Each year, when we answer the query, “Do we maintain a … free gospel ministry?,” we are quick to answer in the affirmative. We do not charge anyone to join us in worship to hear whatever message may be given, and we do not pay anyone to give messages. It’s free. Yet seldom do we consider the true meaning of ministry, let alone open the question of what the gospel is.
“To minister”, in King James’ English, would be stated as “to serve” today. So “free gospel ministry” means freely serving the gospel. So far, so good. But how is it to be served?
Too often, we Friends tend to treat “the gospel” as a precious relic, entrusted to us by our forebears. We serve it by keeping it safely guarded in a display case as an object of mystery but high esteem, regularly dusted and polished, but considered as something so peculiar to ourselves that we hesitate to let anyone else know it is here, let alone how valuable it is.
What if, instead, we understand the gospel to be a delicious feast of everlasting life, which we have in ever-refilling platters, a feast that we gladly, freely serve to all who come? What if we throw open wide the doors of our meetinghouses and our lives, so that the sweet odor of this feast wafts forth to freely serve all around us? What if we sit down with our guests and join hands in an awestruck, joyful prayer of gratitude for this feast of holy, eternal life which the Lord freely serves all who will let it nourish them?
Conrad Lindes, (Salem Upper Springfield, OYM), 11/2025
