Friday, August 30, 2013
Fresh From God
Recently I've enjoyed seeing photos and hearing news of my former students either starting their families or expanding them. How wonderful to see these new creations so clearly reflect the grace and beauty of the Creator. Filled with joy for each of these families that mean so much to me, I cannot help but think of a line from Dickens: "I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us." Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop (1841)
Think For Yourself
Tough times and a global context of questionable decision-making demands Christ-followers to think for themselves. "What a man can believe depends upon his philosophy, not upon the clock or the century" (G. K. Chesterton)
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Correcting Misunderstanding
Many years ago--37 to be exact-- I made a commitment to God and myself with mostly good intentions (I'm unwilling to claim that I'm immune from a selfish motivation here and there). I called that decisive moment "surrendering God's call to the ministry" and received profuse affirmation from my faith community and family. Again I'll say that my motives were mostly pure and that I was thinking concepts and using vocabulary with which I was familiar through the teaching of my church. All these years later I understand the fallacy of much of what I expressed that day and exhibited in the years that followed.
First, the idea of "surrendering" carries with it the twin acts of forsaking and relinquishing. In my 16 year-old mind, I was turning my back on everything I enjoyed and was good at in order to lift and drag through life the horrible burden of serving Christ. Somehow my ministerial penance would merit God's favor. Tragically, no one corrected my thinking and helped me understand that God has created each of us for a high purpose and that our living out that purpose includes using every God-granted gift and ability for his glory and kingdom advance, while enjoying the adventure of doing so. Instead of surrender it was more akin to a grand blip on the EKG of discipleship. The Creator intends fulfillment, not rejection.
Second, my scope of understanding "calling" was much too narrow and sterile. Somehow I had reached that tender age believing that a divine call was hoarded by those who served visibly in churches as pastors or in foreign lands as missionaries. Certainly only church leaders of the highest profile were the ones carrying out the "high calling." No one helped me understand the threefold aspect of call as presented clearly in Scripture: every believer is called to salvation, every believer is called to Christlikeness, and every believer is called to ministry--to live out a vocation--doing whatever they do with a strong sense of divine directive.
Finally, all those years ago I succumbed to what I now call the "heresy of the definite article." I was mistaken in accepting and attempting to practice pastoral ministry as "the" ministry in the church. Such a mentality leads to anemic churches and burned out pastors. Such a superman complex may produce adrenaline highs, but the end result is a low ebb of ministry and even lower trough of longterm spiritual impotence. Rather than relying on what one minister can do, God intends every believer to minister according to their various spiritual gifts. Frank Tillapaugh was correct many years ago when he called this interpretation "unleashing the church."
I am older now and, I hope, not only wiser but better understanding of what God was doing in my life 37 years ago and what he continues to do today. Yes, I was-am-and will be "called" by God to live out a divine purpose. And so are you. So is each of us that follow Christ as Lord.
First, the idea of "surrendering" carries with it the twin acts of forsaking and relinquishing. In my 16 year-old mind, I was turning my back on everything I enjoyed and was good at in order to lift and drag through life the horrible burden of serving Christ. Somehow my ministerial penance would merit God's favor. Tragically, no one corrected my thinking and helped me understand that God has created each of us for a high purpose and that our living out that purpose includes using every God-granted gift and ability for his glory and kingdom advance, while enjoying the adventure of doing so. Instead of surrender it was more akin to a grand blip on the EKG of discipleship. The Creator intends fulfillment, not rejection.
Second, my scope of understanding "calling" was much too narrow and sterile. Somehow I had reached that tender age believing that a divine call was hoarded by those who served visibly in churches as pastors or in foreign lands as missionaries. Certainly only church leaders of the highest profile were the ones carrying out the "high calling." No one helped me understand the threefold aspect of call as presented clearly in Scripture: every believer is called to salvation, every believer is called to Christlikeness, and every believer is called to ministry--to live out a vocation--doing whatever they do with a strong sense of divine directive.
Finally, all those years ago I succumbed to what I now call the "heresy of the definite article." I was mistaken in accepting and attempting to practice pastoral ministry as "the" ministry in the church. Such a mentality leads to anemic churches and burned out pastors. Such a superman complex may produce adrenaline highs, but the end result is a low ebb of ministry and even lower trough of longterm spiritual impotence. Rather than relying on what one minister can do, God intends every believer to minister according to their various spiritual gifts. Frank Tillapaugh was correct many years ago when he called this interpretation "unleashing the church."
I am older now and, I hope, not only wiser but better understanding of what God was doing in my life 37 years ago and what he continues to do today. Yes, I was-am-and will be "called" by God to live out a divine purpose. And so are you. So is each of us that follow Christ as Lord.
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