Evangelism is important. So is corporate worship, Bible Study, ministry, and prayer. But only if done for the right reason. Let me explain in relation to motivation.
Bible study is to encounter God… not get up a lesson or sermon. Ministry is to glorify God… not to check off something we do at church. Worship is for the audience of One… not what we can get out of it. Prayer is to engage God… not ask Him to bless our efforts or get us out of a bind. Motivation for what Christians do is the most important element of Christian activity.
Every Christian’s most important call and responsibility (Ministers included) is to walk with God, grow in Christ, and be filled with The Spirit. Everything else flows out of those things. Satan doesn’t care how spiritually busy we are as long as we’re not following Paul’s example found in Phil 3:7-11…
Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 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 rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Paul wasn’t FIRST concerned with planting new churches… teaching theology… or anything else near as much as knowing Christ! Paul knew that all the other things flow out of being conformed to the image of Christ. He was MOST concerned with godliness… spiritual formation… Christ likeness. Jesus Himself pointed this out in Matt 6:33… “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…”
So yes… Christians are to pray… to engage God. Christians are to study the Bible… to encounter God. Christians are to worship… to honor the audience of One. But here’s the kicker, unless God reveals this truth to us we will not know we are wrongly motivated in what we do (Mt 16:17).