Doing Good is not Good Enough. (Article Only)

Doing Good is not Good Enough.by Rev. James Young Lee Doing good is not good enough.This is one of the topics that we discussed when we gathered together as the Ministry Study Group.What does it mean then?Doing our ministries well does not necessarily guarantee it to be truly good if it is not good enough.What is the difference between being good and being good enough?The point is, do we have a very specific goal for our ministries or not? I mean that we must have an expectation of what we are doing in order to determine if we are doing something really good enough. What is your expectation (or goal) in doing ministries such as pastoring, preaching, teaching, caring, leading, etc?If your expectation is just to do it, whatever and however you do, it ought to be good.But if you have a very specific expectation for your ministry tasks, you may ask again, "Did I accomplished the goal or not?". Of course, there are many tasks in our ministries.I want to focus our attention, however, on children/youth ministries, both for the sake of discussion and for its own practical necessity.Are we doing good for this?Yes, it should be good for anybody to be involved in the ministry in any way, because in reality, even that simple commitment is good and ought to be appreciated without any question.But the question is whether it is good enough not just for the sake of doing but because it results in what we are aiming for. What are we aiming for with our ministry effort?Rather, for what must we aim? This is my plain goal for children/youth ministries:Let them meet Jesus, focus on Him, learn from Him, and serve Him in their lives.Am I succeeding in achieving this goal?What might be the measurement for a fair eval‎uation? We still have young children- under 12 years old- in the churches.However, there are not many teenagers.Why do the young children not continue their life and faith in churches?Why are we losing our precious children to the world?We not only lose our children in junior and senior high schools but also even more in colleges or universities.Why do they not continue their lives in faith in adult ages?Are we doing good enough while those youngsters are in our bosom and under our knees, which means under our care, to keep them in faith for their lifetimes? This is a very serious reality, and a urgent task, that we have to face.We have to share our faith in Jesus with our very young children so that they will keep going with the faith throughout their entire lives.If we fail to do this, we may say that whatever good we do is not good enough.We have to put all our efforts into doing a REAL good job to share our faith with our children; by all means, at home, at church, and anywhere, anyhow, and anytime possible. How?That is the next very tangible question for us to answer.We have to teach our children the Word of God, the Bible, which testifies of our Father God, the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and what and how we are supposed to believe and live.Learning the Word of God is the ultimatum not only for children but Christians of all ages. However, it is especially important for young children who are in their best ages to learn anything new, so that it can last a lifetime. We are losing our children to the world because we are fighting the good fight in wrong ways or, at least, in not-good-enough ways.When we lose our children we lose them to the CULTURE of the world.Why? We try to win the world with our own CHURCH CULTURE; church-look-alike things.Culture, whatever it is, is not the right weapon to fight the fight of faith.We cannot win the world who affords pleasure, possession, and pride to our children, (if those in any way might be available to them,) through look-alike church things.The God-Made Nature, the TRUTH- as it is presented in the Bible- should be the only weapon to arm ourselves to win the battle but no other way. Teaching the Thick Book is not easy even for grownups. Teaching it to the children, therefore, requires a lot more of practical wisdom. I believe that it can be done and, perhaps even more correctly, should be done as much as necessary.We try to use an age-appropriate Bible- such as 365 Read-Aloud Bedtime Bible Stories for this purpose.We should also know and share the essentials of our faith such as the names of the sixty-six books of the Bible, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Basics of the Gospel to begin with, and a lot more as they grow in person and faith. Being or doing good is not good enough until we execute our duties and resources in a way that produces a very good result; keeping our children/youth in our faith for their life long journey, or at least we may be directed toward that goal.Can we do it together?The Ministry Study Group is a communal effort just for that.We can do it in Him who strengthens us.We live together, believe together, serve together, and glorify our Heavenly Father together!And our children will be, or rather, should be included.Doing good is not good enough. God Bless You.