Life & Wisdom Quote by James Green Somerville

“I know the world is hungry for good ministry” leans on a simple but potent metaphor: ministry as food, the world as a body in deficit. It works because “hungry” isn’t a polite desire; it’s an ache. Somerville’s line doesn’t frame ministry as a niche service for the already convinced but as a form of nourishment the culture is actively missing. In a single breath, he recasts religious leadership from authority to provision, from rule-making to care.

The intent is partly exhortation, partly self-justification. “I know” signals more than confidence; it’s a claim to moral perception, a way of treating doubt as almost beside the point. The phrase quietly refuses the modern story that faith is waning and public life is post-religious. Instead, Somerville suggests the appetite is still there, just underserved. That’s the subtext: the problem isn’t that people don’t want spiritual depth, it’s that too much of what’s on offer is thin, performative, coercive, or consumed by scandal. “Good” does a lot of work, implying a counterfeit version is common enough to require the qualifier.

Contextually, this reads like a writer’s distillation of a late-20th or early-21st century anxiety: institutions losing trust, loneliness rising, politics turning into identity warfare. In that climate, “ministry” becomes less about pulpit polish and more about credible presence - listening, accountability, and practical solidarity. The line is persuasive because it flatters neither minister nor audience; it presumes a need, not a trend, and stakes ministry’s legitimacy on whether it actually feeds.