Jeremiah

Every winter and summer I do a 5-6 week bible study.   It's not ongoing so that people don't feel like that have to commit to coming every Sunday night for their rest of their lives.  Even I would find that daunting.  It's good for me because it makes me really get into a book of the bible.  I did Revelation a couple of years ago and learned a LOT.

This winter I'm taking on Jeremiah.  I love Jeremiah.  I relate to Jeremiah.  Nobody listened to him.  Nothing changed because of him.  He didn't "turn his church around".  He didn't grow his church. 
He whined a lot to God about how hard his job was and God told to shut up and get on with it.  And he did.  He stayed on target.  he loved his people.  He was often discouraged but he did not despair.  

Everybody likes to point to Acts where the church grew daily and everybody listened to the apostles and were brave and nobody whined as the ONLY model for ministry.  But I think more often ministry is like Jeremiah.