Stating the Obvious[ly Wrong]

In the command known as the Great Commission, Jesus said, "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." Of course, we all know exactly what Jesus meant:

• "Making disciples" means to seek the conversion of individuals.
  
• The goal is to increase the number of Christians.
  
• In order to be baptized, these individuals must repent, which means they must turn away from their sins.
  
• The responsibility of the Church (and individual believers) is to bring unbelievers to a point of decision after presenting them with basic information about the content of the gospel.
  
• After an individual is converted, then he or she learns the commands of Jesus and is encouraged to model his morality.
  
• While both of these steps are important, the most important is conversion because it allows people to get into heaven.
  
• A significant part of this Commission requires us to go (or send others) to other countries.
  
• "All nations" refers to the countries of the world.
  

The problem is that each of these "obvious" facts is wrong.

But our understanding of this Commission has become ingrained in our church culture, and no one asks anymore what it means. Furthermore, many of these assumptions actually get in the way of the Church fulfilling its true mission.

If one regards it as the primary purpose of mission to increase the number of Christians and treats such increase as the criterion of success, without posing all the time the more radical questions which the gospel puts to the common assumptions of our culture, if the dominical call to "repent" is translated as "turn away from your sins" and there is no understanding of that radical overturning of the world's ideas of sin and righteousness and judgment, then there can be rapid church growth; but the very success of the burgeoning congregations may actually incapacitate them for a radical encounter with the culture into which they fit so comfortably. If religion is an affair for the private life, it can flourish in a society governed by other assumptions, taking the characteristic form which we know so well—a series of voluntary societies made up of people who share the same religious tastes. In that form Christianity can flourish, but it cannot challenge the beliefs that control public life. It has been co-opted into the culture.

Lesslie Newbigin, Signs Amid the Rubble: The Purposes of God in Human History, p. 91.

Besides, the advancement of the kingdom is not the Church's mission. It is God's mission:

Mission, then, is not essentially a human activity undertaken by the church and its leaders out of obligation to the Great Commission, gratitude for what God has done for us, and the desperate plight of the world. It is God's own mission in which we are invited to participate.

Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 161

So what is the mission of the Church?

The Christian mission is thus to act out in the whole life of the whole world the confession that Jesus is Lord of all.

Leslie Newbigin, The Open Secret, p. 17

This requires deep knowledge of God and more than a passing familiarity with the culture in which a particular congregation finds itself. It is God's embassy in a particular community.

The business of the church is to tell and to embody a story, the story of God's mighty acts in creation and redemption and of God's promises concerning what will be in the end. The church affirms the truth of this story by celebrating it, interpreting it, and enacting it in the life of the contemporary world. It has no other way of affirming its truth. If it supposes that its truth can be authenticated by reference to some allegedly more reliable truth claim, such as those offered by the philosophy of religion, then it has implicitly denied the truth by which it lives.

Lesslie Newbigin, Proper Confidence, p. 76

So what do you think? Do you still agree with some of the "obvious facts"? Are there other "obvious facts" that you'd like to debunk?

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Missional Manifesto IV

What are the criteria for "success"?

If the focus is not on results, then how do we measure success? We certainly cannot measure it according to the standards of the business world.

The lure of success is seductive. Its siren song causes many people to uncritically ascribe so much authority to high-profile leaders, platform speakers and megachurch pastors…. In American measurement, Jesus' human life was a failure because it ended in the shame and disgrace on a cross with all his followers abandoning him.

Brian J. Dodd, Empowered Church Leadership, p. 11

When numerical growth is taken as the criterion of judgment on the church, we are transported with alarming ease into the world of the military campaign or the commercial sales drive.

Leslie Newbigin, The Open Secret, p. 127

The fruit of effective ministry should first of all be evident in the life of the minister.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22–23).

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of a high-profile leader in the Church is generally not peace, patience, kindness or gentleness. In fact, these qualities are often lacking.

Christians are routinely taught by example and word that it is more important to be right… than it is to be Christlike. In fact, being right licenses you to be mean, and, indeed, requires you to be mean—righteously mean, of course.

Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, p. 238

What matters is not what we are doing and how much we are accomplishing but the kingdom character with which we conduct our business and how we treat people in the process.

Brian J. Dodd, Empowered Church Leadership, pp. 101-102.

The other measure of "success" is faithfulness.

There is no room either for anxiety about our failure or for boasting about our success. There is room only for faithful witness to the one in whom the whole purpose of God for cosmic history has been revealed and effected, the crucified, risen, and regnant Christ.

Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, p. 125

But what about the situations where nothing seems to be happening?

For those who lead and reason "in the flesh," suffering is a sign that something is wrong, that something is failing, that we should go in a different direction.… For those who learn to lead in the Spirit, we come to recognize that suffering and struggle are often signs that we are on the right road, that we are heading in the right direction, that we are kicking a dent in the darkness.

Brian J. Dodd, Empowered Church Leadership, p. 66.

"Failure," rather than being a sign that something is wrong, can be an asset.

If we are not very successful in ministry, in whatever way we measure success, then God does not have a hard time getting us out of the way. . . . The burdens of office may have become so heavy that we welcome being bumped aside by Jesus.

Andrew Purves, The Crucifixion of Ministry, p. 25

Suffering is not the enemy of ministry. It is through suffering and weakness and "defeat" that God accomplished his victory in Jesus Christ. God does not work in spite of our weakness. He works through our weakness.

The way of the cross sometimes leads us into those places where all we can do is hold on. We can't see our way forward, we are confused that God isn't doing what we expect, and we can't see any meaning for all the pain and frustration.

Allen Mitsuo Wakabayashi, Kingdom Come, p. 170

We must always do what we know is right and true before God even if it doesn't seem as if it produces results.

Allen Mitsuo Wakabayashi, Kingdom Come, p. 172

We must never forget that the path of the cross lead to and through the darkness of death, not around it. Yet the God that we follow is the God of resurrection. We must hang on and stay faithful for as long as it takes.

Allen Mitsuo Wakabayashi, Kingdom Come, p. 173

Faithfulness is not a dodge to avoid responsibility. Faithfulness is not a cover for laziness. Faithfulness is not taking the easy way out.

There is a world of difference between being productive and being fruitful, between striving to build Christ's church and allowing Christ to build his church through you.

Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 92

When faithfulness is replaced with mere success, we have failed in our obligation to our Lord.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Die, Pastor, Die

Atheist Denis Diderot said, "Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."

He wanted to bring about the end of Christianity. But the future of Christianity depends upon something that sounds surprisingly similar.

Andrew Purves has written an excellent book, The Crucifixion of Ministry. Here are a few quotations from the preface:

There is little, maybe nothing, we who are ministers of the gospel can do that really changes things. If anything worthwhile is to happen, Jesus has to show up.

Ministers can't forgive sinners, raise the dead or bring in the kingdom of God. Neither can we grow congregations, convert sinners or heal the dying.

Our strategies, action plans, pastoral resources and entrepreneurial church revitalization techniques have become not the solution but the problem. Our ministries need to be crucified. They need to be killed off.

On the back cover, Stephen Seamands writes, "Every pastor and Christian leader needs to read this book—about once a year."

Put down all your church growth, leadership, strategic planning, vision casting, management, and evangelism books. Click here and buy this book from Amazon. It's only $10.20.

Purves writes in the "benediction":

Friends, I know ministry is hard. The pressures are heavy to bear. Often we feel trapped by our limits, and with respect to the things of God we are indeed limited in understanding and faithfulness. That's why we need a Savior. Many of us have worked diligently to become professionally competent. However, in spite of our good intentions, efforts and hopes for ministry, we are perhaps aware of a deep weariness, of sadness even, and joy in ministry is remembered as a log-ago, wistful anticipation that has never been quite fulfilled.

It has taken me into my sixtieth year to begin to internalize some of the implications of Paul's injunction that I have been crucified with Christ and that it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me (Galatians 2:19-20).

I always felt embarrassed because I was nearly fifty before I started to understand this. I guess I'm just about on schedule.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be."

Missional Leadership

A missional approach to Christianity requires a new model of leadership.

Some of the models that have been effective in the past are no longer viable. The strong, “visionary” leader is more at home in the corporate world than in the missional church. The great communicator may sell lots of books and look great on TV, but he is not equipped to lead a missional movement. The effective organizer is a genius at generating activity, but he is an obstacle to organic development.

Len Hjalmarson suggests that the follow traits are what we need in leading the church forward in this time of cultural transition.

• Instead of leading from over, we lead from among.
• Instead of leading from certainty, we lead by exploration, cooperation and faith.
• Instead of leading from power, we lead in emptiness depending on Jesus.
• Instead of leading as managers, we lead as mystics and poets, “speaking poetry in a prose flattened world” and articulating a common future.
• Instead of leading from the center, we lead from the margins.

I want to address each of these suggestions in turn.

Instead of leading from over, we lead from among.

This is what Jesus was modeling when he washed the disciples’ feet: “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:13-15).

The first responsibility of a leader is to define responsibility. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.
Max De Pree

Our most consequential failures in ministry are often failures in relationships. Who we are in our relationships with people generally trumps what we do for people.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God

Instead of leading from certainty, we lead by exploration, cooperation and faith.

This quotation expresses the common view of leadership:

Leadership is knowing what to do next, knowing why that’s important, and knowing how to bring appropriate resources to bear on the need at hand.
Bob Biehl, Increasing Your Leadership Confidence

But that is not the kind of leadership needed in the present situation.

We are not the healers, we are not the reconcilers, we are not the givers of life. We are sinful, broken, vulnerable people who need as much care as anyone we care for.
Henri J. M. Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus

Instead of leading from power, we lead in emptiness depending on Jesus.

The church has trained its leaders to use the tools of the world. Leaders are encouraged to seek power. Of course they will only use that power for the advancement of the Kingdom. But power is not the method of the Kingdom.

A casual observer may more easily compare much of what masquerades for Christianity with Nietzsche’s power ideal than with Jesus’ focus on vulnerability and service and Paul’s conviction that God’s power most often shows through our weakness.
Brian J. Dodd, Empowered Church Leadership

There is a world of difference between being productive and being fruitful, between striving to build Christ’s church and allowing Christ to build his church through you.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God

Instead of leading as managers, we lead as mystics and poets, “speaking poetry in a prose flattened world” and articulating a common future.

We’ve reduced the gospel to seven steps to a great life.

To address the issue of truth greatly reduced requires us to be poets who speak against the prose world. . . . The only proclamation that is worthy of the name preaching is not moral instruction, or problem solving, or doctrinal clarification. It is not good advice, nor is it romantic caressing, not is it a soothing good humor... It is rather the ready, steady, surprising proposal that the real world in which God invites us to live is not the one made available by the rulers of this age... This offer requires special care for words, because the baptized community awaits speech in order to be a faithful people.
Walter Brueggemann, Finally Comes the Poet

Instead of leading from the center, we lead from the margins.

The Gospel is aimed at the outcasts, those who are at the margins of society. The church is most effective when it is at the margin itself.

Mission, then, is not essentially a human activity undertaken by the church and its leaders out of obligation to the Great Commission, gratitude for what God has done for us, and the desperate plight of the world. It is God’s own mission in which we are invited to participate.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God

These are just some sketchy comments. I hope to address these issues more completely in the future.

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

Part Two, Part Three

Ministry in the Image of God

I highly recommend this book by Stephen Seamands a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary. He defines Christian ministry as the ministry of Jesus Christ, the Son, to the Father, through the Holy Spirit, for the sake of the church and the world.

Instead of providing a summary, I’d like to give some of my favorite quotations from the book:

Our diversity in unity mirrors the diversity in unity of the Trinity. Equality, intimacy, submission and deference ought to characterize relationships in the Christian community as well.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 39

Living in the fallen world we inherited from [Adam and Eve] means living in a world of broken relationships. No matter, then, how much our parents and caregivers did right, especially during our years of infancy and childhood when our personhood was being shaped and established, all of us exhibit brokenness and unhealthiness in interpersonal relationships to one degree or another.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 40

Our most consequential failures in ministry are often failures in relationships. Who we are in our relationships with people generally trumps what we do for people.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, pp. 40–41

Maturity comes as we cast out fear and learn to live out relationships dominated by love.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 42

There is no substitute for time alone with God, when we attune ourselves to God’s voice reminding us once again of how beloved we are.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 68

When surrender fails to arise out of love, it is of the letter that kills rather than the Spirit that brings life.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 90

There is a world of difference between being productive and being fruitful, between striving to build Christ’s church and allowing Christ to build his church through you.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 92

We often find it much easier to extend grace to others than to ourselves.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 126

Gracious self-acceptance, delighting in ourselves because God loves and delights in us, is an essential aspect of spiritual and emotional maturity.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 127

Our self-worth is not based on what we do or on what others think of us. It has nothing to do with how large our congregation is, how well we preach, lead or counsel, how many books we write or how famous we are. It is simply a gift from God.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 132

Mission, then, is not essentially a human activity undertaken by the church and its leaders out of obligation to the Great Commission, gratitude for what God has done for us, and the desperate plight of the world. It is God’s own mission in which we are invited to participate.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 161

Buy the book.

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”