Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
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"What did I ever do to You to deserve this?...Why tell
me to carry them around like a nanny?
It's too much...If this is how You intend to treat me, do me
a favor and kill me right now.
I've seen enough. I've had enough. Let me out of
here."
Moses
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Early one crisp
spring Sunday morning on Cherry Street in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a
pastor and I were milling around in the sanctuary when a florist came in
with flowers and asked, "How do you want these arranged?"
Hardly concealing
a smile about to erupt in laughter, Stimp asked, "Well, bishop,
whaaaaaddddaaaaaya think?"
Without missing
his beat, I replied in kind, "Not sure, brother, 'cause I'm trying to
recall what we studied about that in seminary."
He lost it.
The florist
didn't..and, staying focused, repeated, "So how do you want these
arranged?"
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Modern ministry
commences with a major misconception fed by seminaries - that anyone really
cares about those courses on CPE, exegesis, ecclesiology,
eschatology, evangelism, hermeneutics, homiletics,
traditio-historical-ideological irrelevancies usually rarely incidentally
related to Holy Scripture, missiology, pastoral psychotherapy, polity,
Biblical languages, rhetoric, soteriology, and...
Nope.
Modern ministry
is more about babysitting than discipling; or as Dylan warned
about religious-not-relational "Christians" expecting
"an errand boy for their wandering desires."
Most clergy spend
about seven or more years learning to disciple (nurturing Biblically
Christocentric faith) after conversion (accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior).
But like
sentences ending in prepositions, entry level pastors soon discover survival
often depends more upon agreeing with the last person that they've talked to.
I remember a
pastor about my age right now saying to me not long after it started officially on
May 8, 1977, "You'll often have to decide whether you're going to be a
good humor man and tell people what they want to hear or faithful enough to
tell them what they need to know."
Buechner put it
this way, "A prophet's quarrel with the world is deep-down a lover's
quarrel. If they didn't love the world, they probably wouldn't bother to
tell it that it's going to hell. They'd just let it go."
Are you willing
to salt to save; or do you prefer salving to survive?
What's more
important to you?
Being liked on their terms or loving on
His terms?
Are you an existentialist
or eternalist?
Really, every
pastor - I prefer saying undershepherd
to the Good Shepherd - makes that decision eventually
with the inevitable consequences: "If any man would come after
Me, let him..."
I don't like to
admit it...buuuuuuut
the more I scratch
the surface of the Bible to find out what
it's/He's all about and what we're supposed to be all about upon getting what
it's/He's all about, the more I get being an undershepherd
comes with a lotta expectations from
Him about not toning down or watering down to get along with anyone
who doesn't wanna be totally committed to Him in praise and thanks for who He
is and what He's done for us.
Or something like
that.
I guess Billy was
right.
The big decision
is followed by many smaller decisions that will or, uh, will not confirm if
we've really made the big decision.
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Getting back to
Moses and the nanny church, God said, "Bring Me 70 elders who are
known as leaders to you...I will take of the Spirit that is on you and put the
Spirit on them. They will help you carry the burden of the people so that
you will not have to carry it alone."
That's a good
preface to the expanded revelations of interdependent ministry dependant upon
God's calling/gifting in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and...
That's His way of
doing church.
Simply, identify
gifts and unleash 'em!
Nanny churches -
pseudo-churches in
which "Pastor ___" controls/does, uh, everything - build unhealthy
dependencies from God to themselves, enable idolatries to themselves that
distract from the attention/affection/allegiance due God alone, and inhibit
true evangelism setting the stage for the discipling that multiplies the undershepherds needed to
increase the Kingdom "on earth as it is in heaven."
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Let me put it
another way.
We've identified
and unleashed several elders/leaders who can lead worship and provide undershepherding care so
that our family of faith on the corner of Lincoln and Main in Belvidere,
Illinois is increasingly interdependent in dependence upon Him not, uh, me or
anyone other than Him through His.
Aside from
allowing me to exercise my Beruf/charismata
as undershepherd
that includes - in addition to my primary call to FPC to be the
guiding-gatekeeping undershepherd
- being a friend to pastors, fulfilling ordination promises to my judicatories,
and taking missionary trips to evangelize/disciple/whatever, it allows time for
my continuing intimacy with Him that increases the efficacy of my Beruf/charismata as...
Anyway, I was away this past Sunday;
and, later in the evening, my youngest son poked, "Well, dad, if you keep
letting other people lead worship for you and stuff like that, maybe they won't
need you anymore."
I replied,
"Good!"
While I'm
beginning to get my role as noted in the second and third sentence-paragraphs
of this section juxtaposed to Matthew 10, John 10, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12,
Ephesians 4, and..., I know my role is integral yet not indispensable.
JB set the
standard for undershepherds:
"He must become greater. I must become less."
That includes identifying and
unleashing gifts in an interdependent-upon-each-other-dependant-upon-Him kinda
way.
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Let me put in
another way.
A little card was
taped near our church's mailboxes for staff and officers: "It's not about
you! It's about Him!"
Psst.
I put it there.
I need to be
reminded.
I suspect I am
not alone.
Truly, I/we am/are not alone.
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Blessings and Love!
6 comments:
I tell my people, sometimes, that seminary was where I learned how to be first in line at potlucks.
You wrote: "Modern ministry commences with a major misconception fed by seminaries - that anyone really cares about those courses on CPE, exegesis, ecclesiology, eschatology, evangelism, hermeneutics, homiletics, traditio-historical-ideological irrelevancies usually rarely incidentally related to Holy Scripture, missiology, pastoral psychotherapy, polity, Biblical languages, rhetoric, soteriology, and..."
And I wonder how you communicate to a world that never sees you outside the Christian gulag? Did the local TV stations ask a pastor to comment on the Boston bombing? Why not? Did the local newspaper get a statement from you about it? How did the congregation respond to the awful events ... and how did you communicate to the stricken community that a place to contextualize good and evil exists at your church?
Selfishly, I would add a class in seminary called "Modern Communication" which teaches God-Guy-Wannabes about the in-and-out of media communications. We are no longer small villages populated by donkeys and Roman Legions. The importance of web presence, email, Facebook, Twitter feeds, personal relationships with media personalities, establishing a Christians in Media group, etc ... those are the tactical tools. But, making the mission of the church visible in meaningful, valuable, and frequent ways within the mass media stream is a strategic outcome I rarely see implemented by most church ministries.
Surely, Jesus met them where they were ... How does the modern church do the same thing? Who are they? Where are they? How do we encounter them?
Maybe I should pitch Westminster Seminary for an adjunct professorship ...
DG,
Extraordinarily well said, brother!
AMEN!!! It's the BODY - not a one-man show! We're getting there friend!
The church's mission. Hmm.
The Great Commission: "Go, and make ninnies..."
The nanny church makes, well, ninnies. His Church makes disciples. Funny (How come He isn't laughing?)how many aspire to be nothing more than ninnies after being called to follow Him and become cross-bearing disciples.
Dennis,
My wife wants to hang a sign on me: "Do Not Feed the Animal!"
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