The Trellis and the Vine (14 page)

In the end, it is often a pragmatic decision. If we can minister full-time with the financial support of others, we will have more time and energy to devote ourselves to prayer and the word of God. There is a certain romance to ‘tent-making’ not usually shared by those who actually do it. It’s frustratingly hard to juggle the demanding work of pastoring a congregation with the daily grind of secular employment. Wherever possible we should facilitate full-time ministries, if only because it will usually result in more gospel work taking place.

Broughton Knox puts it like this:

Consideration of the character of the Christian religion shows there will always be a place for full-time ministry of the word of God. The Christian religion is a religion of faith in Christ the Lord. Faith is distinguished from superstition by being based on the truth and distinguished from rashness by being based on the knowledge of the truth. All this depends on true teaching, for we are not born with a knowledge of the truth. Moreover, Christianity is a religion of personal relationship, that of fellowship. Fellowship only comes through hearing and responding to a word spoken. God relates himself to us speaking through his word and we relate to him by responding to his word. So it is plain that a ministry which conveys and makes clear the truth about God and conveys God’s word to the mind and so to the conscience of the hearer is an essential characteristic of Christianity. If this ministry dies out then Christianity dies out.

The same conclusion may be arrived at from a slightly different approach. Jesus Christ is Lord but he can exercise no Lordship nor can obedience be the response of the Christian unless the mind of Christ is known and known relevantly to the circumstances of the Christian. This again requires a teaching ministry which understands the mind of Christ and how it applies to modern circumstance and which accompanies this teaching with exhortation and admonition, directed to the conscience of the hearer. A ministry of Christian teaching and preaching is a lifetime occupation because teaching cannot be discharged without preparation, and preparation requires time. For the Christian teacher to give himself to preparation, to the study of the word of God and its relevance, was never more needed than in the present generation.
[3]

The statement that Knox makes, “If this ministry dies out then Christianity dies out”, is not a piece of rhetorical overstatement. It is a simple statement of fact, arrived at by reflecting on the character of Scripture and by watching what happens in churches where this teaching ministry is lost, for one reason or another.

Question 4: Does it demean people who stay in secular work?

Here’s a challenging question: does calling people to ‘ministry’ create two classes of Christians—the special, gifted ones who aspire to the noble calling of full-time ministry, and the rest of the plebs who are consigned to working a job in order to give money to the special ones? If someone doesn’t have the gifts or opportunities to engage in ‘recognized gospel work’, are they condemned to a second-class existence? By giving an important place to full-time gospel work, are we saying (or implying) that everyday secular work is demeaning or unimportant?

These questions arise whenever we start challenging people to set aside secular careers and ambitions and devote themselves to gospel work. It’s partly a misunderstanding about the nature of ministry and the disciple-making role of all Christians, but it’s also often a misunderstanding of the nature of work in God’s world. It is far beyond the scope of this chapter to sketch out a biblical theology of work, but the following bullet-point summary may be helpful.

• Working is a good and fundamental part of being human in God’s world. From the very beginning, mankind was placed in the garden to work it and to keep it.

• This side of the Fall, work is cursed and frustrating (and don’t we often know it!), but it remains good and worthwhile and necessary.

• Christians are strongly motivated to work, not only because of the place of work in creation, but also because work (like any other field of life) is a theatre for our service of Christ.
Whatever
you do, says Paul to the Colossians, “in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col 3:17).

• At a deep level, when we work at any job, we work for Christ. As Paul goes on to say in Colossians 3, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Col 3:23-24).

• As Christians, we do not work in order to gain self-fulfilment or fame or personal kudos. We work not for ourselves but for others, to serve them, to not be a burden to them, and to have something to share (Eph 4:28; 1 Tim 5:8).

• Secular work is thus very valuable, worthwhile and important. But like any good thing, it can become an idol. We can start to look to our work for our significance and value.

• We must remember that only Christ’s work redeems humanity. As useful and helpful as secular work is in our world, it will not save us or build Christ’s kingdom. That only happens (as we saw in chapter 3) through Spirit-backed gospel preaching.

In challenging people about gospel ministry, there are two errors we commonly fall into. One is to create two classes of Christians—those who are
really
working for the Lord and seeking to proclaim his kingdom (the ‘recognized gospel workers’), and the rest. In this model, making disciples is like Formula 1 motor racing. There is really only one driver, and the rest of the people involved do their bit in the background. They might work in the pits, they might help to finance the team, or they might find sponsors and organize the logos to be painted on the cars. But the driver is the superstar and the focus, and the rest of the team members are background boys. No wonder they might feel like second-class citizens.

As we’ve already seen, this is not how the Bible envisages gospel work. There are not two classes of disciples—we are
all
both disciples and disciple-makers. All Christians are called to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus to death; to give up their lives to his honour and service. It’s more like a football team, where each person does all they can to advance the ball downfield. There are leaders and captains, but fundamentally and above all else, everyone is a
player
. In fact, in many teams, it’s not necessarily the captain who is the best player or the most valuable contributor in any given game.

The second common error is to react to the first by dissolving the distinction between gospel work and other work. In this way of thinking, secular work is ‘baptized’ as work for the kingdom of God. By being a better doctor, lawyer, businessman or software engineer (although rarely, it seems, a better garbage-collector or parking-station attendant), I am helping to ‘redeem the culture’ and contribute in some way to the growth of God’s kingdom. In this way of thinking, we shouldn’t call people out of their secular careers; we should encourage them to stay where they are for God’s glory.

But this, too, is a mistake. Gospel work has a unique significance in God’s plans for the world. We don’t make disciples of Jesus by building better bridges, but by prayerfully bringing the word of God to people. And this is the duty, joy and privilege of
every
disciple, in whatever circumstance of life they find themselves. Secular work is valuable and good, and must not be despised or downgraded. But it is not the centre or purpose of our lives, nor the means by which God will save the world. My primary identity as a Christian is not that I am an accountant or a carpenter, but that I am a disciple-making disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is really of minimal significance whether I work with my hands to earn my living as a disciple-making disciple, or others support me because of the demands of the kind of disciple-making that I do. The important thing is that we are all disciple-makers together.

People worth watching

What we are saying, in effect, is that we should be talent scouts. If the current generation of pastors and ministers is responsible for calling, choosing, and setting apart the next generation, we need to be constantly on the lookout for the sort of people with the gifts and integrity to preach the word and pastor God’s people. And there is some incredible ministry talent in our churches—people with extraordinary gifts in leadership, communication and management; people with vision, energy, intelligence and an entrepreneurial spirit; people who are good with people, and who can understand and articulate ideas persuasively. If these people are also godly servants of Christ who long for his kingdom, then why not headhunt them for a life of ‘recognized gospel ministry’?

We may feel a certain theological ambivalence at this point. Actively recruiting talented people sounds worldly and crass. Shouldn’t we just have confidence in Christ the ascended King, that he will raise up people in his own time?

It’s strange how we have recourse to the sovereignty of God or of Christ at some times and not others. We don’t stop evangelizing or teaching the word just because we have confidence in the sovereign God to do his work in people’s hearts. We don’t stop praying just because God has his perfect purposes that cannot be thwarted. We don’t stop encouraging people to serve Christ and get involved in church life even though we know that Christ is the one who will ultimately build his church. God’s actions and ours aren’t mutually exclusive. We speak and serve and work and pray, knowing that God will work in and through all of these things to give the growth.

It’s the same with raising up the next generation. We know that the Lord of the harvest will raise up labourers, but that should not stop us praying that he would do so, and actively recruiting godly, gifted people when we notice them.

What sort of people should we be looking for? From the pastoral epistles, we learn that when selecting elders, overseers and deacons we should look for people who are:

• faithful in their understanding of and commitment to God’s word

• blameless in their reputation and example of godliness

• gifted in their ability to teach others

• proven in their ability to lead and manage a family.

To this basic list we could add other qualities and characteristics that often indicate people have the gifts and potential to be gospel workers:

• communicators who speak and persuade for a living (like salesmen, teachers, real estate agents or lawyers)

• entrepreneurs who have the drive and intelligence to see possibilities and start something new

• natural leaders who influence and inspire others simply by the integrity and force of their character

• academically gifted people who could apply their intellect to theology, teaching, leadership and strategy

• people with the potential to reach particular groups in our community or overseas by virtue of their ethnicity, language ability, work background or hometown.

As we work with people in our congregations, we should be on the lookout for people with these qualities, or with the potential to develop these qualities. These are the ‘people worth watching’, the potential gospel workers of the next generation. If you begin to notice someone like this in your congregation, ask yourself some of the following questions:

• Is he (or she) genuinely converted and able to articulate his faith in Christ?

• Is he reading and asking questions about the Bible and theology?

• Is he faithful in applying the Bible to his thinking and life?

• Is he humble and teachable?

• Is he faithful and trustworthy?

• Is there any past or present sin that could bring Christ’s name into dishonour?

• Does he serve others without being asked?

• Does he work at evangelism?

• Is he a natural communicator?

• Does he show leadership in his school, work or sporting life?

• Are others following him because of his ministry?

• Do people respond to his ministry positively?

• Is his family life healthy?

• Does he relate well to others?

• Is his spouse committed to ministry as well?

• Is he emotionally stable and tough? Will he be able to face criticism, disappointment and failure?

The kind of person who ticks these boxes has the potential to grow into a ‘recognized gospel worker’. And one of the most useful stepping-stones along this path is a ministry apprenticeship.

[
1
] DB Knox,
Sent by Jesus: Some aspects of Christian ministry today
, Banner of Truth, Edinburgh, 1992, p. 14.

[
2
] Martin Luther,
Luther’s Works
, American edn, vol. 26,
Lectures on Galatians
, ed. J Pelikan, Concordia, St Louis, 1963 (1535), pp. 13-78, cited in R Paul Stevens,
The Six Other Days
, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000 (1999), pp. 154-5.

[
3
] DB Knox,
D. Broughton Knox Selected Works
, vol. 2,
Church and Ministry
, ed. Kirsten Birkett, Matthias Media, Sydney, 2003, pp. 213-214.