Last night in a dream, I was sitting with a group of leaders in the Church. As they spoke about the success of their ministries, they spoke about what they needed to accomplish as the goals of their respective ministries. In a pause in the conversation, it was my turn to speak.

I said, “The Lord has called us to a ministry of reduction.” I went on to say, “We are to experience less of what the world defines as success so that the Lord can be seen and experienced in our lives and ministries.”

When I said those words, a moment of silence took place. One by one, when the leaders heard what I said, it was like a splash of cold water in their faces. They were awakened spiritually to what the goal of any true ministry is – a process of our decreasing so that the Lord might increase.

Paul wrote to the Church in Philippi, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:7-8).

The word “refuse” is a polite way to render this verse. It has also been translated as “garbage, rubbish, filth.” Those words are not descriptive enough to reflect what Paul was pointing out.

What refuse really means in its original rendering is the dung of an animal – the excrement left behind by animals, something we need to step over and not allow it to attach itself to our feet. It is something worthless and considered detestable.

In a colloquial translation of this word, what we offer as an attempt to increase our self-importance is nothing more than a pile of crap. Paul’s use of this descriptive Greek word only occurred once in the New Testament – in this verse.

To venture into a ministry of reduction will require that we leave behind in the wake of our calling, not a pile of dung, but what God has done in our lives when we had to depend on Him for the results. It’s a ministry goal that will run contrary to what the world, and some within the Church, have considered to be marks of success.

John the Baptist said his ministry was to reveal Jesus to the world: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).It is only when we have abandoned our need to gain position, fame, and personal blessing that the Father can work through us according to His will.

A ministry of reduction is not popular in most circles of the Church. It is not popular because we have adopted the world’s standards of what success looks like, and in the process, we disconnected ourselves from what matters most to God, leaving behind instead, the refuse of our misdirected lives and mission.