The Other Side of Things

"Ministry Trips"... this is a hot topic here at Bethel.  You can find students talking about it everyday.  Testimony after testimony of God "blowing the place up" (figuratively and positively speaking, for those unfamiliar with the Bethel lingo), healings in massive meetings, salvations on airplanes, signs and wonders, etc...  This is an idealistic dream for any Bethel student, to be able to travel with one of the senior leaders and see the miraculous show up.  This past weekend, however was what I consider the other side of ministry.
Don't get me wrong, I love crazy side of ministry.  But I'm beginning to realize that sometimes the most powerful ministry can look very different from what we would expect.  I have been there and back again, my latest ministry trip to Valparaiso, Indiana.  Bethel has a sister church in Valpo that has a School of Ministry.  The purpose of the trip was for Eric & Candace Johnson to speak at the school, minister to the leaders of the school/church, and to speak Sunday morning.  For us 2nd years (there were three of us all together), we joked around afterwards that we got ministered to more than we actually ministered the entire trip.  Honestly though, the only formal ministry we did the entire 4 days we were there was 15 minutes of prophecy during the School of ministry, and doing the prayer line Sunday morning.
So what is ministry when it's not the big show?  What I learned is that it all boils down to relationship.  That was the main thing we did on our trip.  We hung out with the students the entire time and just did relationship.  It was fantastic!  I didn't have to say the right words, do the right things, or be someone other than myself.  I was just me and let the Spirit flow out of me.  It was the most natural form of ministry, and it was no less ministry than all the other forms.
I have been reading the gospel of John and something that I have noticed is that most of the time Jesus' ministry flowed out of relationship.  He was simply talking with the Samaritan Woman and her life was completely transformed.  He was simply having dinner with Nicodemus and He was able to unpack the foundations of Christianity.  He wasn't hitting the streets in order to see miracles happen.  Miracles happened when He was just being Himself.  It was flowing from His true identity.
A few things that happened as we were just being ourselves and hanging out with people, we were able to teach a visitor how to hear God's voice, we helped a single mom rake out her back yard, we prophesied over students and the church leadership, we saw a couple of backs healed, and we got to pray for all sorts of people in different situations.  So fun!