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3/29/2007 ''Will you be my friend?''Everyone wants to have friends. From the new girl in preschool with pony tails, to the university student sitting in a crowded lecture theatre, to the office worker in his cubicle hearing his colleagues going off to lunch together - everyone wants to have friends.
What is a friend? Interestingly, this is actually a question that the classical philosophers struggled over. One dictionary defines friend as "a person you know well and regard with liking, affection and loyalty." But it's probably much more than that - you'd also want to include that you are known and liked by the other person! And in the end, it's probably one of those things that you just know.
Wanting a friend is very natural, because as God's creatures, we are built for personal relationships. God is three persons, eternally in relationship with one another. And so it's no surprise that beings created in the image of God have at their very core a powerful longing, a hunger for relationships. One form of torture is to deny someone personal relationships, to lock them away in solitary confinement for days, or weeks, or months on end. And friendships are a particular form of close personal relationships.
2. Friends with God
And so it's astounding that in the Bible, God actually calls Abraham his friend (Isaiah 41:8, James 2:23)! But he wasn't the only one who has this privilege - when Jesus comes he is known as a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Matt 11:19). When Jesus addresses the paralytic who came through the roof, he says, 'Friend, your sins are forgiven.' (Luke 5:20). But most significantly, in John 15 Jesus says,
The Bible holds out to us the wonderful promise of friendship with God. Not just being on the right side with God, not just having been forgiven by him - but a friend.
And in the Bible friendship with God has consequences. It means not being friends with those things that are opposed to God. In James 4 James says,
If you truly are a friend of God, you cannot be a friend of the world. God is jealous, his spirit 'envies intensely', he will not share his friendship.
3. Other friendships
But what about other friendships? Throughout the New Testament the apostles do refer to people as their friends. In Romans 16 Paul mentions no less than 27 people in the Roman church by name. But he singles out Epenetus, Stachys and Persis and calls them his 'dear friends' (Rom 16:5, 9, 12).
When like minded people come together in one place, and when those people are other person centred and full of forgiveness, it's no surprise that the church is fertile ground for friendships.
But the Bible doesn't primarily use the language of friendship to describe realtionships at church. It primarily uses the language of family: we are brothers and sisters. And as you know brothers and sisters may be close, or they may not. But they are family.
Friends are like beautiful wildflowers that we chance upon as we make our way along a fire trail. They are nice to come across, but we won't always find them. They are a joy to discover, but we aren't on the firetrail to look for wildflowers. And friends are like that. It is nice to have a friendship. But friendships can't be forced, can't be expected, and they shouldn't be pursued.
However sometimes friendships are pursued. We leave the firetrail, we leave the path set before us, to pursue those rare flowers of friendship. And I'm sure you know of people whom you grew up with at church who are no longer among us because of the idolatry of friendship. And there are still others who still attend church, but their Christianity is a weak and ineffectual one becasue of the idolatry of friendship.
And again in the church there are also those who are disillusioned and unhappy - because they expected to find friendship in a church, but they have not. This could be because they have not learnt to treasure the new family of God they have joined as a brother, as a sister. Or instead of boldly extending sacrificial, other-person centred love, people offer a counterfeit that is self protective and self directed.
We must gently move people away from idolatry of friendship. We have to encourage people to love one another. We need to show people the treasure that is our brotherly-sisterly relationship. And perhaps, in the fertile ground of our churches, friendships will naturally flourish.
[ PS: what do you think are the signs of idolatry of friendship? ] 3/28/2007 de Bono's Six Thinking HatsEdward de Bono has written a lot of books about thinking, and in one of his most famous works de Bono describes six styles of thinking that people can adopt, represented by six coloured hats.
Some of us are serving in ministries where there are team meetings and committee meetings where things are talked about and decided. de Bono's Six Thinking Hats are a helpful way to raise your group's awareness of how they are thinking, and what other ways of thinking is available to them.
For a person to think well, they will in fact need to adopt all six thinking styles at different points of their personal thinking process - and they probably will do this unconsciously. However people have a preference for one hat or another, and you can probably identify the people in your groups that always seem to be pointing out problems, or always is eager to decide on something and get on with it, or is always coming up with ideas.
In order for your committee to think well, you need to have different thinking styles in the group. And so while black hat people may be a pain, they can in fact have an important part to play.
However it's also true that black hat people (or yellow hat, or red hat, or...) can hijack a group's discussion, and center the group's thinking in only one direction. And that's why it's useful to have the vocabulary of these six different thinking hats in your team. This way you can validate black hat thinking ("ok, that's some really useful black hat thinking"), and consciously move people on to other thinking styles ("now let's all put on our green hats and think of some ways ahead"). This way your team as a whole can contribute to the thinking process - instead of feeling they are fighting with each other.
de Bono's Six Thinking Hats are a useful tool for those doing committee work!
[ PS: what is your favourite thinking hat? ] 3/26/2007 Guilt, shame ... and the Eastern ReformationWestern and Eastern cultures have been described as being guilt- and shame-driven cultures by sociologists. The observation here is that Western people tend to be driven more by a fear of guilt that arises from within the individual person. But in Eastern cultures people are driven more by a fear of shame that arises out of a social grouping (eg. family, village, relationship).
When such a person falls into a state of guilt (or shame), they try to recover their prior state. However in the different cultures, this is done in slightly different ways. In the Western culture, a person would attempt to justify themselves so as to be free of their guilt. But in Eatsern cultures, a person would attempt to redeem themselves so as to be released from their shame.
We cannot justify ourselves - but the good news of the gospel is that the righteous judge justifies us. He declares us to be free from the guilt of our sin. God can be just in declaring us justified, because the righteousness of Christ is imputed to our account - this righteousness being received by faith alone. And this is the doctrine of justitfication that Luther rediscovered in the pages of the Bible.
But here's an interesting thought: if the doctrine of justification by faith alone hits the nail on the head for the Western person, perhaps it is actually the doctrine of redemption that will hit the nail on the head for the Eastern person? Not that justification is irrelevant for the Eastern person, any more so than redemption would be irrelevant for the Western person. Of course you would preach both. But perhaps it's the preaching of the gospel of God redeeming us from our sins, setting us free from the sinful nature, and releasing us from our debts - perhaps it's that which will most clearly speak to the Eastern person.
When an Asian Christian lets God down, you can imagine that they try to make it up to God again by their devotion, by lengthy and heartfelt prayers, by their sacrificial giving - and other things that fit in well with the transactional nature of redeeming ourselves. This has the side effect of turning Christian disciplines from things done joyfully to grow as Christians, into things done dutifully to pay God back! But it also minimises the redeeming work of Christ. Far from having to redeem ourselves before God when we feel we have have let him down, the gospel tells us that Christ's redemption is overwhelmingly sufficient!
Moreover, I think our redemption is not very well understood. Often people think of us as being set free from the penalty of sin - we escape the 'chop'. However in the Bible our redemption is much broader - as Christians we are in fact set free from the guilt, the penalty and also the power of our sin! In the 16th Century it was the rediscovery of the doctrine of justification that led to the Continental Reformation in the Western world. Perhaps it is the rediscovery of the doctrine of redemption that will lead to a reformation in the Eastern world?
[ PS: what do you think? ] 3/22/2007 CSI and MinistryGil Grissom, Catherine, Warrick and Nick and painstakingly search a crimescene for fingerprints and trace evidence. And in minute specks of dust, flakes of paint and clods of dirt they discover the clue that puts yet another killer behind bars.
And CSI is really exciting viewing... Not only has it survived seven seasons (it's been running since 2000), it's also spun off CSI: Miami, CSI: NY and a host of CSI computer games. CSI has also won several Emmys and People's Choice awards!
The thing about CSI is that they make the work of investigation really exciting. The directors overlay snippets of video of Crime Lab people searching a carpet with sizzling, exciting music. More dynamic clips of Greg peering into a microscope, matched with funky, pumping music. Clips flash by of Nick and Catherine searching every corner of a suspcisious car, together with a Radiohead track. Yes, they're scientists ... but they get to carry guns! And you think: "wow, that's so cool - I want to be a Crime Scene Investigator too!"
But you know reality is probably very, very different. It only takes ten seconds of on-screen searching (helped along with really cool music) before Nick holds up a broken fingernail with a pair of tweezers... but in reality, there would have been no music. And it would have taken hours of boring, tedious, and painstaking work...
So I really pity the people who end up studying forensics because of shows like CSI (and Crossing Jordan) before they discover the awful truth!
Ministry is a lot like that. Sometimes I wish there could be a sizzling soundtrack that plays while I write an email. And that it's just a matter of seconds before I smile at the camera and announce, "that's another Bible study finished." Or that a strategically placed camera catches me with the light coming from behind me, after having locked up the church building at 11:30pm.
The plain fact of it is that ministry is hard work. There's very little glamour involved in the week to week doing of ministry. Our work in preparing Bible teaching is just as exacting, just as laborious - we need to get it right, and it can take into the small hours of the night. Our work in presenting Christ involves an even greater urgency - it's about eternal life and death! It's just that there's even less glamour and recognition about the importance of gospel ministry... and we don't get to carry guns.
So don't be fooled into thinking that it's got to seem thrilling and rewarding for ministry to be worthwhile. If it helps, put on a pumping CD... but ministry will always be hard work - if it's a faithful ministry.
[ PS: while CSI gets rewarded with Emmys and People's Choice Awards, we will, of course also be rewarded... ] 3/17/2007 Patrick the MissionaryPatrick of Ireland was born in 390 AD in the South-West of Britain. He was the son of village deacon, but at that age was not really interested in Christianity.
When Germanic tribes on the European continent began to threaten the Roman empire, Roman legions were pulled out from Britain to defend the Roman empire on the continent. However this left Britain relatively unprotected, and Irish pirates pillaged villages along the unprotected coast of Britain.
During one of these raids, Patrck was kidnapped by Irish pirates when he was only 16 years old. He ended up being sold as a slave in Ireland to King Miliucc, and made to tend his flocks day and night. It was at this point that Patrick became a Christian. In his memoirs (known as The Confessio) he wrote that, "the love of God and his fear increased in me more and more, the faith grew in me, and the spirit was roused."
After 6 years as a slave he escaped his oppressors, having persuaded some sailors to hide him on their boat. He was happily reunited with his family in Britain.
But then, one night, he was confronted by a dream of a man bearing many letters from Ireland, calling out to him to walk among them once more. Patrick was struck by this dream, and began to train for ministry. He was commissioned as missionary to Ireland — a place with no Christians, a place where the only missionaries had either left in despair or had been killed!
When Patrick arrived in Ireland, the place was full spiritism and occult rituals. It was a land of druid priests who made animal and human sacrifices. Patrick set up his base in Armagh in the North of Ireland, and made many missionary journeys to the kings of the various kingdoms.
Thirty years later, at end of his life, he had baptised tens of thousands, and planted hundreds of churches throughout that once pagan land.
He wrote that "those who never have had a knowledge of God but worshipped idols and things impure, have now become a people of the Lord, sons of God." Patrick died in Ireland on this day, the 17th of March, in approximately 460 AD - a land on which he was once a slave! Patrick of Ireland is remembered not only because he brought the gospel to Ireland, but for the long-reaching effects that had for the gospel. From that time onwards, Ireland grew to be an important player in the spread of the gospel, sending out missionaries all around the world. And more importantly, when Christianity became increasingly threatened by Muslims during the dark ages, it was island fortress monasteries like Iona, set up by Irish Christians, that preserved the gospel for future generations...
[ PS: it's only Roman Catholics who call Patrick of Ireland "Saint Patrick"... ] 3/16/2007 Soldier
Paul says that Timothy is meant to be like a soldier (vv.3-4), an athlete (v.5), and a farmer (v.6). And presumably not just him, but all those who are servants of the gospel!
So what are soldiers like?
Firstly, soldiers aren't afraid of hard work. They know that there will be bullets and knives in a battle, yet they still brave the battlefield. They endure hardships (v.3).
And as gospel workers, we are pushing away at territory that the enemy holds. And so it's no wonder that we'll be attacked! We are to count the cost of following Jesus, and part of that cost is taking the hits. And these hits can come in many different forms...
These will come in the form of disappointments, when people leave the faith. Or when you see them knowingly doing the very things that you had warned them about.
Other times the hardships come in the form of the late nights that you will spend preparing a Bible study or a talk. You know that a bodgy job will get you by. You could just go and get some third rate study off the internet. But you want to do a good job for the people in your group. But the long nights it takes you to do a good job, they are tiring.
At exam time, you know that you really could do with an extra couple of hours of study. All your non Christian friends are cramming like mad. But you have this extra responsibility. Yours is the year 9 and 10 Bible study group. And inside you resent having to set aside your exam preparation, but you know that there's no one else to do the study!
And it comes in people telling you are throwing your life away. That you are wasting your time on ministry. That you should be studying harder, trying to get ahead in work. Why wear yourself down in ministry? And these comments can even come from those who are very close to us.
When war comes, and the sounds of gunbattle are heard in a town, the civillians are the ones that run away. They are the ones who flee. The only ones left standing are the soldiers. They remain even when difficulty comes, ready to engage the enemy.
But that's not all. Paul goes on to say that a good soldier is single minded - they don't get involved in civilian affairs (v.4). A soldier is single minded to the job of defending this city, attacking that outpost, building this fortification.
Picture the soldier standing guard in Afghanistan, a military checkpoint at dusk, with one eye scanning the horizon for anything out of place - and with his other eye checking on eBay for the things he's bidding on! Picture the soldier in Iraq, going house to house with a team of other soldiers, covering each other as they search for weapons of mass destruction. In one hand his rifle - and in the other his mobile phone as he sends text messages to his girlfriend! Picture the medic on the battlefield, creeping from one wounded soldier to another, he pulls his kit bag over his shoulder and searches inside for vials of morphine - but he's left them behind to make space for his CD collection!
A soldier is single minded and will not let himself be distracted. But instead, the one thing he is concerned for is to please his commanding officer. And so Paul is drawing a contrast: on the one hand, civilian affairs; on the other, being a good soldier. On the one hand, pleasing yourself; on the other, pleasing your commanding officer. It is one or the other, a soldier must choose, he cannot do both. Either he is fully committed to manning that checkpoint, or he is not. Either he is fully engaged in covering his squad, or he is not. Either he is committed to saving lives, or he is not.
As gospel workers, we are soldiers, not civilians. We don't let ourselves become distracted by the civilian world and so leave our post unmanned. We don't do ministry to please ourselves, we do it to please our commanding officer. Yes, we may work in civilian jobs, dress like a civilian, and have a civilian haircut - but inside of us, we are actually like soldiers.
And in being a good soldier, ultimately we are following the Lord Jesus Christ. For he is the one who lay down his life for the sake of others. He was the one who did not do what he wanted, but instead pursued the will of his heavenly Father. We are soldiers of the Lord Jesus, and he calls us to nothing more than what he himself was prepared to do!
[ PS: many years ago it was popular for Christians to sing songs that focussed on army / soldier imagery... ] 3/13/2007 Setting goalsHowever, in the process of goal setting, it's worthwhile pointing out that there are goals, and then there are goals...
You see, there are different sorts of goals that you can set. Theologically, there are things that you have control over, and there are things that you have no control over.
The things you have more control over include your own actions during the course of the year. For instance, you might make it a goal to cover a Gospel, a NT epistle and an OT book in your Bible study group this year. That's a goal that you have control over, and at the end of the year you can see how you've gone. Another example: you might make it your goal to pray for your non Christian workmates when you start work every day. That also you have control over. These are the bluer colours on the left-hand side in the boxes below.
However theologically, we know that there are some other things that we have no control over - it is entirely the work of the Holy Spirit. This includes the work of conversion and even growth as a Christian. It would be theoogically arrogant to think that we could control the response of people to the gospel! However, it may still useful to set such goals, as long as we understand that they are 'would like to see this' sort of goals which challenge us in the areas we have control over. Examples might include a goal for five new converts in your ministry this year. Or that people in your Bible study group would be less materialistic. These are the redder colours on the right-hand side of the boxes below.
Be aware too that goals also come in the shape of subjective ones, as well as objective ones.
Objective goals are the kinds of things that you can count and number and scientifically measure. An example might be that your ministry raises up seven new leaders for the coming year. Or that you finish the study with enough time for prayer every week. These are things that can be measured. These are the stronger colours in the top boxes above.
Subjective goals, on the other hand have to do with feelings and impressions that you might have. And so you might make it a goal that, at the end of the year, the group seems to be more willing to serve one another. Or that the group's prayer requests seem to have broadened. They aren't as tied down to numbers, but it can still be a useful test that things are heading in the right direction. These are the lighter colours in the bottom boxes.
Certain things lend themselves to objective measurements, while other things are much harder to quantify (eg. growth in godliness), and so lend themselves to subjective tests. You want to make sure you are setting appropriate goals for the things that really matter to you, and this distinction can be helpful in this regard. Don't fall into the trap of just setting goals for the things you can count / measure!
And while it's helpful to set goals on the things we can control (generally this has to do with strategy, like doing Bible studies), it's also helpful to set some goals on the things we can't control. Generally those will have to do with outcomes, such as spiritual growth. This makes sure that we don't lose focus on the outcome at the end of the year, by merely pursuing the week-to-week strategy-related goals!
Then review your goals frequently as you move through the year to motivate and make minor course adjustments. And, at the end of the year, use those goals to assess how your ministry has gone!
[ PS: now's a good time to set some goals for the year... ] 3/7/2007 Christ and cultureIn this classic work, Niebuhr outlines five different ways of drawing the relationship between Christianity on the one hand, and culture on the other.
Neibuhr himself argued for the fifth option - although I myself think this doesn't acknowledge just how pervasive the effects of sin are in the created order!
However I think that these five models are useful in thinking about other areas as well. Over the years I've observed conflicts between Christianity on the one hand and science on the other. For instance, some will say that Christianity and science are at war with each other, others that they are concerned with entirely separate areas, and still others that there should be a dialogue between the two.
But not only that, you also have conflicts between Christianity on the one hand and Psychology on the other. For instance Alan Craddock's Beyond Rivalry 1999 Annual Moore College Lectures highlighted the options of psychology as foe, psychology as convenient support, psychology as partner, psychology as contaminant, and psychology as complement.
So I suspect that not only are Neibuhr's five models helpful in thinking about culture (though we may not agree with his conclusions), those five models could also be used to think about the products of culture (namely science and technology)...
[ PS: our leaders' retreat is this weekend - so I won't be posting very much! ] 3/5/2007 Monthly regional training eventsAt the PILOT meeting last Saturday, SCCCA English announced that training is going to moved into five regional centres, which will be held on a monthly basis - no longer just twice a year!
Why are we doing this? The twice-yearly training was great, but we realised that we could do more on the relational side of things. And so what we're really hoping to do is focus on relationships. These regional centres will provide an opportunity for people to meet with others in their area on a more regular basis, to network, share ideas, and share the ups and downs of ministry with one another.
This will be particularly useful for those ministering in churches with no pastor, or with no formal training programme.
Here are details of the five training areas:
Each regional centre will pursue seperate training programmes. However they will generally include encouragement from the Bible, some training on a ministry skill, and opportunity to share and pray about how things are going.
These training nights are entirely opt-in. However because we are hoping to focus on relationships, it'd be great if you were able to come regularly, as that would mean that you could build friendships and relationships over the year with others in your same region.
And be assured that this is not about sheep stealing. The aim is for people to stay in their own churches, and continue ministering there with greater faithfulness, passion and longevity!
[ PS: don't forget to let others in your church know about this opportunity! ] 3/1/2007 InterconnectionsSometimes we notice individualism when it creates conflict - for instance when one group gets fed up with another and wants to split off and do their own thing. Or at a smaller level, making decisions for our own thing. But at other times we simply don't notice just how individualistic we are being - opportunities simply pass us by like ships in the night.
And so we can learn a lot from how the New Testament talks about church as a body with each of its different parts connected with each other. In 1 Corinthians Paul writes that,
God has given us a gift in the different groups of people in our church, although we generally think of other people at church as a burden! But not only are they a gift, it's also an opportunity for us to serve others in our church. What we ought to is realise these connections do exist, rejoice in them, make use of them, and build on them.
Here are some examples of how we can be making use of these interconnections:
There are probably lots more examples as well... But you can see that interconnections exist (a) within congregations, (b) within a local church, (c) between other churches.
Ultimately God has saved us, not as a collection of individuals, but as his people. God has arranged us the way we are (v.18). His will is for us to together grow together as his body, each part having concern for the other (v.25). Each part suffering and rejoicing with the other (v.26).
And so in our decision making (and also how you talk with others informally), we must put aside individualism. We must instead look to how we can truly be part of a body.
[ PS: see you at PILOT on Saturday! ] |
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