Video Transcript: Ministry Science Social Workers
Henry - I want to welcome you to this ministry hosting class. I'm Henry Reyenga with my daughter, Abigail Dominiak, and this is the first class that we are teaching together.
Abby - Exciting, yes,
Henry - you got your masters in ministry, you've got your master's in business. We are progressing to just see what God is doing through Christian leaders Institute. So this class is something that we take with passion, because it speaks about the love of Christ. Absolutely. So ministry, hosting skills. It's just the ability to know how to bring the love of Jesus, Christ, the gospel, to people in your neighborhood, people in our world. The world is full of so much chaos, and it echoes back to the words of Jesus when he had his disciples with him, and they're trying to figure out what's ministry all about. And this powerful hospitality passage that's often thought of a little bit like, well, at the end they have you really done this unto Jesus. Let's just read the passage. Read the passage, and then we can talk about it, and then launch right in,
Abby - right so the passage is Matthew 25 starting at verse 30, When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people from one another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, Come You, who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me, Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we see you as a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you, and the King will answer them truly. I say to you, as you did to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Then he will say to those on his left depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me no food. I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink. I was a stranger, and you did not welcome Me naked and you did not clothe me sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they will also answer saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? Then he will answer them saying, truly, I say to you, as you did not do to one of the least of these. You did not do it to me. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
Henry - In some ways, Abby, that's an overwhelming passage, and it has a lot of powerful truth about the subject of welcoming, the subject of hosting, the subject of hospitality. Ministry, hospitality,
Abby - right? Ministering to people as a whole. I love how they say that where it's like, when do we not minister to you?
Henry - Minister, yes, in the church, the Christian church, and we're going to find this out in this class and go deep into it. Was known as the place of hospitality, right?
Abby - That's how Christianity spread. Was by this hospitality, by living this out. And that's why this is such an important teaching of Jesus, because that's one of the ways his followers really did share the gospel,
Henry - and there were people who were called to be those ministers. And already in the book of Acts, there was ministry to widows chapter 6, and you see, it's almost like chapter 6, the appointment of the deacons was the beginning of the Christian social workers, the minister social workers, because we see the word social work today, and these are people often supported by government programs, by even sometimes relief agencies. But the early church was a relief agency, right?
Abby - That was their key ministry. That was the cornerstone of their ministry, in so many ways. And so as we go into our slides here, we're talking about ministry science and, you know, social workers and understanding that intersection of ministry hospitality and social work.
Henry - So what is ministry science? So let's look at that. First of all, ministry science is a study of how ministry practices engage with and impact human flourishing like that. Even the passage, when did you minister to me it integrates spiritual care, leadership, practical actions to meet the holistic needs of individuals.
Abby - I love that practical actions, you know? I think that's just sometimes one of the hardest parts when we're being a leader, being minister is really actually taking practical actions like feeding someone who needs food, or caring for someone who's sick, and doing those things that actually require such practical action.
Henry - Key focus area, spiritual care, community leadership, practical
emotional support, hospitality and compassion. And compassion the objective to use ministry practice to foster healing, growth and transformation. So ministry science is something that Christian leaders Institute is really pioneering. We really see that ministry sciences and how all the disciplines, such as theology, Biblical studies, philosophy and even stuff that people study at universities like sociology and psychology, seen through a biblical worldview,
Abby - right through the ministry lens, yes,
Henry - the lens of the Word of God, the lens of helping others becoming ministers. How all of that develops a ministry sciences approach. So ministry sciences is really about ministers, Christians really who take on the calling of ministry. So let's talk about what's a social worker of social sciences. Let's compare ministry sciences understanding of Minister.
Abby - Yeah, social workers are a big thing in our society, especially here in the US. You know, there's a lot of talk about social workers. What are they doing? And so their key roles are helping people cope in difficult situations, providing that practical support, addressing social issues, advocating for vulnerable populations, and their objective is really to improve the quality of life, support well being through structured interventions.
Henry - What's interesting about social workers is it comes out of a philosophy age where the Enlightenment came about. The Enlightenment said that God cannot be included in the scholarship. And in modern enlightenment thinking, there were still, we would call it absolutes and keep reason and other things like that. And then now postmodern there is not really God. There's no design. So now we have social work usually comes out of some of those traditions, and it almost was like the secular church. And then there is a full you can actually get social work degrees, social sciences degrees, and all of that. So then the question for us thinking about Christianity and ministry is, really, we were all about this from the very beginning, about how exactly, yeah, okay, so in
Abby - the business of this kind of social work as ministry and called Christians,
Henry - so what we're talking about in this class is how to become that minister, slash social worker. But it's actually we're going to call them host ministers. So in a sense, we're just going to get right to
Abby - this is one practical way that a minister could really do this, ministry sciences, in such a once again, going back to the practical action way,
Henry - Now, a host minister is a clergy member given hospitality. Now I will say it could be just any minister. It could be a Christian, but the reason we say clergy member here is we really want to get this concept of training skills, because the
we all can do hospitality. In fact, we're all called to do hospitality Yes. But when you're at a school, very specifically, you're being trained in a role. So we say clergy member there to kind of communicate that this is a role, this is a credential that you're working for. You want to be well trained in this, although anyone, right,
Abby - anyone could utilize this, the skills we're going to go over in this whole thing,
Henry - you do not have to become ordained to get to learn the skills here. That might just be a certification. You might be interested in both. But we like the clergy member too, because also, as a. As a religious worker, clergy do have certain benefits, such as confidentiality and benefits and so forth that might just help them in their work. Do
Abby - you better in this hosting position? Yeah, so
Henry - it leverages hospitality as a tool for ministry, to connect Christians and serve those in need, and
Abby - opens their home to providing ministry care to someone hurting, or refugees, displaced or homeless, and again, just using this hospitality to really show Christ's love, to really live out what we read at the beginning in Matthew so surveying the Old Testament, understanding hospitality a little bit more. You know, I think there's a key theme, and you have a few examples you put in this slide here, dad. But that treating the stranger with dignity, offering them food and shelter and caring for them was an act of faith.
Henry - Leviticus 19:34 the stranger who lives as a foreigner with you shall be as the native born. Well, that's fascinating, doesn't it? I mean, to the in today's world, there's so much chaos, but to really have that welcoming attitude, right? And
Abby - Genesis 18:1-8, you know? And then here's a little section. It really talks about Abraham's hospitality to the three strangers, where he ends up welcoming God's messengers.
Henry - Yeah, you know that what's so interesting about that passage, and we encourage you to read that passage on your own. But here Abraham invites and
are actually three angels, yes, and it's that's the inciting incident for how God is going to work in that community,
Abby - also in the New Testament too, we see some really great examples of hospitality. Of course, again, what we just read, where it's I was hungry, you gave me food. Thirsty, you gave me drink. But also, going back to what Abraham did you know Hebrews, where he talks about that same sort of thing, don't forget to show hospitality to strangers. Some have entertained angels unaware,
Henry - just so interesting and fascinating. So hospitality ministry is needed in today's world. Yes, in this role, whether it's clergy or not clergy, ministry, it's about host ministers. This is going to be about training host Minister skills can fill the gap by offering ministry hospitality to those through maybe it's just a church program of hospitality in their community, or temporary shelter, spiritual care, support to those in need, yeah,
Abby - working with local people in their community. But also, you know, in our world right now, there is an increase in from war, natural disasters, economic stability, of displacement and people needing somewhere to stay. And so once again, hospitality is just such a tool to show Christ's love and to spread the Gospel. It creates such a unique opportunity to minister to people who need it. Very much. So
Henry - so this class we welcome you, is going to go deep in that subject and also become for you, even maybe a certification that you can take to your pastor or even a service organization for refugees. It could be something where you create a hospitality team in your church for evangelism. This could be a place for your own family, in your whole neighborhood, you become the hospitality center for the gospel, for goodness and Christ's goodness shared into community. So we want to welcome you to this class, and we trust that God will bless you as you learn more about ministry, hospitality and the tools that go along with it