On Philippians 1 in Brevity

Paul, to the Church in Philipi while in prison:

"I don't expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn't shut me up; they gave me a pulpit! Alive, I'm Christ's messenger; dead, I'm his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can't lose."  ~ MSG

 Death is Gain

It is odd in our hyper-secular culture to think of death as a gain. After all, it seems modernity has brought about nearly every conceivable way to avoid death. Even as Christians here in the U.S. it is easy to simply assume the worldview of our culture and see death as the ultimate sacrifice...as if it were something that only a few could embrace and those few are to be thought of as supreme for some reason.

Here in the midst of Memorial Day weekend, many are gearing up to mourn again those that have lost their lives in battle and so they should. Scripture speaks to us that the greatest love is to lay down our lives for another... but even in such a sacrifice, a Christian should know that there is no loss in death.

In fact, it is death - our baptism into the crucifixion of Christ - that brings about our true life: our resurrection after the Messiah. Paul writes well when he juxtaposes these two states of existence. Death, he says, is gain because in death, we are Christ's prize, his bounty and we gain unity with him eternally. Death may hurt those who we leave, but it is not to be feared or avoided; it is natural and thus set right again by Christ's resurrection as it was intended to be from the very beginning of time.

To Live is Christ

 The more vital piece of Paul's attitude toward his ministry is this portion: while living, we are to be the arbiters of the Kingdom of God. Consistently, Jesus points his followers back to this mission and back to the focus of the Kingdom. When asked about the end of days, he reminds them that now is the time to act; now is where their focus should be.

So too should we contemporary Christians be focused on the now. There is truly no shortage of Kingdom-bringing for us to accomplish here in our world. I only want to encourage those that do work towards this Kingdom reality that there is life in your work. This life - this Christ-life that we participate in - is manifest in small ways, in daily ways and it is always followed by peace in the soul. We were built to be a part of Christ's Kingdom and so there is a settling in us when we act in accord to our intended nature.

Go Forward

So, in light of these wise words from our older brother, Paul, let us go forward in our week remembering that this is the attitude to have towards our individual ministries. And what is your ministry? It is your life; your day-to-day interactions, your example and spiritual foot-print that you leave behind. Go and face this ministry with the fact in mind that when we die, it is all to our benefit because we will be with Christ. More immediately important, though, we are to live as Christ's. Reflect on how you're doing with this; is this your attitude? Do you fear death? Are you living as Paul did, with the mission of Christ's message as your motivator?

peace,

C.M.

Killing the Gospel Message

I have been a part of America's Christian subculture for my entire life. Honestly, I am grateful to say that. That being said, there is one thing that has recently been in my mind and I'd like to share it with you. Just to keep this post honest, I will be up front with you, my reader, this is a charge against Evangelicalism as it has come to be represented today. My charge is this: in Evangelical Christianity - which represents a large portion of the Christian presence in the world - we have become increasingly concerned with the spreading of the Gospel message; in fact this term "Gospel message" is often used (or its derivatives, message of the Gospel, message of Jesus Christ, etc.) with little explanation or correct context. Furthermore, I would simply like to conclude that

The Gospel is not a message but a story

It's pretty common knowledge in Christian circles that the word "gospel" translates fairly accurately to "good news" and while a "good news message" makes sense in our linguistics and "good news story" seems a bit odd, if we understand what the content of that good news is, then the latter becomes the more desirable understanding.

You see, a message is static; it's unchanging and non-evolving.  While there is great theological grounds for arguing the immutability of God (though I don't personally believe this is so), we ought to be careful to not project that quality onto the events of the incarnation. The good news is that God came to show us how to be human and reestablish the connection between Creation and Creator; this is really good news and this is not a static idea. A message is given once and does not change after it is given. You can rephrase a message, you can twist a message and you can import your own meaning into a message, but a message is what it is regardless of the interpretation.

By contrast, a story is inherently evolving; it is full of life and energy with surprises and struggles, conflict and resolution. There is an outcome in a story and there is a core theme that guides the story, but there are also developments and the introduction and exit of characters. Sounds a bit more like life, doesn't it?

The Gospel is not the sum of the events in the first century 

Instead, the Gospel is the good news that our Creator longs for us to be right with him again and so the greatest lengths were not too far to go. The events of the incarnation are a testament to the reality that God loves creation. 

It seems to me that throughout human history, God had consistently tried to bring this Gospel to humanity by directly speaking to humans. We see it with Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David and so on and so forth, but each time, humans took the story of God's love which is inherently full of life and turned it into a stagnate message in the form of laws. Let us not do the same. For Evangelicalism, the charge is turning the story into a message for our own ego gratification. We need to know that we're right, we need to know that I'm going to be on the ark while the rest of the world drowns, that I have my golden ticket into heaven. But this kills the spirit of the story of love - the Gospel that Christ brought to us. So, God decided to adopt a different tactic; he came himself in a way that was not so obvious to hand deliver, so to speak, this story of love. The author stepped into the story and flipped the world of the characters on its head.
The most beautiful truth is this:

We are a part of the story

Humanity hasn't gone extinct. Christ has not returned yet. The story is not over.

When we shape our work in ministry and Christian living around portraying a message, it becomes like trying to ask your wife to buy a new guitar (personal experience here people) without making it sound like you're just being kind of selfish with the family money. If, however, your concept of being a representative of Christ is shaped around a story, your interactions with everyone become more about telling them about your childhood, about a road trip you took once or about good memories with friends.

The Gospel is our responsibility as Christians; the story of love that God told us with his own mouth is ours to retell. Kill the message of the gospel so that the story of the Gospel can live.

Peace,
C.M.

Are You in Ministry?

"I'm going to go into ministry..."

This is what I told my dad when I made the dramatic degree change from biology to philosophy and religious studies. I was surprised when his reaction wasn't excitement and it was difficult to hear his council that "not everyone needs to study that to be in ministry." What did he mean? My older brother was a youth pastor, so I thought that this news was going to be better received. His wisdom and experience, however, allowed him to see my zealous naivety. This side of a Bachelor's and most of my Master's degree, I see now what he meant.

One of the major distinctive beliefs of German reformer, Martin Luther's theology was what has been termed as the "priesthood of all believers". In a way, this is what my dad meant; that is, ministry is not a profession but a vocation. What? Are those not the same thing?

No, a career is not necessarily a vocation.

A career is what one does with the time that they have in devotion to an end (be it provision for family or passion for the career). Career's are essential to being a productive human and can be the same as a vocation, but the differences are real. A vocation, when properly understood, is a calling. In fact, the word "vocation" is based on the Latin root-word voca which means "to call". This is a much more profound concept than simply a career. So what does it mean to be called?

I find it most helpful to understand a calling as merely that "thing" that you cannot help but feel inclined to do. A calling is not a logical choice in which you see the kind of life that a specific career leads to and decide "I'll do that because of the pay out". Instead, a call is that deep seated, gut knowing that "I must do this with my life if I want to live any kind of full life." As such, a calling can be a job or it could be a hobby; either way, it is seemingly unavoidable and usually pleasurable.

So...
going back to the question which titles this post, there is a certain sense in which one can be called to ministry. I would caution, however, from confusing this with the calling of all believers or Luther's "priesthood". I would equate a calling to formal ministry as analogous to a calling to work with mentally handicapped or troubled teens; specifically, it is not in everyone's capacity to possess the skills or to learn the skills to serve these specific cases with passion, day in and day out. Similarly, though all are called to be a witness to the light of Christ, not all are called or gifted with the ability to serve and lead in a formal capacity. This is important for believers who, in their passion for their faith, run out and make big decisions which disappoint in the end. I fear too many leaders are in positions in which they are not equipped and the modern expectations of  many pastors often do not match that pastor's gifting; this exponentially compounds the problem.

So, is there anything wrong with having "just a career"? No, as long as you are passionate enough to do it well; everyone needs to be productive with excellence and this glorifies God in and of itself. I would also say that a person could have more than one voca or callings. In all of this, the important thing is to self-reflect and decide for yourself what you are meant to do with your natural gifting and passions.


So, are you in ministry?

Yes, you are... and maybe no...but mostly yes. :)

peace,
C.M.