Love Without A Lover

I have been reading a prescribed book which is trendy in academia: Metaphors of Ministry. While it is of a high academic standard, it would seem to illustrate all that ails ministry in North America. The book describes dozens of Biblical "images of leadership". However, in making the characteristics of the Christian leader its primary and almost exclusive focus, it would seem to promote the imitation of love without a Lover. That is the problem.

Motivating Factors

I recently read an article: Motivating Factors for Ministry, by Christian leadership professor Dr. Bobby Clinton. He asks: "What motivates you in ministry?" and lists nine factors. Yet it is interesting to note that my own most crucial motivating factors are not on the list -- not even at the bottom of it. I'd put this down to typical differences between Global North and South. For instance, near the top of my list would be -- to put it very simply -- God's faithfulness. Related to this, there is little if anything in Dr. Clinton's (750-word) list to suggest that God does anything but work in me, in my ministry. Here are the nine motivating factors for ministry that Dr. Bobby Clinton identifies: ♦ finishing well ♦ the return of Christ ♦ one's giftedness ♦ confidence in the power of the gospel ♦ a burden to minister ♦ the resurrection ♦ handling God's Word for impact ♦ the perspective of eternity, and ♦ love for Christ. That's in his book Titus: Apostolic Leadership (much expanded there).

Lessons From Nehemiah

I completed draft work for a group study of Nehemiah tonight. Typically, in Christian leadership studies, Nehemiah is presented as a man of character. Ted Engstrom epitomises this approach: “We see how great he was." Yet what I have discovered through the study is that the breakthroughs of Nehemiah's leadership are routinely preceded by an appeal to the acts of God. For instance, he informs the citizens of Jerusalem "of the hand of God which was good on me". It is then that the people respond: "Let us rise up and build." Or when faced with their first major adversity, Nehemiah proclaims: "The God of heaven, He will prosper us." It is then that "Eliashab the high priest rose up." OBSERVATION: In my own ministry, I continually seek to reveal what God is doing. There are important parallels to this dynamic in the Bible, e.g. Moses and Aaron (Exod 4:31) and Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:12).

Primacy of Character

Here’s something from my M.Th. thesis (considerably abridged). Faith receives an uncommonly strong emphasis in the New Testament. This uses the term “faith”, and related terms, some 500 times. The centrality of faith is frequently self-evident, e.g. “Without faith, it is impossible to please God...” (Heb 11:6). The New Bible Dictionary observes: “In the New Testament faith is exceedingly prominent.” This includes those epistles which specifically deal with leadership. In 1 Timothy, for instance, the word “faith” has a 100% “relative density”, i.e. the highest density in Scripture. The Christian leadership authors I have studied (forty or fifty in all, and all of the Global North) typically prioritise a single leadership quality. However, not in one case do they advance faith as such a priority. In all cases, it is character, or aspects of character. Wofford (1999:107) states: “For a church leader, no attribute is more important than character”; Jinkins (2002:36) considers: “The minister’s activities are grounded, first, in the minister’s character,...”; Blackaby and Blackaby (2001:53) consider: “The first truth in leadership development is this: God’s assignments are always based on character”; De Pree (1992:10) states: “Integrity in all things precedes all else”; Clinton (1988: 75) states: “Character is foundational if a leader is to influence people for God’s purposes”; and Gibbs (2005:114) summarises the Pauline requirements for leadership as “character first and foremost”. QUESTION: So what happened to “faith”? Should it be there? Is it properly excluded as the priority for Christian leadership? And what is it?

Principle or Faith?

In Courageous Leaders (see photo), James Halcomb, David Hamilton, and Howard Malmstadt state: “Through the Ten Commandments, God the Master Teacher trains His people how to think, ...” (Halcomb J, Hamilton D and Malmstadt H 2000:223). The important thing, they write, is “to train oneself in implicational thinking”. They make no reference to the first four commandments (the so-called “first table”, which deals with humanity’s responsibility to God), but plunge straight into the next six: “Let’s consider the final six commandments ...” They consider that all of these commandments have to do with the principle: “life is valuable” (:223). So, for instance, murder is forbidden because human life is “of immense worth” (:224); theft is forbidden because “objects represent [the investment of] life”; and so on. Yet consider another possibility. Given a faith in the God of the first four commandments, which includes a belief in His sovereign power over human circumstance, there then remains e.g. no need to remove troublesome people through murder, and no need to acquire more than one has through theft, as one is assured that every circumstance of life is under God’s good care. What does this have to do with Christian leadership? Following Halcomb, Hamilton, and Malmstadt, Christian leadership is about “implicational” principles which “drive every courageous leader” (:228). Following the second option, Christian leadership is about trust in a sovereign God. QUESTION: Should the Christian leader be driven by “implicational” principles, or by faith in a sovereign God? Does faith generate behaviour as suggested? Might the principle “life is valuable” be a mere “idol” in the presence of God Himself?

Church in the U.S.A.

A fellow blogger asked me whether I had blogged about the Church in the U.S.A. What were my impressions? My overriding impression (I speak generally) is that the Church over there seems unable to distinguish between faith and values. I see what C.S. Lewis referred to as the kind of faith that is a belief in values: “the belief that certain kinds of attitudes are really true, and others really false” (Lewis C S 1947:29). Frequently, the Church in the U.S.A. seeks to ground such values in the character of God or the life of Jesus. Yet there is little concept of a faith in the Triune God which would source values spontaneously. QUESTION: What is the difference between faith and values? How do they relate to each other? The photo shows C.S. Lewis.

The Essence of Religion

Here’s a quote from Encyclopaedia Britannica 2007, about American theologian and revivalist Jonathan Edwards: “At Stoddard's death in 1729, Edwards became sole occupant of the Northampton pulpit, the most important in Massachusetts outside of Boston. In his first published sermon, preached in 1731 ... Edwards blamed New England's moral ills on its assumption of religious and moral self-sufficiency. Because God is the saints' whole good, faith, which abases man and exalts God, must be insisted on as the only means of salvation. The English colonists' enterprising spirit made them susceptible to a version of Arminianism ... it minimized the disabling effects of original sin, stressed free will, and tended to make morality the essence of religion.” QUESTION: Was Edwards right about “the essence of religion” in New England? Has anything changed?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, in a letter of 21 July 1944: "I remember talking to a young French pastor at A. thirteen years ago. We were discussing what our real purpose was in life. He said he would like to become a saint. I think it is quite likely he did become one. At the time I was very much impressed, though I disagreed with him, and said I should prefer to have faith, or words to that effect. For a long time I did not realise how far we were apart. I thought I could acquire faith by trying to live a holy life, or something like it" (Bonhoeffer D 1953:124). QUESTION: As leaders, are we seeking to become saints, or to have faith? Are the two as far apart as Bonhoeffer suggests?

Who You Are

It is a commonly held view that “who you are” is critical to Christian leadership. Andy Stanley considers: “Your doing will flow from who you are” (Stanley A 2003:132); J. Robert Clinton writes: “You minister from what you are” (Clinton J R 1988:32); Leighton Ford writes: “Leadership is first of all ... something one is” (Ford L 1999:38); while Myles Munroe considers: “Leadership comes down to ... who you are” (Munroe M 2005:81). My spontaneous response is that I minister out of WHO GOD IS. From my opening words on a Sunday morning, through my words to counselees, through my personal choices, through the selection of office-bearers, through moments of Church crisis, through every aspect of ministry, “who God is” (and who He is to others) is of critical importance to me. QUESTION: Is “who God is” just another aspect of “who you are”? Or are these distinct alternatives?

Leadership Without Faith

Myles Munroe lists thirty-four “values of the spirit of leadership” (Munroe M 2005:283). George Barna lists thirty-one requirements for “the Christlike character of a leader” (Barna G ed. 1997:23). Oswald Sanders lists sixteen “essential qualities of leadership" (Sanders J O 1994:51). Andy Stanley lists nine components of "success" (Stanley A 2003:132). And Jerry Wofford lists fifteen “Scriptural leadership values” (Wofford J C 1999:47). In none of these lists does FAITH appear -- Greek πίστις -- faith/trust in God. And yet “without faith it is impossible to please God”. QUESTION: What is the reason that, in all of these “Northern” lists of leadership requirements, faith is missing? What would “faith/trust in God” mean in the context of leading others?