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My new comfort zone is not having a comfort zone. The information, ideas, or circumstances which can coax me into comfort today may be cast into a contrasting context tomorrow. Yet as a Christian and as a pastor, I want to be and need to be a person of consistent character so people know they have a trustworthy shepherd to assist them through life's journey. The same expectation is placed on the Church in general and each local congregation in particular. God and culture are now shaping the 100th generation of Christians as we enter a new year, a new century, and a new millennium. In an era variously called--post-modern, global-village, post-enlightenment, the information age--every human being is living in a world of fast-pace and constant change. The future shock prophesied by Alvin Toffler has now arrived. Through this shock, however, faith may steady us as it pumps adrenalin into our soul. The soul God makes resilient has the inherent capacity to recover from the post-traumatic syndrome that comes to each of us as we venture forth in a world characterized by change. Bumps and bruises come with this territory of turbulent change as we walk through each day's demands and possibilities. Pulsating through each person is a yearning to know: our purpose, our place, our people, our passion, and our plan. These five yearnings serve as an internal compass, which are placed by God in our soul as a prevenient grace to keep us tracking towards the Promise Land of spiritual fulfillment. The pastor is called by God to guide people towards the land of promise by showing them that true success is being all God creates us to be and doing all God calls us to do. All other pursuits for fulfillment cause us to "miss the mark," which is known in Scripture as sin. Safari is a Swahili word meaning to travel the adventure. The risk-filled terrains of a safari are: jungle, desert, mountain, valley, plain, river and ocean. The terrain of being pastor in the 21st century is also risk filled. The safari image conveys the sensations of certainties and uncertainties that come with our global age. The size of the challenge fits God. God through the Holy Spirit is known
as the Comforter and Counselor. Spirit is the constant
of eternity who can comfort and counsel us to live
effectively in our present world. This Holy Spirit
inspired and inspires the Scriptures which reveal
God's unchanging message for our ever-changing world.
God through Christ became "the author and finisher
of our faith;" and offers the salvation by
which we can be graced from our sins and transformed
into disciples of eternity. These essentials help
us as we seek to be Christ's body in Christianity's
third millennium. Encountering
the Pastoral Pioneer Wayne E. Oates The first of fifty-eight books written by Wayne E. Oates was The Christian Pastor. His original intention was to publish a re-working of his dissertation on Sigmund Freud. But his editor from Westminster Press cautioned him with the question, "Do you want to be known as a Freudian? Your first book will define you." The young seminary professor then looked afresh into his call and wrote the book which underwrote his career--The Christian Pastor. This one work became his life-time work, whether teaching across the land in seminaries, churches, universities or medical schools. He was a pioneering pastoral guide for people by using the resources of psyche, Scripture, Spirit, faith, and church. During the summer of 1992, my wife, Vicki, and I taught pastors in East Africa. One weekend our family journeyed to Mt. Kenya and there we met a psychiatrist who, after growing up in a neighboring village and studying in England, returned to his native region for a life practice of helping people. Fatigued by years of service, he wanted sabbatical. So with piercing eyes he peered into my knowledge and asked me if I knew Wayne Oates. And if I did, would it be possible for him to study spirituality with Dr. Oates? The pastoral influence of this one man who rose from poverty in the textile mill town of Greenville, South Carolina, to become a giant of spiritual influence is testimony of what is born from being faithful to the person God creates us to be and doing what God calls us to do. Wayne was a seer, the biblical term for a prophet, into the soul's of people. In 1994, shortly after becoming the pastor of St. Matthews Baptist Church, where the Oates were members, Vicki and I asked to meet with them in my study. They graciously agreed and in that encounter he asked us to be his/their pastor, meaning that he wanted us to get behind the myth of Wayne Oates and see Wayne Oates the man. The paradigm pioneer revealed his own need for a pastor to shepherd him. We would meet often between then and his death in 1999. He and I would particularly join our souls on Friday afternoons, that unique chunk of time between the heavy demands of weekday ministry and the weekend responsibilities of worship leadership. The Friday afternoon sessions began soon after our initial pastoral conversation. I had asked him to help me work through a problem. I needed to be named. Church members wanted to know what to call their new pastor. Dr. Hollon was too formal. Rev. Hollon doesn't easily roll off Baptist tongues. Brother Les was too rural for our urban congregation. Les didn't get at the distinctive relationship people wanted with their pastor. After examining this practical dilemma, Wayne then said, "Let's call you Pastor Les. For that is who you are to us--the pastor we need and the friend we desire." At age forty, I was given a new name and I am grateful for the privilege to be called this name by children, youth, and adults. Though I began preaching when fifteen and had been a pastor since I was twenty-four, being blessed by the biblical practice of "naming" empowered me with a new commission. To be effective, a pastor must be
a person (meaning that the individual is
not lost amidst the responsibilities of pastor)
and the person must be a pastor (meaning that he
or she is comfortable with this distinctive identity).
A thorough awareness of this integrated identity
helps keep me on track with my private and public
safari. This identity aids me in knowing my own
promise for purpose, place, people, passion, and
plan.
A Changing Time, A Timeless Message The ever-flowing river of life has
lessons to teach observed the Psalmist (Psalms 1,
23, 78 and 137), and all these lessons flow from
the glad river of God (Psalms 46:4). In the same
era, but standing by a river countries away, a Greek
philosopher named Heraclitus said of the river's
message, "Everything flows and nothing stays
. . . You can't step twice into the same river."
These currents of change produce within us a love-hate
relationship with time. One example is seen from the Baptist beginnings of the 1600's. The style of worship and music was hotly debated (sound familiar?). England's sterling Baptist pastor, Benjamin Keach, was also a hymnist. Resistance to congregational singing of hymns was the change issue of his day. Keach cited the precedence of biblical practices for congregational hymn singing but lamented, "Tis no easy thing to break people of a mistaken notion, and an old prejudice taken up against a precious truth of Christ." He and his son subsequently would influence the early story of Baptists in America. His warning to those who oppose change, simply because it has never been done that way before, is important. People opposed the singing of hymns because they were perceived as carnal and formal. Fortunately, the opposition yielded. As the challenge was for them, so it is for us: how to tailor up-to-date methods for sharing the gospel without changing the gospel. This is the call for each Christian generation. The fast-moving world that God loves in a John 3:16 style is more diverse and intertwined than ever. As a global community, we have geographically expanded what the Mediterranean world of Jesus' day experienced, a connecting of: commerce, communication, language, travel, regionalism, religious pluralism, political statecraft and warfare, ethnic diversity, and exported cultures. Our mosaic world society -- of 11,000 language groups -- is wrestling with the blend of globalism, regionalism, nationalism, and localism. Massive forces of change are at work. Defining a generation as 20 years,
the Christian movement is presently forming the
100th generation. The gospel march into the next
millennium carries awesome challenges if the church
is to stay current. By the year 2017 our knowledge
base may have expanded 97 percent, meaning that
what can now be known is only 3 percent of the knowledge
that will be available in 16 short years. That's
why Alvin Toffler and other futurists identify the
present as the Third Wave of Civilization -- the
Information Age. The first wave was the Agricultural
Age and the second, the Industrial Age. What is one to do? Can churches develop opportunities for such a world? Of course! Because the Lord our God, maker of heaven and earth, long ago sent Christians into the future by way of the Great Commission. "When they saw Him (Jesus) they worshiped Him but some doubted," this was the response of the first-generation Christians to the changing pattern of how things would be. Their doubt wasn't whether or not they were looking at the resurrected Christ. They knew this person before them was Jesus Christ. Their question was whether or not they were up to the task he had commissioned them to pursue, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:16-20). This commission is now being handed to the 100th generation of disciples. We, too, wonder if we are up to the task. In these uncertain days of change, the best of our heritage reassures us that "what brought us to where we are" can take us into tomorrow. Our heritage is principles, not methods, and these principles give us the necessary spiritual insight to see God's leadership as we choose the right ministry designs for the age in which we live. We are guided by principles like: blical authority, self expression of the local church, Christian experiences of conversion and discipleship, missions and evangelism through reconciliation, spiritual gifts, and religious liberty. These guiding forces are tailor-made for the age in which we live. To effectively understand how to design these principles for shaping dynamic ministry, we must open ourselves to live out the spiritual patterns by following our unchanging God. Shapers of the early Protestant era -- Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli -- stressed that churches needed to distinguish between essential principles and methods (adiaphora). Confusing one for the other petrifies spirit into out dated structure. As churches that have been entrusted
to share God's most precious message, we must expand
our capacities for identifying, understanding and
shaping a 21st century style of introducing people
to Christian experience. The following six insights,
adapted from futurists Thomas Kuhn, Joel Barker,
and the author of Hebrews, give guidelines for seeing
the changing patterns of history:
As Christians and churches grasp the past and present patterns within their communities, their ministry understandings will be updated. The meaningful old and exciting new will be present. Seekers shaped by 21st century patterns won't feel like they are entering a 1950's time warp when they gather as church. The Call to Purpose by Principled, Purposeful Priorities
The renewal of God's vision is underway in the global Church by being underway in local churches. We are not waiting to begin church renewal, we have already begun. A Ministry Agenda simply helps to guide one's progress in shaping the church's structure to facilitate the church's spirit. Renewal stops dead in its tracks when structures control spirit. Priorities must be established if
meaningful long range goals are to be accomplished.
Priorities emerge from a great many possibilities.
The tough decisions are not easy to make but need
to be made if the church is to fulfill her ministry
potential. We proceed under the premise that effective
long range planning for a three-to-five year period
builds upon a congregation's strengths. A church's
weaknesses can only be transformed as they are connected
to their strengths. Each church has strengths on
which to build. The church's mission is best clarified
by forming a Long Range Planning Team which works
as collaborators with the pastor/staff in particular
and the congregation in general. Their efforts are
divided into four major steps:
After making appropriate revisions through their collaborative process, the congregation can then passionately commit to the vision. Hundreds of hours are invested in the project, and the result is a God inspired direction for the future. Then comes the exciting time to fulfill the vision. Strategy development can focus on the
six areas of: Growing, Worshiping, Sharing, Participating,
Inviting, and Giving. By design, some of the strategies
and goals are to be quite specific, and others offer
a general direction for action. This tandem approach
encourages the entrepreneurial use of spiritual gifts
guided by a common vision. The report should be consistently used
as a guide by all working groups within the church.
A great tragedy occurs when the ministry agenda simply
becomes a collection of promising but unused directions.
The entire church is commissioned to the task of being
a vibrant source of New Testament ministry. The pastor,
church staff, committees, councils, and ministry teams
are to ensure that they accomplish the agenda which
is set before them. Semi-annually, progress reports
are to be given by various ministry groups within
the congregation. The congregation is to encourage
and constructively hold each other accountable. The Vision Team considers its report
to be the first of several phases. The plan is flexible
and alterations can be made in light of unforeseen
developments and changing conditions. Specific proposals
requiring policy change and/or money expenditures
are not finally accepted by the adoption of the initial
report, but are to be separately considered and approved
by the church before proceeding. By pursuing the vision, the church ensures
that her rich heritage of gospel work continues. The
Ministry Agenda serves as the central guide
for the fulfilling message of God's reconciling love
to the community and world. Success is directly in
proportion to the faithfulness by which established
priorities are pursued. Churches are in a great position to face the future, when their plans have truly been a spiritual process that will produce lasting growth in the church, community, and the world. The vision, talent, work, and prayers of the entire membership are required for the continued success as faith partners in God's world. Guiding Principles for the Church's Safari Several years ago, while serving as a seminary professor in church history, I had the privilege and challenge to teach through the full span of Christian History--all two thousand years. Along the way, I noted six characteristics which enabled churches to grow spiritually and numerically. Later, when interviewing with the St. Matthews Baptist Church, I shared these characteristics with the congregation. They were woven into my oral covenant with the church. During my first year as their pastor we formed a Vision Team comprised of twenty-one people, similar to the model I previously mentioned. To them I submitted the six principles for their re-shaping. The following is the result. I simply offer it to you as an illustration of one way to intentionalize the ministry of a local church for global servanthood in the 21st century.
The church's guiding principles provide the basis by which a congregation partners with God to grow the church spiritually, numerically, and missionally. The principles are then crafted to strategies and action plans, which themselves must be:
Among the resources helpful for church
leaders to interpret societal happenings, with implications
for the church, are the works of: Leonard Sweet, Martin
Marty, Bill Leonard, Wayne Oates (as updated through
the Institute), Don Hustad, Peter Wagner, Carl George,
the Alban Institute, Leadership Network, Peter Drucker,
Lyle Schaller, Richard Foster, Ken Callahan, Christian
Schwarz, the Willow Creek and Saddleback style of
mega churches, and Reconciliation Networks of Our
World.
What does the Promise Land of spiritual fulfillment
look like? Where does the safari take us? What exactly
are we pursuing? Jesus put it this way to his first
followers, "Come and follow me, and I will
make you . . ." The Latin term for this is
sanctus ficare, to be made holy. Thus, a
church's worship space is called a sanctuary, meaning
that a place exists through worship where we can
expect the Holy to shape our lives. A place within
God's presence where our purpose, people, place,
passion and plans are intentionally reshaped by
the Holy.
The blessing sends us out with the commission to
go and do what we have experienced of God in worship.
Maturing Events / Decisions
You reshaped your life by choosing
another level of development
Moving from B to C makes
the person look extraordinary, but extraordinary people
are actually ordinary people who put forth extra ordinary
efforts to not only grow personally but to help others
with their growth. People of faith, in general, and
Christians, in particular, are to utilize more potential
from our God-given capacity to grow holistically. The pace of change in the 21st century
world is too fast for a static mind, body, and spirit.
The size of the challenge can be met if we will trust
God and ourselves to release the latent potential
inside of us. This is similar to what Soren Kierkegaard
(1813-1855) described as Christ stirring the potential
as an anxiety inside of us so we would take "a
leap of faith." Justin Martyr, the paradigm pioneer
in the second century explained this as, "He
became what we are in order that we might become what
He is." As we remember His life, death, and resurrection;
we renew our commitment to let Him become within us.
William Carey (1761-1834) challenged his pre-global
missionary society in England with, "Expect great
things from God. Attempt great things for God."
The nineteenth century evangelist D. L. Moody commissioned,
"The world has yet to see what God can do with
one life totally yielded to Him." Those words
caught my attention as I read them during my boyhood
days along the Texas banks of the Cibolo Creek. Arnold J. Toynbee, the 20th century
historian, stated that the outcome during paradigm
shifts is determined by the response given to the
challenge. Pastoral leadership must help Christians
mine the potential within them, so that the right
responses are given to the challenge of future shock.
Once activated, the new growth enables one to meet
the challenges of a postmodern technological world.
If we travel back to the future through biblical stories
we see how past paradigm pioneers can make us present
paradigm pioneers. Through them God reveals our way
forward on the safari. Noah, for instance, was disrespected
by his home country. His greatness was revealed during
a moral issue of global proportions. When God showed
him what needed to be done, he did it. How? Though
courageous faith. So it was when Joshua stepped out from
the shadow of Moses and led a bunch of former slaves
into freedom. Rahab stepped out from cheapening herself
as a prostitute and helped the Israelites enter the
Promise Land. David stepped out from being the youngest
of eight sons and became Israel's greatest king. Amos
stepped out from being a shepherd and became a prophet
of godly justice. Matthew stepped out from the tax
collectors's table and wrote a Gospel. Peter stepped
out from his hatred for non-Jews and boldly led the
church to accept Gentile Christians. Mary Magdelene
stepped out from her lost place in society and followed
Jesus to the cross. Timothy stepped out from his youth
and aided the Apostle Paul in establishing churches
throughout the Roman Empire. Aquilla and Priscilla
stepped out from cultural norms and showed how husband
and wife could be equal partners in life. These and thousands of other stories,
illustrate what God can do with followers whose hearts,
heads, and hands are empowered by courageous faith.
And this kind of faith is a non-negotiable requirement
for the 100th generation of Christians. We must not
be so foolish to think that because our technological
cultures have changed so dramatically from their's,
that the essential character of faith has also changed.
No, what must change is our capability to utilize
this faith in the 21st century of outer space, cyberspace,
virtual reality, bionic body parts, and a World Wide
Web. We will benefit by remembering that
we are the stewards of God's creation, not owners.
Adam and Eve robbed from the Tree of Knowledge because
they deceived themselves into thinking that they owned
the Garden of Eden. Instead of living as stewards,
they became usurpers. The resource of faith, however,
keeps us in harmony with creation by aligning us in
a right relationship with the Creator. As God sends us into the future, I am
struck by the trust God has in us to co-create with
Him. It reminds me of a simple phrase I have used
through the years to commission our children. "Have
fun and use good judgment," is what I have said
to Rachel, Ryan, and Steven since they were old enough
to go outside by themselves. Whether to play next
door at a friend's house or to send them off to college--these
words have been my reminder: I trust you. Enjoy. Be
responsible. As winter will soon morph to spring,
thanks be to God for our opportunity to "green
up" and grow life. For the privileges and challenges
of living responsibly in the era of exponential technological
development, we turn afresh to Christ as the timeless
one; we turn afresh to Christ as: the Alpha and the
Omega; the One who always was, is, and will be; the
author and finisher of our faith. We find our way
forward by following the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Our needed moral and spiritual development can then
grow exponentially. We can know the heightened consciousness
which comes by what the Apostle Paul shared at the
Parthenon in Athens, "In Him we live and move
and have our being." (Acts 17:28). Traveling
into eternity with this basic faith awareness, means
we can be trustworthy by daily renewing ourselves
to make a gospel difference. This gospel difference happens as our personal faith becomes public and as our individuality becomes interdependent with the 11,000 people groups who inhabit this earth. Last Spring when being inducted into the Board of Preachers and Scholars of the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College in Atlanta, the following words were spoken:
The requirement of "new methods of relationships in human society" for the ever changing world in which we live is a challenge bigger than any one of us. The size of the challenge fits the new commandment given by Jesus to his disciples, "Love one another as I have loved you and by this shall all people know that you are my disciples." This is the "order established by God." These commissioning words from Jesus form the basis for how we enter eternity one day at a time. The pastor's essential task in the leadership safari is to direct people in their spiritual formation. Consequently, the pastor is helped from Scripture and Christian History by the following practical outcome questions. They are adapted from the pivotal work of Richard Foster and the marvelous movement called RENOVARÉ.
People suffer little danger of being so heavenly minded they are of no earthly good. The reverse is true. We are tempted to be so earthly minded that we are of no heavenly good. By pursuing holistic spiritual formation, represented by these seven areas, we can best know how to translate the ways of heaven into earthly application. Four Areas of Pastoral Ministry As a pastor committed to helping people
form faith for a 21st century world, I make to my
congregation the following three commitments: First, I promise to minister
from a life of love. By loving God with all my heart,
mind, spirit, and body; to love people and myself--I
receive God's daily resources to think, feel, and
act with love. Love is eternally relevant. Administration. Administration is leadership by organizing the church towards ministry. The work is a collaborative effort with members, staff, and pastor. A church's ministries are to function in harmony by each one doing its function in a way that compliments all the other ministries. This is a systems approach, similar to what the Apostle Paul described in I Corinthians 12. Creating an overall atmosphere of trust through effective communication and decision making are central ingredients of a church with congregational polity. Communication is our ongoing process. Technological approaches e.g., e-mail, cellular phones, and answering machines help to tether effective pastoral relationships between the in-person encounters. The challenge through pastoral administration is to effectively blend inductive and deductive approaches. Selectively integrating "here is where we are" with "here is how we are going to get to the next place." An inductive style emphasizes the journey (purpose and objectives) the church is on with God. A deductive style emphasizes the destination, or the goals and tactics along the journey. Being an effective pastor requires
effectively leading the staff to fulfill their vocational
call. Through weekly staff meetings, monthly strategic
sessions, and an open-door policy--staff commit themselves
as colleagues who model community for the church,
just as church then models community for the city.
Our call--with corresponding abilities, attitudes,
and character--must be connected to the church's needs
for accomplishing the church's vision. Pastoral Care. Seward Hiltner, and later amplified
by Henri Nouwen, communicated pastoral care as the
acts of healing, sustaining, and guiding. My definition
for each are: healing as receiving and accepting responsibility
to transform what can be transformed; sustaining as
living with hope, endurance, patience, and character
with wounds that cannot be healed; guiding as living
as pioneers to discover new frontiers. Nouwen characterized the guiding minister
as one who: utilizes individual and collective memories
as a source; claims a prophetic function; uses storytelling
as a ministerial art; teaches meditation as a way
for the Word of God to shape our lives; teaches prayer. Pastoral care is the congregation's work along with the pastor's. The pastor is responsible to ensure that pastoral care is provided through the systems of the church, e.g., Sunday School classes, small groups, women's ministries, men's ministries, Stephen Ministry, staff members, selected individuals with specialities, deacons, . . . The pastor then decides what pastoral care he or she is to be directly involved in through: counseling, crisis intervention, intercessory prayer, relational conversations, hospital visitations, weddings, funerals, correspondence, and modeling. (Refer to the second chapter of Wayne Oates' work, The Christian Pastor.) Missions/Evangelism. Christendom (the institutional structure
of Christianity) is being radically reshaped through
postmodernism. The global village means that international
missions are now in our back yard. The information
age means we must develop ourselves into an internet
church. Missions (taking the gospel into cross-cultural
opportunities by actions and words which reveal Christ)
can and must happen locally and globally. Particularly
missions need to be done through partnerships across
lines of race, education, class, denomination, and
history. Evangelism is verbally sharing and/or enacting
the message of salvation so seekers may know what
a personal relationship with Christ means. A pastor
is to be a strategist for missions/evangelism. A mutual respect for the dignity of every human being and people group means that faith sharing should be pursued with respectful love. The following five level approach is one way to share faith honestly in a global village environment.
I designed a weekly planner as a simple way to help me pursue a balanced ministry. Even though we will never achieve perfect balance, we can be helped by a holistic and systematic approach. The rest is soul-sweat and sheer grace.
Proclamation is the pastoral act of
leadership by communicating to the faith community
a spiritual message which inspires, informs, and instructs
them to live the biblical message in a 21st century
world. Proclamation proclaims God's vision. The call,
gift, and ability for proclamation is expressed through
preaching, teaching, writing, and worship leadership.
Pastoral leadership envisions with the church, the
church's future. The pastor preaches a biblical road
map which weekly guides the congregation toward spiritual
fulfillment. Ministry in general and preaching in
particular is a three tense experience. At any given
moment we are working with the past, the present,
and the future. We arrive at today by yesterday's
journey. Tomorrows destination will be influenced
by the frequency, intensity, duration and directions
of today's efforts. The day I submitted my doctoral dissertation,
I wanted to celebrate by doing something unusual.
So I went to a local hotel and paid for someone to
shine my shoes. The perceptive shoe shine man picked
up that I was a minister, and asked me what was so
special about this day. I told him. He then spoke
words straight into my preacher-soul, "Preach
what came before you. Don't matter if you get your
Ph.D., preach what came before you." I didn't
interpret his comments as a slam against me or education.
They were a warning. No one gets too sophisticated
for the gospel. The preceding message of Jesus is
the "good news" message for today and tomorrow
also. The Spirit of God through Christ Jesus entered
earthly time with heavenly purpose to make an eternal
difference. The sermon is to translate heavenly ways
into earthly applications. For today's cross-generational congregations,
the sermon is often most effective as a passionately
narrated exposition of the Scriptures. Sermons today
must have a guiding image, an understandable central
idea, clear illustrations, relevant information, and
practical instructions. Above all, they must inspire
the listener to become an active participant in the
message. Because image makers and wordsmiths
are abundant in our technological age, worshipers
have less tolerance for irrelevant preaching. To grab
their souls, the sermon must address their lives.
This happens when the message:
As the 20th century preaching giant
George Buttrick knew, "When the biblical text
catches fire, your sermon comes alive. It comes
alive by first allowing the Holy Spirit to inspire
the passage as a story relevant to the preacher's
life. The preacher must ask. "Where is the
story for me? Where is the story for the congregation?"
My
Understanding of the Story, a. Where is the story? i. In the Biblical passage--- b. What is the Word? i. In the Biblical passage--- c. What difference does it
make? i. For the Biblical characters--- Following now are three hermeneutical principles for sermon crafting the story line: First, the story line from Scripture must write the script from within the preacher. Weekly, the Word must work the power into the proclaimer. By knowing the story is personally true, the preacher can preach the Word as a confident servant. Though any great sermon is preached beyond the minister's own life, it must at least include that life. This personal integration bonds the needed trust between the preacher and congregation so the people can relax and open themselves to hear the wisdom that will safely guide them into a union with God's will. Secondly, the biblical story becomes sermonically alive when God's hope is inspired into the lives of the congregation. Through a narrative approach, the sermon begins as a window by which the congregation first sees God's story, and then decides to walk on through the window by entering the story for themselves. Once into the story, God's word takes off with the congregation. Thirdly, once into the story, listeners become participants who need information and instruction. Their lives are now in the sermon and they are curious where this is leading them. Where is the destination and how are they going to get there? The New Testament scholar, A.T. Robertson observed, "Keep your eye on the goal if you can see it. If not, keep your eye on one who knows the way to the goal and who is going there." Peter Drucker, the futurist and leadership guru, says that data becomes information when it is timely and relevant. Suffocating from piles of data, people are crying out for real information. An American today can be exposed in one day to the amount of data an American a century ago would receive in a lifetime. Information provides the necessary knowledge of who, where, and when. Instruction explains the how. Interpretation reveals the why. Inspiration breathes in the courage to do it. The sermon energizes God's divine story line (imago dei) within the worshiper. Then personal questions come into focus by the listener seeing more clearly the answers to such questions as: What is God saying to me? --purpose. Who is involved with me in this story? --people. Where will my decision lead me? --place. How can I invest myself in this mission? --passion. How do I do what I now know I am suppose to do? --plan. An example from Jesus. Ministering as he walked along, Jesus
encountered a group of religious leaders who felt
their status was threatened by the presence and
teaching of Jesus. So they surrounded him with questions,
hoping one would knock him submissively into a corner.
The sermon born from this life encounter is now
cherished around the world. The inquirer retorted, "O.K.,
but who is my neighbor?" Then came the information: a neighbor
is anyone, not just someone born from the same side
of town as you. The instruction came by way of the
actions from the Good Samaritan. Then Jesus extended the invitation,
"Who was neighbor to the man?" The sermon's
listener, who now was an active participant, could
only say, "the one who shows compassion."
He now knew how to be his neighbor (inspiration). As in this parable, each key word in preaching carries causative power. The rhythm of lively key words, intensifies the sermon's power. As we are inspired, informed, and instructed--we are shaped into the purposes of God. With the biblical story burning brightly from within the sermon event, the congregation becomes a city set on the hill which cannot be hid.
How do you like all the people? How
did you know God wanted you to be a pastor? How
do you help someone believe in God? How old is old
enough to be baptized? These and other questions
were asked of me recently by our first grade Sunday
School class. Participating in this question and
answer session is part of the tradition of our Children's
Ministry. The questions we ask reveal the desires
of our soul and set the context for our experiencing
God. Kenneth Scott Latourette, the Baptist church
historian who taught at Yale and pioneered studies
in church growth principles, uncovered six essential
questions asked by the 50 to 60 million people who
lived in the Mediterranean world during Christianity's
first 300 years. By successfully answering these questions, Christianity became the prevailing faith of the Roman Empire. Interestingly, these also are the essential questions of our present age. For the Christian movement to continue growing churches, we must effectively answer these six questions because people are experimenting with any possible source to find their answers. Americans join the world's other 5.75 billion people in wanting to know the answers.
How do we find answers to these questions?
by experiencing God. How do we experience God? through
opening our soul into His presence. It seems simple
enough but there are problems called fear and fallen
pride/ hubris. This fallen pride is woven into the
fabric of our human condition and it wreaks tragedy
upon our desire to experience real answers to our
spiritual questions. God doesn't leave us alone to muddle in uncertainty. Clear directions are given to us so we can know the salvation which heals our aching souls. This clarity happens as we praise God's trinitarian splendor, confess our human frailty, sing our gratitude, search the Scripture for guidance, and live the answers we know so we may find the answers to what we don't yet know. The Impossible Becoming Possible The Casa Grande Ruins stand in the
sun baked Sonoran Desert of Arizona as testimony
that the Hohokam Indians thrived during the 1200's.
What enabled them to not only survive, but achieve?
As I walked among the ruins three answers emerged--adaptability,
hard work and ingenuity. They did what they needed
to do with what they had in order to accomplish
what they could. "I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me," was the promise
the Apostle Paul lived. And through his living and
those of 99 succeeding generations of Christians,
as testimony of Christ's strength, stand not ruins
but the living Church. The Church assembled reveals
the nature of God's ability to make our abilities
more than what they would be minus the strengthening
presence of Christ. Jan Karon, author # 2 on the New York
Time's bestsellers list, claims Philippians 4:13
as her verse. By trusting the promise, she left
a successful advertising position when 50 years
old to fulfill a God given call she received at
age 10 to be a writer. By honoring her call to write,
her fifth book further reveals the Christ who is
at work inside her. When adaptability, hard work, and
ingenuity are utilized, the human spirit achieves
much. When those same qualities are used in all
areas of life by people whom Christ strengthens,
the work of Christ changes the world through the
ministries of the Church. Self reliance becomes
reliance on Christ who shapes our lives into a living
testimony of the impossible becoming possible. So it is that Christ is at work through our challenges to accomplish what we can't do on our own. Hope comes by entrusting the seemingly impossible into God's possibilities. No where else in America do the different
ages of our society gather like we do with church.
At sports contests people gather in the same space
to spectate but not to interact. Schools, scouting
programs, athletics, fine arts and other important
programs form priceless teaching relationships between
adults and youth but they do not possess the life
line of regular relationship building with so many
ages sharing with each other. The pioneer Daniel Boone was once
asked if he had ever been lost. "Lost?"
he pondered. "No, not lost but there have been
stretches of a month or two when I didn't know how
to get where I wanted to be." Boone's response
revealed his adventuresome soul. He knew that knowing
one's destination was not the same as knowing how
to get there. Discovery of territory which is new,
requires finding, or when needed, creating the pathways
which lead to a promised destination. Living in an age called by some as
post enlightenment, we should be reminded of the
insight which Roland Bainton, the famed church historian
of Yale wrote for his grandchildren in a book, Church
of Our Fathers. When describing the Enlightenment
era, he warned: "Man is like a clumsy juggler
. . .who first drops one ball and then another.
And so the Church in trying to decide whether the
Christian religion is true, forgot what the Christian
religion can do." Now is the time to coordinate
our faith so the truth and power won't clumsily
fall in the abyss of lost opportunity. Traveling along the precipice of the
21st century and Christianity's third millennium
is a safari for all of us, including Christians
around the world. Pastoral leadership seeks to chart
the pathways which lead to a promised destination. The following are Ten Learnings from
my first 8,000+days on the Pastoral Safari of Leadership:
Stirred by a noble theme, we pursue the bold quest of being all God creates us to be and doing all God calls us to do. Through vision born of hope, strategies worked from faith, and power directed from love -- believers serve in the cause of Christ to provide a home of faith for every seeker. This is the church at work. The Learnings:
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Copyright © 2001, Wayne E. Oates Institute. All rights reserved.
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