When we are first introduced to Ministering to Jesus (M2J), we begin to experience a very personal & intimate place in worship. We begin to spend much time in His presence. As we do so, we start to have a greater revelation of His personal love for us.  As we gaze on His face in that intimate place, we know that He is changing our lives.

After a time, we might wonder why we need to do this together. We think to ourselves, "I can spend this time in His presence in my own home away from the distractions of others, playing the music that I love, reading the Scriptures that I prefer, for as long as I like. Time alone with the Lord is vital."

Although all this is true, we also know that from the beginning, the Lord has emphasized to us that Ministering to Jesus needs to be corporate as well as personal. On the personal side, we encourage everyone to have their personal space in the room and to give their full attention to the Lord alone and undistracted. But at the same time we believe that we need to do this together.  WHY?

Practical

Discipline

Doing M2J together helps to bring a discipline into our lives to spend many hours in His presence focused on Him.  Most of us are part of M2J worship watch teams.  We are committed to a particular day, time & location during the week, maybe several, when we come together to put ourselves personally in that place of intimacy & focus. That commitment to each other reinforces our commitment to Jesus to spend our time with Him each week. In our own homes, we can get very easily distracted or rationalize to ourselves the reasons why we don't have time that particular week.  In addition, in the worship watch itself, the presence & encouragement of others ministering to Him, also helps to keep us focused.

Dying To Ourselves

One of the greatest enemies to growing in the Lord in our culture is the ‘me’ focus: what I like, what I want, what I seek.  Because of our emphasis in M2J on personal intimacy & focus on the Lord, this could easily go sour. Our worship & love of the Lord could become more important than anything else. 

However, because we are doing this together, we "look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others" & "do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves." Philippians 2:3-4. 

Each worship leader will lead the watch differently, with different music, scriptures & ways of ministering.  Other watch leaders may not be so faithful to the rest of the team, they may be late or forget their turn. As we learn to love and minister to Jesus, He challenges us to "lay down our lives for the brethren." 1 John 3:16.

Theological

The Bride of Christ

In M2J, we are putting ourselves in that place of the Bride of Christ.  We want to learn intimacy, undivided commitment & devotion to Jesus, the heavenly Bridegroom.  We want to learn to be innocent, pure, beautiful, expressing our love and longing in anticipation of that day when we will see Him face-to-face.  In human terms, the bride & bridegroom represent a relationship that is utterly personal, private & intimate.  We learn much of this in Song of Songs which is also a beautiful picture of our relationship in the Spirit with our great Lover.

It is very clear in the New Testament that the Bride of Christ is the Church.  The Bride of Christ is not individual but corporate. This is confusing to us.  How can a bride be personal, private, & intimate along with thousands of millions of others? In M2J we begin to learn this. 

We have often experienced being in a M2J worship watch with 30 or 40 other people or more.  Each one is lost in intense personal devotion to Jesus & yet we are all metaphorically falling on our faces together.  This is a beautiful preview of our life in heaven. (Revelation 5:11-14)

The Wider Picture

Many of our M2J worship watch teams are small. They are committed to coming each week at a particular time in a particular place to minister to Him together.  However, as these worship teams are growing in number & locations in our own area and beyond, we find ourselves ministering to Him corporately for many hours in the week.  This is how it was with the Moravians.  They were a Christian community in Germany in the 18th century.  The Lord visited them in revival. They began a prayer meeting that continued every hour for over 100 years, out of which sprang an amazing missionary movement along with other revivals. 

That prayer meeting consisted of continuous hours where either two men or two women met to pray. They were faithful each day to their own "prayer watch". In a similar way, we are building a community of lovers of Jesus; small groups of people faithful to their own worship watch, doing this together not only with their own team but also with others across the city. Ministering to Him day and night together, experiencing His presence together. "Where two or three are gathered (together) in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20