Two Kinds of Work
I will make you fishers of people. - Jesus, Mark 1:17
When Jesus calls his first disciples - who were fishermen - he invites them to follow him and to become fishers of people. Over and over in churches we hear this as the impetus to be sent out, to go do the work, to minister to others, etc. In fact, various bible versions translate this text that way.
But the original greek is very clear. Jesus says that he will MAKE them into fishers of people. The work is twofold. There’s the outer work - these disciples will go out to minister to the world. But first and more importantly, there’s the INNER work. The work of having Jesus MAKE us into something. That making is primarily about shaping character, enabling us to become more like Christ ourselves (you can think about the fruit of the Spirit as clear markers of character: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control).
Because if we don’t do the inner work, the brokenness inside will wreak havoc on the outer work.
A friend of City Church, therapist and pastor Church DeGroat, puts it this way:
Unhealed wounds don’t just leak - they flood. And when they do, whole communities can drown.
This is why our work as helpers must always be twofold:
1. Doing the outer work of advocacy, therapy, teaching, preaching, and leading.
2. Doing the inner work of integration, wound-tending, shadow reckoning, and character formation.
When these two are held together, the work becomes sustainable, safe, and deeply transformational. When they are split apart, the results are catastrophic.
So my plea – to myself and to all of us – is this: slow down. Tend to your inner life with the same diligence you give to your outer work. Don’t mistake performative action for authentic transformation.
Because the world doesn’t just need more helpers. It needs whole helpers – people whose presence is healing because they’ve experienced it personally - at the depths.
Take time today to ask Jesus about what inner and outer work he has for you today.