Over the last few months I’ve seen an increasing number of advocates for a higher standard of education to be a requirement for those considering officership. The reasons given seem to be pretty much for worldly considerations, rather than from a truly ministry point of view. Therefore, it was interesting to see Stephen Court’s take on this over at his Armybarmy blog (see October 28th entry)!
I’m amazed, and in some ways frightened, by this growing insistence on seeing highly qualified officers as being the only way we can go. I look at the majority of the early day officers in the Army and ask how many of these would have made the standard of these advocates of education. I look at the men that Jesus chose as his disciples and again ask what criteria they would now need to meet.
I know of some Salvationists who put great store in the letters after people’s name! For them it seems that the only true indicator of leadership ability is what follows their name! The problem is that some of the best officers I know are uneducated in the world’s eyes and yet have personally led many people both to the Lord and to a deeper faith in Him.
This is not to say that education is wrong, but when the lack of it becomes a barrier to stopping passionate, God appointed men and women from following His will for their lives through officership, then I’m sure the enemy will be rubbing his hands in glee!
Reading today I found this quote:
Nothing is so likely permanently to stop soul-saving as the want of intense zeal on the part of our own people. How far are your soldiers’ meetings utilised for the development of the personal religion and fighting capacity of your people? Never mind the fewness of the numbers; if you can but get the few set on fire, the fire will attract others.
General Edward J Higgins
Being the leader of a corps with only a handful of people attending the meetings is not always easy. For starters the most obvious question is how the congregation has become so small. However, the important thing is not to focus on the negative, which can sometimes be all too easy, but instead it is essential to seek out the positive.
Today, I’ve started to see the glowing embers that are deep down inside some of the folk here. The real key now is to open a root to them for the Spirit to gently blow them back into life. Fewness doesn’t matter is those few are on fire!
On my way from WeightWatchers to the hall this morning I was listening to Rob Bell’s podcast from Mars Hill. Whilst I know that this is enough to get me ostracised in some circles, I felt that he had an interesting point in the sermon that I was listening to.
He says this:
‘I would argue that many … have been taught the Christian faith in terms of conquest and persuasion. By conquest, I would argue, that for many people the way they’ve been taught the Christian faith is, “You are right! Other people are wrong! Your job is to convince them of their wrongness and at the same time … convince them of your rightness.” I would argue that for others their fundamental paradigm is that of persuasion or proving. “You follow Jesus! Somebody else doesn’t! Therefore the nature of your relationship is proving to them the rightness and truth of your worldview, over and against the wrongness and error of their’s”‘
My mind was instantly taken back to a situation a few years ago with a good friend. He had been trying to reason his way into faith in Christ for many months and everyone around him was more than willing to debate with him and answer his questions, to which he would always come back with more. There came a point, over a drink in a pub one evening, when I simply turned round and said to him that he can ask all the questions he likes, but sooner or later he will come to a choice between taking a step of faith or not! Eventually he did take that step!
Rob Bell goes on to say that Jesus speaks of faith as ’satisfaction’. In the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, he offers her the water of life. Rather than an intellectual discussion that can end up antagonistic, Jesus says that true faith will satisfy the deep longing we all have in our lives. How do we find that method of evangelism today? How do we show to a generation that is clearly seeking for something of meaning in their lives, to a generation that is turned off ‘Church’ by the seeming arrogance or irrelevance of what it appears to stand for, that faith in our God will actually satisfy that longing they have?
Is it through reasoned, or sometimes unreasonable, debate and apologetics? Or is it in another way?
I’ve spent the last 3 days at Officers’ Councils here in the UK. It’s my first experience of the bi-annual trip up to Swanwick and I’ve got to say that I actually received a great deal out of it. I’m certain that this is because I went expecting to receive something and consequently did. It’s sparked quite a few ideas for some future posts so I’ll be working on those over the coming days.
The other great thing was the opportunity to catch up with people that I haven’t seen for the last 6 years some of whom were surprised to see me back in the country let alone at Councils. Finally it was also good to start to build new friendships with people from the Southern Division.
Not my normal sort of post but I’ve now been here in my new appointment for just over 6 weeks and as well as the new work I’ve started a whole new life style as well. For quite a long time I’ve been considerably overweight and have been starting to feel the strain, but have really simply been too lazy to do anything about it. With all the changes it has made it easier to start to do something about this!
So 4 weeks ago I joined WeightWatchers and now I walk everywhere when I am on my own! So far in the time I’ve been here I’ve lost a total of 8½ lbs (3.8kg to my non-imperial measurement friends). I am actually feeling the benefit of this already! Given today’s report on Obesity in the UK I’m at least doing my part!
A lot of the books that I’ve been reading over the last year or so seem to see that the Church has become a place where legalism is one of the biggest problems. It seems as if the authors feel that much of Christianity is forcing a Pharisaical view of our faith onto the people who attend. The expectation therefore is that the ‘faithful’ must therefore stick to a rigid set of rules that, while mimicking God’s Law, are man-made.
My problem with this is that it doesn’t really seem to describe the Church that I see here in the UK. Whilst it might describe a certain section of the more extreme wings of US evangelicalism, it doesn’t really reflect the situation here. The problem is though that many people may be blindly reading the books that are pushed by the publishing giants of the Christian world, forgetting that the industry is actually publishing for its largest market, the US, and therefore uses authors who speak best to the North American culture.
So who is speaking to the UK churches? Who is speaking to the tired out Christians who I’ve seen are living faithful lives but have lost their drive? Who is speaking to the apathetic church that simply doesn’t see the need to evangelise? Who is speaking to the ancient geriatric church that is too weak to do anything and to out of touch with post-modern Britain to attract new blood?
This morning the theme of the sermon was “Stir it up”. The idea came from the passage in 2 Timothy 1:6
where Paul says to Timothy that he should stir up, or fan into flame, the gift that was in him through the laying on of hands.
It is very easy for us, as Christians, to get into a routine sort of life that eventually leads us to a faith that grows stagnate. Ours is a faith that cannot stay still. The moment we lose momentum in our daily striving to be more like Christ, is the moment when we start to settle for something less than the fulness that we have in Christ.
As I was reading I realised one thing that really stood out for me in the text; Paul was telling Timothy that he should stir up the gift. That is the real issue here! We need to be prepared to stir up our own faith. It’s not enough for us to simply wait for someone else to fan the embers of our lost passion; we need to do it ourself. We need to find ways to regain our forward momentum in faith, instead of waiting for someone to give us a push. Only if we do this ourselves can we really hope to maintain our faith in the future.
This is something I’ve discovered over the last few weeks. I can no longer expect others to provide the inspiration for me to go forward in faith, I have to do it for myself. I have to have the passion to read the Bible, to study His word and find the depth in it. Yes I can use others to both inform my study and study with, but only if I choose to put my all into it, and to shake myself up, will I really learn anything and hear God’s voice. Only when the Holy Spirit is stirred into action in my heart and I relinquish control to the Spirit can I truly become more like Christ.
! That makes 11 1/2 in just over 5 weeks!
Latest Comments
Graeme, dace, Brian Rowe
Brian Rowe
Brian Rowe
Zoe
Dave Jones
Graeme, Ann Jones