Category: Ministry (Page 32 of 35)

Mutual Ministry

April 8, 2008 / Allan / 7 Comments

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” ~John 10:14-15

Ministry is a communal experience. And it’s a mutual experience. And this becomes much more clear to me the more I try to model what I do after what Jesus did/does. As a preachers and ministers or elders and shepherds, we are not spiritual professionals who know the problems of our clients or constituents and take care of them with great efficiency. We are vulnerable brothers and sisters who know and are known, who care and are cared for, who forgive and are being forgiven, who love and are being loved. It’s mutual. It works both ways. It has to.

Some have told me that I’m going to get burned. Some have said I can’t let people get too close. I can’t let people in. I can’t share my inner thoughts and feelings—the things of which I’m proud or the things of which I’m ashamed—because it’ll come back to bite me. I’ve been told that good leadership requires a safe distance from those we’re called to lead. Just look at doctors and psychiatry and social work.

Bunk!

We’re not doctors or psychiatrists or social workers. We’re ministers and shepherds, called by our Father to share his love with the world. Doctors and psychiatrists and social workers provide one-way services. Someone serves, someone else is being served, and the roles are never mixed up or reversed. But if I’m ministering like Jesus…

How do I lay my life down for people I won’t get close to?

There’s something powerful, I think, about being open and honest, hiding nothing, totally trusting God and his people.

Henri Nouwen addresses this in his In the Name of Jesus.

“Laying down your life means making your own faith and doubt, hope and despair, joy and sadness, courage and fear available to others as ways of getting in touch with the Lord of life. We are not the healers, we are not the reconcilers, we are not the givers of life. We are sinful, broken, vulnerable people who need as much care as anyone we care for. The mystery of ministry is that we have been chosen to make our own limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God.

Therefore, true ministry must be mutual. When the members of a community of faith cannot truly know and love their shepherd, shepherding quickly becomes a subtle way of exercising power over others and begins to show authoritarian and dictatorial traits. The world in which we live—a world of efficiency and control—has no models to offer to those who want to be shepherds in the way Jesus was a shepherd.”

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It was pointed out to me by a friend about two hours before tip-off last night that the Bible actually had something to say about the national championship game. Hosea 9:6 clearly states, “Memphis will bury them.” I told this friend (her initials are Paula Byrnes) that that prophesy had already been fulfilled.

I didn’t realize until last night that of the 341 Division I college basketball teams in the country, Memphis ranked 339th in free throw percentage. 59%. And Memphis was up by nine last night with two minutes to play. But they missed four of their last five free throws down the stretch, allowing Mario Chalmers to sink the buzzer-beating off-balance three that tied it up and sent it to overtime. Kansas won it going away in the extra period. Great game. Back and forth. Frantic at times. Lot of fun.

The Tigers’ choke job kept Whitney and me in a tie in our family basketball pool. And since the final score added up to 143 points, she takes the contest by virtue of the 130 she had in the tiebreaker to my 125. If Kansas had won in regulation, I would still be in possession of my basketball bracket crown at Stanglin Manor. But today the king is dead. Whitney holds the crown. The extra points in the overtime did me in.

It was a bitter-sweet victory for Whit. She was glad for the overall win in the bracket. But it was weird in that the team she’s been cheering for the past month lost. Congratulations, Whitney. And congrats to Geoff. Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk. Whatever that means.

Peace,

Allan

Thinking Theologically

March 25, 2008 / Allan / 0 Comments

Last night I read Henri Nouwen’s In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership. It’s required reading for our little group of preachers that meets in Waco once a month. We’ve all read it this month and we’re going to break it down one week from today. It’s short—I read it in about 45 minutes—but it packs a powerful punch.

Nouwen uses two stories from the gospels, Jesus’ temptation in the desert and his commissioning of Peter to feed the sheep in John 21, to lead the reader in a discourse on Christian leadership. Most of the book centers around the idea of Christian leaders being servant leaders, seeking to be led by Christ’s Spirit into areas of service and sacrifice and submission instead of seeking power and popularity and relevance. He paints a Christ-centered life of “downward mobility ending on the cross.” And it’s all very good. But I was especially touched by the author’s angle on theological reflection as a spiritual discipline.

Thinking theologically, the way I understand it, is to recognize the salvation work our God has been doing in his world since the beginning of time and will continue to do until time ends and then using that as the guiding force behind everything we do and say. It’s realizing that every single thing relates to and goes back to God’s eternal plan for the reconciliation of the world and then jumping all the way into that plan and work with everything we have. It’s seeing how it all connects to redemption and salvation and deliverance and making sure the things we do connect to those things as well.

Even though we speak and teach in Scriptural terms, most ministers and preachers today are raising psychological and sociological questions. Thinking with the mind of Christ is more difficult. Nouwen writes,

“Without solid theological reflection, Christian leaders are little more than pseudo-psychologists, pseudo-sociologists, pseudo-social workers. They think of themselves as enablers, facilitators, role models, father or mother figures, big brothers or big sisters, and so on, and thus join the countless men and women who make a living by trying to help their fellow human beings cope with the stresses and strains of everyday living.

The task of Christian leaders is not to make a little contribution to the solution of the pains and tribulations of their time, but to identify and announce the ways in which Jesus is leading God’s people out of slavery, through the desert to a new land of freedom.”

Thinking theologically, which I was first introduced to at Austin Grad and which still does not come easily to me, is seeing God’s saving work in everything around us and seeing our efforts as nothing more and nothing less than joining that divine work. Thinking that way and being guided by that careful reflection serves us well as leaders; it keeps us focused on the things that truly matter and diverts our attention away from the peripheral things that take up way too much of our time and energy.

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Carrie-Anne and I are leaving in the morning for the annual Soul Winning Workshop in Tulsa. And I can’t wait. I love Tulsa. I love the four days of get-away-time with my wonderful wife. I love getting re-acquainted with old friends from Mesquite, Arlington, and Oklahoma and making new friends from all over the country. I love worshiping in song with hundreds and hundreds of other saints. I love the great collection of powerful speakers and the opportunity to sit at their feet from morning to night. It’s exhausting. It’s exhilarating.

We always come back from Tulsa wishing there were a way to bring back to our home congregation that same spirit and fire we see and feel and experience up there. What are the differences? Why is being in Tulsa so radically different from being in our home churches? Is it because Jeff Walling and Terry Rush and Rubel Shelly and Randy Harris are preaching? Is it because Keith Lancaster is leading singing? Is it because there are so many people there? Is it because 99-percent of the people there are all going there for pretty much the same reasons? Is it just because we’re in a different location? There is an unmistakable fire and energy there that feeds me. And I can’t wait.

Tomorrow is also our Day of Prayer and Fasting at Legacy in preparation for Missions Sunday. And, be assured, I’m holding off on the jalapeno potato chips, the Whoppers, and the Little Debbies until Thursday morning. Those are my traveling foods. But I’m fasting with the rest of our church body during this day of prayer and preparation.

Please remember to encourage each other tomorrow. Call or email your friends. Keep in touch. Get together sometime during the day for an hour of prayer. Use the building here for those times. Or just kneel with a buddy in your living room or kitchen. The prayer meeting here at Legacy Wednesday night at 6:00 will also be a wonderful time for mutual encouragement. And while you’re breaking your fast with a bagel and coffee here at the building Thursday morning, I’ll be doing the same with a continental breakfast at the Hampton Inn.

The blogging will be short and sporadic for the next few days. May our God bless us all with his vision and his passion for lost souls as we pray and prepare for Missions Sunday.

Peace,

Allan

The Net

March 21, 2008 / Allan / 0 Comments

One more week here at Legacy to pray and plan and prepare for Missions Sunday, March 30. Wednesday is our Day of Prayer and Fasting. Our prayer service begins at 6:00 Wednesday evening. And then our adult classes are meeting in the auditorium at 7:00 for a missions-themed time of worship. Thursday morning we’ll break the fast together with a come and go break-fast here at the building from 6:00 to 8:00. And then Sunday is Missions Sunday.

John Wesley once said, “The Church has nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore, spend and be spent in this work.”

And I’ve been trying for the past six weeks to preach that message to our family at Legacy. I want us to see ourselves—each of us—as Christian missionaries. Ambassadors for Christ. Ministers of reconciliation. God’s fellow workers. We’re not all preachers or teachers or Bible study leaders. But we’re all co-workers with God.

Yesterday Terry Rush, in his blog Morning Rush, nailed the idea. He paints a beautiful picture of our involvement with God in his saving work that began before time and continues through eternity. Everything we do and say today connects with all the things that have been done and said before us and connects, too, with all the things that will be done and said after us to win souls to heaven. I urge you to read his article here.

Hope the Easter Bunny’s good to you.

Peace,

Allan

Shepherd or CEO?

March 20, 2008 / Allan / 0 Comments

“I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.” ~Ezekiel 34:16

In the contemporary church, as we increasingly borrow our leadership styles and ideas and methods from the business world, the Scriptural image of preacher and elders as shepherds is becoming endangered. A preacher is generally seen as a CEO and the elders as a board of directors charged with keeping the plant running smoothly and efficiently.

But the theological cost of viewing ministry as management and elders as decision-makers is great. The shepherd image, not the CEO image, is the overarching and pivotal analogy for leadership of God’s people in the Scriptures. Thomas Oden in Pastoral Theology: Essentials of Ministry wonders if “we have traded in the vocation of handcrafting saints for the business of mass-producing sheep.”

To be a preacher or an elder —I believe pastor is a proper word to describe the biblical activities of both—is to truly comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Ezekiel 34 speaks to both sides of that common idea. The bad shepherds were criticized because they ignored the fat sheep who were oppressing the other sheep, while they lived comfortably off the products of the flock. In contrast, the good shepherd both confronts the fat sheep and tenderly cares for the weak sheep.

In his commentary on Ezekiel, Dr. Ian Duguid brings it home:

“Most of us who are shepherds fall far short of this standard. Sometimes, we don’t challenge those who are comfortable for fear of stirring up conflict—after all, the fat sheep are often big givers who underwrite the church’s budget (and pay our salaries). Nor do we always comfort the weak sheep as we should. Taking care of the weak sheep is hard, painful, time-consuming work, and we have been told that there are more important things to do with our time. As a result, we gradually turn into managers of the flock, and as long as the flock is growing in numbers, no one around us complains. God is against such shepherds, however. He is the one to whom we are ultimately accountable, and what will it profit us if we grow a sizeable megachurch, yet neglect our calling to shepherd the sheep? We will stand under his condemnation.”

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I love the NCAA basketball tournament. Wall-to-wall games, all elimination games, upsets, buzzer-beaters, meltdowns, courageous comebacks, crazy coaches, cinderellas, heroes & goats—March Madness indeed. And the TV coverage is part of what makes the next four days, starting today, the greatest four days of the year in sports. They stagger the tip times for the games, making sure we get to see the last four or five minutes of every contest. Every dramatic finish is seen live. Coast to coast. Wherever and whenever the game is being played. If that game is better than the one you’re watching, they switch to it. It’s beautiful. Love the tournament.

It’s especially entertaining to me to hear the made-up words the studio analysts use. Billy Packer does it some. But usually it’s the guys in the studio who keep inventing these gems on the spot. Inevitably some team will “outphysicalize” another. Some big center will be praised for his “strengthability” and “post-upness.” A point guard will be lauded for his “court visionacious.” A coach will be recognized for his halftime “manueverization.” Love the tournament.

And the brackets. I have Carolina (sorry, Steve, I have your Vols going down to the Heels in Charlotte), Georgetown, Memphis, and UCLA in the Final Four with the Hoyas “outstrengthening” the Bruins for the Championship. A young, inexperienced Texas team will lose to Stanford in the Sweet 16. The Aggies get by BYU but get outrun by UCLA in Anaheim. Kansas makes it to the Elite Eight before getting punched in the nose by Georgetown. And UT-Arlington’s Movin’ Mavs can’t even get the license plate after getting demolished by Memphis. You can take those picks to the bank. Or fill out your bracket in pencil and make the necessary changes when you need to. My bracket’s never won the office pool. But I’m undefeated at home against my girls. Love the tournament.

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The “dummy-wall” is up on the west side of our building (insert your own line here, just not at my expense, please). Once the roof’s up on the new worship center and the thing is dried in, they’ll start tearing out the existing wall to tie in the new building with the old, hopefully by early next week.

Don’t call me today after 11a.

Peace,

Allan

Christ's Love Compels Us

January 16, 2008 / Allan / 0 Comments

As Paul writes about the ministry of reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 5 — that God is a God of reconciliation, he gives us the ministry of reconciliation, and we are his ambassadors; God is making his appeal for reconciliation through us — he admits that some people think he’s insane or drunk. The things he does and the way he talks seem way out of the ordinary. Paul doesn’t apologize for it. He explains it.

“For Christ love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” ~2 Corinthians 5:14-15

Listen to Paul’s passion. Feel it. Be amazed by it.

Christ love COMPELS us. The love of Jesus overrules us. It dominates us. It completely controls us. We’re held by his love as if in a vice. We can’t break free. The love of the Christ doesn’t lead us as much as it totally pushes us.

And I think I’m mostly compelled by my own experiences, my own wishes and desires, my own selfish dreams and visions. What I do and say, if I’m honest, is sometimes pushed by what I want. But Paul confesses that the love of Jesus is what drives every bit of what he’s about. Christ has his way with Paul without reservation. The fact that Jesus died for us should be what moves us and motivates us. It should shake us and never let us go.

As we represent Jesus our King, we should be controlled by him. His love should be the overwhelming factor in our lives, the determining factor every hour.

Paul acts the way he does because Christ’s love pushes him. It doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks. It doesn’t matter if they believe he’s crazy or drunk or straight and sober. It doesn’t matter. He’s driven by Jesus. It’s the only thing Paul is living for, the solitary force behind his every thought, word, and deed.

What God has done for me. What God has done for you. His love. It compels us.

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All Youth and/or Family Ministers (except for Jason Brown and Lance Parrish)!!! The Woodward Park Church of Christ in Fresno, California is looking for a Youth and Family minister. My great friend, Jim Gardner, is the preacher out there. And I can say from personal experience, it would be a tremendous opportunity for anybody who would take it to work with this wonderful man of God. I was encouraged and uplifted by the year I spent with Jim in Marble Falls. I learned so much from listening to him and working with him and discussing the Church’s mission in this world with him. Jim gets it. He has such a beautiful, big-picture view of the Kingdom. And he’s right smack-dab in the middle of it in Fresno. The Woodward Park Church is a diverse body of disciples. They’re making a tremendous difference in their community and, really, through the entire state of California. They serve as a hub of sorts in ministering to other churches in the state which really is a rich mission field compared to our state of Texas. It would be a tremendous challenge. It would be different. It would bless your life in amazing ways. They do things right at Woodward Park. And I highly recommend it to anyone who has a strong passion for serving young people and families in Christ.

Jim will be here in the DFW area next week to meet with any interested candidates. I’m picking him up at Love Field next Wednesday morning and spending as much time as I can with him before he takes off for Lubbock Thursday. If you’re interested (again, not you Jason or Lance!!!) email Jim at jim@wpcoc.com. He’s posted tons of information and a couple of links about the job on his blog at jimgardner.blogspot.com. And his church website is woodwardparkchurchofchrist.com.

If you know anyone who needs to see this info, get it to them quickly.

Peace,

Allan

Us With God

December 28, 2007 / Allan / 0 Comments

For the past couple of weeks here at Legacy we’ve taken a close look at the birth of Jesus in an effort to see God’s Incarnation, not as a complex and confusing theological abstraction but, as a way of looking at life and living life that changes our whole worldview. We’ve seen in all of the contrasts between human and divine at the stable scenes that the birth of Jesus shows us the low condition and the high potential of God’s creation. We’ve noticed in the genealogies that our God jumps right into the middle of our sin and grief to save us. By looking at all the different kinds of people in the birth stories we’ve concluded that the saving gospel of Jesus is for all. And in the vulnerable infant Jesus we’ve seen our own neediness and utter dependence on our Father God.

We’ve seen what God is doing by becoming human and living with us here on earth.

And this coming Sunday we’re wrapping up this short three-part series by identifying ways to live into the story, finding ways to jump in and join what God is doing in the Incarnation, how to embody this and live this out in our individual lives and as a church family.

Emmanuel is God with us, not God instead of us. And God with us means us with God.

In 1 Thessalonians 3, the apostle Paul uses a phrase that presents a striking way of viewing our partnership with our God. He refers to Timothy as “God’s fellow worker.” The idea of God and Timothy being co-laborers or co-workers with each other in the Kingdom—equals, if you will, in service—is such a scandalous thought that several later manuscripts of Paul’s letter change the wording to identify Timothy as Paul’s fellow worker or as God’s servant. But the earliest Greek manuscripts of the passage are crystal clear: Timothy is God’s fellow worker. It’s the same designation Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 3:9 when he describes Cephas, Apollos, and himself as “God’s fellow workers.”

That language should fill us with a tremendous sense of confidence and calling.

As God’s children we are in a partnership with him. God is a God of reconciliation. God’s work in the Christ is a work of reconciliation. And as God’s fellow workers, that’s our work, too!

Doing the work of Jesus, with Jesus, is the greatest part of being transformed into his image. We reflect his glory and are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, because of the ministry we’ve been given. Living like Jesus is not something we do to get salvation. It is our salvation! We are “being saved.” It’s a process—one that clearly sees the destination, but never at the expense of the journey. Jesus preached all the time about the Kingdom of Heaven. But all his teachings had to do with living right here, right now, with people on this earth, not in the afterlife.

Our calling as God’s children is to behave as a people who realize God made us to be his partners. Fellow workers. Co-reconcilers in the world.

Peace,

Allan

Category: Ministry (Page 32 of 35)

Mutual Ministry

Thinking Theologically

The Net

Shepherd or CEO?

Christ's Love Compels Us

Us With God

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