Titles and Ministries

Evangelical charismatic groups talk about the fivefold ministries – apostle, prophet, teacher etc.  They each have their place and that’s fine but I do think that sometimes we get a bit hung up about particular sentences or phrases in the Bible.  Actually reading again Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 12:28 there are more than five listed!  But the main point that I’m getting at is that we can overemphasise some things and create a whole new (and wrong) aspect of following Jesus.  Some people attach a great deal of importance to titles.  I have heard people ask whether someone is a prophet or apostle or which ministry gift they possess.  It’s as though there are rungs to climb up the ladder of spirituality and according to the thinking of many people, apostle is really as high up as you can go because Paul mentioned that first!  He says ‘first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers … …’ but is he really giving them that order of importance in a hierarchical sense or is he just listing a few ministries that he thought of?  I know when I’m trying to think of a list of something, I mention them, sort of counting on my fingers, ‘there’s 1)this, 2) that … … ‘ as they come into my mind but that doesn’t imply any degree of importance to that order of items on the list.

My mind goes back a few years when I was with a prayer team in a northern city and we were at a conference with some of the church leaders of the area.  One particular man was so excited because he had just been given the authority by his congregation to be called ‘Apostle John’ (I say John as I don’t recall his real name.) To him and his congregation the title was very important.  It made me smile – I was pleased for him in a way.  Again, as I said last week about the term ‘missionary’ we need to rethink exactly what we mean and believe.  Some church leaders are so taken up with their own importance that no-one dare question their words – after all they insist on you knowing that they are God’s anointed and chosen and have authority over the rest of us.  It sounds much to me like the authority given to the Roman Catholic priest and the so-called infallibility of the Pope.  Maybe they forget the words of Jesus about ‘the first shall be last’ when the disciples were arguing about the very same thing – the importance of position.  But the Bible clearly teaches that we are all equal in the eyes of God!

 

Having said that, I must also affirm that it is good to seek after spiritual gifts.  The Bible teaches as much.  But there can be a danger of seeking with a misguided attitude; becoming almost like a child who sees another child’s new toy and immediately thinks ‘I want that’.  There can be a sense of following the latest spiritual fad or fashion; wanting to show off the latest ‘in thing’.  I remember being at a gathering when during the proceedings a group of people began to laugh – quite loudly.  (You may remember that the Toronto Blessing had such an effect on people, the Spirit filling them with such joy that they couldn’t help laughing.)  But on this occasion I couldn’t help wondering if this was a genuine outpouring of the Spirit or if it was more of a desire to be seen as being ‘full of the Spirit’; a sort of spiritual ego trip.  We must remember that spiritual gifts are given by God in order to help us fulfil His purposes and not for our own spiritual status within the Church

 

I think there are ministries that people are involved in that are not looked upon as such but can be life-changing.  This week (as those who follow me on Facebook will know) my son got a job after being unemployed for 2 years.  A couple of months ago he started as a volunteer in the local charity shop of St Margaret’s Hospice.  The manageress had said that they didn’t really have any vacancies but she had seen his CV and said ‘You’re too good.  We don’t want to lose you’ and so he began helping out whenever they needed it.  Those words made such a difference to his attitude and whole demeanour.  Until then he had begun to doubt his own ability and after 2 years without paid employment, self-esteem was very low.  Her words of encouragement made such a difference that after hearing her say that, he was a different person going for interviews.  Encouraging others and offering such friendly support is not in Paul’s list but surely God using someone in that way is as important.

As Paul says, not all are apostles or prophets but all are important to God and His kingdom.  What is most important of all is to be the person God made you/me to be and do what He asks of us.  That is far more important than any man-given title.  Sadly we get caught up with the attitudes of today when people are impressed with titles and position and forget that on the Christian journey our man-given titles aren’t important.  God is really not impressed by them.  He just wants us to listen to Him and go and live out His plan for our time here.  Whatever title may seem important to some people here on earth, there is no hierarchy in the Kingdom of God.

 

 

 

 

 

Missionary and Mission

Last week I wrote that I was praying for a revolution in the Church.  We need to rethink many aspects that have taken on a particular meaning.  I hope to unwrap some of those thoughts over the next few weeks but at this point don’t know how far I’ll get.  So here goes with the first one:

The word ‘missionary’ conjures up in the minds of most people an image of someone like David Livingstone going to ‘darkest Africa’.  Such people gave their whole lives and devoted themselves to the people for whom they left everything.  A more up-to-date equivalent would be someone like Mother Teresa who devoted her life to the poor in India.  The world has changed much since the days of David Livingstone and those who go on missions abroad nowadays often do so for shorter periods of time – some for only a few weeks.  I think of people like friends Julie and Dick Hogben (he is a GP and she works at a [different] surgery).  They link up with a charity in India called Asha and go every year to encourage and help in the slums.  You can follow their story here and here.

Margaret with some of the children she has helped

At one time it was thought that some sort of specialist training was needed to go abroad on some mission, particularly in medicine or education.  My friend Margaret also thought this for many years and it saddened her to think that she didn’t have any such qualifications but really felt she should become a missionary.  But now, retired from work and still without those specialist qualifications, she volunteers for 9 months every year in Nicaragua to help those who live in poverty and works with the charity SIFT to encourage (and pay for) the children to go to school and even university so they have a chance of getting out of the poverty trap.  With donations she receives from friends she is able to help many poor families in many other ways too.

I have other friends, Jo and Ian Storie, who are in Latvia, living and sharing life with others, helping to sort out problems of everyday living like heating their block of flats and making authorities aware of the problems of wild boar on the land where people need to grow food.  Their work is not connected to any particular denomination or charity.  Jo writes an update of their unfolding story every Monday.  You can follow their story here.

 

Although missions abroad have changed, not everyone feels any urge to serve God in this way.  Indeed, God does not ask everyone to do this.  So let’s rethink this whole idea of missionary in this 21^st century.  The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines mission as ‘a particular task or goal assigned to a person or group’.  So when Jesus commands His followers to go, share and show God’s love to those who don’t know Him, that includes all who follow Him.  That is the mission of each of us.  It’s a mandate, not just for those who feel a calling to go abroad, but for all of us, wherever we are.  A missionary is a person with a mission. 

 

There are countless charities that organise fundraising events in which many enjoy taking part.  Those who enjoy keeping fit often join in sponsored running or swimming events to raise money for their chosen charity.  But, if like me, you’re not particularly into that sort of thing, we should not feel that we cannot contribute anything or fulfil this mandate that Jesus left for His followers.  God knows what we can and can’t do – after all He made us.  We can make a difference without travelling to another country or partaking in any strenuous event but simply by sharing and showing God through our daily lives at work or where we live – stacking the shelves at the local supermarket; showing friendship to some elderly, lonely or vulnerable person; being a good neighbour; contributing to a food bank … … No doubt you can come up with many other situations.  We have a mission; we are missionaries just where we are; doing the everyday things; being involved with people.  We can use the things that we enjoy doing and make a difference.  The original mandate of Jesus was not building centred, it was focussed on people, their circumstances, their needs.  God is not really interested in how many names we can add to the outreach project of our particular organisation.  God just loves people, full stop.  We are all missionaries in this revolutionary Church.  Wherever we are and whatever abilities we may or may not possess, we can make a difference in the life of someone.

 

 

Revival or Revolution?

There is a poster that says ‘Revive your afternoon’.  It is an advert for a well-known vitamin-packed drink.  The suggestion is that after working all morning and having lunch it is often then that you can become a little sluggish and tired in the afternoon.  The firm claims that by having one of their drinks you will get an energy boost and you can be as active as before.  And so the noun ‘revival’ coming from the verb ‘to revive’ implies an input of renewed strength, a pick-me-up, a livening up when we are weary of the ‘same old thing’.  It sort of confirms a renewed continuation of what has gone before but with renewed vigour.

The word ‘revolve’ however is something quite different.  To revolve something means to turn it around and hence the derivative word ‘revolution’ implies not a renewal but a change of direction altogether.  A turning around brings a whole new aspect, something that wasn’t seen or done before.  I remember one morning while living in Argentina when we put on the radio we heard sombre classical music instead of the usual lively morning get-up-and-go stuff.  We then heard an announcement that was repeated every few minutes throughout the day – the military had taken over the government; General Ongania was the country's new president.  There were going to be changes, things were not going to be the same as before.  (Over the years there have been changes and now a democratic government is in place.)  In some parts of the world where they have experienced the so called Arab Spring, there were uprisings and revolutions.  The people wanted change and in those places where the new heads of government have proved to be much the same as those that were thrown out, there continues to be unrest.  The people wanted a new direction a different way of living and they got much of what they had before the revolution.  They had a renewal, a revival and they wanted a revolution.



In the 2000 years of Christianity we have seen countless revivals, many in the past few decades in many parts of the world.  And yet so often life seems to go on as before, nothing much seems to change.  There is still so much injustice and suffering in the world.  Revival seems to encourage those who are already following God’s ways but on the whole, it doesn’t seem to have changed a great deal in the ‘big wide world’.  Continuing to do what we have always done, even with renewed vigour and enthusiasm, hasn’t had the effect we wanted.  Some lives may have been changed but often after a revival eventually things go back to how they were before.  Our towns and cities still have the same problems.

 

Many Christians pray for a revival.  Me? I’m praying for a revolution!  We need to turn around and start seeing people and situations differently.  We need to be with people, living among them, sharing their concerns.  The word that is preached and heard inside the building needs to become flesh outside the building.  Jesus’ work was done mainly in the highways and the byways of life.  He met people where they were.  William Booth, the founder of The Salvation Army, used to say that you can’t preach to someone who has an empty stomach.  You have to feed them and they will see what God’s love means.  People are sick of words; they want to see the revolution lived out among them.  Being a follower of Jesus is not just about repeating the ‘sinner’s prayer’.  It’s about living to make a difference.  Whatever else I may be known for, I want to be known as a follower of Jesus.  Now that is a revolutionary challenge.





Life after Death

Derelict building at Orton Ness

I was interested to learn this week of a place on the east coast of Suffolk called Orford Ness.  The buildings there are now desolate but a number of years ago they were the hub of investigation into British engineering and design.  The codename for the work carried out there was Yellow Sun; the design for nuclear bombs; the design to end the world.  The tall radio masts were part of a secret listening station to find military secrets of others.  But the world didn’t end and the people have gone and the work carried out here has gone. 
 

Chinese water deer

Nature has replaced and owned the landscape.  Now there are barn owls occupying the buildings.  Their secret and silent flight guarantees success in finding life-giving food.  The long ears of the hares have replaced the listening masts.  There are many other species, including Chinese water deer, avocet and spoonbill.  Where once there were plans for death and destruction now there is abundant life.  The commentator of the documentary summed it up by saying,

‘So many new and different lives in a landscape that plotted to take life away’.

The buildings of Orford Ness are falling and rotting away while nature is rising and redesigning that place that once held the secrets of destruction.
 

God’s plan is not to destroy by force, seeking power over others.  His response to destruction and the taking of life is the outpouring of love.  In a time of occupation by a foreign power God emptied Himself in the person of Jesus to show us His way of life, a peaceful, non-aggressive way of love.  God’s answer to the wrongs of the world that man has developed is shown in His creation – allowing all to be who and what they are without trying to change them or have power over them but to live in harmony and balance together – many different designs share what God has given for all.



 

God spoke and creation came into being – His words became living reality.  The Spirit breathed God’s DNA into creation and following Him we express those same ‘genes’ of God’s being in and through our lives.  We are His temple; His Spirit lives within us; we are made in His likeness; as part of His creation we carry His DNA.  Like children carrying the DNA of their parents, it’s up to us to decide to use what He has made us to be to express His nature by our attitudes and way of living.  As Orford Ness was transformed by nature, I want to be redesigned according to His DNA and show His ways.

 



Different Food

A series of programmes that I love to watch is back this week and continues over the next two weeks also – Springwatch.  I find it so interesting and informative.  This week they have commented often about the bad weather we have had so far this year and the particularly late spring and the effects this has had on the wildlife.  The various creatures have been reverting to inventive and strange ways to compensate for the rough times. 

There is a coastal region in Dorset - Kimmeridge Bay.  It is part of the Jurassic Coast and forms a key habitat for wildlife, the bay itself being a Marine Nature Reserve.  This year people have commented that apart from the usual seabirds that can be seen there, they have noticed garden birds such as robins, chiff-chaffs and wrens.  When marine scientists investigated further they realised it was because along the shoreline there was a microclimate underneath the line of rotting seaweed.  Here there was an enormous amount of small insects, sand-hoppers and maggots.  Further inland the weather has been so wet and cold that there have been very few insects for the birds and so they have travelled further out from their usual nesting places in order to seek food and feed their young.

 

On the Nature Reserve in Wales where the Springwatch team is located for the three weeks, there is a camera showing the nest of a pair of buzzards with their chick.  Again because of the bad weather, much of their usual food has not been available and so they have improvised and have been eating more frogs, moles and even an eel.  These creatures don’t normally appear so near to the surface of the soil but the unusual wet weather has meant that they have been more visible above the sodden bogs and so in the absence of their usual food store, the buzzards have been eating something different.

 

In both cases, the birds were willing to leave their traditional ways and try something new.  As people we often shy away from that with the attitude that ‘we’ve always done it this way’, ‘it’s not what we’re used to’, ‘this is our way, our life and we wouldn’t dream of going anywhere else’, ‘it doesn’t work the same.’  That shoreline of rotting seaweed must seem like an eyesore to some and there are those who would like to clear it (and the smell that goes with it).  But to those birds it is a lifeline.  For them it is not a waste place. It is a different place –yes – but a place of sustenance and full of life that they hadn’t been aware of before.  Some look at me (and others like me who have left traditional organised church) and in a similar way suggest that where I am, there is no spiritual food to be had.  To them it is unfamiliar, different or seems to be a waste place. But for me and many others it is a place of great sustenance.  The church without walls has an abundance of life.  It might not be for everyone but I for one am enjoying and thriving on the different way of being and doing things.