Ministry, interrupted.

Hurting and broken people are not an interruption to your ministry, they are your ministry.

If there is no place in your ministry for you to be interrupted or inconvenienced, it may be time to reevaluate.
In Matthew 14 Jesus sought solitude after hearing of John the Baptist's death. Certainly he deserved some time to grieve, right? Yet when the multitudes came to him he was "moved with compassion for for them", healing their sick and feeding them with 5 loaves and 2 fish he multiplied. Ministry is inconvenient! It shows no regard for your personal life.

If you will minister to the multitudes but not to one man, it may be time to reevaluate.
In Luke 15, The Good Shepherd left the 99 for the 1 who was lost. This demonstrates not only compassion, but accountability. Have you bypassed the 1 for the 99 (or the 500, or the 3,000..)? Ministry cannot disregard the 1 lost for the 99 saved, because the 99 are really just 99 "the 1"s, and we are accountable for each one entrusted to us.

Sometimes we need to not discard, but simply set aside for a moment, all the books and articles and commentary and podcasts and twitter quotes by the grandfathers of the faith or the emerging voices of modern church culture and humbly read again of Jesus' ministry straight from the Bible itself, examining our ministry against the ministry of Jesus as it is in the Word of God, because when I stand before God one day I don't want to look like Tozer or Chuck Smith or Francis Chan or Billy Graham or Elizabeth Elliot or George Mueller or Christine Caine or Paul or Elijah. I want to look like Jesus.