My Ministries

Though our entire lives are to be one of ministering to others,
on this page I have highlighted five of them.

Ministry to Wife and Kids

So often, I have witnessed individuals doing great things for the Lord, only to have their family neglected. When I started to concentrate on pursuing writing as a ministry, I made a concious decision to make my family the first group to whom I would minister. To my wife, I have pledged to be the husband that the Bible tells me to be. I am to love her as Christ loved the Church, giving His life for her.

To my children, I have pledged to follow the advice of Proverbs and train them up in the ways that they should go. I realize, as Proverbs also says, that my kids are filled with foolishness. It is my job to drive that foolishness out of them, filling the void with knowledge and living examples of Christ.

Music Ministry

I am very pleased with the growth of the music ministry in my local church, East Side Grace Brethren Church. Often, the level of music a choir can undertake directly correlates to the number of men in that group. It is safe to say that the men within our choir are talented enough to handle any of the music our director, Richard Anderson, gives to us. Add to that the skills of the sopranos and altos, and I believe we have a choir that is blessed by God. It is an honor to be a part of it.

I also enjoy the opportunity to sing solos, duets with my wife, and worship leading on the praise team.  What is really great about the church's music department is the closeness shared by the members. When we meet every wednesday for practice it is not only to prepare music for the upcoming services, but also to pray together, sharing our needs and praises with one another. It is very much like being in a small group (cell group, or whatever one's church may call it).

Though I tend to be limited on the time I have for music endevours, I do have projects that I plan to undertake in this ministry. With my background in harmonization, I hope to arrange music for trios, quartets, or other groups. I also have some ideas for a cappella numbers for the entire choir. Like I stated, I have been limited on the time that I can devote to this ministry because of my focus on writing, but I hope to begin working more in this area in the near future.

Teaching Ministry

The kind of writing I do is one that is geared toward teaching the Bible and how to apply it to everyday life. I have not taught in a sunday school setting, but one of the associate pastors at my church one day discussed that possibility with me. Once he mentioned the idea of teaching, it has been a seed that has slowly grown. Where I once only considered myself a teacher via writing, I am now excited (though a bit nervious) about this possiblilty.

One thing I am doing that is preparing me for such a thing is my envolvement in Grace Institute at East Side.  Grace Institude was started to prepare people who were already involved in a ministry of some kind within the church to grow not only in Christ, but for the distinct purpose of being more effective within that minstry. Once I have completed the correct number of classes, along with the other requirements, a certificate will not only be offered by Grace Institute, but by Grace Theological Seminary as well.

I have taken classes on Leadership, Theology, Hermeneutics (which is Bible interpretation), and Christian Psychology & Counseling. What I have learned in the Theology and Hermeneutics classes have been directly applied to my writing, making it more in-depth. The Leadership class was the primary motivating factor God used to influence the start of the Bible study group at work. It has also encouraged me to step up to the tasks that come along with pursuing a writing ministry, rather than sitting back paralyzed by thoughts of my seemingly endless shortcomings. The Counseling class may enable me to understand people better, which will be beneficial to my writing.

Click here to visit the Website for the Christian writers' group I am a part of at my church, called the Write Path

Writing Ministry

My writing résumé is not as extensive as I would like, but it excites me to witness the ways God is currently working in this area of my life. He has created a passion in me that I thought I could only have for music. When I finished my first rough draft of my book in January 2007, it served as the confidence builder I needed to move forward. It was like God was saying, "See, I told you I had a ministry for you!"

Though I have enjoyed the process of writing a book, the down side is that the distance between my writing and others' reading is great. One way to handle this is through the blog on my homepage. Each month I can see a new article posted, as well as feedback from the readers. I am also pursuing publication of articles in various venues, whether it is magazine, internet magazines, or wherever. No matter how "small" the publication, I will be pleased to know that I am using a God-given talent to bring glory back to God, and maybe helping believers in the process.

An area I am also trying to pursue is that of script writing for church services. I have a background in theater, so I have a certain idea of how dialogue on stage goes. I wrote a short scene for our Christmas program where Mary and Joseph carried on their own monologues that overlapped in an effective way. Though it had to be altered due to the illness of Joseph, Mary's monologue was well received. I have many other ideas for drama scenes that I am currently trying to flesh out for future services.

Small Group Ministry

A couple of my co-workers and I had mentioned many times during the first few years working at the post office that we needed to begin a Bible study. We knew of a number of confessing Christians at work and felt that this kind of a thing would be spiritually beneficial for all of us. It was not until I had taken the class on leadership that I was inspired to move past simply saying it was a good idea, to actually planning a Bible study.

We had been meeting twice a month for over a year, but have recently changed to meeting every friday. Currently, there are six of us who meet to discuss Biblical topic and how they might apply to our daily situations. We started studying in the book of Romans, and moved on to a topical study of Heaven by working our way through Randy Alcorn's book Heaven. We are now studying the epistles. It is great to learn from the different individuals, with varying personalities, to enhance our own spiritual experience. We hope that this Bible study continues even after all of us have retired. 9One of us has actually retired, bu still comes to the fellowship.)

V. I. P. (former) Ministry

Though this ministry is no longer in existence, I felt that I had to include V. I. P. because it served as the foundation for my current writing ministry. The full name of this organization was V. I. P.: Victorious In Praise Music Ministries. V. I. P. was started by one of my friends, Rob Hall, and myself. We collaborated on songs in which I wrote the lyrics, as well as many of the melodies, then Rob composed the music to accompany the words. After we added my wife, Kari, we recorded a foursong demo CD and attempted to take some of these songs to the record producers.

The main purpose of V. I. P. was not to receive a recording contract (which certainly would have been appreciated), but to provide a ministry to different congregations. At the conception of our group, we were determined to not merely entertain people with our music but to bring them the Scripture as well. I became to primary sermon writer, which I delivered as Rob played background music. The sermon was divided by five to seven songs, which all combined to offer people a complete musical, biblical program.

There is definately a part of me that wishes V. I. P. still went into churches, but I cannot deny that it led me to the writing ministry I am now pursuing. I learned so much by being a part of that organization and it will always have a special place in my heart as my first ministry.

click here for Grace Institute Site

My hope and prayer is that I will be able to add details to each of these ministries (with the exception of V. I. P.) as more is accomplished for the Lord in the areas of my family, writing, music, small group, and teaching.

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Looking at life through the lenses of God's Kingdom

All Writings Composed by Javan Rowe

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