Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 3-027 (Leadership Issues)

THE SIMPLICITY OF MINISTRY (Part 2)

by Glenn Daman (from Mikros Vol. 9, No. 1)

[Continued from Part 1 in CLM-3-026]

To understand the leadership we need to recognize the mystery of God using sinful people to accomplish his purpose.

Throughout the pages of scripture we discover repeated testimony to the mystery that God utilizes the least likely people to accomplish his eternal purposes. God used adulterers (David), murderers (Moses), deceivers (Jacob), and the like to fulfill his plan and alter the course of God’s people. He used pagans who rejected him completely (Balaam), even using a donkey to carry his message. Perhaps the greatest testimony of God’s grace is not found in our salvation, but in the fact that God utilizes us in achieving his work. Why a holy God would do so remains one of the great mysteries of ministry.

Too often we evaluate our own and others spirituality by the results we achieve. If someone experiences outward success (or so we reason) it must because they are more spiritual. Conversely, if someone struggles in ministry, and fails to achieve any visible results, it must be because of their lack of spirituality. The result is either spiritual pride or spiritual judgmentalism (whether we be judgmental of others or ourselves). However, if we are truly honest in ministry we realize that none of us are spiritually worthy of anything God does through us. Even though others may look upon us as “great people of faith,” we know differently. We know how carnal we truly are, how much pride corrupts our ambitions, how much we struggle in prayer, how difficult we find daily obedience to be. The apostle Paul, in evaluating his own life considered himself to be the worst of all sinners (1 Timothy 1:15-16) and unworthy of his calling (1 Corinthians 15:9-11). There has never been a single person in ministry who is perfectly qualified to be in ministry (Luke 17:10). Therein lies the mystery of grace.

To understand the leadership we need to recognize the mystery of God using untalented people.

In our age of success and religious celebrities, we often have the misconception that we need to be multi-talented and skilled to be successful in ministry. The tragedy of the church is that the focus today is upon talented leaders rather than faithful leaders. We assume the church can grow only with exceptionally gifted leaders who have certain personality traits and leadership qualities. However, an examination of scripture reveals a different scenario. In scripture, what caught the attention of people concerning those God called to leadership was not their talents and skills, but often their lack of it. When the Peter and John stood before the Sanhedrin to defend their faith, these religious leaders were not impressed with the talents and skills of Peter and John. Instead, they marveled that even with their lack of skill and training, Peter and John demonstrated courage and power that was unparalleled in the halls of the temple (Acts 4:13).

The apostle Paul, while being an intellectual giant, was not a dynamic orator. Rather people were often unimpressed with his speaking ability (1 Corinthians 2:1-5; 2 Corinthians 10:1, 10). In response to the Corinthians criticism of Paul’s personal ministry, Paul warns them against looking only on the surface issues (2 Corinthians 10:7). Rather than seeing his lack of great communicative skills being a hindrance to his ministry, Paul saw it as a key to his success, for people would not base their faith upon his talents and charisma but upon the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:5).

This is not to say that God does not utilize our talents and that we should not seek to improve our skills. He does and we should. Nevertheless, we should recognize that it is not our talents alone that make us effective in the hands of God, but our commonness. The very fact that that we are not super-saints, super-leaders, super-communicators makes our ministry even more powerful, for in the end people recognize it was not us, but God working through us.

This may not offset the natural insecurities we feel in ministry, but it will make us more effective in ministry. The church of today is built on the shoulders, not of the religious celebrities and superstars, but the nameless men and women who lived and served in the trenches of daily life, being faithful communicators of God’s word to the next generation. We owe our faith to those who took God’s redemptive message to the frontiers, who planted small thriving churches in the far reaches of the world. Their names will never be found in the pages of a church history book, but without whose ministry the church would never have had a history to write about.

Even those whose names are found in the pages of church history, whose ministry significant changed the whole course of the church, are often not the super-stars we regard them to be, but common individuals placed in uncommon situations, empowered by the Holy Spirit to perform uncommon tasks. We may be unskilled in ministry but we are never short-changed in serving Christ. We may be like the young boy who had only a small lunch to offer Christ, yet Christ feed five thousand with his little offering. We may not have a vast banquet table of talent to offer Christ, but he does not need it. All he needs is available individuals who give what they have for him to use.

To understand the leadership we need to recognize the mystery of the church.

Perhaps the greatest mystery of all is the mystery of the church itself. For all its organizational structure, the church is not an organization. For all its strategies, the church is not a business. For all its gatherings and interaction, it is not a club. While it may be incorporated, it is not a corporation. The church is distinct from every other human institution, for at its core it is not a static institution, but a living organism. Just as the human life ultimately defies scientific explanation, so the living church resists organizational explanation.

The church is more than an institution, it is a living community where people live, interact and impact one another, where the spiritual health of one affects the whole. Each church has its own history, background, strengths and weaknesses. Each congregation has its own distinct personality, even when existing side-by-side with another church in the same community and the same doctrine. Even each individual congregation is not an entity in itself, but a part of a greater living body, encompassing differing ethnic groups, theological particularities, and cultures.

However, this mystery of the organic interrelatedness of the church not only relates to how a church relate to other churches and how individuals within the congregation relate to one another, but also the relationship the church has with Christ. To be a part of the church is to be in a vital relationship with the living Savior who stands as the head of the church. This speaks not only Christ’s authority over the church, but also his intrinsic relationship to the church. It is this vital union that is necessary for the church to be a living organism (John 15: 1-7) for he remains the source of life. Apart from this union, the church becomes a social institution that is man made and man governed.

Because the life of the church springs forth from the life of Christ, the church becomes a spiritual organization divinely established and determined. This is true regardless of the size of the church, even to the smallest church possible where there are only two individuals to form the community (Matthew 18:20). It is not the size of the church that determines the vitality of the congregation and the legitimacy of its existence; it is the connected to the life of Christ. A church of 25 is just as much a living expression of the body of Christ as a church of 25,000.

To be a leader requires that we realize that the life of the congregation comes from Christ and that Christ is the source of spiritual life within the church. This is especially true in small churches where the pastor may not be a full-time. In an age of multiple programs they conclude they are not a “real church” because they do not have all the ingredients touted as essential to an effective church (whether it be the type of music or the variety of programs). What we neglect to understand is that the church is not about structure or even philosophy of ministry, it is about interrelatedness and spiritual connectedness to Christ and to one another.

Conclusion

When we try to make ministry completely manageable, explainable and comprehendible we inevitably will loose the essence of leadership in the sea of complexity. It is the fact that ministry is mysterious that leads to the simplicity of ministry. For in the vastness of ministry we do not understand we begin to realize what we are called to do, that is, we are called to preach the word and provide a living model for people to follow. This is the essence of biblical leadership.

———————————————————- Mikros is a bi-monthly free e-mail publication of Western Seminary Institute for Small Church Health. Dr. Glenn C. Daman, Editor, may be reached at <>

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