Ten Statements About the Ministry, from the book Making Sense of the Ministry by David Wiersbe and Warren W. Wiersbe:

1. The foundation of ministry is character.
2. The nature of ministry is service.
3. The motive for ministry is love.
4. The measure of ministry is sacrifice.
5. The authority of ministry is submission.
6. The purpose of ministry is the glory of God.
7. The tools of ministry are the Word of God and prayer.
8. The privilege of ministry is growth.
9. The power of ministry is the Holy Spirit.
10. The model for ministry is Jesus Christ.

 

In the first days of my teaching career, I tried to model my own high school math teacher. He was a very imposing – actually intimidating – figure, one of those who without even trying just commanded everyone’s respect the moment he entered a room.

My experiment was a failure of Clintonian proportion; students could see right through the facade. Fortunately, I realized quickly that it wasn’t working. From that point on I was determined to just be myself in the classroom, and that decision has paid off well through the years.

Many believers make a similar mistake in their worship. In fact, a couple of the very earliest Christians fell victim to it.

Chapter 4 of Acts closes with the early church experiencing some truly incredible things. People are selling their possessions and voluntarily giving the money to those in need. There is unity – yes, believe it or not, unity among Christians! – and thousands of people are taking notice and accepting the Gospel truth.

Chapter 5 opens with a different picture.

“But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”

As many commentators have pointed out, Ananias and Sapphira’s greed led them to keep back part of the money. But what many Bible students miss is that greed is not the root issue in this instance. Notice Peter’s response.

“But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?”

The Apostle’s response to Sapphira is similar.

“Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?”

Rather than their greed or even – as at least one notable Bible commentator has said – their idolatry, Peter condemns Ananias and Sapphira for their deceitfulness. And not only does he condemn them verbally, but he pronounces God’s imposed penalty of death on them both.

This was obviously a serious offense.

Unfortunately, the same scene – minus the condemnation and subsequent deaths – plays out in Christian congregations all over the US every Sunday, and it’s one of the primary reasons so many churches struggle to maintain unity among their members.

Making a good impression isn’t a sin in itself, but when we knowingly go to the effort to make ourselves look more Godly than we are – that’s a problem. God doesn’t call us to be perfect, but many of us try to act the part in Sunday worship. Oh, we’ll talk a good talk about how we’re no better than anyone else and how we’re nothing outside of Christ – but often our actions don’t reflect the same sentiment.

Further, well-meaning church leaders often go out of their way to paint their church as being bigger, stronger, more spiritually mature than it really is in order to impress others. Far too often, the attention that should be paid to sharing the Gospel, discipleship, and reaching out to community members in need is diverted toward fundraisers, building projects, and programs designed to attract and keep donors.

Even worse, in its extreme this focus on outward appearance eventually leads to outright heresy from the mouths of church leaders – as evidenced last week by Carl Lenz of Hillsong.

In his “BE” series commentary on this passage, Dr. Warren Wiersbe writes, “It is easy for us to condemn Ananias and Sapphira for their dishonesty, but we need to examine our own lives to see if our profession is backed up by our practice … If God killed ‘religious deceivers’ today, how many church members would be left?”

It’s a fair question, and one which we should all consider daily. Though Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life and though we are called to follow Him, God realizes we cannot live up to His standard. It’s the whole reason why Jesus lived, died, and rose again.

When we go to church and put on a good front, we are lying to everyone we see there – and we are lying to God. Further, our unwillingness to be honest about the trials we face and the missteps we make often leaves those younger in the faith afraid to seek our help for fear of judgment.

Learning from our mistakes can be very effective. Learning from the mistakes of others can also be very effective, and without the associated repercussions. But if we can’t freely admit our mistakes – or even admit the fact that we make them at all – our ability to help others facing similar temptations is blunted.

If God’s Church is ever to become what He intends, we’ve got to get back to being genuine – with others and with ourselves. Just like those students in my early days of teaching, the world can tell when we’re faking it.

 

This series was originally published at The Resurgent.

This is the last of a 5-part series. Click links below to access other installments.

Part 1 .. Part 2 .. Part 3 .. Part 4

In Part 4 we saw that the Church has in large part come to accept mediocrity rather than strive for the greatness to which we have been called.

That has to change if we are to ever again be able to enact change in our world.

So, how do we make that change? To find the answer, we look back more than 1,000 years.

The incredible persecution of the Christian church by the Roman Empire finally ended with the death of Emperor Galerius and eventual re-consolidation of power under Constantine in the early 4th century. Constantine’s willingness to afford Christians the right to worship freely led to the development of the Nicene Creed, the first major document to present an organized set of doctrines for the Christian faith from among those included in the Apostles’ Gospels and letters.

Christians of the time must surely have been amazed at the progression of their faith in so short a period of time. From the late 3rd to the late 4th centuries, Christianity had gone from being an outlawed sect whose members frequently met with the most gruesome of persecutions to becoming the official state religion of the Roman Empire in 380 under Emperor Theodosius.

But this early experiment in having the state inject itself into religion did not end well, and in fact is one of the reasons the American Founding Fathers were so concerned about not repeating the effort. Once in a position of tremendous influence, Christians during and after Theodosius’ reign did what believers have unfortunately done best for centuries – fight over their differences.

Within a relatively short time, the societal pendulum swung from the ornate grandeur of Rome to a largely dark age ruled by a loose confederation of tribal leaders. It was a time when survival and the quest for power took precedence over education and the pursuit of excellence.

In many ways, it was a time very much like our own.

Illiteracy among the clergy – specifically, regarding the Latin Vulgate Bible of the 4th century – eventually became so severe that it was seen by the Frankish King Charlemagne as a potential impediment to the correct interpretation of Scripture.

Charlemagne managed to reunite most of Europe during his rule, and once that task was completed he set about establishing a system of formal education first within the palace school and then extending to the remainder of his kingdom. To this end, he assembled the greatest minds of the time, and issued what is today referred to as his Charter of Modern Thought for the governance of monastic schools throughout his realm.

The educational reforms enacted by Charlemagne and overseen primarily by Alcuin of York resulted in the first post-Roman renaissance period, often called the Carolingian Renaissance. Significant gains were seen in many fields including the arts, architecture, and literacy. Though the period was short-lived, it laid the foundation for the later Renaissance periods and for much of our current Western culture.

The significance of the Carolingian Renaissance – as it pertains to our discourse – is that it was led by Christians. The renewed emphasis that Charlemagne placed on education mostly in schools which were operated by the local churches changed the society of that day.

That’s exactly what we need.

For too long, knowledge has been seen by many as the enemy of the Church.

For too long, Christians have been content with mediocrity.

For too long, Christians have focused too much on our differences to be able to counter popular culture with a united front.

For too long, we have been content with making Sunday morning overtures to our God – and expected Him to be content with that as well.

To quote the Apostle James, “These things ought not so to be.”

God wants to have an intimate, personal relationship with us. He wants to be present in every aspect of our lives.

He wants to use us to reach the world. It’s not that he has to do so. He doesn’t. He can reach the world all by Himself.

But He wants to use us.

We were designed for the purpose of bringing glory and honor to God. One of the ways we accomplish that purpose is to allow ourselves to be useful tools in His hands – to be the absolute best that we can be for Him.

This doesn’t mean that we all have to have PhD after our names. We are all called to different work, but we are also called to be the best we can be within that work. The more sound we become in both faith and knowledge, the more useful we will be in our given areas.

Ours is a society that sees no value in faith, in knowledge, in effort. There is no remaining outward impetus for human beings – in the West, at least – to worship, to learn, to give our best. We all get a pat on the back, a free or reduced price education, a participation trophy, and a retirement plan, so the outward rewards have become meaningless.

But we never should have needed an outward impetus in the first place.

For centuries, men and women worshipped God because of what He had done for them inwardly. They learned simply for the sake of learning. And they gave their all because they realized that regardless of outcome, the highest external effort yields the greatest internal reward.

Today we have been programmed to seek our rewards outwardly. Our goals in worship, in learning, and in effort are to earn those outward rewards. It’s why we see Christians divorcing, Christian children behaving and performing poorly in school, and Christian athletes who think only the playoff games are important.

We must be better than this.

We must become so sincere in our worship, so desirous of knowledge, and so willing to expend effort that the world has no choice but to acknowledge our expertise. This is the only way forward.

This is the only way we reach a world that cries out for something and someone who is different – by being different from the world – being more sincere, more learned, and more driven than they are.

The alternative is to continue our slide into meaninglessness and simply wait for the end, whether by Rapture or by death.

What a pitiful existence. We can be more. We can be better.

For the glory of God, we must.

This series was originally published at The Resurgent.

This is the 4th of a 5-part series. Click links below to access other installments.

Part 1 .. Part 2 .. Part 3 .. Part 5

In Part 3 we saw that drawing closer to God is accomplished by doing all that we do as though we are doing it for Him.

Let’s expand our focus a bit. If your life would look vastly different if you did everything to the glory of God, how much different would your church, your city, your state … your world … look if large numbers of believers did the same?

We frequently hear of Christians being shunned in their work because of their faith, particularly in the fields of science, media, and entertainment. The latest is a USA Today column by Yale Divinity School’s Communications Director Tim Krattenmaker.

In that piece Krattenmaker implies that those of us who accept Creationism are both anti-science and anti-intellectual. This is where we have come to, and though certainly the continual downward spiral of mankind is partly to blame, in large part the Church has brought this upon itself by frequently proving Krattenmaker right.

Quite often, we are anti-intellectual. Though there are exceptions, professing Christians in general perform at the same level as their peers on standardized tests, in the workplace, and in society at large. In fact, there are many believers who have answered the overwhelming liberalism on university campuses with a resounding rejection of higher education altogether.

That does nothing but make the situation worse. If Christians abandon higher education because those institutions are filled with liberal professors, how is that problem supposed to improve?

Answer: It can’t. But it should. In fact, Christians should be modeling excellence not only in our daily lives, but in the pursuit of truth and knowledge.

Let me pose the following scenario:

Some amazing new discovery is made in the field of genetic research. The media rushes to do a story on it, but they need an expert in the field to add credibility to the story. They call the nearest university science professor and ask for the name of the top expert in genetic research so they can have him or her on the show. Now consider this question:

What if – despite the criticism of our faith, despite the discrimination experienced by scientists from their peers and by Christians at large from the media – what if the top genetic scientist in the world happened to be a believer, and was so good at the job that despite his faith he was considered by everyone to be far and away the top expert in the field?

What if he was so far and away better than the next alternative, the media had no choice but to put him on?

If all believers were to approach their jobs with the goal of glorifying God, that’s the situation outlets like CNN would face.

Don’t believe it could happen? Look at the example of Jackie Robinson.

By now most are probably aware of the discrimination Robinson faced when he became the first black man to play professional baseball in what had up to that point been an all-white league. What Robinson endured was of course inexcusable and unfair, and that’s putting it very mildly.

In the end, Jackie Robinson won baseball fans over for three reasons. First, he was supported by people on the inside who had some measure of influence and didn’t mind using it. Second, he somehow managed to maintain his composure despite the hate that was almost constantly directed at him.

But third – and this is most important – Jackie Robinson won over baseball fans because he could flat out play the game. Run, hit, steal, throw – he did it all, and did it all very well. In time, even some of the harshest critics had to admit he belonged in the game – because he earned it with his level of play.

Was it fair to demand that of him just because of his skin color? Certainly not. But Robinson’s skill, his effort, and his character left his detractors with no choice but to admit he did indeed belong.

The same could happen today for believers, if we showed the same level of skill, effort, and character.

It’s not fair that the world demands that we prove our credentials before accepting our input just because of our faith. But like it or not, that is the world we live in – and the only way we defeat that sentiment is to be so much more knowledgeable  than they expect that they have no choice but to let us participate in the discussion.

But we’re not meeting that standard. In fact, we’re not even close. The bottom line is that believers – like most human beings in our current age – have become lazy. The difference is that we have been called to be better.

We accept mediocrity, though we’ve been called to greatness.

That has to change if we are to ever again be able to enact change in our world.

So, how do we make that change? To find the answer, the final entry in our series will take us back more than 1,000 years.

This series was originally published at The Resurgent.

This is the 3rd of a 5-part series. Click links below to access other installments.

Part 1 .. Part 2 .. Part 4 .. Part 5

Chuck Swindoll, a well-known pastor and widely recognized leader among current Christian preachers, uses a great illustration to convey the point that the Church has slid away from God. Whether it originated with him I do not know, but it goes something like this:

An elderly couple were riding along, the husband driving and the wife sitting on the far end of the bench seat near the opposing door. After a long silence, the wife remarked how when they were young they had taken many trips together, always cuddled up close to one another. She wondered aloud what happened, and why they no longer cuddled while riding.

The husband answered, “I’m still sitting where I’ve always been.”

Such is the case with Christ and His Church. He is still in control. He is still all-powerful. He is still just as much in love with us today as He was when He died for our sins.

But we have slid away.

The first step for the body of believers to take in regaining a measurable level of relevance and influence in our society is to move back as close to God as we can. He promises that if we do so, He will not reject us.

“But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh unto God, and he will draw nigh unto you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” James 4:6-8

Before we can exert any level of influence over society – before we can expect to become relevant once again – we must first draw nigh unto God. It is only through His power that anything can be accomplished, and when we exclude Him from our daily lives we deny that power. Our faith remains empty even as we proclaim it to the world, and the world will never embrace our faith so long as it remains empty.

A believer who desires to be a powerful instrument for God must first fully embrace God’s power in his or her own private life. If enough of us do so, the Church can regain its relevance and influence.

So, the next question becomes:  How do we more fully embrace God’s power in our private lives?

Again, the answer is simple. We must include Him in all that we do. Work. Play. Relationships. Finance. You name it – He should be involved. And if there is any area in our lives – any at all – in which we’re not comfortable including Him, we must seriously consider giving it up or at least changing the way we operate within it in order to willingly invite Him in.

That’s not an easy task. Ungodly habits and preferences tend to sneak in to our lives gradually and unnoticed, often becoming entrenched without us even realizing it. Generally, we allow these things to become part of our lives by coming up with excuses or rationalizations to quell the initial reluctance brought on by our God-given conscience. Sometimes we figure that the questionable actions or thoughts will only be for the short term, but once the dam is breached there is no stopping the flood.

We must be willing to let Him into every aspect of our lives if we are to fully experience His power. In fact, we should be willing not only to let Him in, but to let Him direct every aspect of our lives.

How do we accomplish that? Well, the first step is to stay in touch with Him. Stay on our knees, stay in The Word, stay in tune with what His Spirit says to us along the way. The second step is to actually follow up on what He says through these venues. Follow the commands in His Word. Follow the instruction He sends through prayer and the guidance of His Spirit.

The best test of whether we are measuring up in this area is to examine each area of our lives and ask ourselves one question:  Are we being and doing the best we can here? If there is room for improvement, we need to engage with His power to improve.

In addressing a division in the early church over the propriety of eating meat that had been offered to idols, the Apostle Paul gave us a command of God that has far-reaching applications.

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” 1Corinthians 10:31

Whatsoever ye do. Not whatsoever ye do in church, or for the church, or in direct service to God. Whatsoever ye do. That means everything. Again – work, play, relationships, finance, you name it.

Consider for a moment how each aspect of your life might be different if you followed this command. Everything you do, do it to the glory of God. Would your family life be different? Your work? Your finances? Your relationships with coworkers, friends, extended family, fellow church members? Strangers?

Unfortunately, the truth for most of us – including this writer – is that much of what we do on a daily basis would look vastly different if we did everything to the glory of God.

And therein lies the ultimate key to unlocking the potential of the modern church to regain its relevance and influence in society.

In Part 4, we’ll look at how this change could reestablish the relevance of the Church.

This post was originally published at The Resurgent.

This is the 2nd of a 5-part series. Click links below for other installments.

Part 1 .. Part 3 .. Part 4 .. Part 5

Because we have no idea when Jesus will return, it is incumbent upon believers to do everything within our power to ensure the continued relevance of the Church in order to effectively share the Gospel.

But we are seeing the church become largely irrelevant in the lives of its children and grandchildren. Why is this happening?

There is a hint in the end-times description of 2 Timothy that gives us a clue as to why we are seeing so many leave the church – or never become a part of it in the first place.

“For men shall be lovers of their own selves”.

Pride has haunted man since Adam, and will continue to do so until God pulls the final curtain on our existence here on Earth. Left unchecked, pride leads to self-absorption. And it is self-absorption that has led to the decline of the church.

Consider all the ills of the modern church. Over the past 70 years, believers have come to accept a plethora of things that would previously have been anathema, all in the name of personal expedience:  premarital sex, cohabitation, marijuana use, recreational alcohol consumption, pornography … the list goes on and on, with each item becoming more entrenched in the everyday lives of believers with each successive generation.

Our phenomenal decline into self-absorption has also dropped us into a whirlpool of desire for instant gratification. This is the root cause of our educational decline; today’s student sees no value in spending six hours a day learning verb conjugation and the War of 1812 because there is no immediate reward for doing so.

But before you shake your head at the failings of today’s students, take a moment to look in the mirror. We adults are just as much at fault. We fail to retain anything from Sunday sermons – if we go hear them at all. We fail to seek wisdom in God’s Word and to apply it to our daily lives. The inevitable result is that our character is lacking – and it shows in every aspect of our lives.

We show up late for work and leave early. We take a full eight hours to accomplish what could be done in two. We drive 75 in a 55, flip off drivers who cut us off, we “flaunt it if we’ve got it”, and we cut corners anywhere we can as long as it benefits us and we can be certain of not getting caught.

We’re no better at home, mostly because we are more certain we can get away with it there. We smoke, curse, drink, and watch soft porn in front of our children, then chastise them for doing the same. We rail against gay marriage but accept divorce as an unavoidable reality, and we shake our heads over abortion while sneaking around or at the very least flirting with the neighbor’s spouse.

So why do our young people see faith as irrelevant? Because from their perspective it’s been irrelevant to us. We’ve not practiced what we’ve preached, and they’ve been watching. We’ve constantly disrespected the faith that we’ve claimed, and they’ve noticed.

In short, they think we’re hypocrites. And to a great extent, they’re right. It’s no wonder they refuse to waste their time on a faith that teaches sacrifice in this life for reward in the next.

In fact, we should be surprised that any of them still remain at all.

The same is true of the rest of the world. They’ve been watching us all these years and they’ve seen us abandon our professed values when it suited us – while at the same time we’ve decried the lack of virtue in our leaders and in the social-entertainment icons our children idolize.

As a result, in a relatively short time we’ve lost – or more accurately, abandoned – much of the influence that the community of faith has held over society for the better part of the past millennium.

So how do we regain that influence? How does the Church – again, identified as the body of professing believers – how do we become relevant again?

The answer – like most – is found in Scripture. Continuing the passage from 2Timothy referenced earlier:

“Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away.” (verse 5)

There are multiple modern applications for this verse, but the one pertinent to our discussion here is that many who profess Christianity today live in much the same way they would if they’d never heard the term. It’s an undeniable fact, proven in statistics which show that Christians are participating in drug abuse, criminal behavior, divorce, suicide, and most any other negative aspect of society at rates quickly approaching or equal to those of nonbelievers.

We are increasingly denying the power of God to change our lives, primarily because we are increasingly leaving Him out of our lives. Before the Church and our ideals can regain relevance in society, God must become more relevant to us – and it’s not God who needs to change; it’s us.

We will discuss that change more in the next installment.