Glocal Christianity

Called to be different

Here's my reflection for the day:

You can't make a difference

    to the world

If you're no different

    from the world

Gifting and Calling

I recently got into a discussion on Alan Hirsch's blog on gifting and ministry, particularly with reference to apostolic, prophetic and evangelistic gifts and their marginalization within contemporary Christianity, when I had this to say:  

I think there is a question of vested interests, amongst both laity and clergy to leave things as they are, and that it can lead to implicit and explicit repression of those gifts which most threaten the status quo. So there is a real challenge as to how we might bless the church with gifts it does not want or even think it needs. I think this is where it is important to have a firm sense of calling. Whether the church wants it or not, body diversity is what God calls us to. And this calling is not status specific, it matters not if we are laity or clergy, it only matters that we are God’s people.

This reminds me of a sermon I once heard from a visiting African preacher, on how to stay fired up without burning out. It was at a TEAR conference I think - many years ago. Anyway, he grounded his sermon in the story of the burning bush. Moses was puzzled. How could this bush stay fired up without burning out? Well, because God was fueling the flame, not the bush! This is partly what I am alluding to here. Where we ground our motivation is important. If it is not in God’s call, if instead it is in our own needs, ultimately we won’t last the distance. If we are going to last the distance, if we are going to be standing firm long after the status quo has collapsed, we need a deep awareness of what we are called to and who is doing the calling. And I am talking about all of us here, not just clergy.  

Called Together

Is the contemporary understanding of “calling” too individualistic?

In exploring the question, “How can you believe you’re a minister when the church keeps telling you your not?” Richard R Broholm advanced this conclusion:

“Unless we are prepared to suggest the calling of the religious professional is a higher calling than that of the laity … we must either be prepared to do away with the ordination of the clergy or move to provide for the ordination of all Christians to their ministries of service in the world.” ¹

What is your understanding of “calling”?

I experienced a call early on in my Christian walk. When I asked God what he would have me do the answer I got was "stay where you are". God was rather clear about it in fact.

¹ Peck, G. and Hoffman, J. 1984, The Laity in Ministry: The Whole People of God for the Whole World, Judson Press, Valley Forge, PA, 25

Types of Religious Practitioners

Given the response to my witchdoctor post and the sociological links Brad discerned between intercessors and shamans I thought a few of you might be interested in this graph I have adapted from "Understanding Folk Religions" by Paul Hiebert, et al.

Essentially it is a cross-cultural model of different religious leadership types.

They write, "... religious leaders can be placed along two continuums: their interaction (or lack thereof) with formal institutions, and the direction of their contact with spiritual power - either speaking on behalf of the people to spiritual powers, or on behalf of those powers to ordinary people ... the behaviour of these leaders varies greatly from one society to another, but the attributes set up by the grid are helpful in enabling the outsider, such as a missionary, to determine the basic nature of the practitioners they observe in particular contexts."

Now, the authors take pains to state the distinctions are not sharp ones, and that the same persons may function in several capacities in different contexts, but hopefully you get the idea.

Now, for some time I have wondered, what if we were to turn that around to look back at evangelical churches? If we did maybe we would find something like this.

Now, how does that fit with the APEST model? I am interested in hearing your thoughts on that. I have a sneaking suspicion that apostles belong with prophets and shepherds belong with teachers but I am still working my way through this and would love your input.

But a few explanatory comments first. To begin with, note the intercessor quadrant. I am thinking this is where healers go, as well as exorcists, deliverance ministers and spiritual warfare gurus. Note my previous posts highlighting how deliverance and prosperity ministries can sometimes descend into something approaching Christian shamanism. Note also my previous calls for more missional approaches to the demonic and the need for a missonal pneumatology that encompasses the unseen creation or "excluded middle". I truly believe this is a neglected area which the missional church in the west ignores to its detriment and where most holistic and humble thinking is required.

I also draw attention to the worship leader quadrant. Maybe I should have put worship curator instead, but again, hopefully you get the idea.  Note how this division between direct and indirect contact also correlates with distinctions I have drawn between crisis rites and intensification rites.

Anyway, plenty of food for thought there for you hopefully.

Are you a witch doctor?

Are you a witch doctor? I bumped into Mike Frost over dinner the other week when he raised this interesting question, but first let me explain, I get enough people reading my stuff out of context as it is.

I thought I’d have a wander down to the food hall at Morling College, where I am studying Christian counseling, before the start of the evening lectures. I wanted to catch up with Kalessin to talk shop and found him already there, in conversation with Mike Frost. In the course of the conversation the three of us eventually came round to issues of missional leadership and I shared some of the stuff I had been working through, in terms of me thinking through taking up leadership of the discipleship ministry at Pendle Hill Baptist Church next year, and my struggles with this given I prefer to work from the periphery, not the centre.

This was when Mike raised the interesting question. Apparently he’d been reading this missional book where it differentiated between two types of leaders, the tribal elders who lead from the centre, and the witch doctors who lead from the periphery. Sociologically this is not unlike the distinction between the priests and the prophets in Israel I expect. It instantly struck a chord with me as you might imagine. And I wonder how many missional leaders are the “witch doctors” of the wider Christian movement. The crazies who ask interesting questions that help the tribe to rethink their position in the world.

The question before me now is, how can the witch doctors and the tribal elders work closer together, given we both have the interests of the tribe at heart.

Discipling Ministry Thoughts

I think I am closer to resolving whether I take up discipling ministry locally, and I am leaning towards 'yes' at this point.

Since I wrote on "Social Identity and Effective leadership" I've been reading Larry Crabb's book "Soul Talk: The Language God Longs For Us To Speak" as research for my current Christian counseling assignment (finished last night - yay!). And as it turned out, some of the insights Crabb had about the difference between our seeking after the blessings of God and seeking God beyond all blessings paralleled some of my own background researches into how to articulate the differences between pantheistic, panentheistic, polytheistic and monotheistic meditation (Kay, you've got me thinking more than you realize!). My personal meditations were all centering in on radical dependance on God.

And in turn all that fed back into my indicisiveness about how to approach the local leadership question I've been wrestling with. In prayer I came to the realization that's its not about whether others can connect with me as leader, its about whether others can connect with God as leader, and whether I am an appropriate person to facilitate that process. Or whether I'll just get in the way.  I was reminded that how others connect with me, and how I connect with them, is truly a secondary concern. How they connect with God through the process is the primary concern. I was also reminded in many ways (thanks to a few people here, Sally included) that I am not the only alienated and marginalized person in this context. And I was reminded that pain is part of the journey towards real transformation. God will have to be sufficient for me; I need to deeply open myself to dependence on him. I confess I was not sufficiently surrendered here.

I have not said ‘yes’ for sure yet, but I’ve entered into the process of defining some mutually workable boundaries with the local leadership team. Well see where that takes us.

Spirituality at Work: Various Links

How many times have I heard missionaries and ministers say, "I wanted to work for the Lord full time so I quit work and entered ministry"?

It is so frustrating. Sometimes ministers have an inkling how disempowering this can be for everyday workers and qualify this with an afterthought, "Of course, everyone is in full time ministry." But by then it is too late, the damage is done.

This false dichotomy between our secular work and our sacred task needs to be confronted for what it is: poor theology. But unfortunately our leaders are often the last people we should expect theological astuteness to emerge from on this issue.

Fortunately some teaching is emerging so I’d like to draw attention to it here by posting a few links. At the same time I’d like to broaden our perspective of the context: Christians are way behind alternate spiritualities in bridging the divide. So here we go.

Non-Christian sites

• Spirituality at Work
• Spirit at Work
• The Spirited Workplace
• Workplace Spirituality
• Power Path Seminars
• Work as a Spiritual Practice
• Anthony Robbins
• Stacey DeMarco: Career Covens
• Meditation at Work
• Workbreak Meditation

Christian sites

• Faith at Work (NZ)
• A New Way to Work
• Faith in the Workplace
• Faith at Work Blog