Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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How do we define success?

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Question MarkHow do we define success in ministry? How do we distinguish whether a ministry is on track? Is it even quantifiable? These are not rhetorical questions; I am hoping that you take the time to respond.

Is success in Christian ministry quantifiable?

Jesus gave us two commands and one mission. We are to love God with our entire being, love our neighbor and make disciples. These are the primary objectives but how do you measure progress toward them?

Perhaps numbers can tell part of the story, but figures like attendance and giving may not be indicative of how well we are loving and making disciples.

Activities can tell part of the story, but even the best of us does good things for the wrong reasons from time to time.

How do we measure success in ministry? I would love for you to share your thoughts in the comment section below. For those who are getting this by email, click on the link in the title of this post and you will be taken to the web site where you can leave a comment.

James Denney on reconciliation

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Denney Reconciliation“An evangelist who has himself been reconciled to God through Christ, and who can make the New Testament witness to the reconciling power of Jesus his own, is a far more powerful minister of reconciliation than any institution or atmosphere can be. The sense of responsibility for reconciliation, the duty of being reconciled, do not become urgent except under a direct and personal appeal. A reconciled man, preaching Christ as the way of reconciliation, and preaching Him in the temper and spirit which the experience of reconciliation creates, is the most effective mediator of Christ’s reconciling power. It is hardly another thing than this if we say that the reconciling power is most effectively mediated through the New Testament. For when we read the New Testament with susceptible minds, we listen to the voice of those who were once themselves estranged from God, but have been reconciled to Him through Christ, and are letting us into the secret of their new life; it is the nearest approach we can make and therefore the most vital, to the reconciling power which streamed from Christ Himself.”

James Denney in The Christian Doctrine of Reconciliation

May our pulpits be filled with such men.

We need sound theology without theological lectures. We need the whole of Scripture without legalism. We need preachers who have drawn near to Christ and are drawing others along with them.

It is such preachers that we can follow.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall . . .

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MirrorThe author of the Book of Hebrews says this about Jesus, “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2).

What would cause enough joy to make the pain and suffering of the cross worth while? Something that could provide that much joy must be something of extreme value. It must be something that is worth obtaining.

If you are wondering what Jesus considered valuable enough to make the cross worth it, take a look in the mirror.

The object of Jesus’ joy is staring back at you.

You are the salt – Part 2

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This is the 22nd post in the Sermon on the Mount Series.

Salt ShakerAs I pointed out in a previous post about Matthew 5:13, three properties of salt stand out to me.

  1. Salt makes a person thirsty
  2. Adds flavor
  3. Works as a preservative; it fights decay

It seems to me that all three aspects of being salt need to be in operation.

But salt also stings when it gets into wounds.

“If salt gets into a wound, it hurts, and if God’s children get amongst those who are “raw” towards God—every immoral person is an open wound towards God, their presence hurts.” – Oswald Chambers

I was trying to recall the name of the red/orange stuff that got put on scrapes when I was a kid. The internet reminded me that it was called Mercurochrome. Hopefully, its power to disinfect was in proportion to the amount of sting it inflicted because the sting of the cure seemed as bad or worse than the scrape you got in the first place.

Are Christians called to be Mercurochrome for the society around us? I’m not so sure that we are. Yes, we have the Truth in Jesus. Yes, Scripture speaks to the issues of the day, but I don’t see Jesus adding to the sting of the hurting people around him. Or, going back to the idea of salt, I don’t see Jesus rubbing salt in the wounds he encountered.

I don’t think that I can overemphasise the fact that hurting people, sinners, the dregs of society loved Jesus and Jesus loved them. Jesus did not compromise on the truth to get the people to love him. Nor did Jesus allow them to remain in their mess.

So if we use Jesus as our example of what it means to be salt and light, I think that we will have a better handle on what Jesus told us in Matthew 5:13.

I am reminded of how Jesus described his ministry in Luke 4:18-19:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (ESV)

These verses should inform our idea of what it means to be salt in the world. Do we work for economic justice? Do we work to liberate the oppressed? Do we work to bring physical and spiritual healing to those we encounter? Do we proclaim the good news of Jesus?

Yes, the church has done these things throughout the centuries, but we have also done our share of finger wagging and condemnation of those around us. We have also at times poured salt into wounds and causing more hurt than healing.

Perhaps if we did more of the things that Jesus speaks of in Luke 4:18-19 (quoting from Isaiah 61: 1-2) we would be more attractive to those outside the church.

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