Are Online Ministries Legitimate?
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Are online ministries legitimate ministries, or just a modern workaround for people who can’t do ‘real’ ministry?
Maybe you’ve shared an unusual ministry idea with someone, only to have them reply that “it’s never been done that way before.”
In the New Testament, we see this exact tension play out as God calls Peter to an unusual ministry, and this is where everything shifted… forever!
Starting an “online ministry” was such a foreign idea to me because it didn’t sound legitimate.
As a young mom, my kids caught every bug that floated in the air and shared every virus back and forth, until there were times I didn’t leave our apartment for months.
Calling myself a missionary felt almost dishonest, because I rarely saw anyone but my two babies, and sometimes my husband in passing on his way to work.
That’s when the Lord laid on my heart to begin translating Good Morning Girls‘ materials and start a group here in Croatia.
In those early years, when I would talk about my online ministry, I could read the hesitation in people’s eyes, and even sometimes hear it in their voice when they would say, “Oh….that’s great!”
Their words didn’t sound convincing…….or encouraging.
But that wasn’t the hardest part…
I would spend hours and hours second-guessing myself.
Yet, each time, the Lord would inspire a dear sister to send a message letting me know that my blogs and online Bible study groups were just the encouragement she needed.
- Some were shut-ins
- Others had been in long seasons of loneliness and isolation
- Some were the only evangelical Christians in their area
- Others had been without a church for years
The ministry that seemed to others, and even sometimes to myself, as not legitimate, has since become normal.
Are Online Ministries Legitimate?
Every normal ministry today at one time seemed illegitimate and strange.
They were at one time greeted with
- Skeptical looks
- An unsure tone of voice
- The phrase, “It’s never been done that way before.”
We see this in Acts 10, where we find something that must have seemed completely out of bounds when an angel spoke to a Roman officer named Cornelius to send for Peter.
In the meantime, Peter had a vision 3 times of a great sheet coming from heaven, filled with non-kosher animals.
In the vision, the Lord says to him, “Kill and eat”, and each time Peter replied that he would never eat unclean food.
God’s response was, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” Acts 10:15
As soon as the vision had ended, those whom Cornelius had sent arrived at the place where Peter was staying, and he left with them to meet with Cornelius and his family.
And what happens next changed the rest of history!
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision [Jews] who believed were astonished…because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. Then Peter answered, “Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized?”
This was the first time that salvation and the gift of the Holy Spirit had reached the Gentiles.
And they had questions.
Was this okay?
Was it legitimate?
Can Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit?
Should they be baptized in water?
There was no handbook for a Gentile receiving Christ.
And it is in Acts 10 that Christianity was forever transformed. God was no longer reaching out only to Jews, but Gentiles were now invited into this special relationship with their Maker.
To be sure, there were wrinkles that needed to be ironed out, like when Paul rebuked Peter for his hypocrisy, when he did not want to be seen by Jews as eating with Gentiles.
But every new ministry has rough spots in the beginning.
Dear sister, what if the thing you’re questioning is the very thing God wants to use next?
If God has put a dream on your heart that seems new and unusual, don’t let doubt stand in your way.
Your doubt.
Others’ doubt.
The hesitant looks.
The doubtful voices.
Let God make the way where it seems there is no way, and then let Him be glorified through what others deem unusual or strange.
What feels unusual to others may be exactly how God chooses to reach the ones no one else can.
