I saw this question yesterday and thought it might be worth offering an answer. It isn’t bad personal therapy when you’re in the midst of ministry not giving you a great deal of joy at any rate. We can so easily focus on the negative, disappointing and discouraging that we neglect to actively remember the things that bring us joy. So, in no particular order, here are some things that bring me joy in ministry.

Preaching

I have nothing much to say beyond the fact that I like preaching. I enjoy it. I like putting sermons together, I like reading the bible and thinking specifically about what it says and what it means for our particular people, I like the act of preaching, I like talking about what we learnt together afterwards. I derive a great deal of joy from preaching.

Growth

Nothing pleases me more than seeing people respond to the word. Whether that is particular sermons, bible studies, personal reading, whatever. Seeing people engage with scripture and then grow up to maturity in Christ brings me immense joy. It is primarily what we are aiming at in all our teaching and it is what we want to see. When the Spirit is clearly at work and people grow through the word it is particularly pleasing.

Multiculture

One of the things I love about ministry in our area is that it is properly multicultural. It isn’t just a few people from different backgrounds in the room, it is different people able to express their different cultures all together in the Lord Jesus. It brings me an immense amount of joy to see Africans, Asian, Europeans and those from the Americas all together, in one place, united by the same gospel. It is genuinely thrilling when we aren’t blinkered by the fact we are “used to it”.

No doubt there are a bunch of other potential things I haven’t even thought about. But these three things bring me genuine joy in ministry. They are things I enjoy doing and seeing. They are genuinely thrilling when they come. And they are all things worth remembering when discouragement strikes.