An English Addition

Last night I went to hear Vaughn Roberts, who was speaking at a meeting of the Latimer Fellowship. A hugely encouraging night, not least because of the 200+ people who were there, and the large numbers of people in their 20s and 30s.

Vaughn was speaking about releasing the Word - about how we keep the Word central in our ministries, but ensure that we are doing things which keep it central. He spoke in the areas of time (setting aside people who minister the word to minister the word), of contexts (not just restricting word ministry to church - and the way in which we've sometimes turned the 'go' of the great commission into a 'come to church'), and people. He said much on all three areas which was valuable and helpful, but I was particularly struck by one of his last points. In his stress on expanding ministries, and drawing people into ministry, he spoke of recruit - train - deploy. For those of us from Sydney this is a common progression.

But there was an English addition - maintain. Recruit - train - deploy - maintain. Maintain those who have gone into ministry. Meet with them, plan for that meeting, make it a priority. Ensure that they don't drift or become disillusioned after 5, 10, 15 years of hard gospel work. And what struck me, although it wasn't elaborated on, was the way in which this maintenance is not only for newbies like myself, but indeed for all in ministry. For we're encouraged to keep on going as we meet together, to spur each other on, to share the joys and the difficulties. There is a danger of comparison, but the joys and benefits outweigh this (see here). Maintain, people, maintain.

Encouragement from Fellow Workers

In God's grace, the day after writing on the encouragement we can receive from fellow workers, we get a call from David and Julie Moore, who are over in NZ and are coming out to see us today. Dave pastors the Unichurch at Hunter Bible Church, and was in my year at college. We slummed it together in the death trap (aka the King Street Study Room) and were modern Trinitarian thinkers together. Great to have him here today as I am preaching on the Trinity this Sunday (it being Trinity Sunday in the lectionary, and I'm a big time lectionary fan), and it will be good to throw some ideas around. It will also be a particular joy to see them today as on Friday I am taking the funeral of a woman who suicided, and am going to find it particularly difficult. All the support I can get in that will be welcome indeed.

Encouragement from Fellow Workers - Review of Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome

The penultimate encouragement the Hughes urge us to take is from fellow workers. Personally, I found this chapter incredibly helpful because it deals with the issue of depression. Let me be clear – I don’t think I suffer from depression. I have known and worked with people with different forms of depression, and it is an incredibly debilitating place to find yourself in. I am not comparing myself to them. But I also don’t know many ministers who won’t testify to the blues, the doldrums of ministry when this gospel work just gets you down. Mark Driscoll speaks of ‘bread truck Mondays’, where he wakes up and wishes he could just go and drive a bread truck – no people, no pressure, and when you get hungry you’ve got fresh bread to eat. The Hughes’ quote Luther, Spurgeon, Whyte, and others, who speak of the difficulties of ministerial depression. And they go on to quote Paul in 2 Cor 7:6 who speaks of his own depression (see the NASB) and to exegete this text so as to get to the cause, and the cure, of this malaise.

They identify that Paul’s depression was due to him being physically worn out, being pressured, and being fearful. I’m not sure I could tell you a week, in fact probably a day, in the past three months where I haven’t felt one, and sometimes all three, of those things. They are just the reality of ministry, it seems. Helpfully the Hughes identify that these factors come from Paul’s very heart for ministry: ‘The bigger the ministerial heart, the greater is the potential for the flesh have no rest – conflicts without – and fears within.’ While they don’t go on to address it, they implicitly touch upon a ‘cure’ for ministerial depression. Harden your heart. You won’t find ministry hard if you don’t care about the people you are ministering to. You won’t be hurt by them if you don’t love them. Brothers, watch that you don’t slip into this cure. It sounds perverse, and I’m sure some of you will strongly disagree, but make sure that you keep on feeling for your flock. Love them. Share your life with them. Rejoice in their victories and grieve over their failures. Depression in ministry is bad. But not feeling at all for your people surely has to be much much worse.

The Hughes’ go on to see that Paul himself was comforted by the coming of Titus. It was this relationship which buoyed him and in particular the message that Titus brought – that the Corinthians loved him, they were concerned for him, they felt for him. They then turn to a number of practical steps. Cultivate those relationships where you are encouraged by others, and where you can encourage others. They suggest keeping every encouraging note that has been sent to you about your ministry. I myself have done that, and while the collection isn’t very big (!), there are few things more encouraging than pulling out a note from someone I really respect and reading that they think I’ve done good ministry, and urging me to do more. Friends, keep up those relationships. If you don’t have them, go and make them. Let your brothers and sisters share the pain and heartache of ministry, and urge you on in your faithfulness and proclamation. Look out yourself for people that you can genuinely encourage, and think about how you do that. I’ve found that a handwritten note means far more to people than a phone call, an email, or even a face to face comment. There are plenty in the world, and unfortunately in the church, who would discourage us from our work. Let’s spur one another on, encouraging each other in the task set before us. (images varsity.ca and jupiterimages.com)

Encouragement from the Call - Review of Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome

The Hughes’ next turn to the encouragement that comes from the call. By this, they mean the call to minister. I realise that I am on shaky ground, but it does frustrate me that many evangelicals (And others), for a long period of time, have insisted on using this word to refer to the desire and process of moving into full time vocational ministry. The Bible doesn’t use it that way – it uses it to speak of being called to union with Christ through faith by grace. Leaders are then appointed, by guidance from the Holy Spirit, through the church. My frustration is that by using the word ‘call’ to refer to the movement into ministry, we are significantly devaluing the biblical call. We’ll return to that in a moment.

Hughes is very careful to make clear that his experience of the call (and here I use the word in the call-to-ministry sense that the book uses it) is not normative, and that the actual experience of a call may be very gradual and gentle over the course of their lives. Helpfully, and graciously, Hughes identifies people like myself who question the idea of a specific call to ministry. He identifies two concerns that such people have – that it turns ministry into an uberprofession – and that it strengthens the gap between laity and clergy. However, he in turn responds that ‘the ministry is the highest of calls. We must never downplay or minimize it. Not really an answer, but this book isn't about that issue.

Given his premise, the rest of the chapter turns on how Christian ministers can gain encouragement from their call. Those whom God calls, God empowers for their ministry. ‘Your call means that you have the [God given] power to fulfil it!’. And again ‘…when God calls one to the ministry, he gives the requisite gifts to fulfil that ministry.’ Hughes then turns to the call of Isaiah as the classic call. There he identifies that four things were included and evident – a vision of god’s holiness; a vision of our own unholiness; the grace of forgiveness; the obedience in response to the call. The conclusion – ‘we can all relate to Isaiah’s classic call because its elements are common to the called.’ I couldn’t agree more – but only if we revert back to the biblical use of the called concept, and realise that these things are characteristic of all God’s people – not just those who feel that they have been called to full-time vocational ministry.

My great concern is the unspoken implication. If God gifts those he calls and provides those he has called with power to do that ministry, what happens if you were never called? No call – no gifts. No call – no power. In ministry with no gifts and no power? No thanks.

Brothers and sisters, whoever desires to be an overseer desire a noble task. It's a desire that we have. Is it God given - Yes. Recognsied through the body - Yes. Accompanied by a some sort of spiritual conviction - Yes. Validated by a specific 'call' - possibly, but, I would suggest, not necessarily. Yes, of course God gifts his people – he gifts them for the good of the body. Yes, of course God gives his people power – the power of the resurrected Christ. But can I suggest to you that to glean your encouragement from the fact that God has called you to be a minister, and therefore must have gifted you to do that, is misplaced encouragement.

So can I suggest that our encouragement comes not from the fact that God has called us to be ministers, but from the fact that God calls. He is a God who calls his people out of darkness and into the kingdom of his Son. His call is effectual and powerful. When he speaks, through us, by his Spirit, people listen. Lives change. Raging rebels submit. There’s your encouragement. God calls. Our ministry is his ministry through us.

Encouragement from God - Review of Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome

Part three of Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome turns to consider where we might be able to find encouragement for a success ministry. They identify 5 areas from which encouragement comes – God, the call, the ‘ordinary’, fellow workers, and from reward. Let’s address each in turn.

Encouragement from God. Kent retells a painfully funny story of his first sermon (essentially an interview sermon) at College Church Wheaton, where he was interrupted over twenty times by the fire alarm. He was certain that he wouldn’t be offered the job, but was. His point is the trauma and stress of (new) ministry. From this point, they recall being shown Jeremiah 29:11 (I know the plans I have for you…) by a friend, and the rest of the chapter is essentially exegesis of this verse. Personally, I think this is one of the most overused and misapplied verses of the Bible, and so when I read it I cringed. But the Hughes’ exegesis is historically grounded, and stresses the character of God in the promise. God knows the plans he has, they are good plans, they are optimistic plans. And, according to the Hughes’, they are conditional plans:

Seeing that the Lord’s plans for us are comprehensive and good and optimistic, we will naturally ask if there are any qualifications we must meet. The answer is that while the truth of these promises apply to all of God’s people, there is a condition necessary to consciously experience its reality. Biblical scholars agree that the condition is given in the immediately following context of Jeremiah 29:12-13. It is to seek him with all our hearts. […] there must be a God-focused obsession in our lives if we are to fully experience the benefit of his promise. (italics original)

Ouch. To be fair, there is a sense in which he’s correct – we do want a God-focused obsession in our lives. I certainly do. But my difficulty comes with the conditionality. Not only is the exegesis a little questionable, but it leads people who truly want to see God’s plans worked out in their lives blaming themselves when things don’t go ‘according to plan’ . There are obviously strong links here with my earlier posts on Guard Us Guide Us (and I really need to get back to it).

The Hughes’ are spot on – our encouragement comes from God. And it comes from the nature of God’s sovereignty which is the underlying point of Jeremiah 29. The exiles were in exile (hence being called exiles). God’s purposes seemed null and void. But God was still sovereign. He had promised his people goodness – a place to worship him, a land to live in. And the LORD knew his promises, and wanted his people to know them too. But their confidence came not from their strength or the depth of their ‘God-focused obsession’ in their lives, but from the fact that it was Yahweh who had promised, and therefore he could be trusted. The same goes for us. Yes there are plans – all things on heaven and on earth are being brought under the Lordship of Jesus. God’s word is going out – it is doing its work – softening and hardening hearts. And so our encouragement comes from God’ promises about God’s work in our lives and the world. Things are going according to plan, even when they don't seem to be. Be encouraged

Pop quiz - answer

Well, after the 'flood' of responses, no clear winner has emerged (that's because there were no responses). Dissapointing, Methven's a great place for a holiday!

But the answer is 2 Timothy 4:5

But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

Brothers and sisters, it means that at all times (in season and out of season as 4:2 puts it) those of us who are ministers are to do the full work of ministry. We can't hide away for a time because we've said something the church doesn't like, and relationships are a bit cool. We can't claim the 'I’m not gifted as an evangelist' excuse, for we are to do the work of one. We can't let the winds and waves of our ministry slow us down or blow us off course. Even when leaders leave, when saints sin, when allies appear to attack us, we keep our heads, and get on with our work - we discharge all the duties of our ministry.

That's why this verse is (one of!) the scariest in the Bible, because it calls us to a life where we push on no matter what opposition. It calls us to a very hard life. But it leads to this:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the rase, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge will award me on that day - and not only to me, but also to all who have longer for his appearing.