Partakers Christian Podcasts

Church Leadership

Session 2: What does it mean? Understanding the jargon

Welcome to the second of these podcasts on church leadership. Last time we asked the question: “Who is in charge?” The answer, of course, being that Jesus is the Head of the church – and therefore the Boss. In this session we are going to consider some of the terms that are used when talking about church and church leadership and attempt to be clear on what we mean as we go through this series.

Let’s start with the word “church”. We get our word “church” from the Greek "ecclesia" which literally means "assembly", "congregation", or the place where such a gathering occurs. Over the years, “church” has come to signify both a specific edifice of Christian worship (a "church"), and the overall community of the faithful (the "Church").

According to the New Testament, the earliest Christians did not build church buildings. Instead, they gathered in homes (Acts 17:5, 20:20, 1 Corinthians 16:19) or in Jewish worship places like the Temple in Jerusalem or synagogues (Acts 2:46, 19:8) – or in hired premises. It wasn’t until the 11th and 12th centuries that church buildings were erected and used for public worship and meetings of the church.

The proper use of the word “church” is when describing the body of believers who have been born again of the Spirit of God and accept Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. We see this expressed locally, nationally and internationally as all believers are part of the one Church.

Some “flavours” of the church retain a local leadership (with perhaps some affiliation to a national body), some have a more hierarchical structure both nationally and internationally. When we look at some aspects of leadership, we will attempt to make it clear what style of leadership we are talking about. So – church is the people, not buildings.

Now we come to terms commonly used for leadership roles in churches:
Some churches have bishops, priests and deacons – and all these terms are used in the New Testament. Other churches have other titles for their ministers – such as apostle, elder and pastor – and these terms also occur in the New Testament. Other terms within the hierarchy of some churches – such as dean, canon, cardinal and pope – have no Scriptural basis – and various words are used to describe the typical role of priest – such as rector, vicar etc.

Incidentally, the word ”minister” simply means servant – so it is a legitimate term to use for anyone serving the church of God in whatever capacity. I was stuck in traffic on the South Circular Road in London some years ago and saw a church noticeboard which said – among other things – “Ministers: The whole congregation”. I like that.

First of all – bishops: – the Greek word can also be properly translated ‘overseers’, ‘superintendents’ or ‘elders’. At one church where I was an Elder, one of the elderly gentlemen there used to greet me with “Good morning, Bishop” – and while it sounded strange in the Pentecostal church that we were – he was right. They feature always as a group within a given church – there is no single ‘bishop’ or ‘elder’ that holds office on their own.

‘Deacons’ are distinct from elders, and again spoken of as a group consisting of local people. Their name – ‘deacon’ means ‘server’ – suggests that their function was more practical – perhaps along the lines first explored in Acts 6. We shall use Stephen, one that early group, as an example when we look in more detail at this role.

Now let’s have look at ‘priests’. In Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus (the Pastoral Epistles) the word never occurs – Hebrews is the book where it is most frequently used in the New Testament. It refers first of all to the priests of the old covenant whose role was to offer sacrifice in the tabernacle/temple. But the preacher to the Hebrews argues that the role is now finished and there is no more place for animal sacrifice or for the priests who offer it. Instead there is Jesus as the Great High Priest and all believers have access to God through Christ’s single sacrifice. The idea of a priesthood that holds office in the church is not one held forth in the New Testament – all believers have a priestly ministry (that is: speaking to God for the people). The Greek word for ‘elder’ is presbyteros from which we get our English word ‘priest’. So, as time went on, a threefold pattern of bishop, priest and deacon became the standard form.

Peter, when talking to “the shepherds of God’s flock” (1 Peter 5:1 & 2) – from where we get our title of pastor – addresses them as ‘elders’. So pastors are simply “shepherds” and lead God’s people with an emphasis on the more gentle and caring aspect of “eldering”. Incidentally, Peter here describes himself as a “fellow elder” – and he was the recognised leader of the Christian Church at that time.

The basic meaning of apostle (apostolos) is simply that of one sent on a mission. In its primary and most technical sense apostle is used in the New Testament only of the twelve, including Matthias, who replaced Judas (Acts 1:26), and of Paul, who was uniquely set apart as apostle to the Gentiles The term apostle is used in a more general sense of other men in the early church, such as Barnabas (Acts 14:4), Silas and Timothy (1 Thess. 2:6), and a few other outstanding leaders (Rom. 16:7; 2 Cor. 8:23; Phil. 2:25).

We must be careful not to import our own understanding of these ‘ministry’ words back into them. We must recognise that both the words we use - and the nature of the offices they denote - have been through a long process of development. These letters were written to churches in the early stages of that development – and we must read them with a due awareness of the distance between those early days and the structures we find in most churches today.

We will look in more detail at these roles in future podcasts.

A prayer: Father, thank you for the church that I am part of – and thank You for those who lead us. May they know Your blessing as they follow You. Amen

Next week we will asking the question: “What does both the Old and New Testaments teach us about leadership?” Thank you and God bless you!

 

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Psalm 31

For the choir director: A psalm of David.

¹ O Lord, I have come to you for protection;
don't let me be disgraced.
Save me, for you do what is right.
² Turn your ear to listen to me;rescue me quickly.
Be my rock of protection,a fortress where I will be safe.
³ You are my rock and my fortress.
For the honor of your name, lead me out of this danger.
⁴ Pull me from the trap my enemies set for me,
for I find protection in you alone.

⁵ I entrust my spirit into your hand.
Rescue me, Lord, for you are a faithful God.
⁶ I hate those who worship worthless idols.
I trust in the Lord.
⁷ I will be glad and rejoice in your unfailing love,
for you have seen my troubles,and you care about the anguish of my soul.
⁸ You have not handed me over to my enemies
but have set me in a safe place.

⁹ Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am in distress.
Tears blur my eyes.My body and soul are withering away.
¹⁰ I am dying from grief;my years are shortened by sadness.
Sin has drained my strength;I am wasting away from within.
¹¹ I am scorned by all my enemiesand despised by my neighbors-even my friends are afraid to come near me.
When they see me on the street,they run the other way.
¹² I am ignored as if I were dead,as if I were a broken pot.

¹³ I have heard the many rumors about me,and I am surrounded by terror.
My enemies conspire against me,plotting to take my life.
¹⁴ But I am trusting you, O Lord,saying, "You are my God!"
¹⁵ My future is in your hands.
Rescue me from those who hunt me down relentlessly.
¹⁶ Let your favor shine on your servant.
In your unfailing love, rescue me.

¹⁷ Don't let me be disgraced, O Lord,for I call out to you for help.
Let the wicked be disgraced;let them lie silent in the grave.
¹⁸ Silence their lying lips-those proud and arrogant lips that accuse the godly.
¹⁹ How great is the goodnessyou have stored up for those who fear you.
You lavish it on those who come to you for protection,
blessing them before the watching world.
²⁰ You hide them in the shelter of your presence,
safe from those who conspire against them.
You shelter them in your presence,far from accusing tongues.

²¹ Praise the Lord,for he has shown me the wonders of his unfailing love.
He kept me safe when my city was under attack.
²² In panic I cried out,"I am cut off from the Lord!"
But you heard my cry for mercy and answered my call for help.
²³ Love the Lord, all you godly ones!
For the Lord protects those who are loyal to him,
but he harshly punishes the arrogant.
²⁴ So be strong and courageous,
all you who put your hope in the Lord!

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Church Leadership

Session 1: Who is in charge?

and it’s not me – or you)

I was in our local Christian bookshop the other day and found that they had about 300 books on church leadership – and I’ve got at least 25 on my bookshelves here at home.

I’m Andrew Clarke and I am now happily retired from a career as an accountant mainly in the public sector. Early in my working life God impressed on me that I was to be a “positive Christian witness in a secular society”. So, despite having been a church elder for some time when God put this on my heart – and having been courted by some to be in “full time service” (by the way, that’s a daft expression – all of us who are born again of the Spirit of God are full time for the Master), I did as I was told and God blessed that obedience. And having risen to very senior positions in big multi-million pound organisations, I learned on the way up that the skills God was gifting me with were of real relevance both in the workplace and in church.

As far as leadership roles in church goes, I became an elder at 23 (the church needed a Treasurer and the other elders considered I was the one - and it was an Elder role in that church) and, apart from some short breaks because of moving location and other circumstances, I’ve been graced to serve in church leadership since then. I did have a period – just under 20 years – when I was the leader of small church near to where we lived at the time. But I still retained my “day job” through all of this in obedience to my calling. Incidentally, 45 years on from those early days – I’ve become a church treasurer again! And I still have a “secular” part time role with one of our local police forces.

So – I come with some experience of my own, some lessons that I’ve learned by watching others (you can take that whichever way you like!) some by reading – but most importantly, as one who has been reading and meditating on the Scriptures and listening to the Holy Spirit over many years. Having said that, I feel utterly unequal to the task and it’s only by His grace and the empowering of the Holy Spirit that we can do anything fruitful for Him.

In these twelve podcasts, I intend, with God’s help, to answer some questions about church leadership. It will not be an exhaustive study – but I trust they will be a blessing to all of you – not just those that are leaders but also those whom God is preparing for this role and for those who enjoy (I did NOT say “endure”) being led.

But before all that we need to answer the question “Who is in charge?”.
There is only one God – and it’s not me – or you!

Paul, in Colossians 1:15–20, says: “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

So Jesus is the Head of the Church – that means He is the Boss!

Paul, in Ephesians 1:23-24, makes a similar assertion: “And God placed all things under his [Jesus] feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

And Jesus Himself, when responding to Peter’s confession the he is “the Christ, the Son of the living God”, described the coming church as “My church” (Matthew 16:18).

Paul – the pioneering Church leader – described himself at the beginning of most of the letters he wrote as a “servant (better translated as ‘bond slave’) of Jesus Christ”.

To be an effective leader in the Church of Jesus Christ we must be a slave – obedient to the Head and willing to fulfil His purposes as He reveals them to us.

So – who is in charge? Jesus is – He is the supreme One. Let us bow at His feet as humble bond

A prayer: Father God, as we begin this look at church leadership, may we recognise Jesus as Head and Lord of the church. Help us always and in everything to submit to Him as Master.

Amen.

Next time we will ask the question: “What does it mean” and try to explain the words we use when talking about the church and church leadership.

 

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Chapter 15: What next?

After life comes death – or passing on, or meeting the Lord, or being promoted to glory, or kicking the bucket, or any one of the many ways we have of avoiding using that final word – death. There is a fundamental problem in talking about what follows life. Everything that can be said about it has to be expressed in terms of this life. And, that is not an easy thing to do. This shows very clearly in the range of different words that the New Testament writers use. Matthew talks about the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ (which is really a way of saying the Kingdom of God but avoiding the use of the word God) and a wedding banquet; John talks about ‘eternal life’ – or, more literally, the ‘life of the ages’, or, more interpretively, ‘God’s new age’; Paul talks about our ‘citizenship in heaven’; Peter talks about an ‘inheritance’; the writer to the Hebrews calls us to ‘the city that is to come’.

But even the width of that range of words gives us some important clues as to how we should think of where we are going. In two ways: first, all those expressions, without exception, refer to a place of relationships – a kingdom is where the King is, wedding banquets are a celebration of relationships, eternal life is about life, citizenship is shared, inheritance is about continuity of life and a city is people. Secondly all those expressions have a strong hint in them that we are already there: we are in the Kingdom, the life of the ages must have started already, we have to have a passport to know our citizenship, inheritance means we are part of an ongoing family and cities have a great ongoing life to them. One thing we can be sure of: we shall not be sitting around on the clouds playing harps, as so much popular thinking has it!

You and I do not know what it will all look like, however hard John of Patmos may have tried to explain through his word pictures in the book of Revelation to enthuse us for what lies ahead. (You will note that I do not rate those who think they have perfect knowledge of what he means in every verse and every sentence!) That does not matter.

The one great puzzle is where and how the idea of ‘the new heavens and the new earth’ fits in. The phrase comes from the prophecy of Isaiah and is picked up by Peter and John of Patmos. It suggests that the future is not totally different from the world we now live in, which we should therefore take great care of and look after as best we can.

There have been all sorts of suggestions that after we die we will start in one place, proceed to another and then another and so on, possibly depending on how good boys and girls we have been. All such ideas should be rejected.

What is abundantly clear is that in some sense, still hidden from us, life after death for the believer will be in a place where we shall be in close proximity to the Lord of All, the King of the Ages, our Lord Jesus Christ. In some way we cannot begin to understand we shall be fully content with that, time will be of no significance, nor will other people. HE will be all in all to us.

So What?

No Christian should be frightened or worried about being dead. We may indeed be worried about dying, which may turn out to be a lengthy, unpleasant and uncomfortable business. We may be deeply concerned about the future of our loved ones that we will leave behind, perhaps to a difficult and poverty struck or loveless existence, and that rightly so. To be that way is to be concerned about the breaking of the deep loves of our life, and the more we have loved the more difficult is the thought of love fractured. There is certainly nothing to be ashamed of in being worried by such thoughts.

We shall die when our time comes. Except if we take part in highly dangerous and risky enterprises this will be entirely within the hands of our good and gracious Lord. Why some should die young, and others live to a difficult old age we shall never know. Job said “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord”. But that is in the first chapter of his book and he goes on to a long and tortuous argument with his friends, struggling with the multiple calamities that have overtaken him. Only in the very last chapter of his book does he get to saying, “I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge? ’
Surely I, Job, spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me. ’
My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.”

Like Job, we too will struggle with the things that happen to us, particularly in the death of friends and loved ones and then perhaps when our own day to depart comes. Don’t let that worry you beyond the natural worry of such things. Rest in the hands of the Lord. Paul said “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” So it is for us. Don’t forget it!

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Psalm 67

For the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. A Psalm. A song.

67:1 May God be merciful to us, bless us, and cause his face to shine on us.
Selah.
67:2 That your way may be known on earth, and your salvation among all nations,
67:3 let the peoples praise you, God. Let all the peoples praise you.
67:4 Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you will judge the peoples with equity, and govern the nations on earth.
Selah.
67:5 Let the peoples praise you, God. Let all the peoples praise you.
67:6 The earth has yielded its increase. God, even our own God, will bless us.
67:7 God will bless us. All the ends of the earth shall fear him.

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Chapter 14: Nearing the end of the Journey.

We are nearing the end of the journey anyway. Assuming that we do not have am unexpected heart attack or stroke or other unexpected grave illness, one day we shall discover that we are not the person we used to be. We do not move as quickly as we used to; we do not remember things as well as we used to; all sorts of stiffnesses afflict us; other people don’t seem to want to use us to do things as much. We are getting old. One day, now not so far away we shall die. This raises two questions: 1) how well shall we cope with the downgrade of our life; 2) what will happen when we die. This chapter is about the first of those, the next is about the second.

There has never been a better statement of how life downgrades than that in the last chapter of Ecclesiastes. Here it is together with some explanations:

Remember your Creator
in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
“I find no pleasure in them”— (that is when life begins to be a bit of a struggle)
before the sun and the light
and the moon and the stars grow dark,
and the clouds return after the rain;
when the keepers of the house tremble,
and the strong men stoop, (when your legs are not as strong as they used to be and your back is bent)
when the grinders cease because they are few, (your teeth fall out)
and those looking through the windows grow dim; (your eyesight grows dim)
when the doors to the street are closed
and the sound of grinding fades; (you hearing is not very good)
when people rise up at the sound of birds, (you don’t sleep so well)
but all their songs grow faint;
when people are afraid of heights
and of dangers in the streets; (you can’t take the risk you used to take)
when the almond tree blossoms
and the grasshopper drags itself along
and desire no longer is stirred. (sexual desire has faded)
Then people go to their eternal home
and mourners go about the streets. (and finally you die)

Isn’t that brilliant? It must be about the best poetic description of old age ever written. Unless some accident or sudden illness takes us away that is what lies in front of all of us. Modern medicine means that in many parts of the world people now live far longer than they used to and consequently experience much more of the slow failing of one’s body than people used to.

But the fundamentally important question is what does it all say to us? What is the constructive part of the message of the writer and of the God who lies behind the writer?

To ask the question is equivalent to asking what the next verse after those means: “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Everything is meaningless!”, but even that is not a great deal of help because it is very hard to be sure what the Hebrew word ‘hebel’ that the NIV translates as ‘meaningless’ really means. Many translations, like the NIV, have gone for words like meaningless, or vanity or useless, which is rather odd since the writer clearly does not think that what he is saying is meaningless or useless.

Let’s go back to the basic meaning of the word which is that like a cloud on the top of a hill it is insubstantial, difficult to see through and wont last long. So now we are being told that old age is not an easy thing to get hold of, difficult to work your way through and wont last for ever – all of which makes good sense.

So What?

Looked at in isolation that all seems rather bleak. But it is different if we put it in the context the writer intended. The next few verses say:
Remember him—before the silver cord is severed,
and the golden bowl is broken;
before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,
and the wheel broken at the well,
and the dust returns to the ground it came from,
and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
And before we got to these verses we read this in the preceding chapter:
Light is sweet,
and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.
However many years anyone may live,
let them enjoy them all.
…. So then, banish anxiety from your heart
and cast off the troubles of your body,
for youth and vigor are meaningless.”

Go for it, the writer says. Make the most of life, even when it is on the down slope. Don’t give up. Rejoice in your Saviour and all he has brought to you and promises still to bring.
Jesus said: “don’t worry about your life - what to eat, what to drink; don’t worry about your body what to wear. There’s more to life than food! There’s more to the body than a suit of clothes? Have a good look at the birds in the sky. They don’t plant seeds, they don’t bring in the harvest, they don’t store things in barns – and your father in heaven feeds them! Think how different you are from them! Can any of you add 30 cms to your height just by worrying about it? Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"

So don’t worry away with your ‘What’ll we eat? ’ and ‘What’ll we drink? ’ and ‘ What’ll we wear? ’ Instead make your top priority God’s kingdom and his way of life and all these things will be given to you as well.”

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Chapter 13: Having A Balanced Worldview

It is quite possible to have the best of intentions in our thinking as to how we should be and what we should do and get it wrong. We need to balance our thinking. There are 3 areas often considered in this: Creation, Fall and Redemption, to which I would add a fourth although this is not so much a matter of balance as of movement: Progress (my name for it. It is more often called sanctification, but that is a difficult word.) If we over-emphasize or under-emphasize any one of these we can easily get in trouble.

First: Creation. It is because we know about, and understand Creation that we know how to live in our world. We understand people. I pointed out in the first of these studies how our Christian view of people is that we are made in the image of God, but fallen into sin (of which more in a moment). If we over-estimate Creation we think everyone is wonderfully good – and unfortunately they are not. Politicians, for their own benefit, often try to make out that everyone is good and all the world will be wonderful if it only follows their lead. We all know where that takes us! If we under-estimate Creation we think everyone is terribly bad – and they are not. Some preachers are so full of the consequences of sin they forget how wonderful the average person can be. We need balance.

Second: Fall. The exact opposite of the consequences of error over Creation are the results of the errors over the Fall. We must not over-emphasize the fallen-ness of men and women. To do that is to try to bolster our own self-image. The implication of what some Christians say is ‘you are fallen’, I am not’ so look how important I am! The platform or the pulpit can be a dangerous place. But if we under-estimate the effect of the Fall on men and women we make a grave mistake. This is where the creators of the great movements of human society have gone wrong. Communism in particular thought that everything would be wonderful once the situation had been initially tidied up. It didn’t work out like that and it never will work out like that. They didn’t take human nature into account.

Third: Redemption. The more obvious problems that can arise associated with Redemption occur when it is not sought. All too often people set out to sort themselves out and put their lives back on track when they should be looking for the work of the master of Redemption – the Lord Jesus. Redemption is not simply being saved from the consequences of all the sinful things we have done. The original of redemption in the Bible was the saving of the nation of Israel out of Egypt but there is no record that they had been particularly sinful before that. It was circumstances that had brought them to their sad condition of slavery in the brick kilns of that foreign country.

Similarly we may well need redemption out of circumstances that we have found ourselves in without being particularly responsible for them ourselves. Again and again when Jesus had healed somebody he said ‘go, and sin no more’, don’t keep looking back, look forward and be positive and different. This proper Redemption will only come to us from the Lord God through his Son, the Lord Jesus, not through our own endeavors. The way in which we may have too much redemption is not so obvious.

I think we can relate it to what Paul says in Romans 6: 1, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?”. Can we say we are redeemed so we can go on doing what we like – the Lord will forgive me ‘that’s his job!’? Paul goes on saying ‘of course not’. So should we. We need to keep a careful balance between looking to the Lord for his forgiveness and doing our own part in it. Paul said, “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose”. That is a thought that links in closely with the next area where we need balance

Fourth: Progress. It is fundamentally important that we do not stand still in the Christian life. In the last of his Narnia stories CS Lewis has all the characters in the stories approaching heaven and the cry that goes around is “further up and further in!” as they race up the steep way to their destination. That is a great watchword for all of us. We cannot, we must not, stand still in our Christian lives.

To do so is condemned by Paul: “I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly”; the writer to the Hebrews said: “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.”; Peter said “with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do”. In fact most of the New Testament letters are devoted to exhorting the young Christians in the young churches to progress in their faith, both in their thinking and in their actions. So should we aim to do.

So What?

Aim for balance in your developing Christian life. Balanced thinking; balanced action. The first 2, Creation and Fall, are about balanced thinking. They are mainly about our thought life, our worldview. The last 2, redemption and progress are mainly to do with our actions how we turn our thinking into the way we live. But they are as much part of a good worldview, a Biblical worldview, as the others. It is all too possible to go blindly along as a Christian, attending church, taking the sacraments, trying to be good, doing some approved right things, without really thinking out what it is all about and letting the Holy Spirit take over our thinking and actions. Only that way can we become truly Christlike. Only that way can our worldview become truly as it should be.

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Chapter 12: Having A Good Worldview

The time has come to ask the awkward question: what sort of a Christian are you? In particular have you slipped in to being a one and six Christian – that is a Christian of a certain sort one day (Sunday) every week and another sort of Christian the other six days of the week. The word ‘worldview’ has become associated with challenging that type of thinking. As the very word suggests it refers to the way someone, you or I, thinks about the surrounding world. We all to a greater or lesser extent ask certain questions, including: how do we fit into this immediately surrounding world?

The challenge to the Christians in the very early days of the church was to say, “Jesus is Lord”. That meant not only that he was Lord of the Christian and the church, but that he was Lord of all the world, including the Roman Empire of which Caesar thought he was Lord. That was a very dangerous thing to say – but they said it. And that awkward question is still around.

The fundamental problem that tends to lie behind that question is this: am I, are you, as a Christian any different from other people who are not; except on Sunday when we go to church, teach in the Sunday School etc. and they do not? The question challenges us at 2 levels. The lower one is this: Does the fact that we are Christian affect the way we operate at work, in the home, at our leisure? Does it affect the level of honesty with which we operate? How we complete our expenses form? How much we avoid taxation? How much we take out of the company cupboard to use for our own private purposes? What sort of reputation do we have amongst our workmates? (In one job I had I followed a Christian that I kept on hearing about. He seemed to have succeeded in annoying everybody with his witnessing. What he did I do not know but it can scarcely have been a Christ-honoiring attitude. We are told we should be in the world but not of the world. He seemed to have been against the world!) If our faith does not affect these things we need to do some serious thinking about what should happen and then make the necessary changes.

All those things are at the lower level. They are all good and worthy questions but they are all add-ons to the deepest core of what we think, and say and do. We need to move on to the higher-level challenge. Here, of course, I have some considerable difficulties in saying anything that will apply to everybody that reads or hears this from whichever part of the world and whatever sort of culture they come. It seems to me there are two particular sorts of situation you may find yourself in. If you live in large parts of the world such as most of Asia, and parts of Africa and South America there will usually be no doubt of your answer to the question ‘am I any different from the neighbors’. You are - because you are Christian and they follow some other well-defined and strong religion. There is not a great deal I can usefully say directly to you. Hopefully you will gather something of value as I go on to talk to the other sort of people – those who live in those parts of the world where that distinction is much less clear cut because their world has been Christianized. Things are much more difficult in most of Europe, the USA, and other parts of the world where Christianity provides, or provided, the dominant culture. Because of the philosophical developments I mentioned in an earlier study these parts of the world are steadily becoming more secular, less Christian, less any other religion dependant, and are drifting slowly downhill.

We should not do our workday job, merely adding to it our life as a Christian as a somewhat separate thing. Our faith should so permeate our lives that we do our jobs in a Christian way. That is all very well to say to you if you happen to be a High School English teacher. What you say to the class, the way you behave, your views on the things you have to study with your class, should clearly be different from the work of the Marxist in the next classroom. If, however, you are a mechanical digger driver working on a building site it is very hard to see how you can operate your machine any differently from the Marxist in the next machine! You should be careful how you operate it; you should not swear at lunch break time etc., but those are things extra to your actual work behavior. It is not possible to do anything significantly different.

I wrestled with this problem myself as a Mathematics lecturer. 2+2 really does equal 4 whoever you. There was no obvious way my teaching of Mathematics was any different from that of the guy in the next lecture room. It is here that the world-view question becomes really important. Because we believe Christ is Lord – not just of us, but of all the world – we must acknowledge his Lordship in everything we are involved in. All I can do here is point out that there is a potential problem and exhort you to be aware of it and to think carefully about how you act in your work environment. Christ is Lord of all, not just the church, and our behaviour should reflect that fact at all times and in all places.

So What?

Here are some questions you need to ask yourself and work out what the honest answers are:

1. In what ways does the fact that Christ is Lord of all affect my everyday work?
   
2. In what ways should that fact affect my work that it does not?
   
3. If there is a discrepancy between those 2 answers – how should I change what I do to bring my answer to 1) closer to that to 2)?

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Psalm 139

For the choir director: A psalm of David.

¹ O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.

² You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I'm far away.

³ You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do.

⁴ You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord.

⁵ You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head.

⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!

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⁷ I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!

⁸ If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there.

⁹ If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.

¹¹ I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night-

¹² but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.

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¹³ You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb.

¹⁴ Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous-how well I know it.

¹⁵ You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

¹⁶ You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

¹⁷ How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!

¹⁸ I can't even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!

¹⁹ O God, if only you would destroy the wicked! Get out of my life, you murderers!

²⁰ They blaspheme you; your enemies misuse your name.

²¹ O Lord, shouldn't I hate those who hate you? Shouldn't I despise those who oppose you?

²² Yes, I hate them with total hatred, for your enemies are my enemies.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.

²⁴ Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

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Chapter 11:Journeying through the wilderness

Unless you are very fortunate you will discover that you have to travel through times of spiritual wilderness or desert. These are the times when your spiritual life seems to go dead on you, nothing goes right, you seem to be as far away from the Lord as it is possible to get, you just want to give it all up. It can happen to the best of us! Why should you be any different? But when that happens what can you do to get out of the hole you seem to be in.

On the whole Scripture is not a lot of use here. The reason is not far to seek. The people we read about in Scripture, or who wrote it themselves, tend to be those all action, all vigorous type that are not always quite like us. Paul is not much help. He said, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Great – if you have got that far on the Way of faith, but not all of us have; or if you are that sort of strong personality – but not all of us are! To be sure, just occasionally Paul says something that might suggest he did struggle sometimes, things like “Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me.” Do you agree that he does not sound all together happy when he says things like that?

If all the big guys of Scripture are not much use to us in the desert, then who is?
We might expect it to be the Psalms perhaps. Yet few of the Psalms relate to the wilderness experience that is wholly within us rather than caused by a breakdown between us and other people.
Only Psalm 107:4,5
“Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no way to a city where they could settle.
They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away”

This could be taken as referring to the sort of problem we would call a desert. And the proffered solution is people in verse 7, “He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.” This, and all the other psalms probably reflects the much more social society of those days. We, in spite of all our communication technology, often feel much more isolated. Loneliness is a very modern disease in many societies. If we are the lonely one we have great difficulty doing anything about it. If we can identify someone else who is lonely we can do a great deal about it by befriending them.

Aside then from the Psalms and a few small comments here and there, the answer seems to come in only 2 places: Jeremiah and the Israelite journey through the desert. Jeremiah struggled a great deal with the tasks the Lord had set before him to do. And we can draw lessons from the experience of the Israelites as they journeyed through a real desert.

First, Jeremiah. He was only a village lad, who lived in a time of great political upheaval for his nation. He never did want to be a prophet. When it became clear to him that the Lord wanted him to be a prophet he said, “Alas, Sovereign Lord, I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” But the Lord said to him, “Do not say, ‘I am too young. ’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.” Going around the country telling the leaders, including the king, things the Lord wanted them to hear but they did not want to hear was not an easy job, and a distinctly dangerous one. In fact he ended up down a well and was only rescued because one man was brave enough to ask the king to organize his rescue.

So it is not altogether surprising that he says:
Cursed be the day I was born!
May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
Cursed be the man who brought my father the news,
who made him very glad, saying,
“A child is born to you—a son!”
May that man be like the towns
the Lord overthrew without pity.
May he hear wailing in the morning,
a battle cry at noon.
For he did not kill me in the womb,
with my mother as my grave,
her womb enlarged forever.
Why did I ever come out of the womb
to see trouble and sorrow
and to end my days in shame?

This brings one difficult and important message to us. We are not the Lord’s people for our own enjoyment and improvement but because he is the Lord! Our whole culture – at least the one I live in – tells us everything we do should be for our own benefit. And it isn’t the only one to do so. The American Declaration of Independence talks about “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Fortunately I know many Americans who have not really taken that pursuit of happiness to heart but have made the service of other people, and the Lord, their primary objectives in life rather than those self-centered ideas.

When we turn to the story of the Israelites travelling through the desert we find less worthy motives for being down. They had no sooner escaped the Egyptian army at the Red Sea than they started complaining when things did not go exactly the way they wanted them to. So we read, “Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, ‘What are we to drink?’” Perhaps that complaint was excusable; it was about water, never more necessary than when you are in a desert.
But then it wasn’t long before “In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord ’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” That sounds very like there had been a lack of foresight in preparing enough food for the journey. And so the story goes on with them grumbling, complaining, and blaming poor old Moses for every little problem they encountered. Not clever!

So What?

Wilderness times will come to us at some time, as they came to Jesus. Some of them will not be our fault as they were not for Jeremiah. But some of them will be our fault as they very largely were for the people of Israel. Either way they will be for the same reason: we too need to be tested and hardened by some of our experiences. Of Jesus the writer to the Hebrews said “In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.” And “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Hebrews 2: 10, 18).

So it is that Peter says, “Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”  Which isn’t exactly about a wilderness experience but I am sure you will see why I quote it here.

In the wonderful passage of Isaiah 43, we read:
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;”

That is not a promise that we shall avoid the rivers, or the fire, but a promise to be with us in those times of supreme difficulty. That promise is for us too. We shall have our difficulties but the Lord will be with us through them.
Thank you, Lord for all the good things you give me, but I do not follow you because of those good things but because you are Lord!

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