Welcome to Ministry. What Exactly Did You Expect?

26 01 2012

When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”  Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Matthew 8:18-20

It seems to me that the scene has by now played out for me at least a hundred times.  I am counseling with a pastor who has been put through the wringer by his congregation and has been maligned and injured and his family has been as well.  He has fallen victim to the church at its very worst and he now has the scars to show for it.  He expresses to me his utter dismay and surprise and talks about how seminary simply did not prepare him for this.  His wife expresses shock that God’s own people could behave so badly and that this was NOT what she signed on for when she agreed to marry a pastor.  I listen, and I weep with them, and I grieve for them…and then I think to myself, “Welcome to the ministry.  This is it.  Welcome.”

Jesus was always pretty clear about the downside to following Him…the cost would be great, the sacrifice extraordinary.  He never sugar-coated that.  He was completely unapologetic about it throughout his entire ministry.  So, I suppose my thinking has always been, “If that is true for every follower of Jesus, how much more so for those called out to shepherd other followers of Jesus?”  Vocational ministry, in short, is simply not about comfort.  It is about ministering to a bunch of poorly-behaved, stinky sheep who bite and who hurt you and who get it all wrong at least as much as they get it right.  On top of all that, if you happen to be of certain Christian persuasions, you have to add poverty and celibacy to that list of sacrifices!

This is about the point in my counsel where many younger pastors might interject, “Wow, Blake.  We’ve got to work on your bedside manner.”  Believe me, I know well that this sounds grim.  I know that it is depressing, especially if you are already down for the count.  And I know that it is not necessarily helpful counsel in some circumstances.  But seriously, there is a reality about ministry which I am not certain our seminaries and Bible colleges are getting right…I am not convinced we are really painting a realistic picture of life among God’s people when we send our young men and women out onto the field with visions of large churches, large salaries, large influence, and large prestige.  Jesus would cringe at that picture!

Ministry among God’s people was never intended to be easy.  It is hard.  And the rewards are few.  But my, my…they are rich, are they not?

© Blake Coffee
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.  Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com

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Categories : conflict, Everyone's a Minister, leadership

Stumbling Over the “Stumbling Block” Metaphor

22 09 2011

 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.  1 Corinthians 8:9

I do not drink alcohol.  There was a time in my life when I did.  But when I got out of college and got married and began my “grown-up” life, I made the decision to not drink alcohol.  I did not make that decision out of any moralistic reasoning, or because I believe God frowns on alcohol…I do not believe that at all.  I made that decision because, in my particular “flavor” of Christianity (the Southern Baptist church), there are still plenty of people for whom alcohol is a major “stumbling block” issue…people with whom I would lose my testimony if I did drink alcohol…so it seemed like a small price to pay to retain that ability to be a Godly influence in their lives.  Thirty years later, it still feels like a very small price to pay.

That issue (alcohol in the Baptist church) is about as close as I can come to a contemporary example of the “meat sacrificed to idols” issue Paul dealt with in the Corinthian church.  In that community, there was meat for sale in the market place at a discounted price, because it was surplus meat from pagan temples, i.e., meat intended to be sacrificed to pagan gods, but which was surplus and therefore sold into the market place for resale.  Given the Jewish history with pagan gods and all, there were plenty of “traditionalists” in the New Testament church who refused to purchase or consume that meat and who were fairly judgmental towards those who did.  These are the “weak-minded” people whom Paul is protecting when he counsels the church to be careful about being a stumbling block to them.

This passage drives me crazy.  It really does.  I do understand the principle of taking responsibility for how other Christians perceive me, even if those other Christians are “weak-minded” or not so terribly bright.  I understand the concept of guarding my testimony so that I can be an influence in their lives, even if it means sacrificing some of my “freedoms” in order to do it.  I even understand the notion of respecting the social norms of my church and not stirring things up just for the same of being difficult.  All of that makes sense to me.

But what about the notion of “teaching” those weak-minded brothers?  Is there not a time and place to gently and lovingly help them to see the truth about the issue?  There was a day in the Southern Baptist church when people of color were not allowed in the building.  We had to be pushed, pulled, pressed and taught the truth.  It was difficult, it was painful.  Some would have even said it was a stumbling block for many.  But aren’t we glad we did it?

So it seems to me that there is a delicate line between pressing against a strong preference and actually creating a spiritual stumbling block.  For example, I do not wear a tie on Sunday morning at my church.  I know that surely bothers some people.  They might prefer that I wear a tie.  But it does not rise to the level of a “spiritual stumbling block” for them (at least I hope it doesn’t).  But alcohol is a different issue in my church, at least for now.  It is not just a matter of preference, it is a matter of great conviction…even spiritual conviction for some.  So there is a degree of discernment necessary on my part to know the difference.  I cannot assume and I cannot presume anything.  I must engage my brother and my sister in conversation and listen well to his/her concerns.  I must spend time with him, knowing his fears and knowing his spiritual place.  I must actually have involved myself in his spiritual transformation process if I am to rightly discern what is conviction and what is merely preference.

In short, I actually have to love my brother well enough to know the difference.  Love my brother well.  Now there’s a novel concept!  If only we could start a revolution based upon that kind of love!  Oh, wait…

© Blake Coffee
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.  Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com

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Categories : 5 Principles of Unity, Christian Accountability, Church Unity, Corinthians, Genuine Community, Spiritual Formation, the revolution

A Stunning Metaphor for Gathered Worship

16 06 2009

Tuesday Re-mix – This is a popular post from last year, updated and resubmitted for your comments and consideration.

If you watched the opening ceremony of last Summer’s Beijing Olympics, you saw a breathtaking and beautiful display of performance and pageantry filled with Chinese drummers, fireworks, acrobats, musicians and dancers. For me, one of the truly amazing moments was the 2,008 Tai Chi masters perfectly synchronized and presenting a stunning visual across the floor of the stadium. Check it out:

As I was preparing for that week’s lesson on worship, it occurred to me (actually, it occurred to Kappie, from whom I shamelessly stole this metaphor) that this gathered Tai Chi performance gave us a nearly perfect metaphor for gathered worship. Here’s how:

Gathered worship should involve sacrifice. To do what these guys did required months of preparation and rehearsal…months of sacrifice in order to pull off a single moment together.

My friend Stephen, who plans worship at my church, reminds the choir often that it is their weekly sacrifice at Wednesday night rehearsal (more than the service on Sunday morning) which is their spiritual act of worship. For gathered worship to be truly effective, there must be this sacrifice, this “rehearsal” in order to do something together that is more than just multiplied individual worship. Tai Chi truly is beautiful. One Tai Chi master or even a small group would have been beautiful. But the hundreds of hours of work required to pull off 2,008 of them moving perfectly together was inspiring beyond words. The sacrifice was notable. Our sacrifice should also be notable.

In gathered worship we are necessarily connected to one another. These performers could have all just done their own thing out there with no connection to one another. That would have been beautiful (if not a little chaotic), but it wouldn’t have been nearly as amazing. Without a single mark anywhere on the vast floor of the stadium, they formed perfect concentric circles and lines across the entire stadium (and quickly moved them in every conceivable direction) solely by staying spatially related to one another. Gathered worship necessarily includes a connection to my co-worshipers. There simply can be no divisions among us in order to worship together properly. We must come with an intense focus on one another, finding Christ in one another and turning our hearts toward Him together.

Gathered worship is turned outward, away from me…not inward toward me. There was a single-minded purpose for these Tai Chi performers: to present a stunning visual of the whole. None of them were there for any personal gain other than the pleasure of having presented that stunning visual to the audience. In gathered worship, our audience is God. There is no other reason to be there other than pleasing Him with hearts turned toward that end. The objective of gathered worship is not for me to be fed or to be entertained or to sing the songs that speak to me…it is not about me at all. When we do it correctly, we all gather together with an expectation of turning our hearts completely and jointly toward God.

Every one of us has a role to play in gathered worship. When these Tai Chi performers were running together full speed in multiple directions across the floor of the stadium, it would only take one of them to lose focus or to come unprepared to the task to cause a disaster. There would have been injuries. It would have been an ugly scene. I wonder if every worshiper in your church feels that sense of responsibility when they come to worship? When I come unprepared, when my heart is not in sync with everyone else’s there is Spiritual injury…people get hurt. We actually come to totally depend upon one another’s “preparation” before we gather and on one another’s focus while we are gathered in order to accomplish gathered worship.

What happened in Beijing that Summer night in the Olympic stadium was not worship; not as we Christians understand that term. It was not 100,000 hearts turned toward God together. I do understand that. But it was a pretty good metaphor for gathered worship, one from which we could learn a thing or two.

© Blake Coffee

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.

Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com


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Categories : Church Unity, Worship Wars


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