Thursday, June 23, 2011

Machiavelli & Ministry

We are all about grace in our ministries.  Right?  We are busy about reaching out to the poor when no one else will.  We as Christians even receive ridicule about how evil our belief is, though it is that very faith that has Christians and not atheists, all over the globe.  Grace takes us far from our homes, sometimes to places where our faith is a death sentence for holding.  Billions of dollars are spent on grace to meet the needs of the less fortunate, to send out missionaries, to bring clean water. 
Our ministries are built to exude grace, BUT, only to the outside world, to those who don't yet know.  Anyone who has ever been involved in ministry for any length of time, or has attended a church long enough will know this truth… that ministries are some of the most ruthless places to work for. 
You read the word, and it talks about the enormous harvest, so you get excited.  You think, I don’t know much, but I am willing.  You are ready.  That's enough right?  So you go look up what it takes to be involved in ministry, and your heart sinks.  Unlike the very Christ whom we are trying to emulate, there is no room for the imperfect. 
So, Peter, son of Zebedee…  how are you today?  Good.  Okay, well, I am just going to jump right in here.  Let’s take a look at your resume here.  Says you have no formal education in ministry.   (Winces)  Your previous position was what?  Fishing?  Like, for actual fish? How does that translate to ministry? How many people have you led to Christ?  How have you shown yourself to be a leader?  You caught fish?  Um, okay, let’s try this instead.  What would you say is your biggest weakness?  You have a bad temper and are prone to violent outbursts?  Whoa!  I am going to just be upfront with you here. We only really take on people whose flaws are like, “I sometimes study the Bible too much, so other things don’t get done,” or, “I am just such a perfectionist that I can sometimes drive myself too hard.”  You know, things like that.  We are looking for someone who has a good record of leadership within the church, someone who we can see has had a real impact on peoples lives.  That’s the kind of person we are looking for.  Frankly, we don’t have a place for you in ministry.
The Peter that dropped his nets and followed Jesus would probably have no place in almost any modern ministry that exists, but this is what Jesus chose him, and had this to say about him. 
Matthew 16:18 ESV  “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” 
Jesus isn’t talking about “A” church, like, “hey, you are going to plant a church over in Bethlehem, start thinking of a catchy name, maybe ‘St. Peter’.”  No, he was talking about “THE” church, like, all of it.  (Pauses and blinks for dramatic effect)
That above passage was said before Peter betrayed Jesus three times.  Betrayed him!  Did that end Peter’s ministry?  No.  Peter gets reinstated, and goes on to carry out the ministry as was said.  Some of what he wrote is now a part of the Bible.  Can you say that about you, or the people that work around you in your ministry?
It is even more than we can handle, as Peter didn’t even apply for his job in ministry.  He was chosen!  Can you imagine a ministry just seeing someone with a heart for God, raw and unrefined, and saying, “That’s who we are looking for!”  Then spending the time and effort to lovingly and patiently walk with that person, see them grow, only to have that person betray the ministry, then you forgive them upon repentance, and walk with them still, and they bloom through the grace you have shown, becoming the backbone of your ministry?
Yeah right!  We would have excommunicated Peter right out the church, and we would have used scripture to justify doing so.
He isn’t the only such example at all.  God chose some severely broken people to pen the Bible.  Think about David, a “man after God’s own heart.”  Adulterer, and I am not just talking about Bathsheeba. What about the vast polygamy?  Oh, and he put out a hit on the man whose wife he stole that would have made Don Corleone proud. 
Moses?  Murderer.
Noah?  Found drunk in his tent.
Samson?  Had sex with prostitutes.
Paul?  Tormented the early church with his zealous brutality.
Even John the Baptist, the man that Jesus said in Matthew 11:11 “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John Baptist.  Yet, the one who is least in the kingdom is greater than he.”), doubted while in prison.  Matthew 11:3  “and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
Just think about it.
A few months ago, I was lamenting this serious weakness of ours with my little brother.  He is a very wise man, who just recently graduated with his MBA from Oklahoma.  Just a few months into his job, he reminded me of something.  He talked about how serious people are about work in general.  He pointed out his bosses, telling me that they are totally different people outside of work.  A few times they have gone out for drinks after work, and his bosses, to his surprise, were fun people.  They exuded life, and energy, and humor.  Yet, day in and day out, these people are all about getting the job done.  “People are just really serious about their work, add in deep religious conviction, and people are bound to go overboard.” 
He’s right.  I have seen it time and again.  Almost every ministry I have been a part of, and I have been part of lot them, have been all about the end means, no matter how it is reached.  Eployees of ministries are expected to go above and beyond.  I have seen the name of Jesus used as whip, invoked to squeeze more out of already overworked staff.  Again and again I have seen disregard for those sharing the gospel, all for the sake of those they are to.  I have seen someone get pushed out of a ministry because their spouse left them, and having a divorced person on staff was deemed embarrassing.  I know someone who got fired from a ministry after two days of working there, all because they couldn’t type as fast the ministry wanted.  This person quit their old job to be a part of this ministry, leaving them high and dry, only to be condescended to with scriptures about comfort while being fired, then dropped off at a nearby Starbucks to be picked up.   
All of this was done for Jesus?  I don't think so.
Those is just two of a hundred such stories of how we treat each other when we get together to proclaim the gospel of God’s what?  His GRACE!!!!  Grace means we had nothing to do with it.  Romans 5:8 ESV  " But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  We are to be up front about our brokenness, and lean on God, and each other.  Perfection isn’t possible, the Bible itself tells us so.  We are to engender affection toward God in ourselves and toward one another through such knowledge, and that knowledge will result in our continuing sanctification (which is also brought about by the Holy Spirit, not you or me)
Almost Machiavellian.  Almost.  In reality, the Pharisees are who come to mind.  The one group of people that Jesus called names.  Matthew 12:34 ESV  “You brood of vipers!  How can you speak good, when you are evil?  For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."
The Pharisees, like most ministries, were consumed with moralistic deeds.  No room for brokenness.  It breaks my heart that it is so.  Though it doesn’t absolve them, it does give many enough room to try and excuse to choose separation from Christ, or at least the church.  How many have quit on Christ from looking at Christians?  Does the Bible not warn of causing others not to stumble?  Yes you say?  But, are you thinking that because someone isn’t perfect, that the visibility of someone’s sin is what will cause the stumbling?  You are wrong.  It is the lack of grace that will cause them to stumble.  They will look into the soul of your ministry, see a lie, and move on to find the truth.  Maybe they will find it.  Maybe not. 
Now, I hate this because I know I have been part of it, and will continue to struggle with it.  I am not speaking as one who has merely suffered under, and not been accomplice to such self-righteousness, such mercilessness, such brutality.  Not at all.  I recall a friend of mine in junior high sharing his excitement about Christ with me.  He was sharing his feelings and thoughts, and referenced a song that had the word “damn” in it.  When he said the word, I stopped him and admonished him.  Hurt, he tried to say he was just trying to share his thoughts and feelings about where he was coming from, expressing his gratitude towards the freedom he saw in Christ’s death and resurrection.  I gave him an immediate dose of cold water.  I can still see the rejection in his face.  He never shared his zeal with me again.  That, sadly, is only one of a hundred such stories.
May the God of all Grace reveal to you and I what the title, “God of all Grace”, even means.  Amen.

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