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Archive for the 'Ministry' Category
I’m hoping to migrate the audio for my sermons and lessons onto this website. Please see the new site at http://sermons.karenoch.com. I’m waiting for iTunes to accept my new podcast submission. If that happens, then people can simply subscribe to the podcast via this site as well as listen on the site.
If this works then I will move my entire resource site over to karenoch.com, including lessons, handouts, sermons, writings, etc. We’ll see.
At this point in my life, my leadership responsibilities include leading those who lead other leaders. Or, to lead people who will lead people who will lead people; great-grandchildren-leaders. That means the people I directly lead are more likely very capable leaders themselves. They make good decisions with sophisticated thought processes and values. But at times I still disagree with their choices. And since the responsibility of those decisions ultimately fall to me, I have asked some of my leaders who I oversee to do things my way.
But if the only time I disagree with my subordinate leaders are the times I feel strongly and assert my authority, then I begin to send a wrong message. The wrong message I begin to send is this: I don’t trust you. If you and I don’t see eye to eye, I’m going to ask you to do things my way.
I’m learning that it’s encouraging and empowering to tell the leaders I oversee things like, “I want you to know that I disagreed with your decision, and I still do. But I want to work through you, respect your leadership in this area, and give you opportunities to make choices that may even be mistakes. So even thoguh I disagree with you, I can still support you as you proceed down this path.
I hope it’s clear that these disagreements are not over moral, ethical, or fundamentally core issues. Those are worth asserting. But I’m learning it encourages my leaders to know that I did let them follow paths I would not recommend. It shows then that I am willing to trust them, to give them the chance to do something different, to take acceptable risks, and believe that I do not always have the right answer. (Far from it!)
So, I told one of the leaders under me today: That’s not the play I’d call, but I leave the decision to you. It’s your call and within these ethical and theological parameters, I’ll support your plan.
You might call this encouragement by disagreement.
God has confronted me with Romans 12:7 on the spiritual gift of teaching. Specifically, if a person is gifted (as well as called and trained) to teach and preach, let him preach. The Apostle Paul also says if a person is gifted to serve, let him serve, and so forth with other gifts. By implication, it means if someone is not endowed with the grace to preach, then let him exercise his appropriate spiritual gifting accordingly and stop preaching.
Every aspiring preacher I know has struggled. Aspiring preachers become discouraged, rejected, or ruined by pride. Most people preach poorly in their first few (hundred!) sermons. But eventually, with training, encouragement, and prayer, they become competent. So my role as an equipper has been to encourage, train, and pray for newer preachers (including myself).
But now I have entered into a new season of life and ministry. I realize that part of my equipper role includes telling someone who wants to preach that I do not think they are gifted to preach. I don’t know why I have never thought of that implication before. Maybe I just wanted to encourage people in a difficult ministry. Maybe I realize that if no one encouraged me in my preaching, I would probably not be preaching today. Maybe I accepted the fact that while many people are gifted to preach, only a few will be considered “good” by listeners. But I think that last reason is flawed. Perhaps the reason why many preachers struggle to keep the attention of their hearers is because they are not gifted nor called to preach. Maybe there so few “good” preachers because most of the “not good” ones should not be preaching! If after training, opportunity, and encouragement a man does not become competent in preaching, he should consider exploring other gifts and ministries. But if I encourage such a person to continue to preach, I do a disservice to both the person and his hearers.
Martin Luther’s comments on this passage struck me, perhaps because they are out of another time and culture. Luther is not concerned with contemporary politeness or convention. Luther is frank and reasonable. He sounds harsh at times, but says the hard truth that some people just should not preach. Luther is concerned for the preaching of God’s Word in the Church. God has used his counsel to convict me.
“Against this there offend first of all those ambitious persons, who, because they despise their own office, desire to teach, though they lack not only the (necessary) indoctrination, a thing that might yet be borne, but also the gift of teaching. For it is not sufficient for men to be learned and intelligent, but they must also have God’s gracious gift (of teaching) to make them truly called by God for teaching… Therefore they should be satisfied with their office who do not know how to preach, or who are not even called, even if they should have the ability.
“It is strange how much (harm) the good intention does which makes persons believe that by preaching they produce ever so much more fruit, even if they are without the necessary special training, without the call, and without the gracious gift. When God calls (persons to preach), He calls either those who have this gift, or with the call He grants the gift. Without such grace men either beat the air (1 Cor. 9:26), or the fruit of which they boast exists only in their foolish imagination. I will not mention the stupid and altogether incompetent persons who here and there are put into the pulpit by bishops and abbots…
“Many have the gift of teaching though they do not possess great learning. Others have both, and these are the best teachers… Whoever does not use such gifts, but concerns himself with other matters, sins against that which the Apostle, indeed, which God commands.”
Luther than summarizes the importance and implications of knowing if one is called and gifted to preach or not to preach. “The Apostle here speaks above all of those who are (divinely) called. In the same way he, in all his letters, always emphasizes his call, because without the divine call neither the office nor the preaching can prospel. Thus it happens through the working of Satan that as some (who are not called) presume to preach, conversely teachers flee from teaching so that the Word of God is hindered in both ways. (Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans, translated by J. Theodore Mueller, Kregel Publishing, 1976, pp.170-1)
In the coming days I suspect I will have some difficult conversations. But in the days after, hopefully those persons will joyfully begin to employ their greater gifts for the greater benefit of God’s people.
I admit, I desire the greatest impact. Yes, I relate to the sentiment that “I just want to be faithful to what God has called me to…” which has a ring of humility to it. It’s a humility that seeks not great things for oneself. Instead, it’s the heart’s cry of a true servant who is eager and pleased to serve the master in whatever way He sees fit.
But as I wrestle with my own aspirations, I desire more. Not more for myself, though I am sure I am plagued by common temptations of pride and vainglory. But more in the sense that I also eagerly desire to make the greatest impact possible with the time, opportunities, talents, and resources God has availed to me.
I also believe that I can be zealous for the Lord’s name in such a way as to take the time, opportunities, talents, and resources and multiply them to generate greater opportunities, all by His grace.
As I am now 32, I am slowly solidifying what I’ve suspected for almost 15 years. The greatest impact is defined by a how qualitatively deep and how quantitatively numerous I can influence people’s lives for the better.
And by better, I mean with to herald the fullness of the gospel of God to as many people in as clear, compelling, and faithful as possible.
At this point, it seems to me two major areas of work. The first area is that of directly impacting people personally. That seems the way of Jesus as he invested in his followers. But as he did that, he ensured by the facility of the Holy Spirit both a written message and a living movement. Thus, while we have no record that he physically wrote things down, God orchestrated the inspiration and transmission of Scripture that would impact people forever. And while he did not create an organization while he lived, the church was born through the Spirit and an institution was birthed in the Church.
I am not Christ. But it has seemed to me for many years that would be the greatest means to make an impact. Writing songs are good for being remembered, but I desire direct change. Great preachers are popular for a generation or two, perhaps with records made of their great sermons. But the way to the church is through her pastors, and that comes through theology professors, seminaries, and powerful written works (mostly scholarly but not necessarily so). And that is passed down through the under-shepherds and the churches they serve.
Thus, the combination of a movement of people with a body of work to which they commend the future leaders and members of any movement.
So, I aspire and desire to make the greatest impact in my generation and in centuries to come through writings on the most enduring themes: God and His Word. Indeed, the books that I know of from centuries ago are mostly commentaries because students of the Word search anew. The other books I am familiar with are stories. Those works seem to have the best chance of enduring past the 100 year mark. C. S. Lewis, MacDonald and the likes may not be as well remembered outside our context in 100 years. But Jonathan Edwards may still be remembered for his theological writings and preaching, if only by those who are in the similar movement of God’s plan.
If I truly do wish to write works of this sort, I had better start doing just that with the preparation and focus of someone who is set to accomplish that which God has set for him.
I have the interpersonal, speaking, and pastoral abilities to preach and lead a church of biblical greatness. Again, if any of that is true, it is true by the grace of God. I claim nothing on my own. And by biblical greatness, I do not mean a church that has enormous buildings, that is nationally known, or that has thousands of attendees. But a church that serves the Lord and His purposes with their very lives.
I also have the intellectual opportunities, resources, and drive to study and write and study and write and study some more and rewrite yet again. Do I really need a doctoral degree to accomplish this? Well, it depends what I want to write. If I desire to write fiction, then probably not. If I desire to write more learned works, then again, probably not if I study well on my own. But if I am not able to do so, if I find myself limited either in reception or in production by not possessing certain earthly credentials, then I would endeavor to work towards achieving those for the glory of God. But I would not know if I truly needed those– if it is worth the resources– until I try my hand at the craft and task first and found myself in want.
And so, I will write.
But what to write? Since I am no scholar yet, and I wish to write about the Bible, perhaps I would write to help people understand the bible better? I would write for these:
- Pastors and teachers, fathers and spiritual leaders, missionaries and disciplers, mothers and those who nurture.
- Let me write to help others understand the Bible with an aim to understanding it, praying it, living it, and teaching it.
- Let me write something that could be used “devotionally” as a daily reading for God’s children, but not encumbered by the styles and whims of today’s tastes.
Of course, I would also like to write about relevant issues of the day, engaging in the thoughtful discourse as I am best able to engage. This is all that systematic theology does: it answers people’s questions about God, the Bible, and life. Thus, it must deal with questions people are asking. This may seem staid and dated, but the deep questions of life seem to be timeless: love & friendship, beauty and hope, truth and meaning, justice and righteousness, fun and humor (my own addition!).
Most germane, I would like to write to strengthen both believer and non-believer with the truthfulness, practicality, and beauty of the God and the Christian life. Call this a type of apologetic.
I would also like to radically live out what I learn, but first I must become that much greater a student of the Word.
So, I will endeavor to write a work somewhere between a devotional, Bible study, and accessible commentary on certain texts.
Let this genre– if it has a name yet– be organized by Bible book, but cross referenced by topic and even suggested thematic Scriptures for study or preaching.
But more on this… I would like to create a work that is useful for both Bible student and teacher, for Bible study and personal devotion, biblical and systematic theology, for group study and preacher. Perhaps I am on to something with a new genre. And this distinctiveness would have to be a genre, not just a format with a column for the preacher and another call-out box for the devotion.
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