Working together in ministry – No solo acts

Posted on February 15, 2013 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

In Exodus 18, we have recorded the advice that Jethro gave to Moses.

Moses was the sole judge for all the people of Israel and as such spent all of his day hearing the cases that came before him. Jethro’s advice was to set up judges under Moses who could hear the minor cases and make decisions. Thus a management structure was born.

One man cannot minister to all the people in his congregation, no matter how small the congregation may be. The pastor needs to have elders and deacons to whom he can entrust the ministry tasks. Even in the smallest congregations, the pastor cannot do all the ministry or make all the decisions. He must work together with the congregation for effective ministry to take place.

For such a structure as Jethro recommended to Moses, the viability of the structure depends on the degree of empowerment that the judges are given. If a particular judge’s rulings had to be repeatedly overrulled, that judge would have to be removed from his office since he would no longer have the credibility to do his job effectively.

In the same way, the pastor must empower his elders and staff to do the work of ministry and make decisions on their own. If every decision has to be made by the pastor, very little real ministry will take place. It does not matter if there are 100 people, 1,000 people or 10,000 people in the church, Others beside the pastor must be empowered to minister as they are led by God.

With empowerment will come mistakes. Ministry is sometimes a messy business and hindsight is always 20/20. When mistakes happen it is important that the leadership team is open about the mistake and learns from it.

What then is the Pastor’s role in the ministry? He should play a major role in setting the priorities and being the most visible voice for announcing those priorities. However, the pastor should remind himself that he is the first among equals and is himself subject to weaknesses and blind spots. The pastor should not want to make all the decisions.

Paul reminds us in Ephesians 4:11–13 what the goal of ministry should be:

“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” (NASB)

The goal is the equipping of the congregation for the work of ministry (ESV). It is the entire church body that is to be God’s instrument for changing the surrounding culture.

If the entire church body is ministering together in the community, not only will the pastor influence the congregation, the congregation will influence the pastor. When this happens the congregation will “stimulate one another to love and good deeds,” (Hebrews 10:24)

Why people lie – Infographic

Posted on February 13, 2013 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

The infographic below was brought to my attention in response to one of my earlier posts which mentioned lying. I found it interesting so thought that I would share it with you.

From a Christian perspective we know that the answer to the question of “why people lie” can be found in Genesis 3. The result of the first sin was deception and blaming of others. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. The root cause of lying is our severed relationship with God which results in brokenness and alienation from others. In that brokenness and alienation is the drive to present things as being different than they are.

The church should be the one place where triumph over this effect of the Fall should be observed. But often the church is a place where people are less real about who they are. We feign that things are good when they are not. We intentionally mislead people into thinking that we are better than we really are.

Perhaps those of us in the church can look at the infographic below and purpose to be more honest about who we are and where we stand in our spiritual life.

The world does not need false spirituality, it needs Jesus. The only way they will recognize their need of Him is to see the church as a group of people who are honest about who they are and are demonstrating real progress in becoming something better.

As Paul reminds us in Ehesians 4:25, “Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.” As Christians, we know that we cannot do this in our own power. It is God “who is at work in you, both to will and to work for HIs good pleasure.” (Phil 2:13)

Quarterbacks, kings and the rest of us

Posted on February 1, 2013 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

The Quarterback

A lot is being made of the fact that when Alex Smith of the San Francisco 49er’s lost his job as starting quarterback, he acted like a professional and continued to work hard to help his team. Just this morning, I heard that the head coach commended Alex for stepping in to help coach his replacement.

Alex did not lose his job because he failed. The team had a winning record when he was replaced. I doubt that he stopped believing in his ability to get the job done, nor did he lose his desire to play. I am sure that when the first whistle blows on Sunday that Alex will feel a pang knowing that unless his replacement gets hurt or plays poorly, he will not get to play.

It is fascinating to listen to sports talk radio as they discuss this. They admire Alex’s circumspection and reluctance to cause a problem. But, they are sometimes at a loss to figure out what would motivate him to take this so well.

Most attribute Alex’s behavior to the fact that he is likely to get a large contract next year from a team that is in need of a starting quarterback if he does not cause problems in the locker room. Some attribute it to professional pride. Others point to his respect for his coach. Is it possible that he is doing it because it is the right thing to do, no matter the consequences? Without him telling us, it is impossible to know for sure what his motivation is.

The King

Jonathan was the crown prince. When Saul, the king, could no longer reign, Jonathan would assume the throne. Yet we learn in the book of 1 Samuel, that God had a different plan. David, the shepherd and giant killer, was God’s choice to be king after Saul.

Jonathan could have participated with Saul in the attempts to remove David as a threat. Jonathan could have complained, mocked or ridiculed David as a usurper to the throne. Yet, Jonathan did none of these things. What he did do was to help David and to make a covenant with him. Jonathan was content to serve under David, he understood that to submit to David was required of him in submission to God.

The rest of us

Our culture puts a lot of pressure on us to succeed and move up. “Second place is first loser” is often said with regard to sports but this attitude transfers into all of life. We fell pressure to move up the corporate ladder, add more clients, build our income or increase our prestige. We are told that we should never accept a lesser position, that we should strive and do whatever it takes to get the higher one.

Despite what self-help gurus and advertisers tell us, we cannot all be the boss. We cannot all come out on top. Some of us are underemployed. Some of us are in positions in life that are not what we would consider optimal. How do we deal with this?

The Bible has examples of men and women who had legitimate reason to be frustrated with their circumstances but choose to be content while they waited for change. Joseph, Daniel, Abigail, Moses and Ruth come immediately to mind. All of these were commended for their faithfulness despite their frustrating circumstances. They did not wallow in self pity, nor did they give up hope for change, they trusted God with their desire for improvement.

We can learn from Jonathan and Alex Smith that while it may not be glamorous or yield reward in the short run, faithfulness in the role we are currently given is the right thing to do.

For the Christian, who is seeking God through his circumstances while waiting (and perhaps striving) for change, we have the assurance that God “is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6 NASB)

Play backup if it is necessary but be preparing for the move up when God deems the time to be right.

Defeating my inner Pharisee

Posted on January 23, 2013 Written by Mark McIntyre 7 Comments

Why do the Gospel writers use up so much ink in depicting the issues with the Pharisees?

I think the answer is that all of us have Pharisaic tendencies and there is a real danger of becoming like them. By exposing the Pharisees, the Gospel writers give us a chance to avoid their error.

The problem with Pharisees is that the motive for their behavior is inconsistent with what God desires. We are to be motivated by love (John 13:35). Pharisees are motivated by personal gain: gain in respect, notoriety or social standing. They operate by dressing up their sin nature is theological garb.

Love will get dirty and meet people where they are. Pharisaism will demand that a person clean himself up before the Pharisee will have anything to do with him. The Pharisee will not risk his reputation by associating with the wrong sort of people.

One of the big problems of Pharisaism is that it is so easy to spot in others and so difficult to spot in ourselves.That small speck of Pharisaic tendency in my neighbor is so obvious, but the beam of my own pride is often difficult to see.

After all, it seems to me that pride is the root of all Pharisaism. We Pharisees are too proud to get dirty, too proud to reach out and too proud to admit that we don’t have it all figured out.

Our danger is magnified if we find a group in which it is OK to be a Pharisee. For example, can get together with those who are proud of their understanding of prophecy and look down on those who don’t “get it.”. Another group can be proud of their understanding of God’s sovereignty and look down on those who don’t operate with such confidence. A group can be proud of its traditional or contemporary worship style and look down on those who do not worship in that style. The list of things over which we can be proud is endless.

To test to see if you have Pharisaic tendencies read Luke 18:10-14, the story of the tax gatherer and the Pharisee. In this story Jesus tells us that the Pharisee thanked God he was not like the tax gatherer. The Pharisee was proud of his own righteousness and looked down on the tax gatherer. If your inner response is, “thank God that I’m not like that Pharisee,” you test positive for Pharisaism.

That is the bad news, the good news is that there is a cure. The cure for Pharisaism is the Cross. Jesus tells us that we are to take up the cross daily (Luke 923). Our sin nature does not need to be dressed up, it needs to be killed. We have to reckon that Pharisee within us as dead and live as though he is dead.

Here are some practical questions to consider:

Do you come away from the sermon on Sunday with parts of you broken by conviction or do you critique the pastor for his delivery or theology?
Do you read Scripture to be theologically correct or to be changed by God?
Do you allow anyone to challenge you on your pride?
Are there any groups of people on which you look down?

You and I owe it to ourselves to be brutally honest in answering these questions. We cannot be what God wants us to be if we allow our inner Pharisee to determine our course.

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