Stop using the phrase “called to the ministry”?
Over the last few years of reading his blog, I’ve found Dave Black’s writing to be encouraging at times, challenging at times, but always for the health of the church.
Think about that for a moment: for the health of the church. He doesn’t write just to write, just to pontificate on his own intelligence or understandings. He writes to build up his brothers and sisters in Christ.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that his brothers and sisters will always agree with or accept what he writes.
I think that’s certainly the case with this latest challenge (from Saturday, May 14, 2011 at 10:36 a.m.):
I have a question today, a question to which I do not know the answer. When will appeals for vocations to the ministry end? And when, in their place, will the church encourage all of its members to seek God’s will for the area of ministry in which they can most effectively be used by Him? I propose that we never again use the expression “call to the ministry” unless we are careful to apply it to each and every Christian. All this will neither be easy nor popular. Yet at some point it must be done. One of the main reasons for burn-out in the pastorate is that it is often carried out alone. The New Testament never envisaged such a predicament. Ministry needs to be shared. Jesus realized this: He sent out the apostles two by two. Paul realized this when he appointed elders (note the plural) in every church. And it needs to be modeled by today’s Christian leaders. It is not until church members are enthusiastic about their own God-given gifts that we will succeed in being the Body of Christ.
He’s right. We’ve all been “called to the ministry” – that is, we’ve all been called by God to use our gifts, talents, energies, and opportunities to serve one another and the people around us. There is no other type of service.
If you are using “called to the ministry” in a way that separates some Christians from others, then I don’t think you’re helping the church.
Replay: He who promised is faithful… Even during church meetings?
Four years ago, I wrote a post called “He who promised is faithful.” The post was inspired by another blog post and a passage of Scripture in Hebrews 10:23-25. Can we follow the commands and descriptions of church meetings in Scripture and trust God to take care of things? Or, do we have to make sure that we’re in control of the meetings?
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The title of this post comes from the book of Hebrews:
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23 ESV)
I thought of this verse when I read Ted’s post (from “Jesus community“) called “established in uncertainty“. Ted talks about the dynamic life we have in Christ by the Spirit. He says:
This is a reality in which many number of things are going on at the same time. God is working on the individual parts in getting along with each other in love, in holiness of life. And there is a work of learning how to grow, live and serve together, in mission to the world.
All of this involves becoming established in uncertainty. We don’t know what lies ahead in a day, or a week, a month or a year- and beyond. But we are willing to trust that in it all God’s will can be done in our lives, as we seek and choose that will over our own and for the true good of the world, including ourselves.
We like predictability and easy “cookie cutter” ways. But God’s ways are different. We inevitably will meet new struggles, opportunities, issues, etc., in those around us we know, as well as in our own lives.
This post came at an important time in my life. I have talked with many people who are concerned with the freedom and “unscriptedness” of the type of church meeting that we find in 1 Corinthians 14 (see “What do we do with 1 Corinthians 14” and that series).
We when we meet with other believers, and no one is scheduled to “preach” and no one is scheduled to “lead worship” and no one is schedule to read Scripture and no one is scheduled to pray… can we trust God?
Now, granted, Hebrews 10:23 is not about the church meeting. But, if we can trust God for our salvation, can we also trust Him to keep order when everyone is free to speak according to Paul’s parameters in 1 Corinthians 14?
Please note that I am not talking about a failure to plan – Paul includes the possibility of planning in 1 Corinthians 14:26. But, what if we allowed believers to plan and prepare as God directs. Also, I’m not talking about a lack of accountability. But, what if we allowed each believer to hold his or her brothers and sisters accountable? Can we trust God for this?
I know, we like to come into a church meeting, find a place to sit, open the bulletin, and know exactly what is going to happen. We feel uneasy and off-balance when we do not know who has prepared to speak and who has prepared a song. But, can we trust God with this also?
We know what we like and what we want. But, do we dare ask what God wants? Do we dare ask how he desires for the church to meet? Could it be that the only image we have in Scripture of a meeting of the church (1 Corinthians 14) is there because that is how God wants us to meet? Can we trust God in this? Is He faithful even in this?
Friday the 13th, Zombies, and the Church
In honor of Friday the 13th (which is today), my friend Dan at “The Ekklesia in Southern Maine” has a special announcement in his post “Physician, Heal Thyself – an excerpt from And the Dead Shall Rise First.”
As you might guess from the title of his post, Dan is publishing an excerpt from a zombie novel that he’s writing. The working title of the novel is And the Dead Shall Rise First.
Here’s part of the description of the novel from Dan’s post:
The dead are reanimating and have one single drive: consume all life. Is this the End, Armageddon, the Apocalypse, those things foretold in prophecy throughout Scripture and history? Will the church be able to overcome her division to help bring relief and hope to the world in the midst of all this devastation, or will she simply wither and die in a fractured irrelevant self-induced coma?
Now, I don’t know much about zombies. In fact, besides watching a few movies, I learned the little that I do know about the zombie genre from Dan. For example, he taught me this very important lesson: Bats don’t run out of bullets. (Good to know, huh?)
But, I enjoyed reading the excerpt from his novel. It is interesting to think about how the church would respond to a zombie apocalypse. I’m guessing (as with other issues) different sectors of the church would deal with the problem in different ways.
In the excerpt, we read about how a rural southern church deals with zombies. Here’s a short snippet:
At this point in the evening the room was ablaze with heat and noise. It was more than enough to make anyone feel a little confused and delusional. The people praying in tongues had grown in numbers as well as volume. The moans and groans of the EPV victims was increasing as they were agitated by the close proximity of so much living flesh containing the energy they instinctively craved; yet their restraints kept them from being able to access that energy despite all efforts. They seemed unaffected by their limitations and continued to moan and fight against their loved ones who were hoping to save them. The organist, all frail and old, was wailing away on the keys of the electric organ now, producing an off-key soundtrack to the event.
If you want to read more of Dan’s story, you can read it here: “Physician, Heal Thyself!”
So, here’s a question. Do you think that works in the fantasy genres (including the zombie genre) can help people think about God and faith? Why or why not?
Putting yourself in situations where you can meet people
For the last few years, God has been teaching me about putting myself in situations to meet people. But, not just any people – people who are hurting, who are in need, who are typically not shown love or not accepted.
I’ll admit that I’m still not very good at this. I still love *my* life too much. There are still too many things that I don’t want to give up.
So, it’s always encouraging (and challenging) to read posts like Bobby’s (from “Deconstructing Neverland“) called “Dirty laundry and making disciples.”
Bobby has done exactly what God is teaching me: he put himself in a situation to meet people. What situation? A laundromat. The post is about one person in particular that Bobby met. This person is very different from Bobby, but God is showing him how he can work through Bobby in this man’s life.
Read Bobby’s post. I’m sure that you’ll be encouraged too. If you’re like me, you’ll be praising God for what he’s doing! (While you’re at it, read this follow up post from Bobby called “The motel that lies in the shadow of death.”)
Start loving your neighbor by getting to know your actual neighbors
Sam, writing for “Grace Ground“, is producing a wonderful series called “Getting to Know Our Neighbors.”
So far, there is an introduction and five posts in the series, but it looks like there will be more. Here are links to the first five posts: Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.
Sam describes his purpose in writing this series in the introduction:
We enjoy getting to know neighbors. It may appear to come natural to us, but we make it an intentional part of following Jesus. In this series I will discuss some of the methods that have worked for us in getting to know our neighbors, how we move some of the relationships beyond just being acquainted, and what we’re doing now to move those relationships to yet another level.
Did you notice that he said “intentional”? I think that’s very important.
Sam says that activities as simple as walking around the neighborhood and complimenting a neighbor’s yard can help us begin building relationships with the people who live near us.
I have some good friends who are much better at this than I am. It’s great to have examples like them to follow.
What do you think about Sam’s posts? Are you getting to know the people who live near you?
How do itinerant workers benefit the church?
Over the next few days, I’ve scheduled a series a posts relating to itinerant servants, that is, believers who travel from place to place in order to proclaim the gospel and strengthen the church. This topic is far from academic or conceptual for me, because I have a close friend who believes that God is leading him into this type of service.
It was exciting to see that Josh from “Called to Rebuild” is also writing about this subject in his post “The benefits of having an outside worker.”
In his post, Josh is responding to my post from last week “Thinking about itinerant servants and the church.” Like I’ve said before, I love it when discussions overlap different blogs. This is one of the powerful aspects of this medium.
Josh suggests two ways that traveling servants benefit the church (I’m paraphrasing):
1) The church has the opportunity to learn from someone who has different experiences, perspectives, and callings.
2) The church can learn from someone on whom they will not become overly dependent.
Read Josh’s post. It’s very good.
What do you think of the benefits that Josh lists? Can you think of others?
Guest Blogger: Five Ways to move Traditional Church toward Missional
I’ve invited several people to write “guest blog posts” for this blog. There are several reasons for this: 1) To offer different perspectives. 2) To generate even more discussion and conversation between blogs. 3) To introduce other bloggers to my readers.
(If you are interested in writing a guest blog post, please contact me at aknox[at]sebts[dot]com.)
Today’s guest blog post is written by Jeremy from “Till He Comes,” “Grace Ground,” and “Grace Books.” You can also follow Jeremy on Facebook and Twitter.
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Five Ways to move Traditional Church toward Missional
Many churches want to become more missional, but are still operating under the mindset of “If we build it they will come.” To move toward missional, churches must develop a mindset that asks, “What are they doing which we can join?” No longer can we call people to come to us; we must take the initiative and go to them.
Here are five suggestions for making this happen in your own community:
1. Service Sunday
It is not enough to preach and teach about meeting the needs of the community. The congregation needs leadership by example. And while a community service project on Thursday night or Saturday morning is a tiny step in the right direction, all churches know from experience that few people turn out to such events.
Church leaders can show they mean business about community service by actually leading their congregation into the community on a Sunday morning when they would usually be in the “church service.”
(See here for a church that is actually doing this: http://www.alanknox.net/2011/04/this-church-is-meeting-for-a-real-church-service/ )
2. Move out of the Building
Sometimes a pastor or church leader can raise awareness and develop relationships within the community simply by moving the Bible studies, board meetings, and prayer groups out of the church building, and into the community. Not into someone’s home, but to a coffee shop, restaurant, beach, park, or even a bar.
If you pick a place, and keep going back week after week, month after month, blessing the business by being good customers, or the location by not being rude or loud and leaving the place clean, relationships will be developed and your own members will begin to see the needs in the community. This recognition of needs helps the church move into the next three suggestions.
3. Open up your building to “sinners”
Lots of churches have policies that restrict the use of the building to “nice religious folks only.” It is never stated this bluntly, but the policy usually states that any outside group wishing to use the building must agree to no drinking, swearing, or smoking on the premises, no loud music, no dancing, and a variety of other things. In other words, our “Building Use Policy” restricts the use of the building for religious people and religious purposes only.
If Jesus was known as the friend of sinners, tax gatherers, prostitutes, gluttons, and drunkards, the church should also be known for such things, including the use of our buildings. If your building policy doesn’t allow for such people to meet in the building, then maybe you should revisit the policy.
If we follow Jesus in the use of our buildings, there is no greater compliment we could receive than to hear a religious person criticize us for allowing drunkards and sinners to meet in our building.
4. Answer your own prayers
Prayer meetings are great, but all too often, we use prayer as a substitute for obedience. Christians would much rather pray for their neighbor than actually go serve them, and then we wonder why God doesn’t answer our prayers for them more often.
Could it be that as God listens to our prayers for the drug addicts down the street, and the corruption in the city council, and the neighbor who has a daughter that got pregnant out of wedlock, that He is saying, “I would love to answer that prayer request..through you. What are you going to do about it?”
Every prayer meeting should be concluded with action steps on what the church is going to do to answer their own prayer requests. A church could even cancel every other prayer meeting so that they could go be an answer to the prayer requests from the previous week.
5. Join Community Events
Many churches love to do community service, but on their own terms, and in their own way, and from their own building, and in a way that allows them to hand out their own literature and Gospel tracts. Sometimes this is effective, but most often it is not. It uses a lot of time, energy, and resources.
A better approach might be to let the city or town do most of the planning and preparing, and then simply join them in what they are doing. Sure, you won’t be able to pass out tracts, but you will still be connecting with people in the city and the town in a real and tangible way, which is better in the long run.
So rather than host a children’s carnival on your own property, go join the city’s kids carnival in the city park. Rather than go clean up the baseball field on your own, join the city when they do it. When the city has their July 4th celebration, offer to provide clean-up crews. There are so many things the city is doing, and the church can make their presence known by getting involved.
Conclusion
When it comes to following Jesus into the community, there is no telling where He might take you. Have you and your church been led into some strange and unusual places? Have you tried any of the suggestions above? If so, let us know in the comment section below.
Just for fun he says, “Get a job!”
So, the title of this post comes from the lyrics of the Bruce Hornsby song “The Way It Is.”
Someone else is saying, “Get a job,” but he’s not saying it “just for fun.”
The instigator is David Fitch in his post “5 Excuses Seminarians make for NOT Getting a (“Real”) Job.” Now, before you jump to some conclusions, you should know that Fitch is not against churches paying pastors. In fact, he’s for it.
However, he also sees the benefit of seminarians working a “Real” job (to use his terms). For example, here is one of his excuses:
3.) EXCUSE NO. 3 – I WILL BE SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME ON A JOB THAT IS NOT GERMANE TO MINISTRY. Seminarians think that spending many years in something not ministry related will stunt development of ministry skills. This is mind blowing to me. I suggest that working in the marketplace in whatever capacity is transforming and every pastor should do it in some way. It is also incredible how having a well-honed skill in your back pocket gives enormous freedom in ministry even when more full time ministry is forced upon you. You are no longer locked into the insecurity of having to keep a church going (because you know you can get a job) that can constrain you from acting prophetically.
I think it would have been good to mention that working that “real” job can be just as much ministry as working in a church paid position.
You should read the other excuses. I think Fitch makes a good point.
Now, he is primarily writing this to seminarians, but why would it not apply to elders/pastors also?
These posts have been encouraging and challenging for me.
Over the last few days, I’ve read several posts that have been both encouraging and challenging for me.
Here are some of them:
Dan at “The Ekklesia in Southern Maine” with “Losing A Generation: are we?”
Eric at “A Pilgrim’s Progress” with “Learning to Live in the Broader Traditional Church Culture”
Arthur at “The Voice of One Crying out in Suburbia” with “But what do I know? I’m just a layman.”
Ross at “thejesusvirus” with “Christendom and Christianity“
Reading posts like these and others reminds me how exciting it is to be part of a church that discusses Scripture and life together. We don’t listen to only one person, because all of us have the ability to teach one another by the Spirit of God.
We each approach Scripture and life from different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. And, all of these differences help us understand better.
Thank you, fellow bloggers, for helping me understand better.
Is it lack of knowledge? Is it apathy? Is it something else?
Chris at “The Amplified Life” (I still love that blog name) has written a very good post called “Is More Knowledge the Answer?”
In the post, Chris quotes a statistic that “65% of professing Christians never read the Bible.” After examining this statistic, he asks this question, “Is more knowledge of the Scriptures the answer that the Church needs?”
He answers his question with both “yes” and “no.” His answers are very good, so you should read them. In the comments, I also answered his question with “yes” and “no,” but for different reasons.
One point that I raised is that the Scriptures were not available to Christians in the early church the way they are available today. Those early Christians could not have read the Scriptures every day even if they wanted to. I’m certain they heard the Scriptures read and discussed when they gathered with others, but they could not hold a copy of a Bible and read it for themselves in their homes (for the most part). This was true because of availability and literacy until quite recently.
Here’s the problem though… if you examine the book of Acts and the other books of the New Testament, you will find that those early Christians looked much different than Christians generally look today… even though they did not have ready access to Scriptures.
So, reading the Bible is not the issue.
Is the issue apathy? Perhaps, but does that point to a deeper issue?
It’s obvious that many, many professing Christians do not seem to care about the things or God, or if they do care about God, they don’t care about other people. (At least, they don’t care in the same way we see the Christians in the NT caring for others.)
Why? What do you think the issue is?