We Need A New Lens (to view other ministries)

This article came to me while I was running on the treadmill this morning and so now I sit and try to set out my thoughts accurately.

Let me first explain the recent events that coalesced to bring me to this present point and my present musing. This Wednesday night I taught at the fellowship as part of our monthly 'Ministry Training' series on 'How to Prepare a Bible Study'. I broke the study down into three parts. First there is a person who will be teaching and I spoke about preparing the teacher devotionally. Then I spoke about the text, the Bible, and how to interpret and study it. Finally, I closed with the hearers where I spoke about loving your audience enough to understand who they are, where they are at, and what the Lord wants to speak to them, specifically, from the text. In the corresponding question and answer time, the folks present seemed to want to discuss the third section at length. As this is happening, the day before was the inauguration of Barak Obama. I watched video clips on the internet and watched Rick Warren's invocation. As he closed the prayer with, 'In the name of Jesus (in Spanish), Yeshua, Issa, Jesus who saved my life...' I thought to myself, 'Oh the bloggers and critics are going to scream in horror' and surely they did. Then a friend of mine sent me a quote from Emperor Julian of the 4th century who stated (according to Amianus), "He found from experience that no wild beasts are as hostile to men as Christians are to each other." Yikes! Then there is the endless discussions about controversial pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. The recent New York Times article about him and his status as 'Mark the Cussing Pastor' from Blue Like Jazz keeps folks talking about him. The final piece was me on the treadmill this morning. I was listening to a message by John Stott and he was discussing the unique features of each of the four gospels. And then it hit me...

We need a new lens to view other ministries.

We live in a day and age where we love American Idol. People put themselves out there and there is a table of critics. In the end of the day, we all love Simon. He is rude, uncaring, and speaks his mind. But what is funny is that Simon isn't standing on stage trying, he is sitting down sporting about the people who are. The evangelical church has become like this. With the proliferation of the internet, anyone with a computer, a free blog site and an issue can spew their garbage for all to read. And there are always those, both for and against, who want to get in the fray as well. So much for the fruit of the Spirit being love, joy, peace... Thank God those who don't know Jesus couldn't care less about the mudslinging of Christians. But if they did, I'm sure it would simply reinforce their negative views.

So what am I talking about 'a new lens'. It's the lens of context. We need to begin to view others and the ministries they do within the context in which they do it. Mark Driscoll is a good case in point. He is bold and kind of brash. He comes off as slightly arrogant and witty. He is also unabashedly testosterone laden. Yet he is also an orthodox, 5 point Calvinist who believes in the historic Christian faith. So why all the fuss? Well because when folks in Southern California or Georgia or wherever hear him, they view him in their own context and not in his. Mark's mission field is Seattle. His target audience was younger, single, disenfranchised indy rockin kids. Mark grew up there and new the culture and sought the Lord as to how to reach that audience. And guess what? God is working through that ministry for His own renown. But guess what? Mark Driscoll wouldn't work here in the San Francisco Bay Area on the same scale (although I think Mark would be missional enough to adapt himself to this culture). But do you get that? Mark is one of God's chosen vessels to see Seattle won for His glory. But we have to understand him and his ministry in context.

Think of Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City. God has mightily used him in New York with his intellectual/philosophical style of teaching the Word. He is perfect for the single, upwardly mobile secular New York culture. But guess what? Tim Keller might not be as successful in Seattle as he is in New York. You see, each minister has been called by God to do the work of the ministry in a specific context and He has anointed them to communicate in that context and be useful.

Now we come to Rick Warren, the Purpose Driven Life author and pastor. God has called Rick to be, in my estimation, the next widely known evangelical (in some ways taking Billy Graham's place). He got to interview the candidates for this last election and was asked to lead the invocation. Rick's context is that of the entire nation at this point. No doubt, like the other men mentioned, he is seeking the Lord through prayer and the Scriptures, as to how to honor Him in the context that He has ordained. He is praying about the context he is in. Those of us at the self proclaimed judgment seat are not. So rather than come in with the whole prideful 'I wouldn't do it that way', why not view the minister in the context that God has called them to?

Before his own master a servant stands or falls.

Can you imagine if each gospel writer were a pastor in 2009? Could you imagine the blogs written about Mark (he barely quotes any Scripture - not Bible based) or John (he's too mystical/emergent with all the long discourses), or Matthew (to Jewish, trying to bring us back to another religion), etc? But the Spirit of God inspired four different men to communicate the absolutely unified message of the Jesus to four different contexts and the Gospels are each unique. All ordained by God. But when one of the contexts seeks to impose itself on another, then the backbiting, maligning, and division begin. God wanted a Gospel to the Jewish people (Matthew) and to Greeks (John) and to Romans (Mark). He wanted them to have diverse qualities and structures. In the same manner, He wants to have ministries of different styles and qualities. The Lord wants Mark Driscoll in Seattle and He wants Chuck Smith in Santa Ana. They are different because they are unique men and they are in unique contexts. But when you view them through that lens (their given contexts) you see that their goals are the same: to honor God and reach their respective communities.

On a final note, we have to realize that many of these problems are exacerbated by men who want to copy, stylistically, these men and try and press someone else's context unto their own. Pastor's who try and get all Driscoll on a bunch of middle aged, middle income folks in Illinois (It won't work). Or pastor's trying to do the Calvary hawaiian shirt, surfer dude thing in New York City. Again, it won't work. But it's easier to copy someone else's thing that seems to have worked then to do the work of the ministry and understand your own context.

Each minister needs to do the proper the cultural exegesis for the context that they have been given to minister in and they need to incarnate the message within that culture. That's what we are called to. The New Testament was written in this way. But when you take your context and expect everyone else to abide by your contextual paradigms, then you are solely guilty of world-view imperialism. This is not how it should be.

I am keenly aware of this because of my context. Here in Marin County less than 3% of the people go to church (which can also be split to 7% in Northern Marin and 1% here in Southern Marin). 45% of the Mill Valley population have advanced degrees and we are the richest county in the country. No church has really succeeded in this area. Yet all the of churches continually try the new big thing to reach the community. We keep pressing other contexts and hope that they will work here. But no other place in the nation is our context. So we have to understand our context in such a way as to have the ministry shaped to reach these people. Each ministry needs to view itself within it's own context.

So I want to exhort you all to something. Before you take up your keyboard to discuss if you like another man's ministry, why not take a moment and examine the context they are in. Why are they being used in their context? Is it possible to appreciate the work the Lord is doing, in a way that you wouldn't feel comfortable with, that God is doing not IN YOU but IN SOMEONE ELSE?

Let us put on the lens of context and let's let unity prevail.

Free free to comment with thoughts/ideas/lessons