Lord, and the saving of the souls of men. No other joy on earth compares with that. The ministry that does not feel joy is dead. But in behind that highest joy, beating in humble union with it, as the healthy body thrills in sympathy with the deep thoughts and pure desires of mind and soul, the best ministers have always been aware of another pleasure which belonged to the very doing of the work itself. As we read the lives of the most effective preachers of the past, or as we meet the men who are powerful preachers of the Word today, we feel how certainly and how deeply the very exercise of their ministry delights them.

Phillip Brooks, Lectures on Preaching, Pp 53-54, 82-83

Quoted in John Piper, Desiring God, Pp 109-110

Isn't that a freeing thought? The thrill i get as i pick my sermon notes off the printer, walk to teen church and preach, or sit down and open the Bible with a student, or pull a commentary off the shelf, or see a kid baptised isn't the icing on the cake! It's the meal itself. It's not a nice extra, but a necessary part of ministry. 

So a minsters aim is to be as happy as he can, as his pursuit of joy in God issues in love and service of his church.