In case you missed it, I am pasting here Alex's comments on my last entry. His observations provide a great lead-in to my topic for today.
"I want to comment on something also that has really been bothering me, for what it's worth. It is the whole "missional" idea of church ministry. Hey - I am all for the church reaching this world and living outside of itself, but there is so much push towards this "missional" concept that is still sadly lacking signs of the kind of inner life we have been talking about. It can be so utilitarian in its goal of aligning church ministry and people to this missional approach, that I feel that it threatens to place people's gifts as nothing more than a means to an end. Is God more or less pleased with us when we are "using our gifts for His purposes." But this is exactly the kind of language and tone I am hearing from people, and I feel it is the flip side of the same wrong coin of emphasizing our works, our performance, our gifts - what we do - as opposed to living out of the daily discovery of who we truly are in Him. One places the emphasis on how we can best serve "His goals" (whatever we think that is, sounds like some kind of divine corporation), the other places the focus on daily communion with God and active listening and response."
Thanks, Alex! Your comments provide a good background for the contrast between ministry that is driven by mission and life that flows to others from a place of rest and peace.
My comments this week were generated by a question from some dear friends who asked me to elaborate on my statement that I don't have to "recover" much from "ministry" when I remember to do things from a place of peace and rest. Not sure how to tackle this, but here goes.
First, this may turn some of you on your heads, but I no longer divide my life into compartments like "ministry times" and "family times" and other times, etc. Rather I view all of life as a joyful, sacred dance with the Lord Jesus. "Ministry" as it is usually thought of simply flows out of this peaceful dance with God. All of life is an offering to God and to others. Brother Lawrence talks about this. I don't have time here to elaborate, but many before me have said similar things. Note that living all of life as a sacred and joyful offering to His Father is how Jesus lived and it has wonderful advantages. Two that come to mind are that we don't have to "pray ourselves up" or "work ourselves up" to "minister" and that we don't have to be concerned as to whether or not we are "anointed" at any point because all of life is lived gazing at God, dancing with Him and what comes from us is anointed because it's the overflow, the rivers of Holy Spirit water that Jesus talks about in John 7:37-39.
Second, in order to understand how to serve from this place of peace, one must first learn how to get there. It has taken me over four years to reach any sort of consistency in this, and I am still not always able to do it. But establishing this inner stillness and learning to live there is the privilege of every believer (Galatians 5:22 comes to mind, along with many other passages) and is essential to all who would learn to "do what Jesus did" (better, allow Jesus to serve other through you).
Third, once we learn how to live in the place of peace, we can then be available to God to serve or not serve at His leading. The inner peace enables us to hear Him well, even in the midst of what would normally be stressful situations, and since we have nothing to offer others apart from Him, hearing Him is essential. The inner peace also enables us to rest in His authority, awash in His love and power--this is especially useful when one is expelling demons, trust me!
Fourth, the inner stillness, then, becomes the "meter" by which I am aware of whether or not I am flowing with God in what He is doing, in His power, or have drifted back into human effort, relying upon mere human resources. This really works by the way. Whenever my peace disappears, it is a totally reliable signal that I have "missed" what Papa is doing and is inviting me to join Him in.
Fifth, living/serving in this place of peace prevents what we do from being merely human effort. My sense is that most of what is called "ministry" today is driven by human energy from human initiative. The importance of this paradigm shift to a peace-infused life cannot be overstated. When I am peaceful I am able to catch and cooperate with what God is doing. Also, the inner peace facilitates my treating every person as precious and the object of God's affection and attention. Instead of just slapping a tract in their hand or pushing them towards a decision, I am able to pause and show genuine care and respect. I trust this makes sense. It's certainly how Jesus operated. He was fully present for each person Papa led Him to and was never rushed or hurried. People who miss this often find themselves being, as Alex states, "missional" but working for God instead of flowing with Him--this results in weariness and sometimes results in a striving, driven approach to others. Instead of inviting people into our lives and exuding kindness that invites, we push on them with our own sense of purpose.
Hmmm. I had better stop here. Do I need to explain more how to reach this place of peace and stay there? I do understand the other way to "minister," believe me. I spent most of my life "serving God and others" with the resultant adrenaline let down after "ministry" and the spotty at best results that come from human inititated, human powered serving. So I am committed to helping to foster a revolution that will help Jesus' followers to live as He did, always serving from a place of peace.
Let me hear from you. I wish to serve you well.
Tom, Abba's usually peaceful little boy
4 comments:
Tom,
I breathe a sigh of relief and relax in the truth that simply hanging out is ok. Sometimes we'll just sit there and chat, and other times he'll urge me to pick up the phone, write an email, or go to a family member or friend with words of encouragement. But none of it is about following a scripted formula for 'success'.
Oswald Chambers reflected similar thoughts, "When we have a purpose of our own it destroys the calm, tranquil pace that characterizes the life of the saint."
Dad settled me with a message that He is pleased with me, and that my name is in the Book of Life. "Now that that's settled, there is work to do before your eternal reward." His assurance that I do not have to, and cannot earn His favor or lose my salvation rendered useless my striving to do to please Him or to earn or preserve the 'gift' of salvation. How destructive slight misunderstandings!
Now, doing is motivated by gratitude and desire to administer the same priceless grace I have received. It is no longer a compulsion of drivenness. Perhaps I too can conserve a few drops of adrenaline for those situations when it is really needed!
Keep pressing in and urging us to do likewise!
Warm affections,
Jeff
Thanks Tom!
Feel like Father has us on the same wave link here ... imagine that!
To tie in some scripture - for all you who need a scripture to be convinced of anything ;-) - 2 Cor. 1:4:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ."
What other basis could we really minister to people from? The more I go down this road, the more I am humbled to realize how much of "ministry" has really just been about me ...
“It would also help us to think less about our performance and more about you as we do and create—big thoughts here, Papa! Help us to get it!" – Tom
I preface this knowing that I love, and that I'm loved by, God. Also, i know that the more i see that less i know...sort of a disclaimer to be crazy... So, run this through your strainer and see what you think…
Our personal relationship with God trumps all else. We are uniquely individual, but the same in so many other ways. Our relationship isn’t based upon performance or gaining approval through action. It stands alone and is not performance based. But each of us has a direction, a “bent” so to speak. This “bent” encapsulates our personality, our giftings, and what our relationship with God looks like – the flavor of it. The example of this is how each our relationships with our spouses are similar in some major ways, but very different in flavor. Back to God, by living out the “bent” that he has created us with, we live in obedience to God and in natural relationship with God. For me to be you would be performing, and likewise. For me to force you to be me would be “burn-out” for you and would create an insincere relationship with God in you. For you to force me to be you would cause “burn-out” in me and create an insincere relationship within me.
“If you keep yourself pure, you will be a utensil God can use for his purpose. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.” ~2 Timothy 2:21
Now to action. To Alex: agreed, people many times take actions in order to attempt to gain Gods approval, or allow their actions to become a substitute for an actual relationship with God.
“Hey - I am all for the church reaching this world and living outside of itself, but there is so much push towards this "missional" concept that is still sadly lacking signs of the kind of inner life we have been talking about.” – Alex
Without the concept of being “missional”, you and I and Alex would have never heard about Christ because no one would have shared the truth about salvation with anyone else. Agreed, this is not the only thing and being “missional” is no substitute for a real, inner relationship with God.
I would argue that in personal conversations with God, and out of a strong inner relationship, God will speak to us about His love for us, and also His love for people around us that don’t know Him as Savior and Lord….i.e. if you wanted to have a relationship with Jesus then you couldn’t separate out your personal relationship with His love for other people. Our relationship isn’t based upon our action to earn His approval, and our movement out toward being “missional” is simply part of who we are in Christ. This takes many different forms, but if you remove one of the wings of a bird, it’s not a bird anymore. I don’t think we can separate from our relationship with the concept of outreach. Our relationship with Jesus, at its very essence, is the product, to some extent, of some else’s outreach.
18When Jesus got back into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged to go, too. 19But Jesus said, "No, go home to your friends, and tell them what wonderful things the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been." 20So the man started off to visit the Ten Towns F19 of that region and began to tell everyone about the great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed at what he told them. ~(Mark 5:1-20 tells the whole story)
I can’t help that this person who had a real encounter with Jesus, which I believe can and does happen today, would have instantly been disqualified from doing exactly what Jesus told him directly to go do, largely because he lacked consistent evidence of an inner walk with God, and would looked at as being too action oriented. Of course, we on the outside would have the privilege of know that its was Jesus himself that told this person to “Go,” we would naturally assume that the demoniac was trying to earn God’s approval by instantly going back to his community to “evangelize.” His relationship was real, but in that time, maybe only he knew the realness of his personal relationship.
…great article – I linked it back to http://www.newchurchreport.com
Hi Tom,
Alex's comments followed by your observations stirred quite the conversation in our meeting last night; the result of which is mentioned below.
The general consensus was that our relationship with Abba is very much like our relationship with our spouse. There was a time when they were the center of our world. It didn't mean that we didn't function doing the necessary things in life; it did mean that they were our focus and everything else paled in comparison to them. This is a very necessary part of the relationship for without it we do not come to know each other as deeply as we are supposed too. There comes a time however in that relationship that things begin to balance out and we once again pick up other important things--like our gifts and calling--in our lives. This is a very dangerous time in the relationship though. For if we are not careful to maintain the intimacy of our relationship it begins to grow warn, then luke-warn and finally cold. The challenge becomes learning how to maintain a balance between that relationship and life itself.
I think that many of us in our SC journey are somewhere between developing that intimate relationship with our Father and finding the balance of maintaining that relationship with the rest of life. It can and will be challenging; but the beauty of this relationship is the fact that Abba doesn't get disappointed with us only to move on to something else. Not at all. The salvation--if you will--is the fact that as long as we are pursuing Him, He will lovingly carry us through how-ever many mistakes and short comings we have to make until we get it right.
In Bible College one of my instructors said that the reason the Apostle Paul was so successful in doing missions is the fact that he bounced off of so many closed doors that he finally found the one Abba had open for him! The point being that as long as we keep after it, not giving up ourselves, we too will find the open door Abba has for us!
In other words, we can't lose for winning!
Blessings on you guys.
ron
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