From Ministry to Mission

Depending on the circles that you run in, you probably hear or say the word ministry fairly often. But what does it mean? Look up the word…go ahead, go look it up. Dictionary.com is a great place to go…just open a new window in your internet browser and look it up. I’ll wait…

Almost every definition speaks of professionalism, the formal office of clergy. But that isn’t how we use it. We use it with the definition of service. I hear fellow pastors talking about “my ministry.” I hear people talking about serving as a nursery worker, Sunday school teacher, or usher as their “ministry.” Ministry in itself is great. It is great to follow the call of God to serve those around us. But it becomes a problem when “ministry” is what defines the church. For a long time ministry has been the running of programs at a church for the benefit of its members and with the attempt to reach outsiders. So we put on programs. We have have children’s “ministry” and youth “ministry” and senior adult “ministry.” The music “ministry” puts on Easter and Christmas programs. 

Is this really the ministry that God has called the church to? It that it? Pay your dues in the nursery and you are doing your part in the body of Christ? Greet people at the door on Sunday mornings with a crisp bulletin and a forced smile and you are fulling the call of God on your life? The problem stems from our wrong view of the church. Even those of us who proudly proclaim that the church is people not a building have a tendency to fall into the trap of thinking that what we do on a Sunday morning for an hour is church. We begin to believe that singing songs, hearing a sermon and maybe even serving in a “ministry” is doing church. Until we change our vocabulary, we may never climb out of this trap.

God has given us one ministry. It is much more general and a lot less specific than we might hope. 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 says, 

“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ…” 

Our ministry is Missio Dei, the sending of God. Our ministry is mission. Our mission is the Gospel. Until we show people the Gospel, that God has done what it takes to reconcile them to Himself, until we model for people the Gospel, until we teach people how to apply the Gospel to every aspect of their lives, we aren’t being the church. The church is the the collective group of sent ones of God. How can we be called the “sent ones” when we only “do church” in the four walls of a building designated for Holy things? We are called to be set apart in lifestyle not in location. We are called to be like yeast, infiltrating the world and slowly changing it from the inside out. We can’t do that by empowering people to do ministry…we have to empower people to be on mission. 

Ministry means once a week.
Mission means every moment of every day.

Ministry compartmentalizes life.
Mission encompasses life.

Ministry tells you to serve.
Mission fills you with passion to serve.

Ministry speaks the Gospel.
Mission is the Gospel.

If people begin to understand the Gospel…that a Holy God has made a way for sinful people to know Him, experience Him and enjoy Him forever…and that we are called to live this out, tell others about it, and let that fact transform the way we exist…ministry will happen. People will begin to serve out of love and not obligation. People will serve because it is the natural reaction to a Gospel-transformed life. Ministry isn’t bad…it’s just not enough. It isn’t the call God has on our lives…it is the overflow of missional living. 

I pray that God would make us missional. That is would be a lifestyle and not just a catch phrase. I pray that our churches would be transformed by the Gospel and in turn, we would serve.

Gospel in the New Year.

It’s January 1st… but don’t worry, I’ll spare you all the New Year’s cliches and personal anecdotes. Much of how we celebrate the coming of a new year in our culture is rather odd. We count down the last minute like time isn’t really just some arbitrary way of measuring the repeating of events. We gather in homes, in bars, concert halls and even in the streets to “ring” in the new year like it won’t come if we don’t welcome it. What’s up with the toast thing anyway? Why do we clink our glasses and drink “to” the new year? What does all of this mean???

Sure, I may be cynical but all of this and more runs through my brain each year as I trudge off to yet another party to hang out way past my bed time to watch a ball drop in New York. (which by the way is an hour ahead of my time zone…so I miss it in real time)

Last night I starting thinking out loud. As we were cleaning up the cups and plates just 2 minutes after midnight, in the anti-climatic glow of 2009, I asked this question: “Why is the celebration of the New Year a big deal in almost every culture?” Because it is! Think about it. Every different form calendaring has an inherent New Year’s celebration. So when the people in the room heard me ask this seemingly outlandish question and responded in awe, I asked it another way. “What is it about a new year that is so captivating to human beings?”

Think about it. No matter one’s religious, political, or cultural slant…we are all enthralled with the celebration of a new start, a brand new year. There is something so mystical about the clock striking midnight on January 1st that we gather by the droves to celebrate together. Why?

Why would people cram themselves into time square to listen to the Jonas Brothers? Why would senior citizens, who go to bed every night at 9:30 on the dot, stay up until 12:01? What could possibly drive the entire world to lay aside work, responsibility and schedule to consider the beginning of a new year some sort of holiday? (holiday = holy + day)

And then it hit me… it’s the Gospel.

Though we are fallen and depraved humanity we still have within us this divine imprint because we were created in the image of God. Because of this, I believe we have innate longings and drives that even sin could only mar yet not remove. This fascination with a new year is only a fascination with the Gospel.

Everybody wants a chance to start over. People love to sit down, look back at the past year, all the mistakes and failures and look to the future with hope that it will get better. And even though it is just a chiming of bells in a clock, somehow we believe the one second that separates December and January can cleanse our sins.

The truth is, it can’t. We prove that each year as millions make “New Year’s resolutions” and within a few weeks millions break them just as easily because we are broken and cannot save ourselves.

People need the Gospel.

People long for it. They run from churches and run from the Holy Spirit and His convicting of sin. Though proud humanity brazenly rejects the Gospel in every “Christianized” form, their actions betray their hearts’ deepest need.

The human condition cries out for redemption. The apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:19 that God has entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation by which God appeals to people, through us, to be reconciled to Him.

May 2009 be a year where we love the Gospel…honor the Gospel….live the Gospel…and preach the Gospel. To do this we must first preach the Gospel to ourselves daily, repent of our own sins and live in the wonderful truth that God saves sinners, even us. With and only with this frame of mind will we begin to live on mission… loving God because of the Gospel, loving people towards the Gospel, and restoring our communities and cities with the Gospel.

Emerge or Resurrect

(Originally posted December 9th, 2006)

Whether or not someone believes that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, Savior, or coming King, their opinion does not negate the fact that He did what He said He would do. In Matthew 16 Jesus claimed that He would build a church. Not only did Jesus the Nazarene continue to have a small group of adherents even after His public killing, but almost 2000 years later, He is still the most famous human being to walk the earth with millions upon millions of followers. His name has rung and will continue to ring throughout the ages.

And Jesus declared that He would build a church. And He did. And this Church has stood the test of time. Yes, it has had its moments and “dark ages,” but the Church has stood strong in the face of religious wars, enlightenments, scientific theories and other foes that wished to rid the world of her name. The Church is truly that bethel of strength that Jesus claimed even the gates of Hades couldn’t overthrow.

In a general sense, the Church is alive and active, functioning in the purposes of God and inching closer everyday to that Day when her Head and Husband will come to gather and judge. But is this the case in a more specific sense as we look out upon the landscape of Christianity today where we live? For years now, there have been two extremes that have done more damage than good to the image of the Church.

One extreme is dead and dying. Dead in the sense of spiritual fervor; this extreme denies the power of the Holy Spirit by claiming He no longer distributes His gifts. Their ‘worship’ services have a rote script of stand up, sit down, sing in perfect structure, bow, bend, bore. This extreme is dying (probably better than worse) in the sense that many of those who hold to this school of though have grown old in year and therefore are hopefully going to a place much more exciting than where they left. Between losing numbers through death and losing numbers because of discontent many doors to many meeting places have been shutting.

The other extreme has made an oxymoron out of itself. It has come to be defined by jewelry, fancy suits, big, colored hair, and prosperity messages. These plate-passing prosperity pulpiters claim that their religion which was started by a homeless man, deemed a man of sorrows, and whose adherents claim the desire of total conformity to is now somehow about each Christian’s personal comfort and possessions. Accompanying these ideas are those that spirituality is measured by “the power” that you possess to work miracles, heal the sick, speak in a heavenly language or to be the mouthpiece of God Himself. There is an air of a hierarchy they have created in the election of Christ.

Although both of these camps can be labeled as “extremes,” many Christians have been effected by one or both of them and therefore have a bad taste in their spiritual mouths and resist anyone and anything that in the slightest way resembles either one. Amidst all this, almost out of nowhere is a call to reform. It has been labeled the “Emergent Church Movement” or “Emerging Church Movement” and for many has been another option to the headache that has been created in finding a place to corporately worship, find fellowship, sow financially, and grow in one’s walk with Christ. Though this movement has many different “denominations” in a movement that claims no denomination, those who are in this movement have at least one thing in common. They are looking for “new ways” to do church and to reach the unchurched.

I share in many frustrations of much of those who have positioned themselves with this movement. Useless traditions that were never the plans of Christ have become the centerpieces or our worship services and the “weightier issues” that Jesus warned the Pharisees of neglecting have become our stumbling blocks. Extremes have tainted the waters of pure and holy worship and left many jaded and anti-organized religion.

But for those of us who love Jesus with all our hearts, souls, and minds, we must be about His business. We must stay grounded in the Truth of the Scriptures. We must never neglect to speak unapologetically about the “lost” and not the unchurched; even in the face of offending someone. We must pray earnestly to God and ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to come and resurrect what seems lame and lifeless to so many: the body of Christ, His Church.

We cannot let our generation emerge into a message stemming deep from the its roots of postmodern thought rather than the Truth Jesus and His Prophets and apostles gave us in His Word. We must seek to save that which is lost while at the same time viewing ourselves in sober judgment; found only because of God’s grace. We must understand where we stand before a Holy God: depraved and not good, unworthy and hellbent, guilty and not innocent, incapable of becoming good or saving ourselves. It must be from this understanding that our missiology stems: here and only here.

So I pray, let the Church resurrect to her Glorious state prescribed by Jesus her maker and let those of us who desire this resurrection strive to honor our Lord Jesus Christ above all else. Let our hearts’ desire be a movement of purity, righteousness and peace. And may God receive all the Glory. Amen

Mediocre

(originally posted on personal blog September 3rd, 2007)

Don’t we all dream when we are younger that we will wake up one day when we are older and be average? Don’t we all strive in our hopes and dreams to be mediocre? I mean come on, doesn’t every girl get ready for a date or prom or some big event so she can look plain? Don’t we guys hit the gym day after day so we can look “so-so.”

If you didn’t catch the sarcasm in the above paragraph and are thinking, “sure” then you should ring your call button and we’ll have Tommy come back there and hit you in the head with a tack hammer because you are a retard…(Tommy Boy) Oh I love that movie.

But back to the point. Who wants to be average? Who wants to do anything half-hearted? Who wants to “just get by?” Seriously?

Yesterday at church I taught on the Sabbath. There is so much when it comes to teaching about shabbat, but I only had about 25 minutes so I had to give the condensed version and hit the main points. Marc Sikma would have been proud. After I get done teaching I am in a small group with some high school juniors and seniors. We begin to discuss this issue of the sabbath. When all at once it hits me: “What do we expect?”

What do we expect when we get up Sunday morning? What do we expect to happen? What do we expect to see? What do we expect to experience? The answer I believe for so many is “nothing.” Most of us stay up late on Saturdays just to wake up early, and still tired, to put on our Sunday best to go to a building where we put on a fake smile and extend a fake right-hand of fellowship to keep people at a distance. We then tap our foot or keep a beat on the pew in front of us during a few musical numbers, pass this heavy, fairly empty, metal plate to the person next to us only to get settled to fight off sleep for the next 30 minutes while a man who has given his life to Jesus and wants desperately to see a breakthrough in the Church tries his darndest to convince us that our lives need to change.

We have no expectancy! And its a sin! Yeah. It is. Its a grave, ugly, often glossed-over sin. How can we claim to know the Creator of all the Universe? How can we claim to belong to Him, know Him, have His Spirit live in us and through us and not EXPECT anything when we worship Him? How? Because we are mediocre! We are satisfied to, week in and week out, come to the same place, do the same thing and get the same empty results! We are settled in the fact that our lives suck! We are ok with the idea that we are living joyless lives struggling with our own sin and depravity. We are prideful!

But I don’t want to be! I don’t want to care more about my pride and try to save face with the people around me while I fake the smile and fake the gestures. I want encounter God. I want to be changed in His presence. I want to wake up on a Sunday morning, refreshed and ready to learn God’s word, experience His presence and worship with thanksgiving in my heart! I want to be expectant. I am expectant!

People…we were never meant to live mediocre lives in Jesus Christ. John 10:10 is the proof of Christ’s intentions for our lives. “Life to the fullest” isn’t poetic language for boring, same ol‘ – same ol‘, stale, lethargic, hum drum of an existence. So my advice…pray for revival! Pray for revival of your own heart. Repent of the sin of mediocrity and pray that He forgives you. Want it more than anything. And when you wake up each day, expect the Truth that He has already promised; that He came that you make have life to the fullest. Live there.

Jesus Died…Start Living

Good

(originally posted on my personal blog, November 6th, 2007…one week after my mom passed away)

“For the Lord is good and his love endures forever.”

You can never really understand strength until you lay weak beneath a barbell stacked with weights that you had to have pulled off your chest because you were unable to lift it.

You can never really understand heat until you have laid freezing cold in a tent in the middle of winter will less than adequate clothing and blankets.

You can never really understand the satisfaction of food until you have gone hungry for days letting nothing touch your mouth but a water bottle.

And you can never really understand the goodness of the Lord until you have experienced the depths of the fallen nature of humanity.

This past week has been surreal. I held the hand of the woman who held mine though life’s tough times while it was cold and lifeless. I carried the casket of the woman who carried me for 9 months. I came to a point where I no longer need to offer a prayer for a sick and dying mother.

For the past 15 years my mom battled for life as her body rebelled against it. You see, since the fall of man, so many years ago in Eden, all of creation has been set against the will and purpose of God. The depravity of man is so deep that even the basic units of life that we call cells rebel against God’s purpose. 15 years ago, her kidney’s refused to be kidneys. Five years ago bone marrow refused to be bone marrow. And last Sunday night as she breathed her last breath, it looked as if fallen, sin-sick humanity had finally taken its course.

As I have looked at and pondered this condition we call life, I think of the wretchedness, the horror of humanity. I came into work this morning for the first time in over a week. Still dealing with the grief of a dead mother, I was already at the point of tears. As I sat in a pastoral staff meeting I heard of a possible miscarriage of a close friend. I sat across from a man who spoke of the declining health of both his parents. And then another mentions the fact that hospice has come in to take care of his father. For about 10 minutes that room was the most depressing place on earth.

Death is never easy. Sickness is never easy. When most people are faced with a situation like my mom lived in for a decade and a half, they question the goodness of God. I questioned the goodness of God. But as I looked at the lifeless image of my mother lying in that casket this week, I couldn’t question anymore. I knew in that moment that God was good, is good and will always be good.

The disease of sin came into the world through the conscious decision of one man to rebel against God’s plan. From Adam we have all come and with us came sin. Because of that choice of rebellion, a disease…a sickness of sin that is inevitable became our lot. Each one of us has chosen to defy our creator and choose our own will over God’s. Jesus is God’s goodness. Redemption is God’s goodness. The Gospel is God’s goodness.

None of us know what it looks like or feels like, but when my mom closed her eyes on this side of eternity, she opened them before the Lord. She is seeing things and experiencing things that we sing songs about. She is living forever, never to experience the curse again. Every cell is lined up with the will of God. The pain is gone. The tears have ceased. At least for her.

For now we sit here on earth, filled with sorrow and grief for the loss of a mother, a wife, a friend, a grammy, a co-worker, a daughter, an aunt, and a neighbor. But even in this grief I have seen the goodness of God. Every tear is cried in hope. Every memory a arrow pointing towards the mystery of eternity. Each day a day closer to the end game.

Though much of this is incoherent ramblings…what I mean to say is this. God is good. Amen

When accusations are true

I’m sorry for the recent absence of my writings from this blog. The main reason for my tardiness in writing is that besides a full time job at a church I am also doing full time graduate work through Liberty Theological Seminary towards a master’s degree. Currently, I am taking Greek and World Missions and wanted to share with you something that happened in the class.

If you know me, you know that I am a perfectionist. I hate getting grades less than…well…perfect. I feel that if I do the work, and learn the answers, and am tested correctly, there should be no reason why I should not ace the class. Well, a couple weeks ago we have a “Theology of Mission” paper due. Did you catch that? Theology of “Mission.” There is no “s” there at the end of mission to signify oversees, cross cultural missionary work which is by book definition the meaning of the word “missions.” Instead, I was asked to write a paper on the theology of mission. I did so. And after waiting almost 3 weeks to receive it back, I got it this morning this a big fat 90 as my grade. Under most circumstances this wouldn’t be too bad. But the grading scale at Liberty is 100-94 is an A so therefore I got a middle B…which is really not acceptable…as long as I have done the work, know the material and feel adequately tested. Here is the explanation attached to my paper.

“Although your paper is great treatise on theology of mission, I don’t see you answering properly the questions of the assignment. Your first section deals with what I can consider your presentation on OT and NT texts related to mission. And in your last two paragraphs you deal a bit with mission theology in relation to the church and lay people. However, I don’t see you dealing with God’s nature and mission, nor with the relationship of theology of mission and other aspects of theology, such as pnumatology. As a matter of fact, you have centered your paper around the theme of Christology.”

What were the questions in the assignment that I didn’t “answer properly?

“The paper should explore the following questions:

What are the relevant Old Testament and New Testament texts related to mission?

• How does the nature of God relate to mission?
• How does mission theology relate to other aspects of theology?
• What are key themes and motifs of mission theology?
• How does this mission theology relate to (1) a missionary (2) church leaders (3) lay people not in full-time ministry.”

Check, Check, Check, Check, Check…

First off, let me tell you that this paper was a 5-7 page paper. No way could I begin to answers the depths of the theology question…not in 5-7 pages. The first section of the paper was “A God of Mission.” I didn’t feel the need to write a term paper on how it related to the rest of theology because I used the blanket idea that all areas of theology must flow from mission. So I didn’t get it! To be honest, I was ticked. But as I read the explanation of the grade I began to chill.

I was accused of forming my understanding of the theology of mission on Christology. What?

Were the accusations true? You better believe it!

See, after I wrote the paper I told my wife that I probably wouldn’t get a good grade on it. (So why am I surprised?) When she asked why I told her because I didn’t write a conventional missions paper about being a member of the IMB and going on a short term trip to Mexico or Africa.

I believe that mission has to flow from Christ. If not, it is not mission for Christ.

1 Peter 1:20 tells us that Jesus is the Missio Dei. Jesus has always been and will always be the “Mission of God.” In Luke 24 Jesus takes a couple disciples on a Bible study through the whole Old Testament showing them how everything that has been written has been about Him. He was explaining that He is the center and foundation of all of God’s mission to His creation.

From there, we see that Jesus with a mission. To seek and save that which is lost, to set the captives free, to reconcile the world to the Father, to testify to truth, et. al. Jesus was on mission. That same mission was passed onto us at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and enabled believers to be the body of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5 explains that we are given the ministry of reconciliation. We are partakers in Missio Dei. But not because we are super special and God needs us…but because Jesus has given us His Spirit for the continuation of His mission.

Therefore, and only therefore, mission should always be centered on Christology. So if that is what i am accused of…GUILTY AS CHARGED! Does that mean that I deserve a 90? Sure, why not. If affects my grade I will have another story to tell, blog to write and sermon illustration to preach.

I wrote this not for therapy but for encouragement and challenge to all of you. Everything we do and believe must be centered and formed from our understanding and belief in who Jesus is and the mission that He has put forward. Without Christ as our bedrock we are on shifting sand.

john piper on the cost of knowing and showing Christ

piper posted this today at the desiring God blog:

I suspect Paul’s experience when he was caught up into paradise, while not absolutely normative, is at least a caution: Count the cost before you want to know Christ deeply or show him clearly.”He heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter” (2 Corinthians 12:4). But there was a price to be paid for this extraordinary knowledge.

“To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7). The way this thorn worked was to “beat” Paul (hina me kolaphize). That’s the meaning of the word in each of its other four uses in the New Testament.

But Paul concluded that it was doubly worth it.

First, he did not regret the revelations.

Second, he discovered the price of knowing Christ deeply was also the path of magnifying him clearly.

Jesus told him, “My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). So Paul rejoiced and said, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

Neither knowing nor showing Christ is cheap.

it is truly a magnificent and scary thing at the same time.  i pray that we have the attitude that knowing Christ surpasses any other thing that we could conceive in this life.

this is hitting me

i have been pondering on this statement for the last couple of days.  every time i think on it, it brings a different emotion to me.

“the danger we have is that we want to water down what Jesus said to make it mean something that aligns with our common sense.  but if it were only common sense, what He said would not even be worth while.” oswald chambers

i pray i never boil the word down to common sense, but i fear that is what i have done far to often and because of that i have lost a sense of awe and wonder with it.  it is not common sense rather divine life-giving nectar that flows from the author and perfecter of my faith.  it is meant to give, grow, and sustain me so that i can share it correctly and with energy and enthusiasm.  if it becomes nothing more than common sense then i become easily bored and try to move on to the next thing.  and there is the problem, there is no next thing.

Embracing the Gospel

May 18, 2008 at Sheridan Hills Baptist Church in Hollywood, Florida.

Is the Gospel something that we hear that causes us to walk an aisle, pray a prayer and struggle through life just trying to get to Heaven?  Does the Gospel require anything of us? What does it mean to agree with Paul in Romans 1:16 and say that we are “not ashamed of the gospel?” We explore 2 Corinthians 5 and see what the Gospel does in us and through us. Grab your Bible and get ready; this is 28 minutes of fast paced Bible thumpin’.

paradigm shift: methodology

how do we put legs on this shift?  I am a guy that likes practical things that I can do in situations that seem to be a little abstract.  in further discussion of this I was presented with three factors of a method for this shift by bill faulkner.  my plan is to do a brief overview of these three steps in this post then to take each of them individually and explain them a little more in depth in separate posts.  the methodology of a paradigm shift has three factors: the unchanging text, the ever-changing culture, and the capacity of your context or congregation.  I don’t know about you but these three factors turned on what seemed to be a hundred light bulbs in my head.  I am going to do my best to unpack them and I would love any feedback along the way.
the unchanging text: I think that it is safe to say that the number one problem in evangelicalism today is the lack luster, inadequate approach and love for the Word of God.  like I said in the introduction, biblical living will never become traditional because the more that we sink into scripture the more it changes us.  we must remember the text never, never, never changes but that does not mean that our methods in using it have to stay the same.  scripture is living and progressive, where it is the source of all that it is done, life will flourish.
the ever-changing culture: this is somewhat of an understatement because it seems like things are always changing around us.  the feat of trying to stay up with the latest and greatest will drain us of necessary energy that is needed to preach the Gospel.  but that does not mean that we should not keep tabs on what is going on around us.  granted, culture seems to move faster other places than some, nonetheless we must have a finger on it watching what is going on so that we can engage with it and interact efficiently.
the capacity of your context or congregation: speaking critically of myself, this is what I miss the most.  I want to blaze trails and move forward sometimes at the cost of those around me.  if we are going to effectively shift things to where they need to be we need to understand how much we can handle and how much those around us can handle.  don’t let this stifle personal growth but on the other hand don’t be so far out in front of people that they have no idea where you are or where you are coming from.  tap into the heartbeat of your context.
over the next three posts I will be unpacking these individually with scripture and examples.  I hope that we can see that things need to change but we have a God of order and not chaos and above all there is nothing we can do when it comes to change.  it has to be all about Him.  life flows from God.