Reforming Pastoral Ministry: Challenges for Ministry in Postmodern Times

Below are selected quotes from a book, edited by John Armstrong, that I would recommend to fellow pastors and church leaders.

Here are the excerpts:

To put it briefly, this book is written to help us return to those truths that made the church great.

“For they refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserve recognition” (1 Cor.16:18).

While affirming the Bible’s authority, large numbers of pastors now use it ever so lightly (inconsequentially) in preaching popular sermons aimed at restoring the emotional and spiritual health of their flocks. They counsel with profound dependence upon the newest fads and popular psychological books while they lead with the sharpest managerial techniques of the most successful corporations of our age.

The focus of the Bible is not upon plans for successful living. It is not upon the family. It is not on growing large and successful churches. It is not about dealing with codependency or self-esteem. And it is certainly not about political concerns the church must address prior to every national election. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible is about Christ.

The revival of Christian experience (if it really is Christian at all) without the recovery of Christian truth would be an unmitigated disaster.

These attacks are rarely waged over real doctrinal subjects since most church members know very little real doctrine in the first place! They are usually aimed at the pastor’s inability to keep the entire flock happy and positive toward his overall ministry.

We may still confess the same creeds and statements of faith, but we do not confess them in a way that makes a real differenceeason ministers have lost their way is not hard to find. There is no vivid sense of otherworldliness among us. God as absolutely holy no longer matters. We live for the now! We actually think the Gospel is a message that is primarily about putting lives back together. We have no sense of the eternal. As a result we have a Mr. Fix-it mentality about the Christian ministry. The church wants a pastor who can fix the problems of the congregation-social, emotional, marital, financial, and spiritual. Kindle location 258.

In previous generations the minister was understood to be the “man of God.” He handled the Word and cared for the souls of his people. Today if he is truly successful, he is more likely to be the manager of a local corporation. Kindle location 262.

Pastors are weak human instruments who must be filled with divine authority. There is no other way to accomplish the true work of pastoral ministry. True authority never comes from within our human persona or from the office (or gifting) itself, but from a divinely given mandate and from a scripturally based message.

[This quotation comes from a longer statement called The Preacher’s Mandate and is used by permission of The Cornerstone Trust, Box 1906, Cave Creek, Arizona 85327]: The Preacher’s Mandate Pray as though nothing of eternal value is going to happen unless God does it. Prepare as giving “my utmost for his highest.” Seek not to “get a message” from the scripture, but seek “the message” of the scripture. Be satisfied not with producing good content, but with producing good people. Attend carefully to a private and public walk with God, knowing the congregation never rises to a standard higher than that being lived by the preacher. Be “persuaded that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.” “Preach the word”-not about the word, not from the word, not with the word-affirming it is only proclamations of God’s word that carry God’s authority and his promise to bless. Exalt Christ preeminently, trusting he will then draw people to himself. Balance declarations of “salvation by faith alone” with declarations describing the life Christ produces when he sees saving faith; transformed heart, desire to serve the Lord not self, growing affection for his word, increasing obedience, fruit of the Spirit, saltiness in society, maturing Christlikeness. Depend solely upon God for translation of spiritual truth into life. Preach Christ’s word in Christ-like demeanor. Agree it is impossible at one and the same time to impress people with Christ and with oneself. Allow the preaching to exude the fruit of the Spirit, lest the preaching fail to produce Christ-like lives. Preach with humble gratitude, as one privileged to be an oracle of God. Trust God to produce in the hearers his chosen purposes-irrespective of whether the results are readily visible. Kindle 341

Discouragements and obstacles abound. In our ministries many of us confront much that is disheartening and rubs against our efforts to walk the King’s highway of holiness. We often feel frustrated, disappointed, near despair, and often quite unholy. So much of what we are makes us unprofitable and so much of what we do appears to be fruitless. As John Stott says, “Discouragement is an occupational hazard of the Christian ministry.”  Kindle 636 

Note that godly living involves both discipline and the continued grace of the Holy Spirit. This dual emphasis upon duty and grace is fundamental to Puritan thinking on godly living.’ As John Havel wrote, “The duty is ours, though the power be God’s. A natural man has no power, a gracious man hath some, though not sufficient; and that power he hath, depends upon the assisting strength of Christ. 116

Likewise, Jean Massillon (16631742), a famous French preacher, said to a group of ministers: A pastor who does not pray, who does not love prayer, does not belong to that Church, which “prays without ceasing.” He is a dry and barren tree, which cumbers the Lord’s ground. He is the enemy, and not the father of his people. He is a stranger, who has usurped the pastor’s place, and to whom the salvation of the flock is indifferent. Wherefore, my brethren, be faithful in prayer, and your functions will be more useful, your people more holy; your labors will prove much sweeter, and the Church’s evils will diminish. Kindle 702

If you long to be drawn closer to Christ, read Thomas Goodwin’s Christ Our Mediator, Alexander Gross’s Happiness of Enjoying and Making a Speedy Use of Christ, Isaac Ambrose’s Looking Unto Jesus, John Brown’s Christ: The Way, the Truth, and the Life, or Friedrich Krummacher’s The Suffering Savior. If you are sorely afflicted, read Samuel Rutherford’s Letters, J. W. Alexander’s Consolation to the Suffering People of God, James Buchanan’s Comfort in Affliction, or Murdoch Campbell’s In All Their Affliction. If you are buffeted with temptation, read John Owen’s Temptation and Sin. If you want to grow in holiness, read John Flavel’s Keeping the Heart or Octavius Winslow’s Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul. Kindle 744

In the early 1900s Methodist Bishop William Quail carried the idea further by asking and answering a rhetorical question: “`Preaching is the art of making a sermon and delivering it?’ he asked. `Why no, that is not preaching. Preaching is the art of making a preacher and delivering that!” Kindle 898

One of these lessons came in the form of the offertory prayer. Almost infallibly when called upon to pray before “taking up” the offering, some wizened older man with sunburned face turning suddenly white at the juncture of his head where his cowboy hat was worn 365 days out of the year would implore the Lord to “bless this young man You have sent to us today. Give him Your message, and be pleased to hide him behind the cross.” Kindle 1015 

What a text says and what it means are the concerns of the teacher. But the preacher, while being committed to the accuracy of the biblical text, goes beyond the work of the teacher, for preaching has as its ultimate goal redemptive penetration. In describing the nature of God’s Word, Hebrews 4:12 provides a working vision of preaching: “The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Kindle 1226

This deep penetration of the Word by the Spirit reflects the apostles’ priority: “We will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). It is prayer that drives the Word into the preacher’s imagination, conscience, and passion and creates the preparation for the ministry of the Word.

John MacArthur has aptly put it this way: “Worship is all that we are, reacting to all that God is.”

When God’s people are being scripturally fed and led and are part of a growing church climate and culture that is increasingly Word-centered and thereby more God-centered, they want more of what God wants.

We must teach God’s people that it is vanity to come to God’s house with a flippant and unprepared heart (Eccl. 5:1-7). They must understand that God is to be treated as holy by all who come near to him (Lev. 10:3).

Because we are to “be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our `God is a consuming fire”‘ (Heb. 12:28-29).

In addition, we must teach God’s people to discipline their minds in worship (2 Cor. 10:5), so that wandering thoughts will not disrupt them during their worship.

the tacit implication is that a pastor will be hired to serve as the moral errand-boy of the congregation, performing those good deeds the parishioners deem appropriate but have little time to undertake. Kindle 1902 .

Eugene Peterson has rightly captured this inconsistency: We are, most of us, Augustinians in our pulpits. We preach the sovereignty of our Lord, the primacy of grace, the glory of God: “By grace are ye saved … Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9, KJV). But the minute we leave our pulpits we are Pelagians. In our committee meetings and our planning sessions, in our obsessive attempts to meet the expectations of people, in our anxiety to please, in our hurry to cover all the bases, we practice a theology that puts our good will at the foundation of life and urges moral effort as the primary element in pleasing God. The dogma produces the behavior characteristic of the North American pastor: if things aren’t good enough, they will improve if I work a little harder and get others to work harder. Add a committee here, recruit some more volunteers there, squeeze a couple of hours more into the workday. Pelagius was an unlikely heretic; Augustine an unlikely saint. By all accounts Pelagius was urbane, courteous, convincing. Everyone seems to have liked him immensely. Augustine squandered away his youth in immorality, had some kind of Freudian thing with his mother, and made a lot of enemies. But all our theological and pastoral masters agree that Augustine started from God’s grace and therefore had it right, and Pelagius started from human effort and therefore got it wrong…. How did it happen that Pelagius became our master? Our closet Pelagianism will not get us excommunicated or burned at the stake, but it cripples our pastoral work severely … it is catastrophic to the church’s wholeness and health.’ Kindle 1908

What the New Testament describes as fellowship-souls knit together in love, having all things in common, considering others as more important than oneself, trusting one another’s protection enough to allow for mutual, personal confession of sin, preferring one another as forgiven brothers and sisters, and working diligently to enhance the perfecting work of the Holy Spirit in one another unto love and good deeds-is today described in terms of social events, friendly greeters, punch and cookies, name tags, meals-on-wheels, and creatively named affinity groups. Kindle 2121 .

Simply put, true fellowship cannot be programmed, packaged, or produced through even the most creative energies focused on people. Healthy fruit comes from healthy roots, and in the case of true fellowship, the root is Christ.

Fellowship among believers is the fruit of fellowship with Christ.

Of all the challenges we face in ministry today, three stand out as those that present the greatest opposition to true fellowship. Consumerism. One of the most daunting realities I face as a pastor is the challenge of turning religious consumers into humble servants. The consumer mentality, where the customer is king, has set the church back on its heels. What pastor does not feel the pressure to give religious consumers what they are shopping for so they will become steady customers? In many churches everything from preaching and music to child-care and parking is reexamined almost monthly to ensure that the church meets the ever-changing needs of the religious consumer. Kindle 2139. 

Unfortunately, sooner or later we have to tell them that, actually, Christianity is not man-centered but God-centered. The customer isn’t the king-God is. The church exists for Him and is called to exalt Him above all else, in humility and fear. We have to take those whom we have attracted and assimilated by meeting their needs and tell them that Christian maturity demands that they now subordinate their needs to the needs of others, their wants to the wants of Christ. Kindle 2147.

Independence may allow for cordiality, but it usually resists intimacy. Kindle 2169

In a networking context, people are ranked according to how their resources, position, knowledge, or influence can help you reach your goals. Kindle 2180

The networking mind-set presents great challenges in the church. First, it makes the purpose of the gathered community the promotion of the individual rather than the exaltation of God. And second, it undermines true fellowship. Unfortunately, many in the church today have honed their networking skills and insights so well that they have largely lost the ability to appreciate people as people. We have become programmed to pursue those who can help us, who are like us, or who offer us some advantage. We only value those we consider valuable. But this is quite the opposite of true church fellowship. Kindle 2184.

If it is the fruit of fellowship in the church that you want, fertilize the root of union with Christ. The first grows from the second. The only effective energy for a fellowship among believers that truly shares a common life is a recognition that that common life is the life of Christ. Show me a group of redeemed laborers who find daily delight in their union with Christ, whose one goal is the glory of Christ, whose only boast is in the cross of Christ, and I will show you a group of people whose love and preference for one another is radiant and inviting. That love is the fruit of their deep understanding that they have been joined to Christ through faith and thus share a unity that transcends the natural and previews heaven. They love because they first were loved. The fruit of their fellowship is rooted in Christ Himself. Kindle 2238.

The idea that our life for Christ ought to be a reflection of our life in Christ is one of the great themes of the New Testament. Jesus Himself exhorted those on the hillside that the light of their lives ought to reflect their Father in heaven (Matt. 5:16). Later he told the Twelve that their love for each other was to reflect His love for them (John 13:35). Elsewhere we see that our lives are to reflect the life of Christ, including His holiness (1 Pet. 1:15), His faithful endurance (Heb. 12:1- 3), His humility (Phil. 2:5-8), and His submission (1 Pet. 2:21-25). Kindle 2243.

TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

Promote the Christ-centeredness of the Communal Meal

Promote the Equality of Those Partaking

Promote the Unity of Christ in His Church

George Whitefield, the great evangelist of the eighteenth century, once remarked to Mr. Betterton, a famous actor, “Why is it that the clergy, who speak of real things, affect people so little, and the players, who speak of imaginary things, affect them so much?” Betterton responded, “My lord, I can assign but one reason-we players speak of things imaginary as though they were real, and too many of the clergy speak of things real as though they were imaginary.”Kindle 2832  

So if that’s all the stuff we’re not doing, what are we doing? I have concentrated on praying, modeling, teaching, and working to create in the church a culture of faithfulness and prayerfulness in relationships, and friendliness and spiritual conversation among members of the church. Kindle 2915

We’ve used various courses-for example, Living Proof 1 & 2, Speaking of Jesus, Tell the Truth, Two Ways to Live, and Christianity Explained (an evangelistic Bible study on Mark’s Gospel). Kindle 2921

The motto of the Reformed churches, on the other hand, was Ecclesia Reformata, semper reformanda secundum verbum dei. That is, “the church reformed, always to be reformed according to the Word of God.” Kindle 3021

“They don’t convert-they choose.” He added, “The marketplace is now the most widely used system of evaluation by younger churchgoers,” and “by this standard, the most successful churches are those that most resemble a suburban shopping mall.”‘ Kindle 3051 

“Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself” (6:15).10 Was the multitude satisfied with the teaching of Christ? No. Their desire was to shape Jesus into an earthly king rather than being shaped through Jesus’ spiritual reign over their lives. The crowd was more interested in Jesus adapting to them than in submitting to Him as Lord. So Jesus left the multitude and sent His disciples across the Sea of Galilee by boat while he withdrew to the mountain. Kindle 3106.

Bill Hull squarely explains the nature of the gospel message: The gospel is confrontational in its very nature. Any presentation of the gospel that does not present a challenge to the unbeliever to radically change his or her thinking and attitudes toward God and his saving work in Christ is not the same gospel preached in the pages of the New Testament! Today, people can be happy, healthy members of evangelical churches without ever having to face a God who is anything more than a “buddy,” a Savior who is anything more than an example, and a Holy Spirit who is anything more than a power source. And that can happen without faith, without repentance, indeed, without conversion.”Kindle 3129  

What would happen if we returned to doctrinal preaching rather than bending to marketing techniques? Instead of allowing the whims of the crowd to dictate the content of a sermon, which is precisely what happens in seeker-friendly preaching, the preacher would boldly expound the Word of God. Christ would be magnified in His churches rather than attention being given to skilled preachers, big buildings, and clever techniques (2 Cor. 4:1-6; Gal. 6:14). The glory of God would be evident against the backdrop of human inability (Rom. 11:33-36; 1 Cor. 1:26-31). The righteousness of the law would be raised as the holy standard that holds men accountable before God (Rom. 3:19-20; Gal. 3:19-22). The sufficiency of Jesus Christ would be elevated as the only means for saving sinners (Gal. 2:15-21; Col. 1:15-20). The adequacy of the Holy Spirit would be depended upon to bring revelation, conviction, and regeneration to unbelievers (John 16:7-11; 1 Cor. 2:6-16; Titus 3:5). The church would be known as the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-31; Eph. 4:7-16), a dwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16-17; Eph. 2:19-22), a proclaimer of the excellencies of the One who called unbelievers out of darkness into His light (1 Pet. 2:9), and the pillar and support of the truth (1 Tim. 3:14-16).

“Moreover, to be ashamed of the Gospel is a fault of cowardice in pastors,” rang out Martin Luther. “But to contradict it and not to listen to it is a fault of stupidity in church members. Kindle 1118

So much attention is given to creating growth in our churches that we may very well be forcing what should be a more natural process by the grace of God. Paul spoke of the local church functioning rightly, with the pastors and teachers equipping the flock, the members doing the works of Christian service, the whole body growing together in doctrinal unity, and each member making his or her own contribution to the body’s needs. Out of this process, growth naturally occurs. It is not forced or programmed. It is not a plan to carefully follow. Rather, it is the Body of Christ living like the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-16).

Book: Lead On

Excerpts from Lead On (Why Churches Stall and How Leaders Get Them Going)

by Wayne Schmidt

            Would one class, event, or prayer list create a church that has a heart for the lost and prioritize its ministries of outreach?  No.  It would take repeated seminars, events, and prayer times—as well as modeling by the leaders, testimonies of life change, and messages from the pulpit—to cause an evangelistic heart to beat within the church’s culture.  It would take repeated emphasis over a period of time.      P. 27

 

One of the greatest challenges of spiritual leadership is the stewardship of power.  We usually think of stewardship as managing hard assets—measurable things like money and time.  But leaders must manage soft assets as well—things like credibility, spiritual gifts, influence, and yes, power.  We become better stewards of power as we recognize that all of it belongs to God and that He can exercise it through the life of any devoted person.  He sovereignly chooses to do His work through us, and we are blessed simply to be present when His power is manifested.   P. 45

 

Kevin Myers, a close friend and pastor of a thriving church in Atlanta, Georgia, teaches the “God’s calling is where God’s power and God’s purpose come together in your life.”  God gives His power only for His purpose—He doesn’t give us His power to pursue our own dreams.  And God’s purpose can only be accomplished with His power—if we try to fulfill God’s mission in our own strength, we’ll burn out long before we finish.  The intersection of God’s power and God’s purpose causes His kingdom to come and will be done on earth as it is in heaven.    P. 61

 

Personally providing necessary pastoral care and counseling for a large percentage of the congregation.  The goal is to be an equipper of caregivers rather than a doer of care ministry, with a few exceptions.    P. 64

 

As Peter Drucker says, “Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.”  So, in order to answer this question, we must assess the present-day validity of our activities.  It may be that a “not to do” list is more important than a “to do” list.   P. 123

 

Leaders who have defined their unique contribution and delegated the authority and responsibility for results are free to spend their time and energy developing the resources that are needed to fulfill the mission.  The greatest of those resources is people.      P. 129

People in Church Fight Change (for a reason)

People in our churches fight change because they face it everywhere else—in their families, their careers, their communities, even their bodies, but they don’t want it to happen in their churches!  They want one place in their lives that doesn’t change, and that place is the church.  They seem determined to die and take their church with them, and some of them will succeed.  But people make a bad choice when they select a church as their bastion of consistency, because God is the One who decides what the church is about and God is about change.  What greater change could there be than to turn us from hell to heaven and deliver us from death to life?  He takes us from self-centeredness to self-sacrifice, from decay to glory.  All of life is growth in grace, a constantly growing change.  God has called the church to be the most significant change agent in the world, so as our culture changes we must change, while, like God, we remain unchanging in our essence.

Bill Lawrence in Effective Pastoring; p. 199

When the Church Was a Family

When the Church Was a Family by Joseph H. Hellerman, (2009; B&H Publishing) is one of those books that is revealing, refreshing and readable all at once.  Hellerman unveils history’s curtain for us to peer into the pagan culture during the time of the early church and get a sense of how life was experienced by our fellow believers in those ancient times.

Yet it’s more than that. Hellerman teaches us how the culture of the ancient family, so different from our Western families, was impressed upon the church back then.  When people came to faith in Jesus, they understood that their loyalties and familial allegiances were radically switched. This was no easy thing for the Christian to do. Often it meant severe rejection and ostracism by one’s own blood-family; which also had negative ramifications within one’s own village or city. To understand the dynamics of what real faith and conversion meant to believers in the early church helps us to see how radical, daring and even severe it was to trust in Christ.

As Hellerman teaches us what life was like in that day, he also contrasts the family culture of the ancients with the individualistic culture of our time.  It is this assessment that underscored how our individualistic, disconnected and often dysfunctional family life has impacted the way we view and behave within God’s family. I think his critique, sadly, is spot on.

However, at the same time, the book is refreshing because most of it presents the many positive features of becoming a genuine, loyal member of Jesus’ family.  These features made my heart long for the kind of love, affection, intimacy, loyalty and connectedness these believers experienced together as a Christian family.  These qualities Hellerman unfolds for us is the reason I highly recommend this book.

Here are some excerpts:

Spiritual formation occurs primarily in the context of community. People who remain connected with their brothers and sisters in the local church almost invariably grow in self-understanding, and they mature in their ability to relate in healthy ways to God and to their fellow human beings. This is especially the case for those courageous Christians who stick it out through the often messy process of interpersonal discord and conflict resolution. Long-term interpersonal relationships are the crucible of genuine progress in the Christian life.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 43-47). B&H Publishing.

 

Social scientists have a label for the pervasive cultural orientation of modern American society that makes it so difficult for us to stay connected and grow together in community with one another. They call it radical individualism.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 109-110). B&H Publishing.

 

The New Testament picture of the church as a family flies in the face of our individualistic cultural orientation. God’s intention is not to become the feel-good Father of a myriad of isolated individuals who appropriate the Christian faith as yet another avenue toward personal enlightenment. Nor is the biblical Jesus to be conceived of as some sort of spiritual mentor whom we can happily take from church to church, or from marriage to marriage, fully assured that our personal Savior will somehow bless…   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 170-174). B&H Publishing.

 

The “let us meet your needs” approach to marketing the church, which became so popular among baby boomers in the 1980s and 1990s, has only served further to socialize our people to “prefer a variety of church experiences, rather than getting the most out of all that a single church has to offer.”1   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 213-215). B&H Publishing.

 

We don’t desire growth for growth’s sake but rather a community that grows slowly through natural introductions. We don’t measure our success by numeric growth. We have decided to measure by other means, such as, How long do relationships last? Are members of the community at peace with one another? Are relationships reconciled?3   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 243-245). B&H Publishing.

 

Renewal movements have historically tended to emphasize church practice and the various expressions of the Christian life, while giving less attention to careful theological reflection and lessons learned from church history.   When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 260-261). B&H Publishing.

 

[In a strong-group society] the person perceives himself or herself to be a member of a group and responsible to the group for his or her actions, destiny, career, development, and life in general. Correspondingly he/she perceives other persons primarily in terms of the groups to which they belong. The individual person is embedded in the group and is free to do what he or she feels right and necessary only if in accord with group norms and only if the action is in the group’s best interest. The group has priority over the individual member, and it may use objects in the environment, other groups of people in the society, and the members of   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 370-375). B&H Publishing.

 

American men (and increasingly women), define themselves primarily by what they do, by their individual achievements. Our personal identities are rooted in how we answer the vocation question and in what we accomplish in our pursuits in the working world.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 535-537). B&H Publishing. [Note: Hellerman contrasts how in the family or group culture, one’s identity was so knitted into the family unit that he could not easily perceive of himself or herself as totally independent from the family or group. The author points out both the obvious and not-so obvious implications for such connectedness.]

 

The choices we possess in our radically individualistic society have come at a tremendous emotional price. We pay dearly in the stress department for our freedom to decide for ourselves, and as a result many of us are now emotionally bankrupt. How much inner turmoil, how much soul searching and self-evaluation, how much pressure do we experience in individualistic America as we make—and take personal responsibility   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 584-586). B&H Publishing.

 

As Bellah and others have observed, the origin and popularity of clinical psychology can be directly traced to the increasingly individualistic slant of Western relational values. In other words, the great majority of people on this planet never needed therapy until society began to dump the responsibility for making life’s major decisions squarely upon the lonely shoulders of the individual. Our freedoms, as intoxicating and exhilarating as they often are, have pushed us over the edge emotionally. We are reaping the consequences of decisions that were never meant to be made—and lives that were never meant to be lived—in isolation.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 671-675). B&H Publishing.

 

But in a number of instances, the people in our congregation utilize psychotherapy as just another resource to enable them to continue along their own selfish quest for personal autonomy, an autonomy that seeks to escape—rather than courageously to engage—painful, real-life relationships.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 693-695). B&H Publishing.

 

Pastors (if we are honest with ourselves) will acknowledge a similarly unimpressive won-lost record in our gallant but often futile attempts to grow our people in the context of relational accountability.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 699-700). B&H Publishing.

 

As reasonable as all this sounds, for the Christian faith a neutral approach to cultural differences proves highly problematic where the distinction between strong-group and weak-group societies is concerned. The reason for this is quite transparent. The collectivist social model is deeply woven into the very fabric of the gospel itself.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 714-716). B&H Publishing.

 

My soul takes pleasure in three things and they are beautiful in the sight of the Lord and of men: agreement between siblings, friendship between neighbors, and a wife and husband who live in harmony. (Sirach 25:1)   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 783-785). B&H Publishing.

 

There are striking differences between the way we do family and the way that strong-group cultures conceive of family relationships.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 805-806). B&H Publishing.

 

While marriage was important for those reasons, the closest same-generation family relationship was not the one between husband and wife. It was the bond between siblings.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 817-818). B&H Publishing.

 

It is imperative to recognize, however, that the way in which Americans do family would have been quite foreign to first-century sensibilities. The early church functioned like an ancient Mediterranean family—not a modern American family. We need to resist the temptation to read our idea of “brother” or “sister” into the biblical text. Instead, we must learn to grasp the way in which “brother” would resonate with a strong-group person, since the New Testament church family model reflects the relational values and priorities of kinship systems in the first-century world.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 823-827). B&H Publishing.

 

In Mediterranean antiquity, blood runs deeper than romantic love.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Location 864). B&H Publishing.

 

[M]arriage in Mediterranean antiquity: Marriage, therefore, is a legal and social contract between two families for (1) the promotion of the status of each, (2) the production of legitimate offspring, and (3) the appropriate preservation and transferal of property to the next generation.2   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 867-870). B&H Publishing.

 

• The closest family bond in ancient Mediterranean society was not the bond of marriage. It was the bond between siblings. • Correspondingly, the most treacherous act of human disloyalty in an ancient family was not disloyalty to one’s spouse. It was the betrayal of one’s brother.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 896-899). B&H Publishing.

 

Based on what we have learned we can expand our list of key principles: Principle #1: In the New Testament world the group took priority over the individual. Principle #2: In the New Testament world a person’s most important group was his blood family. Principle #3: In the New Testament world the closest family bond was not the bond of marriage. It was the bond between siblings. Corollary 1 The central value that characterized ancient family relations was the obligation to demonstrate undying loyalty toward one’s blood brothers and sisters. Corollary 2 The most treacherous act of human disloyalty was not disloyalty to one’s spouse. It was the betrayal of one’s brother.  Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1129-1137). B&H Publishing.

 

So this is how a New Testament believer would have conceived of his relationship to his church family: What this means is, first of all, that the person perceives himself or herself to be a member of a church and responsible to the church for his or her actions, destiny, career, development, and life in general. . . . The individual person is embedded in the church and is free to do what he or she feels right and necessary only if in accord with church norms and only if the action is in the church’s best interest. The church has priority over the individual member.8   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1151-1155). B&H Publishing.

 

He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! Whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:31–35) These words, spoken in the hearing of a large crowd, were utterly scandalous in the cultural context in which Jesus lived. In   the social world of Jewish Palestine, Jesus, as the oldest surviving male in His family (we may presume that His father Joseph had died), was responsible to defend the honor of, and provide leadership for, His patrilineal kinship group. In a single stroke Jesus dishonored Himself and His family by refusing to exercise that crucial family role. And He did so in a public setting.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1252-1254). B&H Publishing.

 

The way we handle these disconcerting sayings is quite revealing. In our efforts to understand what Jesus said about family, we generally set aside these passages and begin to develop our theology of family from the more positive teachings. We gravitate toward those portions of the Gospels in which Jesus exhorts His followers to honor their parents or to refrain from divorce. Only after we have persuaded ourselves that Jesus is truly family-friendly do we return to the thorny passages cited above and somehow try to fit them into a pro-family reading of the Gospels.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1259-1263). B&H Publishing.

 

It is simply to observe that the Jesus of the Gospels often seems to be concerned with something quite different than the material typically found in our creeds and statements of faith.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1315-1316). B&H Publishing.

 

The operative question for the first-century Palestinians who were confronted with the miracles and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth was not What is Jesus like? The operative question was What is God like?   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1319-1321). B&H Publishing.

 

The right-hand side of the chart approaches the Jesus question from an entirely different angle. Here we are not asking, What is Jesus like? We are asking, What is God like? Since Jesus claimed to be speaking and acting on God’s behalf, we ought to be able to answer this question by observing Jesus in action. If we want to find out what God is like, we simply observe what Jesus said and did. Pretty straightforward. Yet this is precisely where Jesus’ contemporaries in first-century Palestine had a serious problem with Him.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1341-1345). B&H Publishing.

 

By behaving in a totally counter-cultural way and by demonstrating His right to do so with stupendous signs and wonders, Jesus was asserting to His contemporaries, “God is not like you think He is—God is like me!”   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1357-1359). B&H Publishing.

 

As history has repeatedly demonstrated, the church can hold unequivocally to orthodox Nicene Christology—Jesus is God—and nevertheless assume that this “God” somehow affirms or desires the forced conversion of unbelievers (Charlemagne), the destruction of indigenous peoples in the name of Manifest Destiny (American colonists), human slavery (Euro-American enslavement of Africans), or racial apartheid (South Africa)—just to mention a few of the atrocities perpetrated by persons who claimed to be followers of Jesus.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1373-1377). B&H Publishing.

 

The earthly ministry of Jesus of Nazareth constitutes the one time in the history of humanity when heaven fully and finally came to earth. In Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we have the opportunity to see the question What is God like? answered in the flesh-and-blood world in which we live. During His incarnation Jesus not only procured our way to heaven. He also showed us how to live on earth.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1388-1391). B&H Publishing.

 

The loyalty conflict is not about making a choice between God and people. Rather, it is about choosing between one group of people and another—between our natural family and our eternal family. Recall from the previous chapter the three central social values of the ancient Mediterranean world: 1. In the New Testament world the group took priority over the individual. 2. In the New Testament world a person’s most important group was his family. 3. In the New Testament world the closest family bond was the bond between siblings.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1427-1434). B&H Publishing.

 

[W]e see that Jesus’ concept of the family of God was tangibly realized through the sharing of material resources, as Jesus and certain of His followers traveled together. Here is a group of people, unrelated by blood, who nevertheless spent a significant period of their lives together and who related to each other according to the standards of ancient kinship solidarity. They understood themselves to be a surrogate family.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1489-1492). B&H Publishing.

Apparently, leaving one’s father and following Jesus constitutes for Mark a paradigmatic example of what it means to “Repent and believe in the good news!” Again, exchanging one family for another is at the very heart of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Luke 14:26  Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1539-1541). B&H Publishing.

 

I. H. Marshall draws for background upon a Hebrew root that has the sense “to leave aside, abandon.”5 A. Jacobson agrees: “‘Hate’ here probably does not mean ‘dislike intensely’ but ‘sever one’s relationship with’ the family.”6   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1547-1549). B&H Publishing.

 

N. T. Wright, in a ground-breaking study of the life of Jesus, asserted that “the only explanation for Jesus’ astonishing command is that he envisaged loyalty to himself and his kingdom-movement as creating an alternative family.”9   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1583-1585). B&H Publishing.

 

This is a key point. In the markedly collectivist social setting of rural Galilee, people would not simply have related to a prophet-teacher like Jesus as isolated individuals. Jesus would have been much more than their “personal Savior.” They would have joined His group. As   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1589-1591). B&H Publishing.

 

An ideal and not uncommon situation, we might surmise, would see the conversion of a whole household, with the disciple’s natural family embedded in, and serving the mission of, the dominant surrogate family of faith. In this case there would be no conflict of loyalties. But even here the natural family existed to serve the designs of the family of God, and not vice-versa. The focus was on the church—not on the family. And where conflict between the natural family and God’s family did arise, the faith family was to become the primary locus of relational solidarity.   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1619-1623). B&H Publishing.

 

(1st) God — (2nd) Family — (3rd) Church — (4th) Others This list of priorities misses the whole point of the above discussion. The strong-group outlook of the New Testament church meant that the early Christians did not sharply distinguish between commitment to God and commitment to God’s family. Cyprian   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1628-1631). B&H Publishing.

 

Jesus and His followers did not define loyalty to God solely in terms of a low-group, individualistic “personal relationship” with Jesus. Nor, by the way, did they define it as loyalty to the church as an institutional organization (more on this later). For the early Christians, loyalty to God found its tangible daily expression in unswerving loyalty to God’s group, the family of surrogate siblings who called Him “Father.” This is the lens through which we need to read Jesus’ variegated teachings about family in the Gospels. People in Mediterranean antiquity had to leave one family in order to join another. If we are truly serious about returning to our biblical roots, where our relationships with our fellow human beings are concerned, our priority list should probably look something like this: (1st) God’s Family — (2nd) My Family — (3rd) Others   Hellerman, Joseph H. (2009). When the Church Was a Family (Kindle Locations 1638-1645). B&H Publishing.