Redefining “Ministry” and “Mission” takes more than a Sermon Series

            Every Christian is called by God to advance the Kingdom of God as we support human flourishing. Our support of individual and community flourishing may take “spiritual” forms such as preaching, prayer, mercy ministry, etc. but it may also take “secular” forms such as nursing, home repair, gardening, feeding your family, etc. In the work of bringing order to our sphere of influence in this world, there is no sacred – secular dichotomy as we labor “as unto the Lord”. (Col 3:23)

I’ve been tackling these themes over the last 3 months in my ministry. But a conversation last week convinced me that this sacred-secular dichotomy is deeply ingrained and will not be uprooted in a sermon series or even in a season. I was visiting with long-standing members of our congregation, folks who grew up in the Church and have been following Jesus personally for decades. They are gifted, articulate, balanced, conscientious servant-hearted and intelligent. So I was taken aback when one person mentioned that increased hours for a large employer in Madison was causing them to step back from.

“I am so busy right now at work that I don’t have the time to do ministry.”

“Why? What has led to the increase work load for you? A promotion with more responsibility?,” I probed.

“No. My coworkers have so many needs. Now that my kids are married I have more flexibility and time than I had previously. I often volunteer to cover for coworkers who need time for themselves and with their families.”

From this point I explained to my dear friend that this was ministry! In serving their coworkers in this tangible and practical way they were serving Christ and advancing the Kingdom of God. They were not stepping back from ministry, they were stepping into greater ministry and opportunity – albeit not within the four walls of our local church.

This conversation has convinced me that linking my parishioner’s current labors in the “secular” workforce to the purposes of God will take diligence. But the effort to persuade every lay person that they are a missionary is worthwhile. I think that when this dear saint saw that their current sacrifices and energies beyond the organization of our church were labors unto the Lord it unloaded a truckload of self-imposed guilt and gave new purpose and meaning to their efforts.

In her book Kingdom Callings Amy Sherman quotes a relevant statement from G. K. Chesterton: “You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”

May we understand that every Christian is a missionary right now where we are planted and may we say grace as those who are dependent on it for the discharge of our duties – to the glory of Christ Jesus our Lord!

Do you Preach Too-Narrow of a Gospel?

I’ve been reading Amy Sherman’s book Kingdom Calling and have come across a provocative question: Do you preach “the too-narrow gospel”? The question is not, “do you preach the gospel too narrowly?” as in do you exclude some group of people from the gospel – racial minorities, Jews, gays, the rich, etc. The question is do we preach a gospel that is too narrow, too small? Ms. Sherman suggests in her book that the evangelical church has often been guilty of reducing the gospel to simply “having a personal relationship with Jesus”. As a Christian trying to live a Christ-centered, gospel-centered life, it would be easy to shrug off such a question and check the box for “got the gospel”. But let’s not be hasty.

            What is the gospel? “Gospel” means “good news”. The good news isn’t that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. The good news isn’t that God has a purpose for your life, or that you can have your best life now, or that God loves you and you should start thinking more positively, or that God wants you to be healthy, wealthy & comfortable. The health & wealth “gospel”, social justice gospel, works righteousness, Christianity as therapy, Jesus as an example / noble teacher to follow are not the gospel. The gospel isn’t strictly a truth to believe, it is NEWS to proclaim. The gospel at its core is that God has provided a substitute for sinners, His Son Jesus, to restore our relationship with Him. John 3:16 says it succinctly:

^ESV John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”

The proper response to the gospel is also quite clear:

^ESV Mark 1:14-15 “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, ¹⁵ and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

So the good news isn’t that Jesus is a wise teacher who can help me get my life back on track if I listen to Him. The good news is that Jesus has died on the cross for my sins. And when I repent and believe I’m trading my sins for His righteousness.

So the core of the gospel is that through Christ you can have a personal relationship with God. So in that sense we do preach a “narrow gospel”. There is only one way (John 14:6) of salvation, one way to get right with your Creator: to stop trying to earn salvation by your own efforts and trust in the work of Jesus Christ. No other gospel will save. Belief in God isn’t sufficient (James 2:19). Even believing true things about Jesus isn’t sufficient. You and I must believe in Jesus, i.e. trust ourselves to Him. The Apostle Peter is blunt:

^ESV Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

So evangelicals are right to proclaim the good news that you can have a relationship with Jesus and to proclaim it ‘narrowly’ in the sense of justification by faith (vs. works).

            However if in proclaiming the gospel “narrowly” we teach only about the individual restoration of my relationship with the Creator we DO teach a “too-narrow gospel”. The gospel is not just a “me and Jesus” thing, a private personal individualistic spiritual thing. The personal restoration of relationship with the Creator IS good news, but the good news is better / greater / broader than that! For the gospel is not only that Christ restores your relationship with God, it is that Christ also restores your relationship with yourself, your relationships with others and your relationship with creation itself. If the gospel we preach only impacts the vertical dimension between me and Jesus we are preaching “too-narrow” of a gospel. The power of the true gospel is more comprehensive than that. What Jesus accomplished on the cross restores four fundamental human relationships: my relationship with God, the inward relationship with myself, the relationships I have with others and my relationship with creation.

            Personal forgiveness of sins IS part of the gospel, but it is only part of it. Ms. Sherman is on to something. Evangelicals (myself included) have stressed what the gospel saves us from (sin and death) but have not adequately stressed what the gospel saves us for. Perhaps that is why evangelical churches have excelled at gaining converts but not making followers of Jesus. Let us embrace the wholeness of the gospel and let us follow the Prince of Peace in working toward restoration in every dimension – horizontal and vertical.

The Only Inflation Proof Investment

I don’t know very much about economics. I studied micro and macro economics in college but it was a simple middle school text book Whatever Happened to Penny Candy by Richard J. Maybury that has caused me to think differently about inflation. Everyone knows by experience that their dollars don’t stretch as far as they used to. I used to think that rising prices are inflation. Gas cost a $1.15 / gallon when I started driving 20 years ago and this past Labor Day weekend I spent $3.55 / gallon. But Maybury writes, “Rising prices are not inflation. They are a result of inflation.” (emphasis mine) What then is inflation? He argues that inflation is an increase in the number of dollars. Maybury says that “money responds to the law of supply and demand just as everything else does. As the number of dollars increases, the value of each individual dollar falls. Prices rise to make up for this fall.” I’ve read enough to know that not every economist agrees with Mr. Maybury’s definitions. I’m pretty ignorant about all this, but his logic makes sense to me.

            Regardless of all the causes & definitions of terms, I’ve lived long enough in America to be trained to expect that my money will be worth less in the future than it is today. That presents me with a challenge: What does a person invest in that will retain its value over time? Stuffing greenbacks in a mattress or depositing it in a CD that yields a flea’s hair more than 0% doesn’t seem prudent. Stocks? Real estate? Camels? Continued Education? Everything has risk attached to it. Bubbles could pop at any time.

            We live in a world of uncertainty. How then should we invest? Is there an inflation-proof investment? Jesus said,

^ESV Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust¹ destroy and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

A superficial pastor would say, “See, you should invest your money in the Church. That is the best use of your resources!” Perhaps. But I do not think that Jesus was so much giving financial advice on where to put our dollars. Rather, Jesus is giving us 1) a recalibration of our priorities and 2) hope in an uncertain world.

            The bottom line is that there are no guaranteed investments. Nothing in this life that is impervious to thieves, rust and moths. Even a congregation can waste resources in the name of God. There is only one sure thing, one inflation proof investment: the Lord Jesus Christ. Give to Christ all that you have – including your investments, possessions & plans. Trust Him with your future. Trust Him with your resources. Put your confidence and hope in Him.

Will we work in Heaven?

Will we work in Heaven? At first glance this seems like a pretty abstract question quite unrelated to the nitty gritty of the here & now. But it isn’t. It is hard to love something that will not last - something that “doesn’t matter” in the eternal scheme of things. If work is solely part of this broken fallen world we live in – a have to, rather then a get to – it is a curse from which we will be liberated in glory. And thus work has more to do with Hell than with Heaven. With this mindset, is it any wonder that some Christians go through the motions in their jobs?

            There is no question that sin has corrupted our work. In consequence of their disobedience God did curse work. Our work now has an element of “painful toil” and the frustrations of “thorns and thistles” and a “great increase in the pains of childbearing” (Genesis 3:16-19). But I don’t need to convince you that work can be frustrating. I do however, need to convince you that work has an element of holiness, an element of eternity within it. Or at least I need to be convinced of this!

            As a child I imagined Heaven being a place of golden harps and white fluffy clouds – a land of unceasing worship – a never ending round of “Shine Jesus Shine”. I dropped this view because honestly at 15 it sounded more like Hell than Heaven to me! (Which exposes both the shallowness of my view of worship and the fickle nature of my affections for Christ.) As a young man Heaven became a land of “sanctified self-indulgence”. Sort of like a never ending cruise. Delicious food and drink, blue oceans, white sandy beaches, beautiful people, sports, entertainment, a land of leisure and play. A place to be served, to rest, to laugh and to never ever have to lift a finger to work again. Leland Ryken in his book Redeeming the Time: A Christian Approach to Work & Leisure writes, “the brief pictures of the future life that the Bible gives us provide no hint of work but only an abundance of feasting and celebration. In addition to the rest that remains for the people of God (Hebrews 4:9-10), there is play and festivity.” There is some Biblical support for this view. Consider:

^ESV Zechariah 8:5 And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.

^ESV Jeremiah 30:19a Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving, and the voices of those who celebrate.

^ESV Jeremiah 31:4, 13 Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers. … 13 Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

            Heaven will certainly be a place of great festivity, celebration and joy! But our view of Heaven is impoverished if we selectively quote the Scriptures. It is quite clear that work does continue in Heaven. Consider these scriptures:

^ESV Jeremiah 31:5 Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant and shall enjoy the fruit.

^ESV Isaiah 65:17, 21-23 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. ¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. …. ²¹ They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. ²² They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy¹ the work of their hands. ²³ They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity,¹ for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their descendants with them.

            We need to reconsider our view of Heaven. The Scriptures describe Heaven as a place of leisure and work. But something glorious has happened. The curse has been lifted and work is no longer frustrating. In fact it seems that in Heaven work and leisure overlap! Heaven is a place where our avocation (what we most enjoy doing) and our vocation (what we do for living) overlap! If this is so, let give our very best efforts to our current vocations. For in doing so we not only glorify God we prepare for Heaven.

When it comes to Work & Leisure, Integrity Trumps Efficiency

There has never been a generation on the earth that has been so preoccupied with efficiency and “time-saving” devices. Most of the new products we buy promise to make current tasks faster and more efficient. Yet despite decades of innovation and the invention of many “time-saving” devices we’ve rarely felt so time starved! I read recently of a study that indicated that Americans talk about rest & sleep in similar ways that a hungry person talks about food.

            Writing in the mid 90’s when pagers were in their heyday and before the advent of smart-phones, Leland Ryken said, “time-saving devices have consumed our time instead of freeing it up.” Now I am personally a fan of smart phones. My phone has increased my efficiency and effectiveness – both for work & home. But I would not say that my phone is a “time-saving” device in the pure sense that it has freed up some time for me. Instead, I find myself doing more. And to the bane of my one-track mind, I am “multi-tasking” more than ever.

            In our day work and leisure have blended. The advantage of a device like a smart-phone or laptop is that you can work anytime and anywhere. Of course, being able to work anytime and anywhere also means we can work all the time from everywhere! The lines between work & play are becoming blurred. While at work we can engage in leisure activities like checking the news, Face book, or playing a game. While playing, we can check our work emails, be reflecting on a problem at work, or in other ways get things checked off our “to-do” list. The trouble is that leisure and work have blended. And thus we neither work nor rest well.

            Recently in my personal time with the Lord I’ve been reading Ecclesiastes. The third chapter begins:

^ESV Ecclesiastes 3:1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: ² a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; ….

Could we add: “a time to work and a time to rest”? Perhaps it is time to acknowledge that some things should not be multitasked. From my experience, rest is ruined when I start multi-tasking. And my work efficiency and effectiveness drop when I add elements of leisure into my work. Perhaps I would actually feel less frantic if I did not check my work email during times of rest and did not check my face book (or other leisure activity) during work? I’m not trying to create a new rule or regulation for my life – rather I’m attempting a mindset or attitude change: When at work – work! When at rest – rest! Integrity should trump efficiency.

            LeLand Ryken in his book Redeeming the Time wrote, “Today the confusion has deepened: we worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship.” Christ is our Lord. He is the Lord of our work, our play & our worship. So let us live lives of integrity. Let us give Christ our undivided attention – especially when we gather with the saints for corporate worship. Then having gathered for worship, let us scatter to worship. Giving glory to God in our work by giving our employer our best. And giving glory to God in our play / rest knowing that Jesus Christ is Lord of the Sabbath.

Why “Christian” and “Risk Taker” Should be Synonymous

I’ve been reading through the Bible in a year on my smart phone using one of plans offered free through YouVersion. https://www.youversion.com/ Recently, the reading was from that obscure Old Testament book “Ecclesiastes”. Here is the enigmatic advice the preacher gives:

^ESV Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. ² Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. ³ If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. ⁴ He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. ⁵ As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb¹ of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. ⁶ In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

The passage begins, “Cast your bread upon the waters” – what does that mean!?! The last time I tossed bread onto a pond I was feeding geese. But here the preacher says after many days you’ll find it again. Frankly, I’m not sure I would want to find that soggy bread after many days! Nasty! Of course, the Scriptures aren’t referring to feeding geese or to nasty moldy mush. The wise preacher is advising the reader to take a risk.

Throughout his short book the preacher has been arguing that all is vanity. (Eccl. 1:2) Life is short, most of the important questions / mysteries of life cannot be decisively answered. Since this is true and because life is so uncertain, act! Do something! Take a risk. “Cast your bread upon the waters”. Risk your fortune on something – even something as risky as a sea venture. Do something! Just don’t sit on your hands doing nothing! Disaster may happen at any moment. But don’t live in fear of disaster -a tree falls where it will (v3) so maybe you ought not to put all your eggs in one basket (v2). Don’t over analyze things. If you wait for perfection you’ll never do anything – never start planting your fields (v4)!

“My name is Josh, and I’m a perfectionist.” There I said it. The cat is out of the bag. I’m the sort of person who will attempt to become an expert on something before I actually try doing it. I hate failure - absolutely loath it. I’ll play it safe and gather every scrap of data I can find about a subject before I attempt to do something about it. To put it another way – I’m the opposite of Apostle Peter. Conservative. Cautious. Detail orientated. Valuing Excellence. I enjoy tinkering – working to get things 10% better. All in pursuit of that elusive goal: perfection. Absence of risk. Guaranteed result. Proficiency. A quip my electrician grandpa made when I was helping him on the job site has become my mantra: “perfect is good enough”.

The bottom line is that you can’t mitigate all risk. And in fact it is counterproductive to delay action until you’re an expert. Most things in life you won’t become proficient at unless you’ve tried & failed hundreds of times. Many Christians live in fear of “evangelism”. After all, we’re talking about peoples’ eternal destinies here – this is serious stuff! You don’t want to mess it up. What if I said the wrong thing? What if I accidently drove them further from Christ instead of to Him? I’m not an expert here. I don’t have much experience. Speaking for Jesus is a big deal. I better leave it to the experts, I’d just mess it up.

Such thoughts are as far from the gospel and the Christian ethos as you can be. Do you remember Levi the tax collector? The moment after his conversion he threw a party in honor of Jesus and invited tax collectors and other sinners. I wonder if Levi, the newest intern, botched his sermon/toast that night? But it doesn’t matter. The point is – Levi acted. He did something. It seems to me evangelism is to be like that. Evangelism is inherently messy and inefficient. You scatter seed and probably only one out of four will take root. (Parable of the 4 Soils – Luke 8).

Sharing the gospel is a serious thing. Peoples’ eternal destinies depend on it. But the fact of its weightiness or importance should not discourage risk taking it should promote it. If there was ever something worthy of risk-taking it is evangelism. You’re going to fail. I’m going to fail, but not every time. “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.” Casting bread / sowing seed can seem like such a worthless activity. But give it time. Do not lose heart. For “the Word of God shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)

Hey, if you’re around the Evansville area – join us this Sunday (8/18) at 10:00am for a service in the park. And next Thursday (8/22) at 7:00pm we’re hosting a free concert at the Performing Arts Center at the High School. The Durocher Family band is coming to town. Should be a great evangelistic event! www.DurocherFamilyMusic.com  

Our work matters

In his preface to his book Heaven is a Place on Earth Michael Wittmer writes, “This book is about the meaning in life. A slew of Christian books already address the meaning of life.” Do you have meaning in life? In my time of private worship this morning I read an interesting verse:

^ESV Ecclesiastes 5:18 Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment¹ in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.

In other words, amidst all the transience and impermanence of life, to have meaning in life is to find enjoyment in your “lot” in life. With joy to fully engage in the work that God has placed before you.

I’m sorry to say that many Christians I know are not any more joy-filled in their work than those who reject Christ and ignore the counsel of the Bible. I think this is a great tragedy and does much damage to the gospel witness of the believers in this world. The old adage is, “He’s so heavenly minded that he’s of no earthly good!” comes to mind.

There are no doubt many reasons why believers lack joy in their work. It could be a failure to walk in step with the Spirit (who would bear the fruit of joy, peace, patience, etc. if we did – Galatians 5:22-23). It could be that the Adversary enticed us into a lucrative field that doesn’t match our gifts or our passions (and thus our work is extraordinarily frustrating). It could be that the curse of the Fall has infested our work in the form of weeds, rust, malware, and tech glitches. Or it could be still something else. But one thing that I’m determined as a pastor that it will not be is an inadequate or unbiblical view of work.

One reason many believers lack joy in their work is because they believe that the only meaningful work is “spiritual” work. By which they mean important things like “preaching, Bible study, evangelism, mercy ministries, etc.” The reality is that much of our work isn’t “spiritual” in this sense. Prepping breakfast for the family, cleaning up the morning dishes, chores, the commute to work, the ritual of checking emails on your smart phone to get a head start in the office, the coordination and logistics just to have the bits in place to do your job, working hard to make things better, faster, cheaper, continued education, returning home, meals, diapers, noses, dog walks, mowing, laundry on and on it goes. So little of life really fits into the category of “spiritual”. If you love Christ and you have a desire to make a difference for Him all the ordinary bits of life can seem like a hassle, barriers to “spiritual work”.

What I am jealous for you to understand is that not only is Christ to be Lord over all of life, all of life matters because Christ is Lord. Jesus values our work – all of it. Chores at home, our work as learners, our work as parents, our work as children, our work as spouses, our work in the marketplace, our work in recreation, our work to rest.

^ESV Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, ²⁴ knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

This means that there is no dichotomy between the sacred and secular. Martin Luther is famous for saying that the milkmaid glorifies God just as much as the pastor. This also means that there isn’t a dichotomy within our work. Responding to emails isn’t less sacred than implementing a new idea or solving a problem. Doing dishes isn’t less sacred than swinging a hammer on the job site. All of life is worship. We exist to glorify God. Evangelism and prayer aren’t the only “spiritual” things.

            It isn’t just souls and the Bible that will last into the age to come. They are not the only permanent things. And it also isn’t true that the only thing worthwhile is doing something permanent, something that lasts. Anyone who has seen a sunset or a spring flower knows that the Lord God doesn’t just value the permanent. God clearly delights in His work – even the transient temporary evaporating things. God models for us meaning in work. The key is finding joy in the work God has placed before you and to do it to the best of your ability. How we do it matters as much as What we do.

The work you and I do now isn’t just batting practice for the life to come. And we aren’t just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Doing a repetitive unending task like dishes may seem meaningless and of little consequence. But God sees and cares. Your work is necessary for the flourishing of those God has placed around you. You don’t have to be in prayer while you wash to make the task worthwhile or holy. The task itself is necessary & important. So wash those dishes as if you were directing a symphony of suds to the glory of God!