Ministry is never finished, but we can finish our ministries well. When Joshua was completing his ministry, there was still land unconquered (Joshua 13:1). He finished well but the work was not finished. When the apostle Paul declared that he “had finished the race,” there were still people to reach. In the midst of Paul’s faithfulness, ministry was still not finished.

Ministry is never done.

You never really “clock out,” because ministry never ends.

The work of the church is never going to be over.

These are phrases all of us in ministry have heard. And all of us have found them to be true. A mentor once told me to enjoy cutting my grass because it would be the only area of my life where I would see something finished. I get the illustration, but the grass did grow back rather quickly.

Ministry is never finished because we are never finished. Those the Lord has declared to be perfect are continually being made holy. We are a perpetual work in progress. It is a glorious paradox. Because of the finished work of Christ on the cross, we have been declared perfect. We are not finished, but we are being finished.

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