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

I hope you’ll forgive the prolonged period between instalments on the Hughes’ book (a little thing called clergy conference got in the way). Anyway, back to it. The Hughes are setting out in the second part of their work, Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, a series of encouragements to pastors. The next they turn to is encouragement from the ordinary.

Essentially, they say that we can take encouragement from the fact that God uses ordinary people to do his work. This is a vitally helpful point given their earlier comments on the encouragement that comes from the call (see here for my comments/rant). Their point is thoroughly God-glorifying – God’s greatness is seen most clearly in our ordinariness. They take the disciple Andrew as an example – first called, but not a prominent apostle. He is characterised by his thoughts for others (John 1:40-42), his optimism of Christ’s power (John 6:5-9), and his belief that all were welcome to come to Jesus (John 12:20-22). They also turn to 2 Cor 4 and Paul’s language of jars of clay. While they run the risk of seeing ordinariness as itself something to boast in (see, for example, their comment that “Ordinary Andrews become vehicles for the extraordinary. There is glory in the ordinary!”), I believe that their primary point is theocentric – God uses the plain, ordinary, usual things of this world for His glory.

It results in three suggested responses – to thank God for our ordinariness, to thank God for any extraordinary gifts he has given us, and to thank God for the call to ministry, for “it is the ministry that fosters in us a profound awareness of our ordinariness and inadequacy.” While personally I find the last of these three responses a little odd given the direction of the rest of the chapter, I can understand why they include it. There is encouragement from the ordinary. There is encouragement that through these frail and weak men and women God is pleased to have his gospel go forth. There is encouragement that we bring nothing to the table, and yet God is bringing all things in heaven and earth together under the headship of Christ through the ministry of his people.

Sweet Success - Review of Liberating

The second part of Liberating concludes with a chapter on sweet success. Essentially they tell the story of a small, average church service. But a church service which they view through the lens of success as has been so far set out. They were being successful in ministry because they were seeking to be faithful, to serve, to love, to believe, to pray, to strive for holiness, and to be positive and encouraging. There is a great deal of freedom in this, as is evident from their recounting of the story. The thing which struck me, however, was the way in which they now reflect on the ‘success’ which they had so longed after earlier in their ministry. When the numbers, the recognition and so on came, it wasn’t really all that important. How liberating!

The section concludes with a series of questions:

1. Are you proving faithful in the exercise of your ministry? Specifically, are you obedient to Gods’ Word?
2. Are you living your life as a servant, or have you drifted from Servanthood into self-service?
3. Do you love Jesus?
4. Do we believe that God’s Son is creator […] sustainer […] goal […] and lover of our souls?
5. Are you a person of prayer? Do you regularly take significant portions of time for an exposure to God, to bare your needs and the needs of your people to God?
6. Are you growing in holiness?
7. What is your basic attitude towards your ministry (and your colleagues)?

Success is Holiness - Review of Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome

Success is holiness is the title of the next chapter. Taking the examples of Sampson and David, the Hughes’ highlight the dangers of sensuality and how ungodliness constantly seeks to justify itself. I’m sure that many of us who have been involved or around Christian ministry can count off the ministers we know who have compromised themselves and barred themselves from service. And for some of us we need both hands to count them off. The Hughes’ ask the tough questions – what do you watch on TV (or online), where does your mind wander in the quiet moments, how are you actively pursuing holiness?

In one sense you can never stop asking these questions. And the questions need to be specific – direct – frank. Is there someone at church that you are more excited about seeing on Sunday than anyone else? Are you knowingly harbouring a desire, a thought, a dream which you can’t share with your wife? Do you have access to money that no one knows about? A friend of mine asked me once – “what will you do when you meet the woman that you’d be willing to give up your wife, your family, your ministry for?” The premise of the question was assumed – you will meet her one day. And the purpose was clear - plan for it now. Our natural inclination will be to sin. So make it hard for yourself. Ask the questions – better yet, get someone else to ask them to you. Put things in place so that you’ve really got to work hard at sinning (the point being, of course, that your laziness kicks in and you give up before you sin). Hire a male assistant (if you’re straight). Put your home computer in a public place. Don’t have anything to do with the offertory. Success is holiness.

Success is Believing - Review of Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome

Success is believing is the title of the next chapterin Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome. Here their refrain is the slightly tautologous ‘believe what you believe’. What they are getting at is the idea in Hebrews 11:6 that without faith it is impossible to please God. And so they identify two ‘areas’ of belief – a belief in God, and a belief that ‘he rewards those who earnestly seek him’.

A belief in God is a belief that God exists. It seems axiomatic, but as Kent reviews his attitude and approach during those dark days, he sees that while he didn’t consciously reject those beliefs, he had lost the sense of the reality of those beliefs. He calls on us to focus on four aspects of God (or more particularly, Christ) as the object of our belief – that he is creator, sustainer, goal, and loving head. Of course we could add many more (Christ as redeemer, for example). Nevertheless, the point made is valid. Too often we can get lost in serving God, essentially domesticating him to the God we talk about at Bible Study, sing catchy little ditties to on Sunday, or urge people to trust in. We can lose sight of the bigness of God, of his omnipresence, his sovereignty, his omniscience, the perfection of his will, etc. I think the Hughes are calling on us, in sense, to be lost in wonder before the majesty of our triune God.