Somehow, somewhere along the way, personal ministry became primarily a “talking” ministry. When we think about ministering to others, we usually picture two people sitting in an office or over coffee talking about life, issues, Scripture, God, and the gospel. And, while gospel care must involve listening and talking, it must also involve more.
In his first letter, Peter describes the ministries of service and of speaking as two sides of the same coin: “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies— in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4: 10–11a).
You may see this passage as saying that some people are called exclusively to “speaking” ministries while others are called exclusively to “service” ministries, but that can’t be Peter’s intent here. First of all, it would fly in the face of all the service-oriented one-anothers in the list above; and, second, it would fly in the face of the service-oriented one-another (show hospitality) applied to all Christians in the immediately
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