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The Voice of the Church in the 21st Century, by Ray Overend

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The Voice of the Church in the 21st Century, by Ray Overend

by Geoff 25 May 2012 No Comments

The Voice of the Church in the 21st Century

by Ray Overend

Pastor Ray Overend lectured at Christian Heritage College, Brisbane. This article was presented as a paper given at the Contemporary Issues in Ministry Conference, October 31, 2002, at Christian Heritage College, Brisbane, Australia.

Renewal Journal 19: Church – PDF

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An article in Renewal Journal 19: Church:

A new breeze blows through secular academia.

In 1993 John Carroll, Reader in Sociology at Melbourne’s La Trobe University, brought out a book (published by Fontana in London) called Humanism: The Wreck of Western Civilisation. In it he said that the time that Europe put man on the throne instead of God was the time from which Western civilisation began to decline.

Since then postmodernism (the fragmentation that follows humanism) has made an even bigger impact on the sanctity of marriage, on corporate ethics, on liability insurance…in fact on the whole spectrum of private and social life. Western civilisation—founded as it was on the philosophy of the church—is being destroyed from the inside out! Satan too has exploited the weakness of his prey by launching devastating attacks like September 11 and Bali.

Yet in the midst of the postmodern chaos has sprung up from within the secular world—indeed the academic world—the beginnings of a spiritual revolution! Just last year John Carroll brought out a new book called The Western Dreaming: The Western World is Dying for Want of a Story. Carroll, is right now teaching his students through a mixture of concepts, stories and paintings.

Secular university culture is beginning to change! Indeed it is beginning to throw some bright light on the very foundations of Christianity, and on just why the Church has lost spiritual authority in the world.

In Chapter 2 of his 2001 book John Carroll says that the Magdalene story in the Gospels is one of those great expressions of Christian worldview that, traditionally, set the direction of European culture. He says that the 20th Century left us without any such story—except for the Princess Diana story, which has, he believes, an interesting, if minor and hidden, parallel with the Magdalene story.

I do not agree with all of Carroll’s insights into the Magdalene story (if you read his book you will be equally surprised at a few things he says), but to meet such a recognition of spirituality and godliness in a prominent 21st Century secular academic must surely be a signpost to encouraging times! Let’s read the original story in Matt. 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9, Luke 7:36-50 and John 12:1-9! We can leave aside the scholarly debates about the details and recognise simply that there was a sinful woman whose childlikeness of heart struck a chord in the heart of God. [1]

The wisdom of the Magdalene story

Whoever she was, the woman who anointed Jesus in the home of Simon was totally overcome by the wonder of God in Jesus. The importance of the story to Jesus is proclaimed in his words, “I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” (By the way, how often do we tell the story?) Let me set the scene as Carroll imagines it, taking some of his imagery, as he does, from a Raphael painting:

The scene is Magdala, a fashionable resort town by the Sea of Galilee where rich Romans and Jews own luxurious villas, a town known for its urbane morals and religious tolerance. Jesus has accepted the invitation of Simon, a pious local Pharisee who is intrigued by him. He lounges Roman-style at one end of the triclinium couches that border the banquet table on three sides. Simon reclines opposite, his feet being washed by a servant.

There is a commotion among the servants at the villa entrance. Suddenly, the dozen or so other guests around the table are startled to observe a woman bursting through, and gliding her way quickly and silently to stand behind Jesus. The colours of her velvet dress dazzle the stately marble columned room, a flowing ruby patterned with deep-green leaves, and green sleeves extravagantly fluted, embroidered with gold. One of its loose shoulders has slipped down, exposing silky olive skin. She wears gold bracelets, and red toenails draw attention to bare feet. In spite of the casual restraint of a yellow ribbon, auburn hair spills abundantly down her back. Fiery dark gypsy eyes flash around the room, then settle.

Jesus senses her close behind him—he has been watching the wide-eyed stare of Simon tracking her, the host pale and stuttering with rage. Now he looks around and sees this unknown woman sink to her knees, tears from lowered eyes streaming down her cheeks. He recalls noticing her across the street on his way here, how she had suddenly looked at him and stopped, as if she had seen a ghost. She must have followed him.

She is bent low, loosening her hair, which cascades down, obscuring her face. He feels the tears splashing onto his dusty feet, which gentle hands caress, hair wiping them, then being kissed, then wiped again. She never looks up, and he sees her mouth hanging open in voiceless anguish, so pained and empty that she wants to sink out of existence, at the shame of what she has done with her life.

Was it miracle or curse, that infinitesimal speck of time in the street when her eyes were opened? The instant that changes a life, catching her unawares, has been like concentrated acid dropped on tender skin, the more caustic for him having been no more than the mirror. He senses her fighting against a huge weight of humiliation crushing down on her drained and tainted body.

One hand fumbles to find some hidden pocket, from where she produces a small alabaster flask. She uncorks it, and pours rare and costly perfumed oil onto his feet, tenderly massaging, regularly on impulse breaking her motion to kiss them. Tears continue to flow from bloodshot eyes. The large, airy room is filled with the powerful fragrance of myrrh, enough

to induce a dreamy intoxication in the guests if their host’s darkening mood had not infected them.

Jesus recovers from his surprise. He concentrates, bathing her in his own meditative gaze. Now he knows her, and his own mind. Meanwhile, the resentment of Simon spears at him across the table, the host mumbling under his breath that if Jesus were who he claims to be, he would know the immorality of this woman. And to let her touch him!

So Jesus turns to face Simon and poses a riddle. A man is owed money by two others—one owes five hundred denarii, the other fifty. Neither had anything, so he forgave them both their debts. Which one will be more grateful?

Simon tentatively replies with the obvious answer. Jesus tells him that he has judged rightly, but turning to the woman, he launches into a stern rebuke:

Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but she, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. Mine head with oil thou didst not anoint: hut this woman hath anointed my feet.

Wherefore I say unto thee: Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little

Simon flushes bright red with humiliation and rage and confusion. From the moment this gutter slut violated the sanctity of his home, he has been subject to insult upon insult. The great teacher whom he invited in as his guest of honour has offended him, in front of his closest friends and most prestigious associates, all intrigued to meet the rumoured miracle worker. This so-called holy man now indulges that notorious whore’s excesses as if he were one of her after-dark visitors. Not only that, but he makes fun of Simon by posing him a riddle so simple that any schoolboy could work it out, yet punishes him for solving it. Then he questions Simon’s hospitality, which has been proper, it is true, but then this is a God-fearing household that wastes not. And how can the servants be expected to proceed normally with their washing duties when chaos descended from the moment of Jesus’ entry?

Worst of all is the confusion. Simon is an intelligent man, well read, and practised in discussion. He prides himself on his scrupulous understanding. Jesus has just reversed the logic of the riddle, which had love following from forgiveness, with the more that is forgiven, the greater the debt of gratitude. Moreover, the teacher had repeated that logic in his last utterance. But he has deliberately baffled them with this scandal of a woman, forgiving her because she loved. How can that be: has he got it the wrong way round? In any case, we know the nature of her love.

This dear woman who anointed Jesus was totally overcome by the wonder of God in Jesus. It broke her heart and she cried uncontrollably as she saw divine love. God loved her, even her. But what is unique is the purity of her love. Humanly we cannot possibly explain it. Many people talk about the depth of her gratitude to Jesus for God’s forgiveness. But it seems that the divine beauty in the story is that she loved Jesus before she knew anything about his forgiveness. Yes her heart would receive. But she had not come to Jesus to ask for something, even though it would have been appropriate to do so.

Her love was transcendent. It was worship. She didn’t want in any way to “possess” God. She was utterly captivated by the wonder of God in Jesus. She gave her heart to God. And there was not a spark of self-consciousness about her love. It was utterly childlike. Simply, she was blown away. The disciples would do anything for Jesus, but Jesus had this woman’s heart. I personally am still discovering the depth of this. Her attitude was Theistic! Yes, it was transcendent.

The joy of reflection

During the 20th Century, the culture of much of the world’s cities lost transcendence! In some cases the church lost transcendence! Some people do not have a philosophy. Many people, even some Christians, choose not to be reflective. They don’t ask “big” questions. They don’t ask “why” questions. They don’t get a “big picture” of life and creation, let alone of God. Some people—yes even some Christians—have no conscious philosophy of life. We are going to Heaven but we don’t really know what for! Our life can be guided by certain quite unconscious and never examined presuppositions!

Gaining a reflective understanding of Christian worldview enables us to enter fully into the discovery of divine love. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

How many Christians in ministry spend quality time simply beholding the presence of God? Is God more important to us than ministry? Is God more important to us that evangelism and mission? Is the beauty of our relationship with our wife more important to us than our ministry?

This special woman who anointed the feet of Jesus, in opening her heart to pure love, saw God in Jesus. Seeing the wonder of God’s glory and feeling the wonder of God’s mercy and love, she never even thought to say sorry or plead for forgiveness. She was too far down in her life to try any religious tricks. She knew that, within her, there were no answers. But the presence of Jesus captivated her. She was so lost in the love of Jesus and in the vision of God’s purity and truth that her heart simply broke to pieces in a cloudburst of tears. She was totally overcome, transformed and anointed in God’s Spirit (yes, before Pentecost). Her spiritual lights were turned on and she saw God! Heart was plugged into heart. In a staggering moment she saw that God created us first for relationship. I think that is what the story is really about. Unlike Simon she had no religion to overcome.

So is relationship at the centre of our Christianity? Is relationship for the sake of relationship the cornerstone of our worldview? Nothing else will bring the full anointing of God’s Spirit upon us. Nothing else will bring spiritual authority to the church. I submit that Carroll is touching on the very reason why the church has so little credibility in today’s world.

Those who take time out to be reflective will discover a music to life that transcends the wonder of anything they have ever known! We must allow God, by his Spirit, to develop us in philosophical reflection! God wrote the New Testament in Greek and (I suggest) he

planted some of the first Gentile churches in the Greek culture because the Greek people were reflective. In the market place they would sit and talk for hours, in the ancient equivalent of today’s coffee shops. (The Greeks of course also worked!)

Above all else, Christianity means encounter with God. Knowledge without encounter means nothing. But, on the other hand, the most vivid encounter in the Spirit, without a God-given philosophy of life, leaves us almost stillborn. When we talk with people, what do we talk about the most? Do we empathise and discover the person in the person, and the wonders of God in the person? Or do we talk most about the things that we do (which of course need to be talked about too)?

Our Australian culture

The conductor of a well-known French symphony orchestra was asked (on ABC FM by Margaret Throsby) how he would like to live in Australia. He said (quite uncritically) that most Australians (including professionals) spend much of their spare time servicing their house, garden and cars. He owns none of these. He lives in a rented apartment in central Paris. Instead of spending their money on the facilities of a busy suburban culture, his wife and he relax and dine every night down on the boulevard with friends, rejoicing in people, life and creativity. He said that it is in this quietly reflective atmosphere that his music receives its soul and inspiration.

The meaning of life

What does Christ show you to be the first purpose of life? Yes one sentence that keeps coming back to me lately is the three-word sentence in 1 John 4: “God is love.” The verse doesn’t say “God loves”, which he does. Rather it says God is love. As we walk with Jesus and enter into the heart of God, so our heart becomes a little like God’s heart. How could a wonderful piece of music be born of anything but inspiration that comes from divine love?

So all creativity is meant to be inspired by the heart of God—everything from building houses to teaching to running a business or governing the nation. Whatever the practical outcomes—and there must be practical outcomes—nothing has ultimate meaning unless it is birthed in divine love and divine inspiration. Everything in life is meant to flow from our relationship to God! This is true biblical Theism. Talking even of the physical universe Colossians 1:17 says that, “in Christ all things consist.”

That is of course why 1 Corinthians 13 implies that what we do is not as important as who we are. In our Australian culture, many (but by no means all) Boomers (particularly men, and that is somewhat natural) find their identity in what they do. But many of the X generation, and more especially of the Y generation, have questioned this worldview. And, thinking of seniors, well, the standard ‘grace’ for food was often “Bless this food to our bodies, Lord, and us to your service!”, as if at any moment of the day life was first about service. In a course last year one student from overseas shared how in the church in which she grew up, Christianity, as she had heard it, was about two things, belief and service.

Yes, we are saved only ever by the grace of God, and through our personal belief in the death and resurrection of Christ. But the great commandment begins with the heart, and then adds mind, and soul (life) and strength. And John Carroll’s book The Western Dreaming is a wake up call, not only to the contemporary culture but also to the church. The Twentieth Century demythologised the heart of our culture. We no longer dreamt visions or saw beyond the stars. Let me tell you a story of a Year 11 student at a weekend Christian schools conference for 11 and 12 students.

At the end of an evening session I invited my group (we were looking at Christian spirituality and philosophy) to wander outside into the vast and beautiful grounds and just, individually, find a spot and do nothing! Next morning I invited some sharing. This Year 11 girl said:

It was really painful. I’ve had a very full year. I love activity, and, sitting there last night, I longed for something to do. I really hated doing nothing, and it got worse, but I was determined to stay there, doing absolutely nothing.

After a while I glanced up and, through the clearest air I’d ever known, I saw a sky like no sky I had seen before. I was overcome by the sheer beauty.

I so began to enjoy the wonder of it all that I could have stayed there for hours. To my amazement I was actually enjoying doing nothing. I had come through something like the pain of the long distance runner.

But then something even more amazing happened. As time went by, in the joy of the stillness, somehow my eyes went beyond the stars. God opened my spiritual eyes and—I saw God.

May I encourage you to stop and look up!

We can be so preoccupied as Christians that we clearly see neither God nor the people in people. And, because we sometimes have no philosophy, we simply get driven by the secular culture around us! So we must discover the wonder of stopping. We must look up. But, too, we must reflect upon life! We must become philosophical. We must inspire one another to reflect! As a Christian culture we must become more philosophical! And, as God has it, you and I now live in a world that is searching for meaning as never before. It is a culture too that is crying out for meaningful relationship, for genuine friendship. A new coffee shop is birthed every four days in Brisbane. In fact in the CBD alone there are one hundred—bustling with relationship. And, increasingly, movies (from Mr Holland’s Opus to Chocolat and beyond) are reflecting the worldview that, while achievement is essential, ultimately, relationship is more valuable than achievement.

Do you recall in Mr Holland’s Opus, this big-hearted music teacher frustrated because he could not help give and give his time to his students of music, even to the seemingly hopeless, yet, because of it, could never fulfil the ambition of his life to complete the writing of his orchestral symphony? Then you will remember that, some time after Mr Holland had to leave the school, he was invited back to hear an amazing orchestral performance. The story of the movie closed with the words from the students, “We are your opus!” This movie, like Chocolat, is typical of the emergent culture in Western cities.

The coffee shop culture only came to Brisbane in the 1960’s, but by the 1860’s in Vienna there were already one hundred coffee houses. By the end of the 19th Century—the finale of the Romantic and Idealistic periods in philosophy, literature, music and the arts—“the Viennese coffee house blossomed into a place where highlights in Austrian culture were written, conceived, drawn and discussed. In particular it was said of the Cafe Central that it was ‘not a coffee house but a worldview’.” (From Edition Skye, published by Felicia Oblegorski, Vienna)

But if you think some of this talk about ultimate meaning is fanciful, listen to Danah Zohar who lectures at Oxford University in their Strategic Leadership program. In a recent book called Spiritual Intelligence (London: Bloomsbury, 2000) Zohar says:

The major issue on people’s minds today is meaning. Many writers say the need for greater meaning is the crisis of our times. I sense this when I travel abroad each month, addressing audiences from countries and cultures all over the world. Wherever I go, when people get together over a drink or a meal, the subject turns to God, meaning, vision, values, spiritual longing. Many people today have achieved an unprecedented level of material well being. yet they feel they want more. Many speak of an emptiness [inside]. The ‘more’ that would fill the emptiness seldom has any connection with formal religion. Indeed most people seeking some spiritual fulfilment see no relation between their longing and formal religion.

What you see as the most important thing in life defines your worldview. Is it friendship with God? (Do you give God friendship?) Is it friendship with others? Is it your creativity? Is it your career? Is it your ministry? Yes, all of these things, and more, are vital. But the priorities you and I set day by day, and the order in which we place them, define our worldview.

Life demands the continual anointing of God’s Spirit. No amount of philosophy in the human sense will bring us to divine truth or divine love. No amount of unanointed reflection will take us anywhere. But because God is love and is truth, in his fellowship we can feel true love and in his fellowship we can see the truth behind all truths. Humanly, this will always remain a mystery. Our mind is like a magnificent violin. Of itself it cannot make music. But in the hands of an artist it expresses love and truth. The spirit within us, plugged into the Spirit of God, is the artist.

A practical definition of worldview

In our cities there are some very well known chains of hairdressing salons. The hairdressing leaders who run these groups of salons have a certain philosophy for recruiting and training staff.

Periodically a chain will advertise for applicants to attend a kind of “discovery” and “selection” week at their headquarters. On the first day the facilitators will divide, say, 100 candidates into small groups. Then one by one in each group the applicants will share where they are from, a brief story of their lives to date, the things in life that excite them most and their dream for their future. Then in their groups (perhaps over coffee) the girls will engage one another as they “discover” their newfound friends. The experienced facilitators will, in one day, select out those girls who enjoy people. Of course we all enjoy people, in a sense. But the hairdressing leaders are looking for those who spontaneously empathise, that is, those who enjoy other people for themselves, that is, those who find it a joy to “discover” the wonders of other people and therefore who make those other people feel good. In other words, the hairdressing leaders are looking for those candidates who spontaneously and unselfconsciously love other people. This is the first criterion in selecting candidates for training.

Tuesday begins with those candidates who have passed the first and most important test. The facilitators explain that the salons are not first about cutting hair. They are first about relating to people, about giving something to people. Then on this second day the facilitators, through a new series of activities, “pick out” those girls who spontaneously love being creative. There is still no emphasis on ability in cutting styling hair. On this second day the leaders want to know who spontaneously loves playing music, or arranging flowers, or designing clothes, or who spontaneously loves the skill and beauty of playing tennis. The facilitators have ways of selecting those applicants for whom creativity has meaning in itself. They are looking for people who just have to create, people who spontaneously love being creative.

So summing up so far, applicants who naturally empathise with others and whose hearts also love creativity, these people will make good hairdressers for the salons—provided they pass one more test.

In the third stage of the week, the job of the facilitators is to discover who amongst the remaining candidates prefers tennis doubles to singles, who prefers playing flute in an ensemble rather than playing as a soloist—in other words, who, amongst all the candidates, is more excited by participatory creativity than by being alone in creativity. The sound that an ensemble creates is far more than the addition of the individual sounds of the instruments. Music goes into a higher dimension as instruments of different tones play in harmony. And the leaders in hairdressing know that when people are happy together in creativity, an atmosphere is generated that is uniquely wonderful..

So, in the way I have described, a selection is made of hairdressing candidates. The chosen ones are then taught the salon worldview—and hairdressing. The salons are not first about hairdressing; they are first about people. I am not saying that leaders’ eyes are not on money. Of course they are in business. (And business is as much in promoting the purchase of hairstyling products as it is in cutting, shaping and colouring hair.) But these leaders in their field see that business is more than money. Another “get rich” book came out in 1999 by an extremely successful businessman, Brian Sher, called What Rich People Know and Desperately Want to Keep a Secret (Sydney: Pan Macmillan), in which we learn that, if money is our first goal, we will never make much money! There has to be a higher purpose.

The approach of the hairdressing leaders I have described represents a growing awareness in Western society, and certainly in Australia, that there is a higher dimension to life than what modernism and postmodernism proclaim.

Let’s now think of the three things for which the leaders I’ve talked about are looking for in their candidates. First a heart love for others, a true sense of empathy. When a woman comes into a hairdressing salon, what is she looking for? The contemporary woman, of whatever age, is looking for more than a hairstyle. She enjoys unwinding. She enjoys being able to talk with someone who takes an interest in her, who likes her for herself, someone too who is outside her “circle”. She also enjoys being pampered. She enjoys the atmosphere, where all the girls are having “fun” in what they are doing. They enjoy life; they enjoy styling hair.

In short, they enjoy looking after you! They appreciate you as a person, not as a mere customer. You are welcome.

When a girl or woman first enters a good salon, a hairdresser will approach her, introduce herself and offer her coffee and a comfortable place to sit. Then, in an empathic but very unthreatening way, the girl will ask her a few key questions. “Have you had a good week?” After a short time the hairdresser has a “picture” of what makes this woman tick.

When the client comes to the chair, the hairdresser asks her about a style. If it’s her first time in the salon, she is probably looking for an “uplift” from what she has been getting. She might say, “I want something different, but I don’t know what!” The hairdresser (who knows something about her by now) will open a book of styles, flip the pages and say, “How do you like this?” Chances are the woman will say, “That’s fantastic; let’s try it!” During the process of having her hair done, the conversation (never imposed) develops. The client feels “cared” for. She feels that somebody values her. Many women in our society, though they have family and may have many friends, are inwardly lonely.

Finally the client looks at the finished style. It’s transforming. She steps outside feeling like a new person.

A holistic philosophy

Now these hairdressing leaders may or may not know it, but they are seeking to express some of the foundational keys in the biblical worldview! Implicitly they acknowledge that the first purpose in life is relationship—a giving of one’s self to others. Secondly, the purpose of life includes a giving of one’s self to the creating of things that are good and true and beautiful. Thirdly, the unity of hearts is a special joy in creativity. And these three things cover exactly what Genesis shows to be the purpose of life.!

I am not of course saying that God’s anointing rests on the salons I have described. But, through what John Stott and others call the ‘common grace’ of God (as distinct from redeeming grace), there is some measure of spiritual light in everyone born into this world. (John 1:9)

I have taken some time to open up part of the worldview of some significant hairdressing businesses. Such a worldview we don’t always teach in practical terms in our churches! It gives us a real life illustration of a major part of the heart of the biblical philosophy.

Our secular roles on earth are not simply “stewardship”, though they involve that. At a higher level, all creativity—even the driving of a truck—is a ministry of love to God and to others.

Spirituality in secular dimensions

In her 1998 book An Authentic Life (ABC Books) Caroline Jones records the most significant of her Search for Meaning interviews. Very early in the book come these remarkable but deceptively simple words from Australian writer and cartoonist, Michael Leunig:

I watched a man making a pavement in Melbourne in a busy city street: the concrete was poured and he had his little trowel and there was traffic roaring around, there were cranes and machines going, and this man was on his hands and knees lovingly making a beautiful little corner on the kerb. That’s a sort of love and that’s important, that’s very, very important. That man’s job is important and he’s a bit of a hero for doing it like that. So that’s why love is important, because love involves that as much as it involves what happens between people. It’s about one’s relationship between oneself and the world and its people and its creatures and its plants, its ideas. (An Authentic Life, p2,3)

It seems that the man with the trowel rightly saw what he did as a celebration of life. You and I know that all true creativity is a celebration of—God. This is a form of love. Ecclesiastes 3:11 states that God has set eternity in our hearts. What does this mean? As well as living in the space-time world, we are already, every day, connected with eternity, through God’s Spirit!

When we love a beautiful flower we are actually loving not only the flower, but also God in the flower. As in speaking of eternity in time, this is metaphorical language, but do you get the message? When the man with the trowel loves the beauty of what he is doing, he is loving God in that beauty. A hairdresser said to me just the other day, “I like cutting hair!” Although this gifted hairdresser may not know it, this is spirituality.

So while all of our creative joys and responsibilities on earth are part of our stewardship, they are actually more than that. Ultimately our creativity is part of our love for God. In the highest sense, all secular work is born out of relationship. And this explains why our huge corporations based on humanism are falling apart! And, although Christian, some churches are now suffering from the same disconnectedness.

The prophetic voice of the Church

Professor David Tacey, another academic from La Trobe University, in his 2001 book ReEnchantment, challenges the church to see that it will never impact the world for as long as its philosophy contains a humanistic dimension. He says that people do not want to hear about a God “up there” unless they can see a God “in here” (in our heart).

I submit that the fragmentation around us in today’s world is a wake up call for the church to see that everything in life must be born out of relationship. Proverbs 11:11 declares that the lives of those in tune with God bring God’s blessing “upon the city”. As God’s people walk with God and allow a biblical philosophy to dictate priorities, then, and then alone, will revival come upon the church. It is our hearts and our lives that hold the key to revival, not our ministry (much as ministry is needed). Out of revival in the church would come a new prophetic voice to the nation.

With the new yearning for spirituality that our culture is embracing, Australia could see a revival in our nation transcending anything we could imagine!

© Renewal Journal #19: Church (2002, 2012) renewaljournal.com
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Contents: Renewal Journal 19: Church

Redeeming the Arts: visionaries of the future, by Sandra Godde

Counselling Christianly, by Ann Crawford

Redeeming a Positive Biblical View of Sexuality, by John Meteyard and Irene Alexander

The Mystics and Contemporary Psychology, by Irene Alexander

Problems Associated with the Institutionalization of Ministry, by Warren Holyoak

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Jesus, Author & Finisher by Brian Mulheran
South Pacific Revivals by Geoff Waugh

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The Voice of the Church in the 21st Century, by Ray Overend

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Redeeming the Arts: Visionaries of the Future, by Sandra J. Godde

by Geoff 20 May 2012 1 Comment

Redeeming the Arts: Visionaries of the Future

by Sandra J. Godde

Sandra Godde is the Founder and Director of “Excelsia Dance” based in Brisbane, Australia. “Excelsia Dance” is comprised of a Dance School and a Dance Company that seeks to bring heaven to earth and to become a prophetic voice to the nations.

Renewal Journal 19: Church – PDF

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An article in Renewal Journal 19: Church:

Overview:
I        The Challenge
II       A Call to Action
III      The Prophetic Task
IV       Strategies for War: A Battle Plan
V       Barriers to Overcome as Artists who seek God’s Glory
VI      The Final Battle for the Arts

I The Challenge

Where is Christ’s voice in the arts and culture? Who is bringing the Word of the Lord to this generation? Where are the Christian artists, visionaries, film-makers, musicians, actors, dancers, and television producers?

Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men” (Matt 5:13, see also Mark 9:50). Beloved, it is time to know the majesty, the sovereignty, the creativity and the power of our awesome God.

We are in great need of leaders who have a vision for the kingdom of God, a vision that inspires the creation of images and artistic works that will lead people toward Jesus Christ. Jesus tells us, “You are the light of the world” (Matt 5:14, see also verse 15,16). The level of peace, joy, compassion, or justice in our world depends very much on whether God’s people are showing it to the world. All of the arts have tremendous subliminal power to affect cultures and shape history.

The church has, for the most part, underestimated and misunderstood the importance of the arts as a medium for the Spirit of God to usher in his kingdom. It is God’s ultimate purpose to bring all kingdoms (even the performing arts arena) under his rulership. Scripture tells us “You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him” (Heb 2:8). And God promises us that he will reign over all things in the future: “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he will reign forever and ever” (Rev 11: 15b).

Artistic expression is a part of life. Art in all its forms is pervasive and an essential element of our environment. The works of significant artists are powerful and influential. They often guide and instruct the culture in which they are birthed. Artistic works can weaken or destroy the civilisation in which they were created.

The arts can enlarge or trivialise the imagination. Therefore the arts are not neutral; they impact us, and we need to be aware of what they are doing. Art inescapably affects us. Even unworthy forms are always making their impact on society. So what are we, as believers, going to do about this fact? Our place as Christians in this world is meant to be an active one that affects our generation.

We are in a battle for the hearts and minds of people on a global level. We are being bombarded on every front, especially through the media, with images and ideas that are anti-God. Have you ever asked yourself why Harry Potter and endless movies about the supernatural are allowed to take such a stronghold? Has the false theology of religiosity deterred the artist and the visionary from the midst of contemporary Christian culture, leaving big holes for the enemy to stake his territory? Have we made the mistake of defining ourselves only through negatives? What do we stand for? Are we providing a true creative alternative to the culture of our day?

II. A Call to Action

God has called us to redefine the enemies’ boundaries. “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8b). We are to be on the offensive in establishing God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Song, dance, drama and the visual arts are capable of being some of the greatest offensive weapons we have in the body of Christ. In a highly audiovisual generation that is becoming increasingly multimedia oriented in its language, God desires to pour out his divine creativity to captivate the imaginations of this generation. He needs willing and devoted vessels to do so. Worshipping warriors are required for the job. Prophetic evangelism is the way of the future.

We have a responsibility to participate in the affairs of humanity in a positive way, to the glory of our Father. The world should be aware of our presence in the earth (Matt 5: 16) and reap benefits from our very existence as Christ’s ambassadors on earth. The promise to Abraham was that he would become a great and mighty nation and in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen 18:18).

So we must ask ourselves, how are we serving our generation and leading the way to life and godliness through Jesus Christ? We must understand that there is a spiritual element to all human affairs and history. When God’s people are apathetic and do not intercede or stand up for what is right, evil is allowed to gain control of a society.

As Christians we are to be concerned about the fundamental issues of life and the moral and physical condition of our society. What was going on in the spiritual realm during the tragic events of September 11, 2001? What was God saying in the aftermath when many stopped to listen? What is the Lord saying today – to you, your family, your community, and your nation? Beloved, we need to know something of the heart of God regarding these issues if we seek to be relevant to those around us.

III The Prophetic Task

The prophetic task of the arts is to break the silence and speak the truth. It is to let the world know that Christ is alive and he is not silent. So, what does God require of us? Micah 6:8 tells us “…. to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God”. By our obedience we can help establish justice. By our boldness and our devotion to Christ we can unveil injustice and oppression and expose social, political and religious evils.

We can preach repentance to win people back into right relationships with God, and with one another. We can speak of his endless love and mercy. The prophetic task also involves energising God’s people by offering them God’s version of reality: His perspective is the ultimate reality.

We can only know this by His Spirit and through prayer and the study of His Word. We can show God’s possibilities through faith; offer God’s hope in hopeless situations; and encourage people to walk in new levels of obedience and abundant life. By following the ways of God there is indeed the possibility of real justice, love, acceptance, forgiveness and healing. There is a great need to restore God’s people to fullness of life and implant a living hope within them that will withstand all the storms of this life.

The means of mass communication is expanding and what is transmitted through the air waves is vying for your attention. We need to continually pray that God would raise up an army of creative artists and visionaries to lead the way back to the Lord and to conquer and outwit the enemy in his plan to steal the hearts and minds of this generation. We have a mandate to be the voice of God and speak his truth to our own generation. Our message must embody what God is doing now and proclaim what God is saying to this generation. His love endures forever and His character is utterly consistent but He is also creative and unpredictable in the way He reveals Himself. We need to be constantly in prayer to know the heart and mind of God and to be able to know and implement His strategies.

The arts can indeed be on the front-line in global evangelism, winning hearts and minds to Jesus Christ. The enemy of our souls understands the importance of creativity and uses it to compel mankind to rebel against God. Are we going to allow millions of young people to fall under the spell of the Dark Prince? How can we prevent this? We need a vision of the infinitely, superior, awesome Creator who sings a much sweeter and deeper and purer song to captivate our hearts and our souls.

Beloved, has not God promised his children power to transform their society by calling into question the world’s ideas and philosophies (Rom 12:2)? We have been given spiritual weaponry to bring down every thought and idea that exalts itself above the knowledge of God. We need a vision of the awesome, loveliness of Christ; the earth shattering power of a holy God; and the universal power of the cross of calvary. Where there is no vision, the people perish (Prov 29: 18).

The eternal plan of God is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth (Eph 1 :9-10). In the times to come, creativity and boldness will exemplify the front-line in the battle for mankind. And it will be the people who know their God that shall be strong and do great exploits to the glory of God (Daniel 11 :32b). The reward of the harvest will not be for those that sleep or doubt or criticise but for those who turn to God with a glowing faith and allow Him to be all in all.

IV Strategies for War: A Battle Plan

Our objective is to take the gospel to all people throughout the world and to make disciples of all nations. We must constantly refocus our attention to make sure we are on track. We are to win people to Christ and help them become obedient to all that God has commanded. Battles are won when we concentrate our efforts rather than dissipate our energies in too many directions. So seek God for your place in His plan and then be careful to obey all that He shows you. Remember that God has a body of believers and we are all to play a significant part in His overall plan.

Security involves knowing about your enemy and having continual protection against him. It also means having a final line of defence past which the enemy cannot penetrate. For us, this is the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. I believe there are very specific powers and principalities that have controlled the performing arts arena for a long time, and we need to identify what these are and advance forward to conquer these ruling authorities and dislodge them from the high places of power.

We can’t afford to waste time and energy fighting the wrong enemy, for example, criticizing and competing with one another. It’s time to know the real enemy and expose him, for our fight is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers in the spiritual realm (Eph 6:12).

V Barriers to Overcome as Artists who seek God’s Glory

The following ideas are taken from Scott MacLeod’s book entitled Snakes in the Lobby in which he documents a vision the Lord revealed to him regarding the state of the Christian Music Industry and the powers that were seeking to weaken their witness to the world. I believe they apply equally to the whole performing arts arena. Let’s now look at the enemies of our soul with the purpose of identifying and uprooting that which is holding us back from being all that God intended for us to be as artists. In order to reflect the glory of our Father we need to be cleansed, purified, and yielded to God so we can mirror His eternal nature.

Scott MacLeod’s vision entailed a lobby full of Christian artists talking and networking with each other and also showed a plethora of snakes which represented different powers or spirits that were present, drawing people away from a pure devotion to Christ.

The largest snake was SELF PROMOTION. This snake inspired his victims with a hunger to be bigger and bigger. His influence seemed to be ubiquitous. This could be otherwise stated as SELF INTEREST, an excessive longing to be known and recognised by others. It is the main barrier between us and God’s kingdom. It is the striving to establish our own kingdom instead of building God’s kingdom. I believe that to overcome this very deep, magnetic pull that we all struggle with, requires a very deep and real knowledge of God’s love for us personally. When we understand who he is and how infinitely superior he is to us, we can rest in his love for it is more than sufficient for us, and we are content to be hid in the beloved, and then we concentrate fully on building his kingdom, having been fully convinced of his worthiness and greatness. Our own need is met in him.

The second snake to appear was LUST. This was the charmer, the chameleon, changing colours and appearance according to the desires of those under its power. This snake had a hypnotic quality, drawing in its victims by deceptive flattery with the promise of gaining attention and power for themselves by drawing upon his power. Again, this snake appeals to the self-conceit in all of us and must be resisted by reckoning ourselves dead to self and self interest.

The next two snakes were intertwined with each other and they were PRIDE and INSECURITY. These spirits are characteristically found together and cause their victims to vacillate between the two.

One minute they are puffed up with pride and self importance and the next they are wallowing around in the dust with a woeful self-image. Both extremes are ungodly and lack humility. These spirits of pride and insecurity bring misery to those ensnared by them and unfortunately it is hard to break loose from them because pride won’t allow the victim to admit any kind of weakness, insecurity, or feeling of failure. Humility and contriteness of heart is the key to deliverance from these strongholds. Humbling yourself before Almighty God will allow you to receive a healthy self-image based on God’s Word and a reverential fear and respect for The Lord of Hosts.

The next snake to appear was THE FEAR OF PEOPLE. This spirit caused its victims to only be concerned about who was who and how they were being perceived by others. It is a very nervous and agitated spirit that ensnares the one it holds in its power. It is a spirit of bondage that leads to death as the fear of man prevents us from rightly fearing God. It often causes its victims to be paralysed with fear. The remedy to the fear of man is to fear God – to have a revelation of the holiness of God that causes you to reverence him.

On the roof of the lobby was yet another snake called JEALOUSY. This is the spirit of envy that causes its victim to bum up inside with fury and covetousness. It attacks the high places because it wants these high places for itself. It spurs one on with a competitive spirit which is contrary to the spirit of Christ.

There were other smaller snakes hovering around the periphery of the room. They were bitterness, criticism, unforgiveness, self-pity, and self-righteousness. All these spirits cause spiritual blindness and make us helpless and vulnerable to the enemy’s attack. This vision was revealed to show us how we all unknowingly can fall under the powers of the Great Serpent.

The most respectable snake to appear was the SPIRIT OF RELIGION. This snake had a thirst for power and control and included many of the other qualities of pride, insecurity, lust, jealously, self-promotion, fear of man etc. They were all hidden in this big white snake. It is the spirit of self-righteousness and religious pride, an insidious and deceptive power that creeps into the church from time to time. Unchecked this spirit will lead to a spirit of murder. It causes people to do evil or tolerate it, and all along believe they are doing right and even doing God’s service.

Later the SPIRIT OF DEATH made an appearance and caused its victims to be overcome with despair and hopelessness. It causes people to give up, to lose faith, and can result in suicide or other self-destructive behaviour. It can only be overcome with the blood of Jesus and his resurrection power.

Now, we are all probably familiar with these spirits because they have sought to overcome us all at various times. God, in His mercy, reveals these things to us that we might understand and know the poverty of our own spirits and turn to him with utter dependence and reverence. Our gracious Lord reveals these things in our own hearts first, so we can uncover all that is contrary to faith and walk in his light which is the truth that will set us free. God’s conviction comes so as we can choose him and be free from our sin, our self-life, and this world. Being cleansed by his blood and appropriating the power of the cross delivers us from all this wickedness and anti-God sentiments that try to control us.

Humility is something we are required to cultivate. Don’t ask God to humble you – humble yourself under His mighty hand. Humility leads to grace and grace leads to real love and compassion for others who are still spiritually blind. The true light of God’s piercing Holy Spirit renders all other powers inoperative. These snakes are not afraid of you when you are hiding in your own darkness and deception but when you confess the sin in your heart and turn from it, God’s holy presence takes over possession of your soul and sin cannot survive in that environment. Then, you are equipped and prepared to face the outside enemies.

Serpents don’t engage with you in battle when they see you are properly clothed in the armour of God. They are scared of the blood of Jesus and the Word of God spoken with faith. Your faith and fearlessness is terror to them because they know of their condemnation by the righteous judge.

Therefore, to walk in the authority needed to resist evil, one must be fully surrendered to God.

Let love and truth conquer you first before you venture out to conquer spiritual territory for the cause of Christ. You cannot do it on your own. You cannot do it without Him. Learn to allow God to live in you and make his abode in you. Learn to love as the Father loves. Can you love your enemies yet? Can you bless those who curse you? Can you forgive those who have offended you? Are you careful to preserve the bonds of fellowship within the body of Christ? Don’t attempt to do the work of God without the power of God. Let Christ have his way deep in your soul, transforming your character into His likeness, and equipping you with power from on high.

VI The Final Battle for the Arts

The present reality is that the prince of darkness is operating like the Pied Piper in the performing arts realm. He is the power behind a large portion of the music and video industry seeking to shape people’s perception of reality according to his anti-God sentiments and his hatred for the saints of God. There are many ensnared by the hypnotic trance of this prince that was once the covering worship angel of God. But now Lucifer has become Satan and his perverted gifts have brought him down to earth with a fury. His goal is to obliterate anything precious to Almighty God who has become his arch enemy.

Many follow God’s enemy, singing the songs and doing the dances of Babylon. The ways of the world are opposite to the ways of God. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you (1 John 2:15). Even many of the sons and daughters of God have chased after the creativity of the world and are now under the curse of the prince of the power of the air. They have become the tail and not the head. They have stolen glory for themselves and not given glory to God. They have used their gifts for their own gain, worshipping and serving worldly things like prestige, popularity, money, music and dance. They have coveted the praises of people instead of the approval of God. They have had divided hearts. They have left their first love. And God is grieved.

God is looking for worshippers in spirit and truth. His eyes roam the whole earth looking for hearts that are perfect toward him. The Pied Piper is hungry to keep his spiritual territory because he knows the tremendous power of music and the arts.

Beloved, the Lord is calling us to “come out of her”. The Lord is calling His artists to come out of Babylon, “the ways of this world”, and tap into the infinite, creativity of the true and living God.

The Lord is calling all those who have ears to hear to stand before the presence of the Living God, and drink in his revelation and wisdom and inspiration to take the Word of the Lord and feed it to the people, lest they perish under the spell of the Dark Prince. God is looking for people to be his voice. Are you willing? I believe we have to understand what it means to fear God, to walk in his wisdom, to hear his voice, and to speak it boldly and without fear.

The Holy Spirit is wanting to inspire his people with songs and dances of deliverance, healing, and comfort. When we tap into the inspiration that comes from heaven through prayer, our creative works bring life, and connect people spirit to spirit. People can then taste and see that the Lord is good.

All of creation groans for the sons and daughters of God to arise and take their proper authority in the earth by allowing the Lordship of Christ to rule their lives and take over their wills. True worship involves all of our beings and all of our faculties. It is a matter of Lordship – unashamedly declaring Christ as Lord of all. We are transformed as we worship. The Holy Spirit of God brings genuine love in our hearts for others and a sense of community and harmony with one another.

When we seek God for our creativity and inspiration, he charges us with new energy; when we wait upon the Lord, he renews our strength and causes us to rise up on the wings of an eagle. The song and movement of praise and rejoicing in heaven is contagious. There is no fear, no self-consciousness, no inhibitions or bondage. Praise frees us.

Spiritual strongholds are demolished, walls of hostility and division fall, resentment, bitterness and unforgiveness cannot breathe in the atmosphere of heaven and praise. God restores our soul. We begin to laugh and dance and sing like carefree children again. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Cor 3:17).

God is calling forth an army of worshipping warriors who have first conquered the battle in their own hearts and unequivocally given the reigns of their lives to Christ and are ready and willing to follow the Master’s bidding. Soldiers must be obedient. They must be trained, disciplined, and ready to follow commands. The call comes forward from heaven “Let my people go” so they might worship me in spirit and truth.

We must disentangle ourselves from this world, from self, and from sin and be wholly aligned with the purposes of the Most High God. Then a powerful and unified army of holy warriors will emerge all over this earth to cover it with the Word of God and the good news of the gospel. Then he will Come! Christ will return. But not before his gospel is spread all over the earth.

Music and art are primary ways of communicating within our culture. Art is a language that transcends barriers of age, religion, sex, politics, etc., and reaches to the heart. It is a language that uses images, symbols, colour and sound to evoke universal responses from our psyche. We cannot afford to dismiss this means of communication. Our enemy certainly has not.

The anointed arts are one of the most powerful evangelism tools the Lord has given us. May his artists, filled with the inspiration of heaven, the power of the Spirit, and the glory of God resting in their characters, carry the message of the gospel and the presence of our Lord to every corner of this earth. Who will stand and volunteer for the job?

Reference: MacLeod, Scott. 1998. Snakes in ihe Lobby. Morning Star Publications, Charlotte, NC. U.S.A.

© Sandra Godde, 2002.
189 Gaskell Street
Eight Mile Plains, Brisbane QLD 4113
Australia.
Ph: 07 3841 4773
International: 617 3841 4773
E-Mail: heaven7@bigpond.net.au

© Renewal Journal #19: Church (2002, 2012) renewaljournal.com
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Contents: Renewal Journal 19: Church

Redeeming the Arts: visionaries of the future, by Sandra Godde

Counselling Christianly, by Ann Crawford

Redeeming a Positive Biblical View of Sexuality, by John Meteyard and Irene Alexander

The Mystics and Contemporary Psychology, by Irene Alexander

Problems Associated with the Institutionalization of Ministry, by Warren Holyoak

Book Reviews:
Jesus, Author & Finisher by Brian Mulheran
South Pacific Revivals by Geoff Waugh

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Servant Leadership

by Geoff 20 May 2012 1 Comment

Renewal Journal 18: Servant Leadership

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1 Revival,   2 Church Growth,
3 Community,   4 Healing,
5 Signs & Wonders, 6 Worship,
7 Blessing,   8 Awakening,
9 Mission,   10 Evangelism,
11 Discipleship,   12 Harvest,
13 Ministry,   14 Anointing,
15 Wineskins, 16 Vision,
17 Unity,   18 Servant Leadership,
19 Church,   20 Life

Contents: 18 Servant Leadership

Church Models: Integration or Assimilation? by Jeannie Mok

Renewal Journal 18: Servant Leadership – PDF

Book Reviews:
Jesus on Leadership by Gene Wilkes
In the Spirit We’re Equal by Susan Hyatt
Firestorm of the Lord by Stuart Piggin
Early Evangelical Revivals in Australia by Robert Evans

Editorial

Servant Leadership

The great Christian revolutions come not by the discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when somebody takes radically something that was always there –

H. Richard Neibuhr

Challenges facing the church, its leadership and each of us, have always been there – in Scripture, in Jesus’ call and commands, and in the Spirit’s persistent regenerating and renewing of people and communities.

One of the great challenges facing Christians is how we understand and exercise leadership. We all lead. It may be in the home, with our children or youth, in the community, and in the church. Leadership in the church is not just from the platform or pulpit. We’re all involved, and can all take initiatives such as contacting people by phone, over coffee, in home groups or in a huge range of activities such as taking food to the sick or bereaved.

Jesus demonstrated and insisted on servant leadership. To lead is to serve. We lead by serving. Kingdom leadership is fundamentally different from leadership in society. Jesus emphasised this when James and John wanted recognition or prominence (Mark 10:35-45). How do we demonstrate kingdom leadership here and now?

The timely, significant articles in this issue of the Renewal Journal explore some of these challenges in contemporary ministry facing us in the church. The articles were presented and discussed as papers in 2001 at the first annual Contemporary Ministry Issues Conference hosted by the School of Ministries of Christian Heritage College at Citipointe International Christian Outreach Centre, Mansfield, Brisbane.

This conference demonstrated many responses to current challenges. Keen to interact, teachers, students and visitors packed the seminar lounge at Rivers Café, an integral part of Citipointe Christian Outreach Centre at Mansfield. All the conference speakers are involved in leadership and ministry, not stuck in libraries. Most of them are so ministry and people-focused that their research is constantly tested in the lively interface of practice and theory.

Irene Brown examines the transforming power of the kingdom within: the kingdom of God is within you. We can be liberated from the prevailing bondage to Christian law, and made free to really love and serve one another. Jesus insisted on that as the true mark of his followers: “By this shall everyone know that you are my disciples, if you have love for another.” Irene emphasizes that approach in her Christian counselling courses.

Jeannie Mok challenges churches in multi-cultural Australia to embrace our changing context with courage and sensitivity. Our ethnocentric pride or prejudice can increase barriers between people when the churches should lead the way as radical bridge-building communities of compassion and equality. Jeannie co-pastors the multi-ethnic International City Church in Brisbane and is principal of the Asian Pacific Institute which offers a range of multicultural courses. These include the pioneering Pentecostal external studies from Manchester University in England to masters level.

Sue Fairley tackles some sacred cows enshrined in our church traditions. The place of women in ministry and leadership raises temperatures all over the world. Tradition easily suppresses fresh movements of the Spirit who calls and liberates women as well as men to be leaders, missionaries, pioneers, and equal partners in ministry. Many traditions need to be challenged, and Sue does so in her ministry as Principal of Trinity Theological College in the Uniting Church in Queensland. Her article may surprise you!

Susan Hyatt reports on a significant international conference on women and religions. She emphasizes a return to a biblical pattern of equality in ministry and service in her writings and speaking, including ministry with her husband in seminars and publications. Susan’s report provides further insights into the place of women in Pentecostal and charismatic ministry in addition to those quoted by Sue Fairley in her article.

Mark Setch, senior pastor of a progressive Uniting Church in Brisbane, applies his doctoral research on leadership to ministry. He takes seriously Jesus’ command to make disciples – not just make church members, pew sitters, or meeting attenders. Mark is also pro-active in united prayer and ministry among pastors and churches in the Redcliffe area of Brisbane where some leaders pray together regularly, some churches now gather for combined services, and some pastors exchange pulpits.

Sam Hey has been researching and teaching about biblical renewal and revival movements which confront the secularising pressures on all Christian institutions. He applauds Harvey Cox’s conversion from The Secular City thinking of the sixties to the Fire from Heaven thinking of the nineties! A longer version of Sam’s article is available in the Contemporary Ministry Issues Conference Papers, 2001 ($20 including postage). There he gives a slice of his current Ph.D. research with 80 footnotes. Here we reduced that paper considerably, with only 30 footnotes!

Global Reports continue to highlight current developments in revival worldwide and the Book Reviews cover three author-published books which all contain detailed discussions of their renewal and revival themes.

This issue of the Renewal Journal provides inspiring, informative articles which we pray will help you understand and embrace what the Spirit is saying to the contemporary church.

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BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

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BLOGS INDEX 4: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

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Reviews (18) Servant Leadership

by Geoff 20 May 2012 No Comments

Book Reviews

Jesus on Leadership by Gene Wilkes (Wheaton: Tyndale, 1998)

Reproduced here from Renewal Journal 16: Vision – Book Reviews:
Jesus on Leadership by Gene Wilkes

Review from the Foreword by Calvin Miller.

Gene Wilkes knows the literature of leadership but that is not why this book is the finest of its kind in the marketplace. There are four major contributors to Gene Wilkes’s greatness as a scholar and teacher. These same four forces permeate this book and make it a must for all of those who want to become informed and capable leaders.

First, Gene Wilkes loves Jesus. Please don’t think this a mere saccharine appraisal between friends. This simplicity provides Gene his passion to serve both God and his congregation. Further, this love for Christ carries a subtle and pervasive authenticity that makes Gene Wilkes believable. Whether you read him or hear him lecture, you walk away from the experience knowing that what you’ve heard is the truth – the life-changing truth from a man who lives the truth and loves getting to the bottom of things. All this I believe derives from his love of Christ.

Second, Gene is a practitioner of servant leadership. When he encourages you to pick up the basin and towel and wash feet, you may be sure it is not empty theory. He teaches others what he has learned in the laboratory of his own experience. Gene is a servant leader, and even as he wrote this book, he directed his very large church through a massive building program. His church leadership ability, which he exhibited during this writing project, does not surface in this volume, but it undergirds and authenticates it.

Third, Gene Wilkes knows better than anyone else the literature of leadership. As you read this book, you will quickly feel his command of his subject. Footnotes will come and go, and behind the thin lines of numbers, ibids, and the like you will feel the force of his understanding. No one knows the field of both secular and Christian leadership like this man. So Jesus on Leadership is a mature essay. It has come from the only man I know with this vast comprehension of the subject.

Finally, Gene Wilkes is a born writer. It is not often that good oral communicators are good with the pen. But throughout this book, you will find the paragraphs coming and going so smoothly that you will be hard-pressed to remember you are reading a definitive and scholarly work. Books that are this critically important should not be so much fun. Gene Wilkes is to leadership what Barbara Tuchman is to history. You know it’s good for you and are surprised to be so delighted at taking the strong medicine that makes the world better.

Here are the chapter headings:

Down from the head table:
Jesus’model of servant leadership

Principle 1: Humble your heart
Humility: the living example

Principle 2: First be a follower
Jesus led so that others could be followers

Principle 3: Find greatness in service
Jesus demonstrating greatness

Principle 4: Take risks
Jesus, the great risk taker

Principle 5: Take up the trowel
Jesus’ power – through service

Principle 6: Share responsibility and authority
How did Jesus do it?

Principle 7: Build a team
The team Jesus built

And some great quotes from page 2:

All true work combines [the] two elements of serving and ruling. Ruling is what we do; serving is how we do it. There’s true sovereignty in all good work. There’s no way to exercise it rightly other than by serving.
Eugene Patterson, Leap over a Wall

Above all, leadership is a position of servanthood.
Max Deere, Leadership Jazz

The principle of service is what separates true leaders from glory seekers.
Laurie Beth Jones, Jesus, CEO

People are supposed to serve. Life is a mission, not a career.
Stephen R. Covey, The Leader of the Future

Ultimately the choice we make is between service and self-interest.
Peter Block, Stewardship, Choosing Service over Self-Interest

Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
JESUS, Luke 14:11

Reproduced here from Renewal Journal 16: Vision – Book Reviews:
Jesus on Leadership by Gene Wilkes

In the Spirit We’re Equal: The Spirit, The Bible, and Women – A Revival Perspective, by Susan Hyatt (Dallas: HyattPress, 1998).

In the Spirit We’re Equal challenges our thinking about biblical womanhood, as does Susan’s report, “Women and Religions”, an article in this issue of the Renewal Journal.

“Susan Hyatt has an important message to convey: the Bible teaches an egalitarian relationship between men and women which was confirmed at Pentecost. This volume is a valuable resource offering insightful understanding of the ‘real issues’, namely those of power and control,” says Professor Elizabeth Clark of the UK.

Susan Hyatt emphasises the following themes in her book.

What do Pentecostal/Charismatic people need to know about biblical womanhood and how might this theology be imparted to make a vital difference in the lives of God’s people? This question arises in the context of the twentieth-century Pentecostal/Charismatic revival in which a biblically sound, historically informed, Spirit-sensitive theology of womanhood is needed to counter the Church’s traditional theology of womanhood and its hybrids.

Whereas the traditional theology, an hierarchical model, has a record of oppressing women, a Pentecostal/Charismatic theology, an egalitarian model, states that women are equal with men in terms of substance and value, function and authority, privilege and responsibility.

The starting point for such a theology is the message of Jesus as revealed by word and deed in the gospel record. This harmonizes with the revealed will of God in the biblical record, particularly in the writings of Paul and in Genesis, accurately interpreted in terms of authorial intent.

This theology is also in harmony with the activity of the Holy Spirit, particularly in revival history as observed in movements such as the early Friends (1650-90), the early Methodists (1739-1760), nineteenth-century revival movements in America, and the early Pentecostal/Charismatic Revival (1901- 1907).

The Christian belief system must be constructed on the foundation of Jesus’ teaching and the Bible, accurately interpreted and confirmed by the activity of the Holy Spirit in history. This is important because the practical implications of how people think theologically about womanhood affect everything from the fulfilment of the Great Commission to the issue of self-worth and to a myriad of topics in-between. Clearly, the Church needs a way of thinking about womanhood that will result in biblical behaviour by women and toward women in all venues of Christian living. This book explores that option.

This book offers men and women an opportunity to renew their minds according to the revealed will of God about half of the Body of Christ – the female members. Traditionally we have not done this, yet the Spirit is moving in our day to bring our thoughts in agreement with the will of God in many areas, including how we think about womanhood.

Susan Hyatt shows how this is important for many reason, not the least of which is the fact that, as we mature in Christ, we are to think more like him, and he taught that we are all created equal and unique before God.

It is also important that we renew our minds regarding womanhood because Jesus commanded us to go into all the world – to men and to women of all tribes and nations – teaching them to obey all that he commanded. If we are not teaching his truth about womanhood, are we truly obeying the Great Commission?

As important as this is, however, we have a more important calling, and that is to know him. As we abide in him, he gives us assignments. But these assignments are only causes and must never displace the call. The cause is not the call.

Susan observes: “One of the assignments God has called me to – much to my surprise – is to work with him to reform the way we think about womanhood. God is wanting to answer the prayers of his people who are crying out for more – for more of him, for more revival, for more souls, for more! His answer is coming to us in the opportunity to reform our thinking about womanhood. He is asking us to come into agreement with his way of thinking about womanhood. If we embrace it, we become deeper and wider channels for The River to flow deeper and wider into all the earth. Won’t we take the limits off God in our lives and in the Church?” (GW)

A Study Guide and teaching course using this book is also available from Hyatt Ministries:.

Links:
See Susan Hyatt’s article in this Renewal Journal: Women and Religions
Reference to Susan Hyatt in Sue Fairley’s article Women in Ministry..
International Women’s History Project and Hall of Fame
God’s Word to Women
Hyatt International Ministries
Eddie Hyatt’s book: 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity – Review
Mailing Address: P. O. Box 3877, Grapevine, TX 76051 USA

Firestorm of the Lord by Stuart Piggin.

Paternoster & Open Book, 2000.

Dr Stuart Piggin’s book makes scholarship on revival readily accessible with clear principles well illustrated from history, including recent history. He writes as a renewed evangelical, unafraid to embrace the strengths of renewal and to warn against its weaknesses. Australian readers will welcome his extensive use of our own stories of revival.

Stuart’s work as Master of Robert Menzies College and Associate of the Department of History at Macquarie University in Sydney includes being Principal of the School of Christian Studies and of the Centre for the Study of Australian Christianity. He incorporates this rich research culture into his book.

The back cover summarises his approach and content:

Drawing extensively from the theology of Jonathan Edwards and Martin Lloyd-Jones, Stuart Piggin offers a systematic, biblical and pastoral study of revival. He writes from the head and heart, with plenty of lively illustrations and real-life testimonies and quotations. Piggin defines revival, looks at its biblical basis, identifies the marks of genuine revival and studies the phenomenon thoroughly across historical and denominational lines. After laying his groundwork, Piggin offers much valuable and practical advice for revival. Finally he explores the possibilities for God’s choosing to work in such a way again – in the next grace awakening. Revival, he insists and proves, is a firestorm of the sovereign Lord through Jesus Christ in the power of the Hoy Spirit.

This book will enrich the library of any college, student or pastor, and provide ample material for evaluating a wide range of revival movements and phenomena. Stuart rightly emphasises the centrality of Jesus Christ and his redeeming triumph on the cross in all things, including revival, when many people repent and find eternal life, or as Jesus said, have life and have it more abundantly. (GW)

Early Evangelical Revivals in Australia by Robert Evans.

Open Book, Adelaide, 2001. 553 pages.

Reviewed by Dr Dean Drayton

This comprehensive study of surviving published materials about evangelical revivals in Australia covers the period 1776 to 1880.

Robert Evans has taken the initiative to place in reader’s hands reports of evangelical revivals in Australia. Gallons of ink have been spilt telling us about revivals in other parts of the world. Indeed for a long lime it was believed that there had been no revivals in Australia.

There have been many revivals in Australia. The distinguishing feature is that most were local. As Evans points out, Australia has never had a sustained revival involving many local congregations.

I have always been fascinated by the times when people became so aware of the presence of God that they were able to live with a new perspective for their life, a God centred perspective. While at Salisbury in South Australia, I had the privilege of being present in a congregation when there was a time of renewal and conversion. Once tasted this is never forgotten.

Having seen the reality of changed lives, one hopes the Church may discover we live in a time when the dam is empty, but flooding rains are on the way. The proclamation of Jesus Christ as Lord has been the source of life giving floods of grace in many places across our country. Here is direct evidence. We need now to grow the expectation that the Holy Spirit has more than what we have received or accepted as the source of transforming power m human lives.

This book gives mostly the Methodist perspective up to the year 1880. Only the Methodists seemed to have documented such events in that period. Beyond 1880 the perspective widens into other denominations partly because other congregations discovered what could happen with special weekends and preachers opening up again the fountains of God’s holy love.

Here one discovers the importance of times of prayer and preparation, and the amazing accounts of the influence of California Taylor as he preached through the various states of Australia. Robert Evans gives us a thoughtful analysis of the way as time passes the tendency is for the means of revival to come to centre stage rather than the message of the gospel itself.

One may ask, ‘Have revivals had their day?’ As one reads this book one discovers that the form of God’s renewal changes from age to age. The question conies, ‘What is the way we can see again the power of God experienced in the life of ordinary folk?’ This book clearly sets out to let us know what has happened, to grow in the reader the expectation that God can do new things in our midst. So, Holy Spirit surprise us, make us aware of your presence, bring us to our knees with the wonder of knowing you in our midst.

Available from Open Book, or though Christian bookshops.

Evangelical Revivals In New Zealand by Robert Evans & Roy Mckenzie.

Reviewed by Jeff Haines

If you are concerned about what God is doing in New Zea1and, or about revivals, or if you want to consider New Zealand church history from a different perspective, then this is the book to challenge your thinking and move your heart towards God’s desire to see his people revived and the nation awakened.

This is the sort of book that has been needed for some time. We have read about what God has done through reviva1s in many lands and now we have a well written history which reveals what has happened in revivals in New Zealand.

I have studied revival in New Zealand for some time now and I pleased that the authors have captured the essence of each historical period. It is also the authors desire that this history will spur others to discover more fully the events surrounding the times, places and people involved. The extensive bibliographies at the end of each chapter give plenty of scope for further study.

The book covers these three sections:

Introduction – which gives a clear definition of revival (a word which has many different definitions), and describes the purpose of the book.

Part 1 – A history of revival in New Zealand. It has 14 chapters which cover the history of revival from 1814 to the present.

Part 2 – Some basic principles of revival. It discuses the many principles of revival including the need for our involvement, social implications and theological aspects.

Evangelical Revivals In New Zealand is historical, theological and practical. It is refreshing to read a book that presents the many dimensions of revival in an easy to understand manner. The history is enriched by the theological reflection on revival.

Anyone interested in revival, and in the church in New Zealand should obtain a copy of this book. You will discover want God has done in the past, learn the lessons of history, and take advantage of the practical advice plus the help offered in this book. It will stir you to pray for God’s sovereign move in revival again.

$25 from the author Robert Evans, PO Box 131, Hazelbrook, NSW 2779 – bobevans@pnc.com.au

© Renewal Journal #18: Servant Leadership (2001, 2012) renewaljournal.com
Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.

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Contents: Renewal Journal 18: Servant Leadership

Church Models: Integration or Assimilation? by Jeannie Mok

Renewal Journal 18: Servant Leadership – PDF

Book Reviews:
Jesus on Leadership by Gene Wilkes
In the Spirit We’re Equal by Susan Hyatt
Firestorm of the Lord by Stuart Piggin
Early Evangelical Revivals in Australia by Robert Evans

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Disciple-Makers, by Mark Setch

by Geoff 20 May 2012 No Comments

Disciple-Makers

by Mark Setch

Rev Dr Mark Setch adapted this article from his research for his Doctor of Ministry degree at Fuller Theological Seminary titled “Developing Disciple-Makers: Reclaiming our Call to be an Apostolic Disciple-Making Church.”

Renewal Journal 18: Servant Leadership – PDF

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An article in Renewal Journal 18: Servant Leadership:

Before ascending into heaven the Risen Christ gave his disciples a commission. They were to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). Within the Acts of the Apostles, Luke records the results of the early church’s obedience to Jesus’ commission. As people sent into the world by Jesus, they made disciples. The early church grew because those disciples in turn made more disciples, who made more disciples.

At the beginning of the third millennium the mainline denominational church is in crisis. Over the last twenty years membership has been in decline. In recent years this decline has become more significant. Declining numbers lead many commentators to conclude that our world in its twenty-first century is post-Christian; they allege the Christian church has outlived its usefulness and has no prominent place in a postmodern world. There is, however, growing evidence to suggest that this conclusion is inaccurate. Alongside the declining mainline church, there is an emerging twenty-first century church which is vital, dynamic, healthy, and growing.

Why are some churches growing while others are fading into oblivion? It is my conviction that declining churches are those in which the Great Commission has lost its power. Going into the world is no longer a priority. Instead, the evangelistic focus (if one exists) is that of inviting people to come and be a part of the congregation. The problem is that fewer people are accepting the invitation. Mission is often framed by covert concerns which seek to protect the church from being infiltrated by the culture of our postmodern world. Consequently, the culture of the church is usually set apart and distinct from the culture of the world in which people live, work, and recreate.

For many unchurched members of our population, there appears to be little reason or relevance to include the church as a central part of life. Even though life includes pain and struggle, and a desperate search for hope and meaning, the established church is generally not perceived as providing answers to life’s questions. Furthermore, disciple-making within these churches is not perceived as being the responsibility of everyday Christians. It is perceived to be the responsibility of ordained clergy, leaders, and those who are more evangelistically inclined. Disciples are no longer making disciples, who in turn make more disciples.

On the other hand, healthy and dynamic churches are those in which the Great Commission has reclaimed its power. Evangelism is given a high priority. Rather than being focused on trying to get people into the church, the vision of these congregations is to take their church into the world. The mission of these congregations is driven by the challenge of incarnating the timeless gospel of Jesus Christ into the culture of our postmodern world. In other words, they are functioning as apostolic (sent) churches. Disciple-making is not the responsibility of a select few. Every Christian is called to make disciples, who are disciple-makers; therefore disciples multiply. These churches develop apostolic disciple-making congregations.

This paper articulates a call for the Church of Jesus Christ to reclaim the Great Commission and become an apostolic disciple-making church. Such a church will enter the postmodern twenty-first century world and develop disciple-makers. For many people this represents a new and different paradigm for understanding and experiencing both church and discipleship. It involves a paradigm shift which is essential if local church congregations and denominations are to become a healthy and vibrant part of the emerging church of the twenty-first century.

In order to illustrate the facets of this paradigm shift, this paper will be divided into three sections. Firstly, I will present a disciple-making theology of discipleship. Secondly I will present a disciple-making theology of the church. Finally I will describe some of the current research into growing vital churches, concluding that this research in fact supports an apostolic disciple-making paradigm of the church.

1. A disciple-making theology of discipleship

The Great Commission encapsulates the primary call on the life of the Christian to make disciples, who in turn make more disciples. When this is not happening, the church stagnates. Similarly, congregations will not grow in vitality and numbers when their evangelism strategies are based on a passive philosophy of ‘come and join us’, rather than on an active one, ‘go into the world.’

The challenge which is therefore facing the church today is to reclaim the power of the Great Commission. To do this involves two interrelated paradigms. The Great Commission demands an apostolic paradigm of the church. An apostle is one who is sent. An apostolic church is therefore a church which is sent into the world. This is the focus of the next section. It also demands a disciple-making paradigm of discipleship, which emphasises multiplication of disciples as opposed to the mere addition of disciples. This paradigm is the focus of the following discussion.

The Great Commission as the Christian’s Primary Call

Within the Gospel according to Matthew, it is recorded that before ascending into heaven, the risen Jesus gave his disciples a commission. The commission was delivered in this way:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20).

While only Matthew presents the commission as succinctly and as clearly as this, each of the other Gospel writers record the Risen Jesus as sending his disciples into the world to make more disciples. Jesus sent his disciples into the world to bear witness to what he taught them in word and action. He called them to continue his ministry of proclaiming the kingdom of God. He knew that the only way in which this ministry would continue throughout the ages is by his disciples making disciples, who in turn make more disciples. Jesus promised that he would be present with them through the empowering of the Holy Spirit to fulfil this ministry of disciple-making.

The Great Commission therefore reflects the primary call on the life of the Christian to make disciples, who are disciple-makers. In other words, true discipleship is about multiplying disciples. What then is a disciple? How does one ‘make disciples’? To understand the power of Jesus’ command to go and make disciples, the dynamic inherent in the term ‘disciple’ needs to be understood. Only then can we appreciate what it means to ‘make’ one, and therefore capture what Jesus is commissioning us to do.

Multiplying Disciples

Within the New Testament, four key Greek words and their cognates are connected with the word ‘disciple’: akoloutheo, follow; mathetes, learner, pupil, disciple; mimeomai, imitate, follow; and opiso, behind, after. A study of these words reveals that Jesus’ call to discipleship was decisive, inclusive, permanent, and active.[1] A disciple is someone who responds to Jesus’ all-inclusive and unconditional call to follow him. Disciples follows Jesus by learning and applying his teachings so that the values, attitudes and actions of Jesus are reflected in the disciple’s own life. Ogden provides a succinct definition of disciple which encapsulates these characteristics. He states that “a disciple is one who responds in faith and obedience to the gracious call of Jesus Christ. Being a disciple is a lifelong process of dying to self, while allowing Jesus Christ to come alive in us.”[2]

However, a disciple is also someone who goes and makes disciples, who makes more disciples. In other words, the command to ‘make disciples’ is not fulfilled unless those who have become disciples are discipled in such a way that they themselves are eventually making more disciples. Thus, according to the Great Commission, disciple-making is about multiplying disciples, not adding disciples. More often than not, disciple-making within the church has been presented as a process of addition. This paper argues that the words of the Great Commission commands Christians to make disciples, who in turn make more disciples, multiplying the number of those who are followers of Christ.

Levels of Disciple-Making

Within the Church today, there are at least three different levels of understanding of disciple-making: by clergy, by leaders, by disciples making disciples.

1. The first is where professional clergy are the disciple-makers, while the laity are the disciples.

There is an understanding within many mainline churches that the clergy make disciples and the laity live and serve as disciples. While not always stated as explicitly as this, it is certainly implicit. Loren Mead contends that the clergy-laity dichotomy is leftover from the church in the Roman Empire, subsequent to the conversion of Constantine in 313AD. During this era it was assumed that people were part of the Church by birth, rather than by choice. Ministry became the responsibility of the professional clergy.[3]

This level of understanding is disciple-making by addition- and a very limited addition at that. Any member of the clergy will affirm that pastoral care of a congregation is an all-consuming job. The more pastoral care a clergyperson gives to members of a congregation, the more they expect it from the clergyperson. Therefore, the opportunity to add new disciples – ‘add’ being the operative word – is severely limited by time and the energy of the one or few. Consequently it is no surprise that most clergy admit that only a small minority of unchurched people, with whom they have contact, become regular worshipping members of the congregation.

Despite its gross ineffectiveness, disciple-making by limited addition is still practised in many mainline church congregations today. Hence, these congregations are declining rapidly. Many are extinct and many more will be extinct within a short time. Disciple-making by limited addition is ineffective because it does not reflect the heart of the Great Commission, which is a call to all Christians to be disciple-makers who multiply rather than add disciples.

2. The second is where all Christian leaders are seen as being called and equipped to make disciples.

Rather than being limited to professional clergy, every leader makes disciples. However, they are not necessarily producing disciples who in turn make more disciples.

Ephesians 4:11-12 are pivotal verses in support of this understanding: “The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up the body of Christ.” When clergy are seen as the disciple-makers, the role of the laity is to assist the clergy in their ministry. This scripture conveys the reverse as being true. Leaders are called to equip all Christians for their particular ministry. Christians will minister according to the particular spiritual gifts given to them. Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 8 list some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are distributed to all believers as the Lord determines (1 Corinthians 12:6,11).

This understanding affirms the call of all Christians as ministers who exercise their particular spiritual gifts interdependently with others in the Church. In this way the body of Christ is built up. According to this understanding, disciple-making occurs when leaders empower disciples to exercise their spiritual gifts in ministry within the body. Disciples are made as people discover and begin to exercise gifts of leadership, service, teaching, healing, music, hospitality, and so forth for the building up of the body.

While this understanding of disciple-making is significantly more effective than disciple-making by limited addition, it still falls short of the intent of the Great Commission. According to this level of understanding, disciple-making is equated with helping Christians discover their spiritual gifts and releasing them into ministry. People can be equipped for ministry, and use their spiritual gifts in the church, without intentionally making disciples themselves. For example, through the ministry of equipping leaders, a Christian may discover he or she has the gift of teaching and a passion for ministry with children. However, unless this person is intentionally seeking to make disciples by leading and nurturing more people into this ministry, then the church leadership is left to make more disciples. Equipping leadership is vital for disciple-making, but by itself is insufficient. It is still disciple-making by addition, which again falls short of the intent of the Great Commission.

3. The third level of understanding is where all Christians are called and equipped to make disciples, who make more disciples.

At this level, leaders are called to equip people for ministry according to Ephesians 4:11-12. Those who are released into ministry are given responsibility for making more disciples. It is not only the responsibility of equipping leaders to make disciples, but the responsibility of all disciples to make disciples, who in turn make more disciples. This is disciple-making by multiplication, and it reflects the full intent of the Great Commission. This understanding incorporates the dynamic of reproduction as well as the dynamic of equipping. Churches in which there is equipping leadership and disciples making disciples are vital, growing churches.

A Biblical Theology of Disciple-Making

1. The Disciple-Making Ministry of Jesus

Even a cursory reading of the Gospels, and particularly the synoptics, leads the reader to conclude that Jesus’ primary purpose was to proclaim and inaugurate the kingdom of God on earth. He did this through teaching, through supernatural signs and through human acts which demonstrate the Kingdom qualities of righteousness and justice. However, it is also clear from the synoptic Gospels that Jesus did not pursue the task of proclaiming the Kingdom of God in isolation. Rather than miraculously impart knowledge and gifting to the multitudes that followed him, he chose to invest time into mentoring a small band of followers whom he personally selected to be his disciples. Jesus’ strategy in doing this was obvious. He intended his ministry to continue long after his ascension, therefore he devoted time to making disciples who would continue his ministry. These disciples would in turn make more disciples and so on, in readiness for his return.

The Gospels also reveal the method that Jesus used in making disciples. As stated previously, it began with a call – an invitation to follow him. Jesus then taught them about the Kingdom of God and what it meant to be in relationship with God. The disciples sat with him as he taught the crowds (Matthew 5:1 ff), and he spent time giving them specific teaching (e.g. Matthew 10:5 ff). Jesus modelled the attitudes, behaviour, and actions that he wanted them to emulate. He modelled a heart of compassion (Matthew 15:32-39; and Mark 6:34), and a ministry of healing, deliverance, and miracles (Matthew 8:14, 23-27, and 9:18-25). Jesus taught them about prayer, including praying with a right attitude (Matthew 6:5-15), praying for the lost (Matthew 9:38), and persisting in prayer (Luke 1:1-13). He modelled a life of prayer to them (Matthew 14:23; and Luke 6:12), and revealed his heart for the lost (Luke 15). Jesus challenged wrong attitudes within them (Mark 9:33-37, and 10:35-45), and instructed them to be cleansed from sin (Matthew 15:1-20, and 23:1-36).

Included in this training, Jesus sent them out to do what they had observed him doing. We read that Jesus “called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits . . . So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them” (Mark 6:7,12,13; also Matthew 10:5-42; and Luke 9:1-6). In a similar fashion, Luke records Jesus sending out seventy others in pairs, giving them a similar commission. They also returned, rejoicing because the demons submitted to them (Luke 10:1-12, and 17-20).

As Jesus’ earthly ministry was drawing to a close, he began preparing his disciples to continue his ministry without his physical presence, but with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Within his farewell discourses as recorded in John, chapters 13 to 17, Jesus assures his disciples that after he has gone, they will remain in full fellowship with him through the Holy spirit (14:15-17, and 15:26 f.). People will know they are his disciples, as they continue to serve others in the way that he taught them (John 13:34,35). The final phase in Jesus’ discipleship training is encapsulated in the Great Commission, as he sent them out to make disciples, as he had made disciples of them first (Matthew 28:18-20).

Jesus’ method of making disciples can be summarised as follows: He called them to follow him; he taught, modelled, and ministered with them; he sent them out to minister to others and them come back and reflect with him; he prepared them to minister without him; and then sent them to go and make disciples of others, thus repeating the pattern that he modelled. It was an approach of disciple-making by multiplication.

2. The Disciple-Making Ministry of the Early Church

The early church continued Jesus’ ministry of disciple-making by multiplication. Following Pentecost, the apostles continued to minister in the way they had learned from Jesus. They preached and confirming signs followed; consequently, the Lord added daily to their number those who were being saved (Acts 2:47). However, the fact that the Christian Church still exists today bears witness to the fact that the disciples did more than only preach, teach, and heal. The ministry of Jesus Christ continues today because the early disciples continued his ministry, and made disciples who continued Jesus ministry, as Jesus had commissioned them to do. These disciples in turn made disciples, who in turn made more disciples.

It is not clear within the early chapters of the book of Acts which disciples are making disciples. However we are told that the three thousand who heard Peter’s Pentecost sermon were baptised and began to devote themselves to “the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers” (Acts 2:42). We can assume that many of these new disciples began to make more disciples (Acts 2:47). Consequently, there was a need to expand and diversify the leadership base with the commission of the seven (Acts 6). Consequently, the number of disciples increased greatly (Acts 6:7).

Within later chapters of the book of Acts, we read that it was a disciple named Ananias who laid hands on Saul after his conversion (Acts 9:10, 17). Someone had obviously discipled Ananias, who in turn continued to make disciples. Early in Saul’s ministry he had disciples (Acts 9:25). Barnabas and Saul disciple John Mark (Acts 12:25). We read that together they “made many disciples” and “strengthened the souls of the disciples” in Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, and appointed elders in each church (Acts 14:21-23). Paul also discipled Timothy (Acts 16:1), Erastus (Acts 19:22) and Titus (Titus 1:5).

The disciple-making relationship between Paul and Timothy closely follows the principles that Jesus laid down. Just as Jesus invited his disciples to follow him, so Paul invited Timothy to accompany him as a follower of Jesus (Acts 16:1-3). Paul modelled ministry to Timothy (Acts 16:5, 2 Timothy 3:10-11), taught him (1 Timothy 1:18, and 1 & 2 Timothy), and they shared together in ministry (Acts 16:4-5; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; and 2 Corinthians 1:1). During this time, Paul taught Timothy the things that were needed for him to grow in maturity in the faith. He encouraged him to be a person of prayer (1 Timothy 2:1-4), to continually be cleansed of sin (2 Timothy 2:20-26) and to study the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Paul demonstrated to Timothy the same passion for the lost that Jesus demonstrated to his disciples (1 Timothy 1:12-16, and 2:1,4). Just as Jesus sent his disciples out on their own when they were ready, so Paul did with Timothy (Acts 19:22; 1 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Thessalonians 3:2; and Philippians 2:19).

Most importantly, Paul sent Timothy to make disciples, who would in turn make more disciples. Paul says to Timothy “what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well” (2 Timothy 2:2). Like Jesus, Paul’s method of disciple-making was one of multiplying his ministry by building the kingdom in others, not being merely content to add names to the list of those saved. Paul understood that it was imperative to reproduce himself in those who would follow after he had gone.

21st Century Disciples

In summary, a twenty-first century disciple of Jesus Christ will understand his or her primary call to be that of making disciples who are disciple-makers. They will be men and women of prayer, who faithfully study the Scriptures, who grow in holiness through confessing and repenting of their sin. They will have a heart for the lost, which will motivate them to bear witness to their faith in word and action, through which they will make disciples. Twenty-first century disciples will learn from those who are discipling them how to share their faith with others. They will work with their disciplers in discipling others, and under their guidance will be released to make disciples.

However, twenty-first century disciples cannot make disciples on their own. They need to be part of a disciple-making church. The post-Pentecost disciple-making occurred within the context of a growing Church, sent into the world. It was an apostolic church. Therefore, not only do disciples need to comprehend the full intent of the Great Commission, so does the Church. The Church needs to understand the implication behind Jesus’ word ‘go’ (Matthew 28:18; and Mark 16:15)[4], and ‘send’ (John 20:21), and witness to the ends of the earth (Luke 24:48; and Acts 1:8). This is the focus of the next section.

2. A disciple-making theology of the church

The Great Commission as the Church’s Apostolic Calling

The phrase ‘make disciples’ is not the only important component within the words of the Great Commission as recorded in Matthew 28:18-20. The disciples are to ‘go’ and make disciples. They were not commissioned to stay and make disciples, but to go. They were ‘sent’ (John 20:21). The disciples were only to wait long enough to receive the empowering of the Holy Spirit. After being baptised with the Holy Spirit, they were to bear witness to Jesus to the ends of the earth (Luke 24:49; and Acts 1:5,8).

It is also important to emphasise that this commission was not given to the disciples individually, but collectively. These eleven disciples were the founding nucleus of the world-wide disciple-making community, who would become known as the Church. He purposefully established this ministry of disciple-making in the context of community. The call is for the community of believers to both go forth and make disciples, as one community. The vine and branches allegory of John 15 provides a conclusive reference to the coming community. “The idea of many branches being knit together by being joined by one stem is a vivid illustration of corporateness. Not only can no branch exist without being in living contact with the vine, but the branches have no relations to each other, except through the vine.”[5]

However, it is Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17 that provides the strongest evidence of his intention that his mission continue through his disciples as a unified community, not as individuals. In his prayer to the Father, Jesus says: “as you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18). Jesus’ prayer that the disciples be one (John 17:21-23) clearly emphasises the importance of community for the continuation of the mission of Jesus.

There is no doubt that the mission of Jesus to proclaim the kingdom of God in word, sign and action is to be continued by his disciples in the context of an interdependent community when we consider the evidence: the commission to the twelve (Matthew 10:5-42; and Luke 9:1-6), the commission to the seventy (Luke 10:1-12), and the post-resurrection commission to the disciples (Matthew 28:18-20).

An Apostolic Church

This community of disciple-makers is therefore destined to be an apostolic community, which begins as an apostolic church – a ‘sent’ church. The Greek word apostello means ‘to send’. The word appears 131 times in the New Testament, 119 of which are found in the Gospels and Acts.[6] It is the word used to describe Jesus ‘sending’ the twelve disciples on their mission to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal (Luke 9:2). It is also used to describe the appointing of the seventy and ‘sending’ them off in pairs in mission (Luke 10:1,3). The Greek word pempo which also means ‘send’ is used as a virtual synonym for appostello in John, Luke and Acts.[7] The word apostolos is translated ‘apostle’. Initially referring to the twelve apostles (Luke 6:13; and Matthew 10:2), it described being sent as an envoy or ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20). Later Paul, Barnabas and others are referred to as apostles (for example, Acts 14:14; and Romans 16:7)[8].

The Church of Jesus Christ is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20). In other words, those who are called to the office of apostle (Ephesians 4:11) are not the only ones whom Jesus has sent into the world with a message. Rather, apostles are to give leadership to the building of a ‘sent’ Church. Jesus made this clear in the words of the Great Commission. He did not say to the eleven disciples (also referred to as apostles in Matthew 10:2) “go, therefore and proclaim my message”. Rather, he commissioned them to “go therefore and make disciples”. In other words, he commissioned them to be an apostolic people. The reason that the early Church congregations went a long way towards fulfilling Jesus’ challenge to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8), was because the apostles began to build and lead an church. The apostles went into the world, growing and multiplying a community of believers – believers who were sent, and went back into the world.

Jesus established the church as a disciple-making church. A disciple-making church is an apostolic church. The Great Commission therefore demands a multiplication paradigm of disciple-making, and it demands an apostolic paradigm of the church. Despite the fact that many congregations of most Christian denominations throughout the world confess that they believe in the ‘one holy Catholic and apostolic church’, the majority of congregations of mainline churches do not understand what it means to be an apostolic church. The following section describes three different levels of understanding of the church which exist today. Following this is an apostolic theology of the church and a profile of the twenty-first century church.

The Purpose of the Church

Three levels of understanding about the purpose of the church parallel the three levels of undertstanding of disciple making.

1. The Church as Caring for the People

This understanding of the role of the local church as caring for the people parallels the understanding of the clergy as disciple-makers[9]. Within the Christendom Paradigm, the primary role of the local church is to care for the people who are part of it. A church in which the primary role is caring for the people is a highly institutionalised church. The more people in the congregation, the more clergy are needed, when the primary role of the clergy is to care for the people. The more clergy that exist, the more administration is needed to maintain an acceptable level of care. Administration is also needed to ensure that mission happens overseas or in remote and less fortunate parts of the country. Missionaries need to be trained and funds needs to be raised. The responsibilities, however are taken out of the hands of ‘ordinary’ Christians.

A church in which the primary role is to care for the people is in direct disobedience to the Great Commission, as this understanding restricts disciple-making to the sole responsibility of the clergy. However, the institutional church structures ensure that the primary focus of their time and energy is on those already in the church. A church in which the primary role is caring for the people is an inward focused church, which is in direct contrast to the emphasis of the Great Commission.

2. The Church as Building Up the Body

Declining church attendance, combined with the influence of the charismatic movement, contributed to a different level of understanding of the church. A key part of this change is re-exegeting (or rediscovering) Ephesians 4:11-12: “The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Whereas the second level of understanding of disciple-making focused on the phrase “to equip the saints for the work of ministry”, this second level of understanding of the Church’s role focuses on the phrase “for building up the body of Christ.”

This represents a significant move from the first level of understanding. It is the whole people of God, not the clergy who take responsibility for the building up of the body of Christ. All Christians care for one another, and discover and exercise their spiritual gifts. Paul’s analogy of the church as a body, as expounded in 1 Corinthians 12 and other places, plays a large part in the thinking behind this understanding. In order to be a disciple-making and multiplying community of faith, the church must perceive itself as a body of believers, each with different gifts to be exercised together.

However, this second level of understanding is limited because it tends to see the building up of the body as an end in itself. A congregation may encourage the exercise of the gifts of the Spirit by all members. The fruits of this may be evidenced by creative and diverse worship experiences, and strong ministries for and with children, teenagers and young adults. There may be a small groups ministry which caters for all ages, led by trained and gifted leaders. However, these ministries are often developed with the implicit, or even explicit, assumption that this wonderful demonstration of the ‘building up of the body’ will automatically draw in potential disciples.

Churches which work at building up the body usually do experience seasons of numerical growth. However, analysis of this growth usually reveals the majority of it as being Christians transferring from ‘less exciting’ churches to a church which ‘meets their needs’. Such churches inadvertently send a message which says ‘come and join us’. This message is contrary to the charge of the Great Commission to go into the world and make disciples. Congregations in which the building up of the body is an end in itself fall short of the intent of the Great Commission. Apart from the ‘end in itself’ perception, there are several other reasons why congregations, who embrace this level of understanding, fall short of the intent of the Great Commission.

Firstly, the understanding of the Church as body often exists in parallel with the clergy/laity paradigm. That is, the clergy strongly encourage the discovery and exercise of spiritual gifts by all members of the congregation. However, they are limited by denominational regulations, practices, and expectations of the people.

Secondly, there is often within this level of understanding a strong conviction that mission flows out of nurture. Christian nurture, evidenced by teaching and pastoral care, is seen as primary. Mission and evangelism is ineffective, unless the body is built up through solid teaching and care. Biblical teaching and pastoral care are important and vital to the growth of the body. However, if they are given priority over mission, then mission never happens. For example, many Christians consider themselves to be ‘mature in faith’ (Ephesians 4:13) and do not see it as important to make disciples of others.

The more nurture and fellowship that people receive, the more they demand. The more emphasis that is placed on nurture, whether by clergy or by small group leaders, the more people value having ‘their needs met’, and the less motivated they become to engage in mission. Giving nurture priority over mission encourages an introversion which is at odds with the intent of the Great Commission, which commissions all believers to ‘go’ (Matthew 28:19; and Mark 16:15), to be ‘sent’ (John 20:21), and to be witnesses to the ends of the earth (Luke 24:48; and Acts 1:8). The early church was obedient to this commission, giving mission first priority. As they did this, they experienced nurture and fellowship like never before (Acts 2:41-18, 4:29-35).

3. The Church as Extending the Kingdom

The third level of understanding of the purpose of the church is to continue Jesus’ ministry of proclaiming the kingdom of God in word and action. This is done in the spirit and pattern of the early church, of being sent into the world with the good news of the gospel. The ethos of ‘building up the body’ is vital to this understanding of the church. However, building up the body is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. The end is to extend the kingdom of God by making disciples, who make disciples.

The kingdom of God is extended when the lost are found, and so searching for the lost is the primary focus of the church which is sent into the world. Congregations which reflect this understanding are kingdom oriented, as opposed to church oriented. Howard Snyder expresses it this way:

Church people think about how to get people into the church; Kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; Kingdom people work to see the church change the world.[10]

A kingdom-oriented congregation is an apostolic congregation – a ‘sent’ congregation. It reflects the full intent of the Great Commission – to go and make disciples. The following section argues that the ministry of Jesus and the early church as recorded in the scriptures, articulates an apostolic theology of the church. It is a theology of the church which affirms this level of understanding and purpose of the church. It reflects the full intent of the Great Commission.

An Apostolic Theology of the Church

The ministry and teaching of Jesus lay the foundation for the apostolic ministry of the Church. The book of Acts records the early church continuing this apostolic ministry of Jesus, in obedience to the Great Commission. The apostle Paul, a key apostle and theologian of the early church, continues to develop this apostolic theology of the church, building on the teaching of Jesus.

1. The Apostolic Ministry of Jesus

By first sending out the twelve (Mark 6:7,12,13; Matthew 10:5-42; and Luke 9:1-6) and later the seventy (Luke 10:1-12, 17-20), Jesus not only demonstrates his equipping style of leadership, but role models an apostolic or ‘sending’ component to the ministry. Just as the Father sent Jesus to the world for an apostolic mission, so Jesus sent his disciples to continue in that mission (John 17:18, 20:21). In proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom, Jesus did not remain within Nazareth, but moved throughout Galilee and beyond, eventually to Jerusalem. His mission was apostolic. Two features of this apostolic mission are consistently noted: the proclaiming of the good news of the kingdom, and the miraculous signs which followed.

When Jesus sent the twelve and then the seventy, this pattern continued. He sent them to proclaim the good news and to heal the sick and cast out demons (Luke 9:1-2, 6; and 10:9,17). He commissioned his disciples to be a community of believers who would continue this apostolic mission. They were commissioned to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19), to “go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation” with signs following (Mark 16:15-18), and to be ‘witnesses’ (Luke 24:48) “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Jesus’ apostolic ministry was reinforced with apostolic teaching. This teaching is most clearly articulated in two parables concerning the sowing of seed (Mark 4:1-20, 26-29), and his statement about the harvest (Matthew 9:35-38; and Luke 10:2). Matthew records the following:

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to sent out labourers into his harvest’ (cf Luke 10:2).

Again the pattern of Jesus’ apostolic ministry is noted: proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom, with signs following. However, Jesus is lamenting the fact that there is a harvest of souls for the kingdom, but a shortage of workers to bring in the harvest. He gives a call to prayer – to pray to God for workers, who will be sent into the harvest – first as Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and sent them on their mission (Matthew 10:1-42).

However, a harvest will not come unless seeds are planted. Within Mark 4 Jesus tells a parable of a sower, who sows seed. Some of the seed does not survive because it falls on the path, on rocky ground, and among thorns. However that which fell on good soil brought forth grain, and grew up to yield thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. (Mark 4:3-8). The seed is the word of God (Mark 4:14). Mark then records Jesus’ Parable of the Growing Seed:

The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come (Mark 4:26-29).

What is the clear message for disciples who are disciple-makers in an apostolic church? The disciples are responsible for the sowing, God does the growing, and the disciples then come and bring in the harvest. It is not possible to harvest without first sowing. It is of no use sowing, unless harvesting also takes place to bring in the fruits of the sowing. It is not the sower or the harvester’s role to grow the plants, as this is up to God. The harvester’s role is to take whatever measures can be taken to ensure that the environment is maximised to release its growth potential.

2. The Apostolic Ministry of the Early Church

The day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2 marked the beginning of the fulfilment of the Great Commission. With the coming of the Holy Spirit to give power to witness as promised (Luke 24:49; and Acts 1:8), the disciples responded to Jesus’ call to go into the world. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, began to preach the good news of the Gospel of the kingdom, and three thousand people became disciples. These disciples were baptised, and then “devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42).

The book of Acts is the record of the apostles continuing Jesus’ ministry to proclaim the Kingdom in word (e.g. Acts 2:14-36; 3:1 ff; 4:8 ff; and 8:4 ff), in sign (e.g. 3:1-10; 5:12-16; and 8:4-8), and in action (e.g. 4:32-37; and 6:1-4). Jesus’ commission to ‘go and make disciples’ is obeyed (e.g. Acts 2:37-47; 6:1-7; 8:9 ff; 10:1-44; and 13:1 ff). Peter and the other apostles moved throughout the region, preaching the gospel with signs following. They were fulfilling the apostolic commission that Jesus gave them. They were apostles (apostolos), sent by Jesus to continue his ministry of extending the kingdom of God.

The early church was not only a church with apostles, it was an apostolic church. The apostles, who were sent in obedience to the Great Commission, not only made disciples, but disciples who were disciple-makers. The record of the early church supports this:

That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria . . .Now those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word. (Acts 8:1, 4).

As it was with Jesus and the apostles, the disciples of the apostles were sent to continue Jesus’ ministry of proclaiming the kingdom, and signs followed. The teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer, worship and service, and care (Acts 2:37-47, 4:23-37) were not ends in themselves, but responses to the apostles being sent. They continued the mission of Jesus, going into the world to make more disciples, who were equipped to make more disciples.

3. Paul’s Apostolic Theology of the Church

Upon his conversion, Saul, who later became known as Paul, became one of the most significant apostles of the early church. In his apostolic ministry of teaching, he reinforced Jesus’ apostolic teaching, thus developing an apostolic theology of the church.

Building up the body

As previously stated, Paul affirmed that God gifts leaders for the role of equipping the whole people of God for the work of ministry. Through this equipping, the body of Christ is built up (Ephesians 4:11-12). It is not the people who do the building, but Christ (see Matthew 16:18). Paul states that the church receives its life and authority from Christ as the head of the Church (Ephesians 4:15-16). The church is totally dependant on Christ for its direction and life. This truth is affirmed by Jesus’ statement when he says that he is the true vine and we are the branches (John 15:1-11). He says, “apart from me you can do nothing” (verse 5).

Also, the individual Christians, who are members of the church (the body), are interdependent, rather than dependent on each other. In 1 Corinthians12:12-30, it is clear that each member of the body is assigned a particular gift (charis) to be exercised in mutual giving and receiving, for completing tasks within the fellowship, and in fulfilling its commission to proclaim the good news to the world.

Clearly then, Paul teaches that the individual members of the church, in and of themselves, do not constitute the whole. Rather, the unity of the body, and the life of the body comes from Christ himself: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptised into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:12 f.).[11]

This understanding of the church, as a living, dynamic organism, holding in tension unity and diversity, illustrates the disciple-making call of the church. Disciples cannot be effective disciple-makers on their own, because they do not possess all the gifts, as Christ did. However, disciple-making happens in the church, as disciples together witness and service Christ in the world, and subsequently fruitful disciple-making develops. This does not infer that individual disciples cannot lead others into a relationship with Jesus Christ. However, the ongoing nurture and mentoring of a disciple, who becomes a disciple-maker, is made more effective when it is provided by more than one disciple. It is within the context of the church–the body of Christ–that holistic disciple-making occurs.

Through the equipping of the saints for ministry, God releases the gifts of the Holy Spirit, through which Christ builds the body. Paul gives illustration to this in his statement: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6). In saying this, Paul reinforces Jesus teaching on the parable of the growing seed (Mark 4:21-25).

Extending the kingdom

Paul’s teaching on the Church in Ephesians also clearly emphasises that the building up of the body is not an end in itself. He states that leaders are given to equip the saints for ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ “until all of us come to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). The building up of the body is for the purposes of extending the kingdom of God. This is why Paul tells that Corinthian Christians that the have been reconciled to Christ, and have been given a ministry of reconciliation. They are to be ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17-21). This is why he told the Philippian Christians that it is through God at work within them, enabling them to will and work for his pleasure, that they will shine like stars in the world (Philippians 2:13,15). This is why Paul, in his discipling of Timothy, urged him to pray for everyone, as God desires everyone to be saved (2 Timothy 2:4).

Within these words we hear Paul’s apostolic heart for the church. This is further reinforced in his teaching in chapter one of the letter to the Ephesians. We read that Jesus is not only head of the Church, but head of all things: “And he has put all things under his (Christ’s) feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him which fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23). God has “a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him (Christ), things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:10). God’s plan and desire is that everyone is saved (2 Timothy 2:4). He does not want “any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God’s plan is to be fulfilled through the church, which is to “fully reveal Christ’s headship over the whole created order.”[12]

In commenting on the significance of Ephesians 1:22-23, Frank Laubach makes this statement: “When Christ was here on earth, he was limited to performing his ministry in one place and at one time . . . He healed whoever he touched, but his touch was necessarily limited by time and space . . . As the body of Christ, the Church is Christ’s multiplied hands, feet, voice and compassionate heart.”[13] In other words, as the body of Christ, the Church multiplies disciples who multiply the Kingdom ministry of Jesus. The Kingdom ministry of Jesus is extended when the church functions as an apostolic church–a body of interdependent disciple-makers sent into the world to make disciples, who in turn, make more disciples.

The Great Commission Revisited

It was concluded in the first section that the Great Commission demands the primary call of the Christian to be a disciple who is a disciple-maker. This call requires a multiplication paradigm of disciple-making. This second section now concludes that the Great Commission also demands an apostolic church – a church sent into the world, with leadership that equips people for an interdependent ministry of disciple-making. Through this, the body is built up and the kingdom of God is extended, thus continuing the ministry of Jesus in the world. This requires the church to adopt an apostolic paradigm.

The multiplication paradigm of disciple-making demands leaders who equip and multiply. The Apostolic paradigm of the church demands apostolic leadership. Leadership which is equipping, multiplying and apostolic is life-giving leadership. It demands a disciple-making and sending approach. When this occurs, the power of the Great Commission is restored and the spirit of Jesus and the early church is reflected in the life of the twenty-first century church.

3. Current research into vital churches

Current research confirms that vital growing churches are those which have reclaimed an apostolic disciple-making vision.

Episcopal Priest and President of the Alban Institute, Loren Mead, published a book in 1991 called The Once and Future Church.[14] Mead challenges the mainstream church as continuing to operate within a Christendom Paradigm dating back to Constantine, whereas we live, work, and witness within a Mission Paradigm. In 1996 he published another book in which he identifies five challenges for the church if it is to effectively transition into a mission paradigm: (1) to transfer the ownership of the Church from clergy to laity, (2) to find new structures to carry our faith, (3) to discover a passionate spirituality, (4) to feed the world’s need for community, and (5) to become an apostolic people.[15]

In 1993 United Methodist Minister and Director of 21st Century Strategies, William Easum, published a book titled, Dancing with Dinosaurs: Ministry in a Hostile and Hurting World.[16] As a Church Consultant who travels some 300 days of the year, Easum observes first hand many churches in the United States. He concludes that churches effectively ministering into the twenty-first century are churches where: (1) small groups replace programs, (2) pastors equip persons, rather than do ministry, (3) effective worship is culturally relevant, (4) buildings are not important, and (5) weekday ministries overshadow the importance of Sunday. In addition to this, he lists three essential ingredients: (1) biblical integrity, (2) evangelism, and (3) quality.

George Hunter III, who is a professor at Ausbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, surveyed nine churches within the United States whom he identified as being apostolic congregations. Some of these churches were independent, while others were part of a mainstream denomination. Hunter states that apostolic congregations are different from traditional congregations in fifty ways, but identifies ten distinctive features which account for about 80 percent of the difference, those being: (1) grounding believers and seekers in Scripture, (2) disciplined, and earnest in prayer, with an expectation and experience God’s action in response, (3) understanding, affinity, and compassion for the lost, unchurched, unchurched people, (4) obedience to the Great Commission–more as warrant or privilege, than mere duty, (5) a motivationally sufficient vision for what people, as disciples, can become, (6) adaption to the language, music, and style of the target population’s culture, (7) willingness to work had to involve everyone, believers and seekers, in small groups, (8) advocation of the involvement of all Christians in lay ministries for which they are gifted, (9) regular pastoral care of members through regular spiritual conversation with someone who is gifted for shepherding ministry, and (10) engagement in multiple ministries to unchurched people.[17]

The consistent findings of this research is obvious. However, there are two expressions of current research which have considerable impact throughout the church at present. The first is undertaken by C. Peter Wagner[18], into what he calls the New Apostolic Reformation. The second is undertaken by Christian Schwarz[19], into what he calls Natural Church Development. Findings of this research are consistent with those above. However, they clearly reveal a way of reclaiming the power of the Great Commission through recapturing the apostolic vision of the church and reinforcing a disciple-making by multiplication paradigm, respectively.

The New Apostolic Reformation

Wagner contends that the mainline church crisis exists because their institutional structures represent “old wineskins”[20]. Jesus said: “Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise the skins burst, and the wine is spilled; and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved” (Matthew 9:17). Since Christ began building his church 2000 years ago, it has changed many times in the way that it has grown. With each change, a new wineskin was required. The growing vital churches, which are independent churches, members of apostolic networks, and congregations within mainline denominations, are part of a new wineskin being formed. Wagner calls this new wineskin the New Apostolic Reformation, and local churches whose ministries embrace this as new apostolic churches.

The expression “new reformation” is not new. Greg Ogden[21] and Lyle Schaller[22] recently published books titled The New Reformation, and William Beckham authored The Second Reformation.[23] The first reformation is the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. This reformation was largely theological, whereas the new reformation is not so much a reformation of faith, but of practice. Wagner states that “this current reformation is not so much against corruption and apostasy as it is against irrelevance.[24] The word ‘apostolic’ is used because churches which identify with this movement give a high priority to reaching out in effective ways to the unchurched. Many churches, who identify with this movement, also recognise the New Testament office of apostle as alive and well in the church today.

In observing new apostolic churches, Wagner identifies nine common characteristics, as follows.[25]

New Name. The name of new apostolic churches is more likely to reflect the vision of the church, or the region or community in which it is situated, rather than the denomination.

New Authority Structure. An indispensable quality within new apostolic churches is strong, visionary leadership. Pastors of these churches are perceived as the leaders of the church; whereas in most traditional denomination churches, the parish council or board of deacons lead, and the pastor is an employee.

New Leadership Training. Within new apostolic churches, all members are encouraged to discover their spiritual gifts and use them for ministry, while leaders are mentored and trained through seminars or conferences, or in-house bible schools.

New Ministry Focus. Many denominational churches are heritage driven, with their ministry philosophy being determined by their historical antecedents. Conversely, new apostolic churches are vision driven, being more concerned about where God is leading in the future, than how we lead in the past.

New Worship Style. Contemporary, culturally relevant worship is a key characteristic of new apostolic churches.

New Prayer Forms. A fervent and uncompromising commitment to prayer is another essential dynamic within new apostolic churches. Days of prayer and fasting, prayer walks, and prayer summits will be scheduled on a regular basis.

New Financing. Whereas most mainline denominations are facing a serious funding crisis, new apostolic churches have relatively few financial problems.

New Outreach. The primary focus of the new apostolic church is reaching out to the lost and hurting. Focused, strategic evangelistic ministries, ministries of care and compassion, and new church plants all feature prominently on their agenda.

New Power Orientation. Not all new apostolic churches consider themselves to be charismatic, nevertheless they display an openness to the Holy Spirit and affirm that all of the New Testament spiritual gifts are in operation today. Unlike many mainline denominational churches, they encourage ministries of healing, deliverance, spiritual warfare, prophecy, and so forth.

There is an obvious correlation between Wagner’s characteristics and those identified by Mead, Easum and Hunter III. Even more significant is the correlation between the characteristics of the New Testament apostolic churches, as described in this chapter: strong apostolic leadership; people sent into the world to proclaim the Gospel, with signs following; devotion to the apostles teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers, and the raising up new leaders. It appears as though the profile of a twenty-first century apostolic church includes the characteristics identified by Wagner and others.

Natural Church Development

From 1994-96 Christian A. Schwarz, head of the Institute for Church Development in Germany, undertook what he claims to be the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the causes of church growth. He surveyed more than one thousand churches in thirty-two countries on five continents. Schwarz says:

To my knowledge, our research provides the first world-wide scientifically verifiable answer to the question, “What church growth principles are true, regardless of culture and theological persuasion?” We strove to find a valid answer to the question “What should each church and every Christian do to obey the Great Commission in today’s World?”[26]

Published in 1996, Schwarz’s research identifies eight ‘quality characteristics’ of growing churches: (1) empowering leadership, (2) gift-oriented ministry, (3) passionate spirituality, (4) functional structures, (5) inspiring worship, (6) holistic small groups, (7) need-oriented evangelism, and (8) loving relationships.[27]

Schwarz states his conviction that many Christians are sceptical of church growth because to them it presents techniques which seek to achieve church growth using human abilities, rather than God’s means. In contrast to this, Schwarz presents a different approach to church growth, which he calls ‘natural’ or ‘biotic’ church development. “‘Biotic’ implies nothing less that a rediscovery of the laws of life (in Greek, bios). The goal is to let God’s growth automatisms flourish, instead of wasting energy on human-made programs.”[28]

As discussed earlier in this chapter, Schwarz’s approach recaptures Jesus’ teaching in the Parable of the Growing Seed (Mark 4:26-29). That is, disciples do the sowing and the reaping, but God does the growing. Schwarz’s understanding of church growth affirms the Church as a living, dynamic organism, rather than an institution; thus, his understanding reflects Paul’s theology of the church, as described earlier in this chapter. He sees growth and development resting in principles which promote the health of churches. “Effective churches are healthy churches; healthy churches are growing churches–they make more and better disciples.”[29]

If, as Jesus and Paul emphasise, it is God that does the growing, what specifically can disciples do within the sowing that prepares for God’s growth to be released? The real values of Schwarz’s research is that he addressees this very question. He identifies ‘biotic’ principles which facilitate God’s growth. Three of these principles are particularly relevant to the paradigm of disciple-making by multiplication.

Interdependence. This principle affirms Paul’s teaching of the church as a body consisting of interdependent members. Church structures and practices should encourage an interdependent relationship between each of the various ministries within the congregation.

Multiplication. The principle of multiplication applies to all areas of church life: “Just as the true fruit of an apple tree is not an apple, but another tree; the true fruit of a small group is not a new Christian, but another group; the true fruit of a church is not a new group, but a new church; the true fruit of a leader is not a follower, but a new leader.”[30]

Functionality. This principle asks whether the ministry is bearing fruit, in terms of both quality and quantity. This may appear to be obvious, however, numerous churches have ministries that go on ad infinitum without this type of periodic evaluation process.

When the eight quality characteristics are considered in light of these biotic principles, it is the adjectives rather than the nouns that are important. For example, when the multiplication principles are applied to leadership, they empower the leadership. When the principle of interdependence is applied to ministry, it becomes gift-oriented ministry. When the principle of functionality is applied to a congregation’s organisational structure, it becomes a functional structure. The application of these biotic principles therefore provide a healthy environment for an apostolic disciple-making church to develop and grow.[31]

Conclusion: a profile of the twenty-first century church

While taking totally different approaches, Wagner’s New Apostolic Reformation and Schwarz’s Natural Church Development each affirm an apostolic paradigm of the church and an multiplication paradigm of disciple-making. Each of these is required to restore the power of the Great Commission. Neither Wagner’s nor Schwarz’s research reflects exclusive indicators of healthy, growing churches. However, based on biblical and theological evidence, and the sustained growth of some contemporary churches, it appears as though Wagner’s and Schwarz’s research describe characteristics of apostolic disciple-making congregations.. Thus, apostolic disciple-making congregations reflect the church of the twenty-first century. This is a church which embodies the full intent of the Great Commission.

A mission strategy for an apostolic disciple-making church will therefore reflect the presuppositions of the apostolic paradigm of the church. It will emphasise a primary purpose of being sent into the community. The life of the congregation will reflect an interdependent body of believers, equipped for the ministry of sowing and reaping the harvest which God will grow. The disciple-making strategy will reflect the presuppositions of the multiplication paradigm of disciple-making.

It will emphasise the primary call of each member of the church to be disciple-makers at every level of church life. The disciple-making strategy of Jesus and Paul will be implemented, ensuring growth in maturity of disciples, who make more disciples. The lost will be found. The sick will be healed. The demonised set free. The Kingdom will be extended. And God will be glorified.

References

[1]Colin Brown ed., The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (Exeter, United Kingdom: Paternoster Press, 1986), 480-494.

[2] Greg Ogden, Discipleship Essentials (Downers Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity Press, 1998), 24.

[3] Loren Mead. The Once and Future Church (Washington DC: Alban Institute. 1991). 13-22.

[4] The Greek for this word ‘go’ literally means ‘having gone.’

[5] ibid., 723.

[6] E. von Eicken and H. Lindner, “Apostello”, New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology Volume 1, ed. Colin Brown (Exeter, United Kingdom: Paternoster Press, 1986), 128.

[7] ibid.

[8] D. Muller, “Apostello”, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology Volume 1, ed. Colin Brown (Exeter, United Kingdom: Paternoster Press, 1986), 130.

[9] The understanding of clergy as disciple-makers is described in Chapter One.

[10] Howard Snyder, Liberating the Church (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1983), 11.

[11] A detailed discussion of this is found in S. Wibbing’s article “Body” in The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology Volume 1, ed. Colin Brown (Exeter United Kingdom: Paternoster Press, 1986), 232-38.

[12] Synder, Liberating the Church, 59.

[13] Greg Ogden, The New Reformation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1990), 32.

[14] Mead, The Once and Future Church.

[15] Loren Mead., Five Challenges for the Once and Future Church (Washington DC: Alban Institute, 1996).

[16] William Easum, Dancing with Dinosaur (Nashville Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1993).

[17] George Hunter III, Church for the Unchurched (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon, 1996), 29-32

[18] C. Peter Wagner, Churchquake (Ventura, California: Regal, 1999).

[19] Christian Schwarz, Natural Church Development (Carol Stream, Illinois: Churchsmart, 1996).

[20] Wagner, Churchquake, 15-16.

[21] Ogden, The New Reformation.

[22] Lyle Schaller., The New Reformation (Nashville Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1995).

[23] William Beckham, The Second Reformation (Houston TX: Touch Publications, 1997).

[24] C. Peter Wagner, Churchquake 36-37.

[25] C. Peter Wagner, The New Apostolic Churches (Ventura California: Regal, 1998), 18-25.

[26] Christian Schwarz, Natural Church Development, 27.

[27] ibid., 22-37.

[28] ibid., 7.

[29] Robert E. Logan, Beyond Church Growth (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Fleming H. Revell, 1989), 17.

[30] Schwarz, Natural Church Development, 68.

[31] For a more detailed discussion of the eight quality characteristics and the biotic principles, refer to Schwarz, Natural Church Development, 22-82.

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Women In Ministry, by Sue Fairley

by Geoff 20 May 2012 No Comments

Women In Ministry

by Sue Fairley

Dr Sue Fairley, (Ed.D., Griffith University), wrote as the Principal of Trinity Theological College in the Uniting Church in Queensland, Australia

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An article in Renewal Journal 18: Servant Leadership:

Cultural images do not change easily,
especially those weighted with the aura of sacred tradition.
(Carroll, Hargrove and Lummis, 1983:ix)

If there is one tradition that is heavily weighted with the “aura of sacred tradition”, it must surely be leadership within the church and whether women should be part of that leadership – especially in the ordained ministry.

The distribution of positions of formal leadership in the church has become the focus of concern for many women in recent decades. Women have sought – and in some cases obtained – access to the ordained ministry, a leadership position occupied almost entirely by men during most of church history.

Pentecostal and Charismatic women often demonstrated a biblical recovery of women’s leadership in ministry, both as individuals and also in shared ministry leadership either with a husband or in a team. Aimee Semple McPherson led the largest pentecostal church in the world in the 1920s, built the 5,000 seat Angelus Temple, founded the Foursquare denomination, and raised huge financial and material support for people during the depression and World War II. Kathryn Kuhlman pioneered a new era in healing evangelism from the 1950s. Janet Lancaster, known affectionately as Mother Lancaster, the first Pentecostal pastor in Australia, founded Good News Hall in Melbourne and published Good News for 25 years from 1910. Women have pioneered church planting and leadership in missions for over a century, including in Pentecostal missions.

Pentecostal/Charismatic attitudes

To pick up the perspective of Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity I would like to refer to an unpublished report that Susan Hyatt presented to Hyatt International Ministries in Dallas, Texas in March 2001. She suggests that there is no uniform trend in terms of where women in Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity are heading. Some Pentecostal/Charismatic women are embracing a traditional, subordinate role.

But many others are unwilling to be disobedient to the Holy Spirit by obeying the dictates of distorted Christianity. We are discovering that Jesus taught the equality of men and women in every respect, including substance and value, privilege and responsibility, function and authority. We are uncovering the truth of biblical equality and we are proclaiming it far and wide by every possible means. Nevertheless, we are not driven by such a cause; rather we are seeking to be led by the Spirit in all we do.

Hyatt then shared her own experience as a Pentecostal/Charismatic American woman:

“I enjoy unfettered freedom and opportunity to advance the truth of biblical equality. Pentecostal/Charismatic women know in their hearts by the indwelling Holy Spirit that they are equal with men in terms of substance and value, privilege and responsibility, function and authority. However, because of cultural and religious baggage, most do not know this truth in their heads. This discrepancy between head and heart is the cause of many struggles for Pentecostal/Charismatic women. My job is to give the biblical truth that brings harmony between the heart and the head. My book In the Spirit we are Equal presents an historical and biblical argument for gender equality. Others are also advancing this truth among Pentecostal/Charismatic. For example, the leading periodical for women in the movement in America is Spirit-Led Women. You will notice a recent lead article “Ten Lies the Church has told Women” by a leading male Pentecostal/Charismatic editor and writer Lee Grady. This is an example of an encouraging partnership that is developing amongst some Pentecostal/Charismatic men and women to bring about biblical equality for women.

In general we are seeing two important advances. Slowly we are seeing a release from gender-defined roles for women to gift-defined living. And we are seeing a greater sense of egalitarian partnership between men and women. We are seeing an increase in Pentecostal/Charismatic women taking leadership positions in various areas such as communications and the arts, education (including theological education), business and technology, law and government. Pentecostal/Charismatic women are also increasing their influence in dealing with domestic abuse, pastoral counselling and medical concerns” (Hyatt 2001).

Traditional church attitudes

The Uniting Church in Australia has practised women’s ordination since its inception in 1977. Acceptance of women’s ordination is, in fact, one of the “bases of union”, indicating that congregations will be accepted into the denomination only if they endorse women’s ordination. Persons being ordained within the Uniting Church must also accept that principle.

However, other denominations are still debating the issue and it is causing a great deal of controversy. Before I deal with some of the issues which face women in ministry today, I will explore some of the issues that have been identified in the literature.

The first issue is leadership and gender. In the past two decades the struggle to clarify the foundations for effective leadership in the church has been greatly complicated by the overlay of gender. When social scientists write about differences between men and women, popular culture presumes that these can be translated into gender-based leadership differences. The social science writings by scholars such as Mary Belenky and Carol Gilligan have focussed on the ways in which women differ from men in modes of understanding, psychological development, career paths, and frameworks for ethical decision-making. For many it is a relatively simple leap to presume that gender-based leadership differences exist. From that assumption they then work to develop gender-based theories of leadership.

Roels (1997) has explored a variety of gender-based theories of leadership and she believes that we “limit the flexibility of our responses to changing circumstances when we, first of all, label leadership styles as female or male…Every leader, whether male or female should be encouraged to build a full range of leadership strategies and responses…Both male and female leaders must struggle to find a biblical vision for leadership that diligently avoids the pitfalls of gender-based leadership (p.53). This biblical vision is expressed in Scripture passages such as 1 Corinthians 12 where Paul identifies administrative ability as a specific spiritual gift which is not restricted by gender.

A second significant issue is the controversy over women’s ordination which came to the fore in the last half of the twentieth century. This has occasioned increasing questions that have to do with women’s roles, female character, and sexuality. However, it was not always like that. Women’s leadership in Christianity is a dramatic and complex story.

Jesus himself challenged the social convention of his day and addressed women as equals. Many women were prominent members of his group. During the first and second centuries, when congregations met in homes, women were prominent as leaders. However, by the third century, the processes of institutionalisation gradually transformed the house churches, with their diversity of leadership functions, into a political body presided over by a monarchical bishop. This spelled the beginning of the end for women in church leadership.

Over the next two centuries, the legitimacy of women’s leadership roles was fiercely contested. Opponents of women clergy appealed to a gender ideology that divided society into two domains – the polis (city), a male domain – and the oikos (household), a female domain. This system gave a great deal of power to women in the household while attempting to segregate them from public, political life. This meant that women exercising leadership in churches were usurping male prerogatives. As the church became increasingly institutionalised during the third and fourth centuries, these arguments carried greater weight (Torjesen, 1993).

Understanding why and how women, once leaders in the Jesus movement and in the early church, were marginalised and scapegoated as Christianity became the state religion is crucial if women are to reclaim their rightful, equal place in the church today.

As the architectural space in which Christians worshipped became a more public space, and as the models for leadership were drawn increasingly from public life, women’s leadership became more controversial. Because the public-versus-private gender ideology restricted women’s activities in public life, the new leaders of the church were not as comfortable with women’s leadership in the churches.

From the fourth century to the twelfth-century councils struggled to impose celibacy on the clergy. As Christianity became a state religion and adopted the attitudes toward gender roles of Greco-Roman society, fewer women held church offices. During the medieval period the papacy’s struggle to assert its authority over the clergy let to a particularly perverse and destructive construction of female sexuality. Through the mechanism of the Inquisition a theory of sexuality was created that demonised sexuality be attributing the power of sexuality to demons. The resulting persecution fell more heavily on women than on men (Torjesen, 1993).

The struggle to impose celibacy on the clergy took more than six centuries! By the sixteenth century there was widespread consensus that the monastic system, which had formed a basic structural element of medieval society, had become corrupt. There was widespread disillusionment with monastic life, but out of this disillusionment there evolved a new theology of sexuality. Its most colourful proponent was Martin Luther, who initiated the German Reformation in the early 1500’s with a series of tracts addressed to the common people.

Luther’s argument was based on Genesis 1:27 which states that male and female were created in the image of God. If God created the bodies of male and female, then the body is good because it is a bearer of God’s image. And if the body is good, then sexuality is good (Schick, 1958). When Luther reflected on Genesis 1:28, God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply”, he understood that not only was sexuality good, but, more than that, it was a divine ordinance. Therefore, Luther argued, vows of celibacy were contrary to the will of God and priests should be allowed to marry.

In the end, Luther’s ideas on marriage and child-rearing led to the formation of a new denomination and the split from the Roman Catholic Church. The teachings of the Reformers on sexuality were radical and liberating for women. However, marriage was still seen as patriarchal and women were still deemed inferior to man by nature. When the Protestant reformers, (as they came to be known), abolished monasteries, they enshrined in its place the sanctity of marital sexuality. The new ideal of womanhood became domestic womanhood. The authority and the autonomy of the nun following the religious vocation were undermined. The only true religious role open to women of the Reformation was as a helpmate to a man (Torjesen, 1993).

Major cultural shifts

The reaffirmation of sexuality by the reformers did not restore women to a position of equality with men. It would take many more centuries for this inequality to be challenged. In fact, it was not until the 1960’s and 70’s that many of these issues resurfaced and, for the first time, were really challenged. Why did it occur then, and why did so many women choose to enter the ordained ministry as well as many other traditionally male occupations?

Carroll et. al. (1983) suggest that: “What made the 1970’s watershed years was the occurrence of major social and cultural shifts following World War II, especially during the 1960’s, making it possible for women to consider (or press for) ordained ministerial status as a way of responding to God’s call” (p.8). It is hard to believe that only in the 1970’s did significant numbers of women feel that they were called by God to be ordained. More likely, many women down through the years have experienced a call to the ministry, but have found the opportunity to respond by becoming ordained blocked to them. When ordination was not possible, many of these women expressed their calling to ministry as lay volunteers or in the church-related occupations that allowed women to participate.

Not only has the climate changed to make it possible for women to consider these traditionally all-male professions, but there has also been a major shift in attitudes about the female role. Prior to the 1970’s, and especially in the 1950’s and 60’s, a woman’s role was to be a good wife and mother. Now it is totally acceptable for women to have both careers and families.

A final major shift that has made it possible for more women to enter the ordained ministry is the sharply declining birth rate. Since the early 1960’s this has allowed women the freedom to explore career options that childrearing responsibilities previously precluded. This has meant that many women pursue ministry studies in their mid to late thirties and forties.

However, the shift that has allowed women to respond to a call to ordained ministry does not guarantee that other clergy will accept women into the profession. Neither does it guarantee that they will experience theological education in the same way as their male colleagues.

Women and Theological Education

Getting denominations to accept the ordination of women was one thing but changing the way women experienced theological education was a different matter. This is another significant issue. A quick review of the literature in this field will demonstrate this. In 1980 the Cornwall Collective, composed of women who were working in ongoing projects within theological education, published a book titled Your Daughters shall Prophesy: Feminist Alternatives in Theological Education, outlining feminist criticisms of theological education and proposing some basic revisions, including some alternative forms of theological education. The Cornwall Collective criticized theological education for its division of theory and practice, its organization of disciplines, its reliance on claims of “objectivity”, and its use of the model of university education, which lack any concern for integration or spirituality. They called for theological education to be more holistic, more aware of its political nature, more community-oriented.

Five years later, the Mud Flower Collective produced God’s Fierce Whimsy, a book dedicated to “help” theological education, because the authors of the book found that theological colleges are “arenas in which lukewarm truth and uninspired scholarship are peddled” (p.204). The Mud Flower Collective offers much the same analysis of theological education as does the Cornwall Collective (Chopp, 1995).

The difference between the 1980 Cornwall Collective and the 1985 Mud Flower Collective could be interpreted as revealing increasing frustration at the inability to get feminist issues heard within theological education. This increased frustration, suggests Chopp (1995), identifies as problematic the very same issues that the Cornwall Collective found prohibitive to good theological education. The Mud Flower Collective cites such issues as the politics of education, the role of cultural pluralism, the standards of excellence, the relation of theory and praxis, the role of community, the claims of validity in scholarship, and the structure of theological reflection as the problems for women in theological education.

Thus, the problems of women and for women in theological education are not merely women’s historical lack of participation, but how theological education is defined, formed and structured. Once a critical mass of women appeared in theological education, problems of the structure, purpose, and nature of theological education became more and more evident (Chopp, 1993).

This critical mass of women began to appear in many theological colleges around the world in the 1980s. As Chopp (1993) points out, once the students in theological education were white, young, and male, largely from working or middle-class backgrounds. Raised in the church, many aspired to serve God and become religious practitioners. Now these subjects are few and far between in our theological colleges. Many of the subjects today are women and men who are older and who have not been raised in the church. Lifestyle differences, theological pluralism, and cultural diversity are apparent in the student body of most theological colleges.

Women in theological colleges discovered very quickly that they were affirmed when they indicated a calling toward areas of service that parallel those assigned to the female by Western culture, while they were gently discouraged when they indicated they had other goals such as the ordained ministry. It takes courage to cross culturally established boundaries, and so many women put off “the call” as long as possible hoping it might go away.

The Old Testament provides many examples of people who struggled with the reality of their call to the service of God and the nature of that call. Women can certainly identify with that struggle. Behind them is a long tradition of the suppression of women’s gifts, and surrounding them sometimes is an atmosphere of questioning and suspicion. With few role models women often fight a lonely battle.

The years spent in theological college provide an opportunity for women to think and evaluate but not all women find that experience a helpful one. Some women found that on the whole, male faculty were warm and friendly, but some felt that male faculty were patronizing. It seems as if male faculty were more inclined to treat women seriously if they were academically superior. There was also concern expressed about the selection of textbooks and set readings that tended to be mostly written by male scholars, even though in many fields now there are renowned female scholars.

One of the most common complaints from women is the lack of women faculty. It is still rare to find women faculty members in teaching positions such as theology. This is true in my own experience – I am the only female on our faculty and my area is Christian education. Some women also felt that there is not enough being done in theological colleges to confront both men and women with the sex stereotypes that influence their thinking and acting.

A great deal of research is being done and pressure is mounting to make theological education a more inclusive experience.

In 1997 Kathleen Hughes was asked to present a paper at a meeting of Theological Schools in America addressing these questions: What changes can we expect from a program of theological studies? Is the student potential for change boundless or is it actually quite limited? Is it possible that in a course of studies students moves from very narrow and rigid viewpoints to broader understandings of the tradition of the church and so on? In considering the classroom as the locus of conversion of a person’s beliefs, attitudes, behaviours, values, viewpoints and perspectives, what is helpful in effecting such change?

Hughes (1997) found from her research with exiting women students that the change that happened in them was that all had learned to trust their own human and religious experience as valid and true. Further, they claimed that their intellects were stretched and their powers of discernment were sharpened. “Women regularly have a difficult adjustment to theological studies when they experience themselves as simultaneously a subtle threat to others even while they have little personal self-confidence that they can do theology, learn a new theological vocabulary, and so on. Each of these women said she began her studies wondering ‘Can I do it?’” (Hughes, 1997:5).

Many of the women also indicated similar questioning and doubt. “I am struck by what an awesome responsibility it is and wonder if I am equal to the task.” “I am deeply grateful to the faculty for their affirmation and belief in my call.”

These women actually helped each other to accept their own potentiality. As women students realised that faculty respected them and their opinions, and fellow male students were willing to dialogue with them as equals, their confidence grew. In our college many of the women students are actually the highest achievers.

General issues facing women in ministry today

Let’s turn now to some of the issues that face women in ministry today as we commence this new millennium. I would like to use a Scripture passage as the basis for my comments. It is from Numbers 13:1-2, 17-20, 25-28.

This report of the spies to Moses is one of the earliest “good news – bad news” stories on record. I will to use this passage to highlight some good news and some bad news in relation to issues that women in ministry are facing. We will use the terms “milk and honey” and “giants” to represent the good and bad news respectively.

Milk and Honey: The land now shows many positive aspects.

1. Women who have entered the ordained ministry are generally dedicated and competent individuals who have a strong sense of calling to serve God this way. In the past many of these women would have had to be content to serve as highly committed laity, frustrated perhaps, but resigned to their exclusion from the ranks of the ordained.

2. The situation of women being a curiosity in theological colleges has changed dramatically and most recently graduates found their experience of theological college to be positive. That is certainly true in my research.

3. The job market has improved although there are still some problems. The positive aspects deserve highlighting. Most recent women graduates have not found difficulty obtaining a placement and they have not been sent to declining congregations.

4. As women enter parish positions they are functioning competently as pastors and many have found that males who were not happy to have a woman minister in the beginning have changed their attitudes once they saw that the person was competent. Fears that having a clergywoman would bring on decline in the congregation are not supported.

5. Generally lay leaders have favourable experiences when their congregation is served by a woman pastor. This has had a spin-off effect for other women pastors.

6. Most women in ministry report generally positive relationships with other male clergy and church officials.

Giants: However, the land is not all flowing with milk and honey.

1. Clergywomen still face obstacles to their full participation in the ordained ministry of the church. In almost every instance of “good news” we could probably find a corresponding negative note. Women are less likely than men to be encouraged by either their parents or pastors to consider the ordained ministry. Cultural stereotypes continue to operate and deprive women of needed support at an important time of personal decision making.

2. In relation to the job market, there are still some giants to be overcome. The resistance of some church officials to women clergy in key leadership roles ranges from polite neutrality to refusal to allow women to participate.

3. There are still some lay people who struggle to accept women clergy and if they are the key leaders of the congregation, it can mean that a woman pastor will not be called to that church.

4. Single ordained women face some particular obstacles particularly in relation to suitable appointments. Many of the rural congregations find it more difficult to accept a woman – let alone a single woman. Single women clergy also often suffer from loneliness because of the lack of support from a spouse.

5. One of the biggest difficulties for married women clergy is the balancing of home, marriage and career. The temptation to be “superwoman” is strong. Some women feel that they have to conform to a higher set of expectations than men do. Even in more “modern” marriages where couples have worked to overcome traditional sex-role distinctions, combining fulltime ministry and motherhood poses a problem for a large number of clergywomen.

6. Linked with this is the problem of the spouse’s work commitment. Often this limits the possibilities of placement.

7. There is still the persistence of sexism in the churches as well as the culture, although now perhaps they are more subtle. For example articles written about the ordained ministry which only use the male pronoun; lists of successful clergy which are all male; typecasting women into particular kinds of clergy positions.

8. Climate of anxiety among laypeople in relation to declining membership and the future of the church. This anxiety fosters resistance to any innovation which might be suspected of further endangering the already fragile institution – women clergy are still seen by some as an innovation.

9. Resistance from the male clergy – some still believe that they are the only ones who should be ordained. The “sacredly masculine” image of the clergy is hard to shake!

10. The exercise of authority – the doctrine of the “priesthood of all believers” emphasises that ministry belongs equally to all Christians, although clergy have special functions for which they are set apart. These functions include preaching, teaching, administering the sacraments, etc. Clergy perform their special functions of ministry to enable laity to perform their ministry. Sometimes this can lead to a blurring of lines of authority which makes it difficult for any clergy person, but sometimes it is more difficult for women clergy, particularly if they have some very strong laypeople in their congregations.

11. There are not many appropriate female leadership models or mentors although this is improving now that some women have been ordained for quite a long period of time.

12. A challenge for Pentecostal/Charismatic women (according to Hyatt, 2001) is the process of renewing their minds in the knowledge that they are equal with men. Changing the mind is one of the greatest struggles we all face. What we think about women determines our behaviour in relation to womanhood.

How can we begin to overcome “the giants” and reach the promised land?

I want to mention three ways in which Tillich suggests the church has exercised leadership in social change.

1. Silent interpenetration. Women clergy in some denominations are now becoming what we could call a critical mass. Their silent or not so silent interpenetration of the church’s ordained ministry should reduce the present inequities and overcome some of the obstacles to full acceptance of women clergy.

2. Prophetic criticism. Active, vocal advocates both women and men, for full acceptance of women as ordained ministers are crucial if the process of change is not to be interminably slow. Advocates are needed to ensure the representation of women in positions of leadership within the denomination.

3. Direct political power. The present situation of clergywomen can be considerably helped if clergywomen are better prepared for the situations that face them as ordained pastors. Women need to understand the “land” they are trying to occupy. They need to have a realistic picture of what the current situation of ordained ministry is like. This needs to include an understanding of what the job situation for clergy is in their denomination, what salaries are reasonable to expect, how to use the denomination system and how it works. There is a better understanding of power and the political process within congregations. What are appropriate leadership styles in dealing with situations for which they are very few cultural models for women?

If these and other issues can be addressed then women will not merely have reached the promised land of full acceptance into ordained ministry. They will have contributed to the quality of life in that “land” for all who occupy it.

Conclusion

Returning to the passage from Numbers we know that the people did not occupy the land that flowed with milk and honey for a long time because they were too afraid of the giants that dwelt there. However, there were two spies who were courageous enough to encourage the people to overcome their fears – Joshua and Caleb. We can all be like Joshua and Caleb and encourage women to enter the promised land and with the help of the Lord to overcome whatever giants they might meet along the way.

Susan Hyatt (2001) points the way to this promised land:

There is no reason why, in this era of Pentecostal/Charismatic outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit, that we should succumb to religion. We must realise that the Spirit of God does not come to confirm that what we believe about everything is right and that what other Christians believe is wrong. Rather, the Spirit comes to help us in our human weakness, to empower us, to comfort us. And the Spirit comes to guide us into all truth! That is to say, the Spirit comes to open our understanding and to help us change the way we think.

To continue with our analogy, that may be our giant that we need to confront. It is my prayer that we will allow the Spirit of God to change the way we think about ourselves as women and men so that we can think of ourselves in the same way that Jesus did.

References

Carroll, J. ed. 1997. Being There: Culture and Formation in Two Theological Schools. New York: Oxford University Press.

Carroll, J., Hargrove, B. and Lummis, A. 1983. Women of the Cloth: A New Opportunity for the Churches. San Francisco: Harper and Row.

Chopp, R. 1995. Saving Work: Feminist Practices of Theological Education. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press.

Cornwall Collective. 1980. Your Daughters shall Prophesy: Feminist Alternatives in Theological Education. New York: Pilgrim Press.

Hughes, K. 1997. “Conversion of Heart and Mind” in Theological Education 33 (2): 1-10.

Hyatt, S. 2001. Report for Partners and Friends of Hyatt International Ministries, (unpublished) Dallas, Texas.

Mudflower Collective. 1985. God’s Fierce Whimsy: Christian Feminism and Theological Education. New York: Pilgrim Press.

Roels, S. 1997. Organisation Man, Organisation Woman: Calling, Leadership and Culture. Nashville: Abingdon Press.

Shick, G. 1958. The Estate of Marriage in Luther’s Works Vols.1 and 45. St Louis, Mo: Concordia Publishing.

Torjesen, K. 1993. When Women were Priests. San Francisco: Harper.

Susan Hyatt’s report, quoted in this article, is given in full in the following article, “Women and Religions”.

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Church Models: Integration or Assimilation? by Jeannie Mok

by Geoff 20 May 2012 No Comments

Church Models: Integration or Assimilation?

by Jeannie Mok

Mrs Jeannie Mok wrote as a pastor at International City Church, Brisbane, and the Principal of the Asian Pacific Institute, which offers accredited diploma (Australian), bachelor and masters degrees (from Manchester University) in multicultural and Pentecostal-charismatic studies and corporate cross-cultural training. This paper is based on two articles written for Alive Magazine.

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Now that Australia is the most multicultural nation in the world, should churches alter their organizations to suit such a diversity of people?

Occasionally, the odd conservative politician may assert that it is the duty of migrants to become like all other Australians (whatever that may be) and not expect people to change things for them; after all, they are the ‘foreigners’ who came into this country, so shouldn’t it be a case of ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do’?

Similarly, why worry about what church model to plant or restructure – after all, these new migrants are the ‘latecomers’ and they should try to fit in or assimilate into existing structures! And unfortunately, many churches do think this way and remain the way they are.

I would like to suggest that one of the key factors determining how we organize our churches depends on what we think about other peoples and their cultures. A close look at the variety of churches in Australia will reveal that how we organise our ministry and churches has in fact resulted from several myths or assumptions about ourselves and our culture and how we view foreigners and their cultures and communities.

These key assumptions influence the essential ‘flavour’ of a church and it will be shown that very often, these are misleading, bordering on racial prejudice, and should be replaced by more appropriate biblical principles.

An assumption that has existed for centuries has been Parochialism (the only one way assumption) – the ‘my way is the only way’ belief, where there is no real recognition of any other way of living, working or doing things. British Colonial practice is a classic example of a policy aimed at making Englishmen out of the natives. Not surprisingly, the European missionaries in Africa and in Australia followed this lead and forced indigenous peoples to give up native ways and renounce traditional ‘pagan’ beliefs and practices.

In our cosmopolitan world, Parochialism should be replaced by Equifinality [1] (our way is not the only way) that suggests that there are many culturally distinct ways of reaching the same goal, or of living one’s life. In fact, there are many equivalent ways to reach a final goal.

Traditional Western Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) Churches reflect a parochial way of thinking. They tend to therefore to be mono-cultural, carrying on in ways that ignore cultural differences. Such churches could be Exclusionary, with one group dominating the others as all key decision making and administrative matters are in their hands.

In such Australian churches, if you do not speak the dominant language, you either sink or swim! Thus foreigners will always remain on the fringe since cultural differences are seen as a problem. Bible study groups, cell groups, etc., will not accommodate language differences. Often, there is a negative evaluation of culturally different people, especially if they are from non-European countries.

Another belief is Ethnocentrism (the one best way myth /our way is the best way). Such organizations recognize people’s differences but believe that their way is still the best, since all other ways are inferior versions. This has in turn led to the establishment of Ethnocentric institutions which acknowledge that there may other ways out there, but “we feel ours is really the best way”.

It is true that in such clubs and organizations, the chief purpose is to preserve special cultural and linguistic understandings and customs that have generally diminished in a cosmopolitan or multicultural setting. And undoubtedly, the flow-on benefits are important as it is not possible to express certain beliefs and feelings outside the boundaries of specific psychological/cultural/linguistic traditions.

Thus ethnocentric churches are very much like monocultural clubs where race is the primary discriminator – membership is limited to a certain ethnic community (all Chinese or all Spanish or all Greek), but inclusive of all different classes and educational levels, with a limited number of selected non-group members and outsiders. Such churches are closed ethnic enclaves but within each national group (e.g. Chinese) is contained a multiplicity of ethnicities (Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Malaysian/Singaporean Chinese, Mainland Chinese). Policies change only under pressure since traditions are highly prized. Gender could also be a discriminator in the management of the church – in favour of male leadership. For example, Chinese evangelical churches are traditionally run by male pastors; female pastors are rare, and not highly respected by older members.

Then there is the Similarity myth which asserts that “people are all alike” or “they are all like me” since we all have the same life goals, career aspirations and activities. This belief is faulty since a study of people’s values, attitudes and behaviour in 14 nations showed that whilst people felt more comfortable believing that this ‘similarity’ exists, this was not the case.[2] Apparently, people felt more comfortable believing in this similarity since ‘Differences’ were regarded as a threat. Unfortunately, there are problems associated with this belief. One gets disappointed and feels anger or surprise when people do not act as one expects them to. Furthermore, this assumption denies the individuality of people, and negates their distinct characteristics.

Thus, it must be acknowledged that people share similarities and differences. (They are not just like me since many people are culturally different from me. Most people have both cultural similarities and differences when compared to me). It is thus a good thing to assume that there are differences first when meeting a ‘foreigner’, unless similarities are proven.

The Similarity assumption is akin to the Homogeneity or the Melting Pot Myth (We are all the same since everyone is and wants to be like the majority). Homogeneity proponents state, however, that as a nation of many distinct cultures, they realize that it is impossible to get all to be the same. Thus newly arrived migrants have to be integrated with the rest of Australians and become like everyone else. And since Australia is basically ‘Waspish’, the newly-arrived must assimilate into the new ‘Home’ culture.

These two assumptions (Similarity and Homogeneity) often underlie non-discriminating and culturally aware organizations like International Churches and ‘Melting Pot’ Assimilationist Churches. These Churches recognise cultural similarities and differences but choose to attempt to minimize the diversity by imposing single one-best-way solutions on all management situations.

Most international churches believe that they are multicultural, but in reality they are not, since there is still the one dominant culture (the ‘Waspish’ normally). Competence requirements are higher for outsiders – especially fluency in the dominant language. But such churches do attempt to seek change by changing race and gender profiles. They will have a Missions group and international food festivals, etc., and allow token representation in management, and over time these could evolve into multicultural churches.

‘Melting pot’ churches operate on the belief that various cultural groups from all nations, must be treated with essential equality since “We are all Australians and we accept an Australianised form of English, and Christian moral principles and values.” The belief is that in time, all will be unified as one large heterogenous ‘stew’ as cross-cultural marriages abound. In such churches, individual ties to ethnic groups culturally rooted to other parts of the world are not so important, as these are actually regarded as potentially disruptive or distracting. There is also the mistaken belief that as all are equal, all will have an influence in the pot. Hence, this ‘multicultural stew’ method is seen as truly the best way of unifying everyone.

This all sounds most reasonable but in reality, new migrants are under pressure to conform and accept dominant cultural principles. In Australia, they have to melt into an essentially Anglo-Celtic Protestant pot to be accepted. They must shed essential aspects of their traditional cultural belief and practice if they are to fit in nicely. The ‘Melting Pot’ is in reality the melting away of non-Anglo-Saxon traditions.[3]

The fact is that Heterogeneity or Cultural Pluralism is a hallmark of our society today. (We are not all the same); there are many culturally different groups in society. It therefore makes sense that in our policy and practice, we need to consider the many equivalent or culturally distinct ways of reaching the same goals, since our way is not the only way!

One model of a Multicultural Church utilises the Equifinality or Parallel approach. These are churches that recognise cultural similarities and differences; and allow parallel approaches based on members’ cultures to be used simultaneously in each management situation. Such a church utilises a common language (through necessity), although diverse languages are still used widely for the respective ethnic groups. Senior management is committed to power-sharing practices, and incorporates leaders to represent each major ethnic group found in the church. It is usual to find that the key leaders can operate in a variety of languages, and are able to switch methods of cross-cultural communication to deal with the various ethnic groups.

Perhaps the ideal multicultural church is the Synergistic church, totally committed to the multicultural vision. This church recognizes cultural similarities and differences and uses them to create new integrative solutions to organizational problems that go beyond the individual cultures of any single group.[4]

For instance, at their combined celebrations, when the Spanish, Chinese and English-speaking congregations come together, International City Church in Brisbane, has ‘invented’ a new kind of praise and worship session with worship leaders from the three language groups leading the mixed congregation in songs incorporating all the three languages; so that all can participate in the same song! (Incidentally, this unique blend of languages has resulted in a project to produce the first real multicultural Praise and Worship CD in Australia). Such a church also recognises diversity as a valuable strength (as productive, creative and resource-rich). Initially, there may be many communication problems, but once this is overcome, huge benefits are realized.

Given the fact that Australia’s demographic profile has changed so radically recently, perhaps it is time for us to re-think our churches. Should we now work hard at evolving our churches into Multicultural and Synergistic churches? Are we inclusive and totally ‘user-friendly’ to the harvest (boat people and all) that awaits us in our own backyard? Or are we still focusing on a traditional (middle-class ‘Waspish’) clientele that is fast diminishing?

We cannot totally eradicate our cultural biases. An immediate start would be to replace the Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you), with the Platinum Rule (Do unto others as Jesus did unto you).

References

Samovar L.A., Porter R.E. Intercultural Communication: A Reader Wadsworth Publishing Co, USA 1997

Simons G.F., Vasquez C., Harris P.R. Transcultural Leadership: Empowering the Diverse Workforce Gulf Publishing Co Texas 1993

Weaver G.R. Culture, Communication and Conflict: Readings in Intercultural Relations Simon and Schuster USA 1994

End Notes

[1] Nancy J. Adler, Domestic Multiculturalism: Cross-Cultural Management in the Public Sector (102) in Gary R. Weaver (Ed) Culture, Communication and Conflict: Readings in Intercultural Relations Simon and Schuster Custom Publishing MA, USA (1994)

[2] ibid (102)

[3] R. Janzen Five Paradigms of Ethnic Relations (65) in Larry A. Samovar, Richard E. Porter Intercultural Communication Wadsworth Publishing Company USA 1997

[4] Nancy J. Adler Domestic Multiculturalism (110)

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The Kingdom Within, by Irene Alexander

by Geoff 20 May 2012 2 Comments

The Kingdom within:

The inner life of the person in ministry

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Dr Irene Alexander wrote as the Dean of the School of Social Sciences at Christian Heritage College, Brisbane, which offers a Bachelor of Social Science degree that includes majors in Counselling and Biblical Studies, as well as postgraduate awards in Counselling and Human Studies. Irene researched Epistemic Development in Adolescence for her Ph.D. degree from the University of Queensland.

More than any other single thing, Jesus spoke about the kingdom. In parable after parable, teaching after teaching, he showed us what the kingdom is like – a treasure hidden in a field, a father who welcomes an undeserving son, a vineyard owner who gives more than is fair to the labourers, a feast to which are welcomed those from the highways and byways, a place that is open to the poor in spirit, the broken and the sinner.

It seems that much of this teaching is about a kingdom which can be visible – a quality of relationships where the poor are ministered to, where people show love to each other, where each person can be accepted and receive God’s love.

However as we take the idea of the kingdom a little further we see that this kingdom is the place where the king reigns – not a physical place but a spiritual one – one which indeed engenders visible results, but one which is initially and primarily an inner place – the kingdom within.

Certainly, Jesus’ teaching shows us the possibility of a kingdom without – a kingdom where people are ministered to. Much of his teaching has clear outward results – healing the sick, giving to the poor, setting free the oppressed, welcoming in the marginalized. But this visible kingdom is the result of an inner relationship, an inner responsiveness to God. Some of his teaching clearly speaks to an inner reality rather than an outer one. “Take the log out of your own eye before you try and take the speck from your brother’s eye.” What does this mean but an attending to our own heart secrets, our own weaknesses, before we try and correct each other.

Inner life and outer mask

Proverbs 4:23 tells us to “guard the heart for from it flow the springs of life.” What does it mean to guard the heart, to be aware of this inner world? John Sanford in The Kingdom Within uses the teaching against the Pharisees to show the difference between the inner world and the outer mask which we show to others. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their hypocrisy.

The word hypocrite means actor, and refers to the idea that actors of those days wore a mask which depicted their character. So the hypocrite was the mask wearer. The Pharisees wanted the world to see them as generous, holy, righteous people – that was their outer public behaviour. But Jesus exposed the inner poverty, the inner sins of the spirit, of much more concern to him than the sins of the flesh. “Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance” (Matthew 23:25). And in Luke 16:15: “You are the very ones who pass yourselves off as virtuous in people’s sight, but God knows your hearts.”

So the way to God has more to do with the inner life than the outer mask. Richard Rohr speaks of the way each person tries to find their way to God. They try to discover and fulfil the requirements necessary to please God. Many of us, especially those of us who grew up being good find that for a time we feel we do fulfil the necessary conditions.

However at some time most of us, and perhaps more quickly the more broken of us, experience God differently. We have some experience in which we find ourselves ‘in God’ where we know that we do not have to do anything to be accepted or approved of. We simply have to rest in him. The broken and the mystics find that place more quickly.

The others of us may wrestle back and forth with fulfilling the requirements.

Often the church has taught us that we have to be good to get God’s approval. The cross demonstrates to us that it’s all grace. I enter into a relationship with a God who utterly loves me and as I learn to abide in his love, and look to him for direction I fulfil the law of love without even thinking about it. And so is fulfilled ‘all the law and the prophets’.

Living in a love relationship

Living by requirements is eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Living in relationship with the living God is eating of the tree of life.

Eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, choosing to evaluate good and bad from a place of autonomy, has given us a mindset of constant evaluation. And so we continuously evaluate everything that happens around us – and within us. “I don’t like her hair colour, that shirt doesn’t suit him, he shouldn’t talk like that, she should be more extraverted.”

God’s idea was that we should eat of the tree of life, walk in relationship with him, and with each other and experience life in all its abundance. When we walk in a love relationship with someone we are far less likely to be criticising and trying to change; instead we enjoy, and we notice. Certainly we notice their hair colour, their way of talking and their introversion but instead of judging we accept and appreciate the difference from ourselves. Living in a love-relationship enables us to accept difference and imperfection and walk alongside the other person, standing with them in their ‘working out their salvation’.

In the garden of Eden story there is no mention of Adam and Eve being good. They were called to the dominion mandate – to look after the earth – to bring it to fruition; they were called into relationship with God and with each other. There is no mention of rules and laws and constant evaluation. The story simply states that they were naked and not ashamed.

Paradise was where people could be known for who they were and not be ashamed. I believe this is what God calls us to – a place, a quality of relationship with him and with each other in which we can be real and accepted anyway. Gary Hayachi, in explaining these ideas, says this is the gospel in a nutshell – it’s not about being good; it’s about being real.

Gary goes on to say that the one criticism that is levelled at the church over and over is hypocrisy. “You hypocrites. You tell us to be good, but look at you.” I believe that if the church truly understood that it is not about evaluating and comparing and living up to standards, but rather it is about being known for who we are in our relationships, being conspicuously imperfect, but living in God’s grace – then the world would be drawn to that reality and true humility.

When Adam and Eve, and we in them, chose to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we chose a righteousness based on comparison and living up to standards; a righteousness that had more to do with behaviour and beliefs than a heart attitude and relationship. We became caught in a mindset of comparison and evaluation which did not free us from wrongdoing but only showed us when we did wrong. As a response to this choice God gave us the Law – a way of evaluating our behaviour which at least kept us in line with the way the world was designed.

However this was not his original plan, nor was it his final response. The Law was simply a way of bracketing our behaviour until God could reveal a better way. The Law was like a fence that kept us from wandering off into licence and perversion. A schoolmaster, a babysitter, to bring us to Christ. And then, in Paul’s wonderful words of freedom in his letter to the Galatians, God revealed a better way.

When the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, under the law, in order that he might redeem those under the law, that they might receive adoption as sons. And because we are sons, God sent forth the spirit of his Son, into our hearts, crying Abba, dear Father. Therefore I am no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir to the living God.

God’s plan was, and is, that we should walk in life, in relationship with him, fulfilling all the law and the prophets by our love relationship with him, as his children, and our love relationship with each other – brothers and sisters.

Grace, not works

We live in a new covenant where righteousness is based on grace not works. The disciples who lived with Jesus understood that he was the Messiah, but they did not seem to see the perspective of the new covenant. That was Paul’s revelation. When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost he simply stated that Jesus, the Messiah, who you crucified, was raised up again by God.

Apparently it was not uncommon for men to claim themselves to be the Messiah, but of course they eventually died and no more was heard of them. When the Christians however started proclaiming the Christ there was swift persecution. Why this drastic reaction? The fact that there were differences between the Greek Christians and the Jewish Christians gives some clue. Stephen, the first martyr, was made a deacon when there were complaints that the Greek widows were being overlooked. When there was persecution in Jerusalem, the disciples stayed there – it seems to have been the Greeks – who did not uphold Jewish law, who were the ones who dispersed.

The point then which drew such wrath from Saul the Pharisee, had to do with the law. Saul, that ‘epitome of legal rectitude’, understood something the disciples did not. He knew the law. He knew that any true Messiah must uphold the law. But the Christians were preaching a crucified Messiah. And Paul knew the scripture – he quotes it in one of his letters – that said “Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree.” A crucified Messiah could not be upholding the law, because he is cursed by that law. A crucified Messiah was a contradiction in terms. It could not be.

Paul saw that what the Christians claimed struck at the law as the covenant of righteousness with God. He turned against the Christians as one with all legal righteousness and outrage. It is no wonder then that when he met God on the Damascus Road, and asking him who he was found that he was Jesus, the one you are persecuting, the crucified messiah, – it is no wonder he was struck blind for three days. For three days he must have been totally rethinking the place of the law and the basis of righteousness.

When the three days were over Paul understood something the other disciples did not. He understood that the old covenant was obsolete (Hebrews 6:13). He understood that the only way to righteousness was faith and grace. It is not surprising that he vehemently opposed the other disciples when they tried to still keep some of the law, wondering if circumcision should still be practiced. Paul knew they had missed the point completely – it’s all or nothing when it comes to the law. You who began in the spirit, he raged at the Galatians, will you now finish in the flesh?

Home free

At the Cross God changed the rules. He finished with the old basis for righteousness, the old purity code which gets us into his presence by our behaviour. He declared us free to walk into relationship with him, saved by grace alone, with a righteousness rooted in Jesus sacrifice. I can now dance into the presence of a holy and righteous God, and know that his grace is sufficient, and that I am home free.

As I look at the cross I see the awesome love of God and I am inspired to give my life to him, not because I must, not to earn his approval, but in freedom, a response of love to his. And I am drawn into a love relationship with him, whereby I live daily looking into his eyes and choosing to walk in his ways.

Many of us have grown up in a modernist world that upholds the absolutes of law and morality and hierarchy. A postmodern perspective is far more likely to value relationship and spirituality and an authority based in authenticity. As I walk the journey with another I do not bring in rules and requirements. Instead I will, as Dan Allender says, look for the footprints of God in their story. John 1 says God lights every person who comes into the world. His footprints will be there in everyone’s story. As I listen and walk with them I will find some evidence of his Being, some way to walk the journey, respecting their individual relationship with God, whoever at that point they conceive God to be – finding freedom and responsibility.

This kingdom within, then, is about being real – real with God and real with each other. Abiding in Christ – finding our true selves, naked and unashamed because of God’s grace. And then living out that relationship in honesty and humility in our relationships with each other. Living in conspicuous imperfection (Sims’ phrase), and openly known for who we are. This is freedom – and life abundant.

References

Nouwen, H. J. M. (1989). In the name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian leadership. New York: Crossroad.

Rohr, R. (1999). Everything belongs: The gift of contemplative prayer. New York: Crossroad.

Sanford, J. A. (1970). The kingdom within. New York: Paulist.

Sims, B. J. (1997). Servanthood: Leadership for the third millennium. Boston: Cowley

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Church Models: Integration or Assimilation? by Jeannie Mok

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