Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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What Matthew 6 teaches me about worry and ministry

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This is the 26th post in the Sermon on the Mount Series.

WorryI have often read the admonition against worry that is found in Matthew 6:25-34. I understand that I should not worry about whether I will eat, what I will wear or where I will live. Jesus tells me that God is big enough to provide for my material needs.

But it dawned on me this morning that these verses reach deeper into my being than a first reading might indicate.

What hit me was that whether the need is material, emotional or spiritual, I should not doubt God’s ability to provide for that need.

OK, so what does this have to do with ministry?

The AHA! comes with the realization that ministry is one of the spheres in which this principle applies. I have sometimes wondered if I am doing enough to fulfill my stewardship in ministry. I have sometimes felt pressured that I should be doing more.

This pressure takes the form of studying harder, attending more events, filling more ministry slots, etc.

None of these are bad things, but if I am doing them without a sense of call or without a sense that God is the one who actually does anything of eternal value, then I am taking on more than I ought.

With all of these things, if I am worrying or wondering if I am doing enough, I am likely to be taking on responsibility that is not mine.

Worry does not become a virtue just because the worry is over ministry responsibilities.

Just sayin’ . . .

Paul Tripp on the purpose of the Word of God

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Dangerous CallingWhen the Word of God, faithfully taught by the people of God and empowered by the Spirit of God, falls down, people become different. Lusting people become pure, fearful people become courageous, thieves become givers, demanding people become servants, angry people become peacemakers, complainers become thankful, and idolaters come to joyfully worship the one true God. The ultimate purpose of the Word of God is not theological information but heart and life transformation. Biblical literacy and theological expertise are not, therefore, the end of the Word but a God-ordained means to and end, and the end is a radically transformed life because the worship at the center of that life has been reclaimed. This means it is dangerous to teach, discuss, and exegete the Word without this goal in view. It should be the goal of every seminary professor. It should be his prayer for every one of his students. It should cause him or her to make regular pastoral pleas to the students. It means recognizing that this student’s future ministry will never be shaped by his knowledge and skill alone but also, inevitably, by the condition of his heart.

Paul David Tripp in Dangerous Calling

The problem with power

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Power in LeadershipThe problem with power is that those who seek it are often the ones least qualified to wield it. This is no less true in the church than in society at large. Many great minds have spoken out about the seeking and wielding of power. I cannot add any pithy sayings about power to the list but I do wish to challenge how power is viewed in the church at large.

Any person in a position of leadership wields some power over others. In the church, there are two important questions about how that power is used:

  1. For whose benefit is the influence exerted? Will the leader use his power to bolster his position or will he use his power for the benefit of those he leads?
  2. Will the leader recognize his dependence upon God and seek God for how he should lead?

For whose benefit is power wielded?

In his letter to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul spoke to this issue when he wrote:

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:1–8, ESV)

While this applies to everyone, not just leaders, it is more important that leaders in the church operate with the motive of benefitting others.

But too often, pastors operate to consolidate their own status and position within the body of Christ. They jealously guard the pulpit and seek to put a leadership team around them who agrees with their agenda. This is done in the name of “ministry vision.” But it should not be this way.

Is power wielded in dependence upon God?

In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul encourages his readers to imitate him, but only in so far as Paul himself is an imitator of Jesus. There are two aspects that I see to operating in dependence upon God. The first as Paul mentions is to imitate the example of Jesus we see in the Gospels. Jesus served others rather than have them serve him. Jesus put others’ needs before his own.

The second aspect of cultivating dependence upon God is to have an active relationship with him. Is the Bible merely the textbook from which the sermons are prepared or is it the tool which God uses to shape the heart of the pastor? Does the pastor seek to deepen his own relationship with God so that he can be more effective in bringing others into a similar relationship? Does the pastor recognize that he is deeply flawed, but deeply loved by God? Does the pastor understand that he will give an account to God, not for the number of people in the seats but for the condition of the hearts he was to shepherd?

Why is an important question

When a man or women steps forward to be a leader, the most important question is why they want to do so. Is it to serve or to be served? Does the prospective leader demonstrate dependence upon God? As followers, we need to make wise choices as to what leader we will follow. As leaders developing leaders, we need to exercise due diligence in our choice of who to develop and how to develop them.

When church leadership falls into the wrong hands, neither the church nor the society at large fares well. People get hurt and it is not pretty.

On the other hand, when a leader operates with a proper sense of calling and with a proper humility, that leader can be used by God to produce amazing results.

What church should be

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i-love-my-churchI know what hurt has come from some of my own church experience. I have seen the damage done to others by inappropriate treatment within a church. Quite frankly sometimes it makes me want to find the reset button and see if we can begin again with this whole thing we call church.

I can name two friends that were pushed out of ministry, guys that have good hearts and really ministered to people. They got pushed out because they did not fit with the current leader’s vision of what church should be. These are two different people, in two different churches, in two different states, in two very different parts of the country. The locations may differ, but the churches are similar because the leader has given the Enemy a foothold in that congregation by not allowing these two men to operate in their giftedness.

Perhaps there is a different way to organize church. Perhaps we overlook a pastor’s inability to shepherd his congregation because he is a gifted speaker and can draw large crowds. Perhaps we turn a blind eye to the damage caused when a leader seeks to build his church rather than Christ’s.

Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the damage that I have seen done by those who have built organizational structures that claim to promote the kingdom of God but only are building a kingdom among men. Today was such a day.

But as I worked on collecting firewood today, I was reminded that for every empire building hawker who claims to represent Christ, there are dozens, hundreds or thousands of men and women who are really doing the work of ministry and living out the claims of the Gospel to change lives.

Some of these men and women are bi-vocational, they have jobs outside the church but still effectively minister in the church. Some are full time employees of the church but give of themselves way above and beyond a regular work schedule. All of them are in ministry because they have been called to that ministry and can say with the Apostle Paul that they are “bond slaves to Jesus Christ.” In short, they are in ministry to meet others’ needs and not their own.

I keep coming back to the chilling words of Jesus in Matthew 7:

“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:22–23, ESV)

God will sort it out in the end and those who have been obedient and have done ministry God’s way and with God’s methods will be rewarded for their effort.

I really believe that those who misuse their positions of leadership within the church are the minority and that most ministers are seeking to be obedient to the Lord of their calling. The problem is that those who abuse their power for their own ends are often the most gifted and most prominent so it seems as though they are a larger group than they really are.

But God is not mocked. He is watching.

This is bad news to the self-promoters who abuse their congregations. But this is very good news to the faithful servants who give of themselves for the glory of Christ.

To those faithful servants I tip my hat and offer my hearty thanks. You encouraged me today.

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