Nourturing vs Nourishing as it relates to ministry. Chp.2

Hebrews 5:12-13 says “You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food. ¹³And a person who is living on milk isn’t very far along in the Christian life and doesn’t know much about doing what is right.” (NLT)

Nurturing according to the definition is the action of training and developing with the result of becoming. Jesus nurtured is disciple, trained and taught them of the things of God so that they would become great apostles. The result of Jesus nurturing them was manifested in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit came upon them and gave them power and boldness to become apostle to the world. But before this, Jesus sent them out to teach and nurture other disciples, who in turn would teach and nurture others. He hasn't changed His plan; we are still called to nurture others, especially does of the faith. Nurturing is all about developing others. The biggest teachings to nurture other leaders are by example. If Jesus did not say a word while on earth, we still would have learned because his action and attitude were amazing.

 

Now the action of nourishing is to promote growth and sustain. Jesus nourished his disciple with his Word, his teachings, his love and compassion. We are called to do the same. Paul instructs us in, 1 Timothy 4:6 if you instruct the brothers of these things; you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which you have followed. We must first as leaders to seat at a place where we could be fed and nourish, we must hear the Word and be doers of the Word.

So when we look at your subject and topic, I personally do not see both as “vs” but see them as partners, partners of development and training in the ministry. It is important to have both in ministry to be successful and efficient.

Nahomie Acelin, blogueuse pour Ministère Resurexion.