| |
(page 3)
BEST MAN
There is one last image that is not commonly discussed in
the relationship between pastor and people: the "best
man". The bride is a familiar Old Testament figure
expressive of the people in their close relationship with
God (Is. 54:5; Hos. 2:18). In the New Testament this
image continues in the ministry of John the Baptizer as
seen in John 3:29: "The bride belongs to the
bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits
and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the
bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now
complete." The bridegroom is Jesus and the bride is
his Church, his people. The "friend" is the
"best man". The duty of the best man is to be
attentive to the instructions of the bridegroom in
service to the bride. The best man announced the
bridegroom's arrival. Using this figure of the best man,
the pastor's role is to announce i.e., to preach, the
arrival of the bridegroom, Jesus Christ, to his bride,
the Church. The best man brings the bride and groom
together. This is the role of pastor in relationship to
Jesus and his Church with the Means of Grace.
Jesus also uses this image of bridegroom and bride to
picture his relationship with his Church. In Matt. 9:15
he says: "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn
while he is with them? The time will come when the
bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will
fast".[14] In
the parable of the 10 virgins (Matt. 25:1-10) he also
uses the imagery of a bride and a groom and the friends.
Closely related to the image of the best man is a father
giving his daughter in marriage. There are indications
that Paul saw himself, if not in the image of a "best
man" like John the Baptizer, then as a father. In
his second letter to the Corinthians he writes: "I
am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you
to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as
a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve
was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may
somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion
to Christ" (11:2,3). The best known passage with
this theme is Ephesians 5: 24-27: "Now as the Church
submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their
husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just
as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her to
make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water
through the Word, and to present her to himself as a
radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other
blemish, but holy and blameless".
This imagery suggests that the pastor's relationship with
the Church is that of taking care of the bride of Christ
until the wedding is "consummated" at the
return of Christ. The bride (the Church) is precious to
the bestman (the pastor) because she belongs to his
friend (Jesus) as Jesus told the disciples: "I no
longer call you servants, because a servant does not know
his master's business. Instead, I have called you
friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I
have made known to you" (John 15:15).
CONCLUSIONS TO PART I (TEAM / RELATIONSHIPS)
What can we learn from the images that have been
presented to us from Scripture?
1) Because this relationship is given by Jesus Christ it
is precious and important. It is Christ himself who makes
the pastor and the people a "team". The
Biblical imagery is "one Body", the Body of
Christ.
2) Outside of marriage and the family this relationship
is one of the most meaningful and caring. Indeed, we have
seen that marriage and family are images for the
relationship between the Lord and his people. The pastor
is the servant to both the Lord and the Lord's people.
His primary service to the Lord automatically and
naturally involves service to the Lord's People.
3) In this relationship the pastor is responsible for the
proper care of the people, what is best for their
welfare, according to the Lord. The pastor will set the
tone in this relationship. He will take the initiative in
the relationship and in leadership. He nourishes and
defends from enemies.
4) The pastor will be accountable to the Lord in how he
has carried out his responsibilities.
5) This relationship implies hard work and sacrifice on
the part of the pastor, just as husband does for his wife
and Christ for the Church (Eph. 5). In other words, such
hard work and dedication is the result of love. "We
love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19).
I have spent a considerable amount of time on the
relationship between pastor and the people. We know how
important relationships are in a family and how the
family is harmed when these relationships are taken for
granted or are dysfunctional. The Church is also a
family, the family of God. A team consists of various
relationships. Those relationships will either help or
hinder a team's goals. We mentioned how the Seattle
Sonics basketball team was negatively affected by the
controversy surrounding one of their stars, Shawn Kemp.
To a lesser extent the Mariners were affected with the
controversies surrounding Randy Johnson and Ken Griffey,
Jr. Such stories could be multiplied from the sports
world. Yet, this is also true with the Body of Christ,
his Church. The ministry given to the Church will either
be helped or hindered by the relationship between the
pastor and the people. The pastor's relationship with the
people begins with his attitude. How does the pastor view
the people in the congregation? Are they seen as equals?
Are they seen as precious because they belong to Christ?
Are they loved? There is a temptation to see the people
as inferior in terms of knowledge, status and
performance, and to develop negative attitudes. The
people can be seen as enemies or at least opponents or
antagonists. We call them "alligators". Or
perhaps the pastor develops a professional attitude that
puts job performance over the relationship. A pastor
might become like a workaholic husband/father who ignores
his family relationships for the "busy work"
that has nothing to do with his job--or to escape his
relationship responsibilities. This might work for a
doctor or a lawyer, but it usually hurts the relationship
between the pastor and the people. Strife, jealousy, and
pride all lead to injury to the "team", the
Body of Christ as well as the ministry itself. Paul knew
the pain of strained relationships with God's people. He
writes to the Corinthians: "For I wrote you out of
great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears,
not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my
love for you.... We have spoken freely to you,
Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are
not withholding our affection from you, but you are
withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange--I speak as
to my children--open wide your hearts also" (2 Cor.
2:4; 6:11-13).
"Team ministry" begins with healthy
relationships on the team as Paul writes in Galatians,
chapter five: "You, my brothers, were called to be
free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful
nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law
is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as
yourself.' If you keep on biting and devouring each
other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other"
(vv 14, 15). In his article on "Shared Ministry"
Joseph Wagner writes: "Perhaps the most elusive of
all the requirements for shared ministry are trust and
openness. Without them shared ministry is impossible"[15].
Thus, the pastor cannot be content with a "goods and
services" mentally, but he serves in the context of
a relationship established by the Lord himself, a
relationship characterized by mutual love and trust.
Having emphasized the "team" aspect of team
ministry we can now turn to the "ministry" of
the team.
II. MINISTRY = WHAT WE DO [16]
When we talk about sports teams it is easy to determine
what motives them, what drives them. It is the desire to
win. To win games. To win championships. Everything else
is secondary to winning. Everything serves the purpose of
winning. Individual records, fun, all-star games--these
are all secondary to winning. This became clear in
Seattle with the Mariners' baseball team. Ken Griffey Jr.
was the franchise player of the Mariners. He has won all
kinds of individual honors including being considered the
best all around player in baseball. But about three years
ago he publicly confessed that all the individual records
and accolades could not make up for being on a winning
team and winning a championship. Team ownership got the
message. If they wanted to keep Griffey in Seattle they
would have to commit themselves to put a winning team in
Seattle. Despite all the efforts to keep Griffey, he left
and now the Mariners face the same issue with Alex
Rodriguez
What is it that drives the Body of Christ, the Church?
The ultimate answer, of course, is the Holy Spirit. But
what does this mean in practice? As we contemplate this
question we must make the distinction between simply an
answer that is correct in the abstract from an answer
that is practical and concrete. In other words, someone
might give the right answer but have no passion, no zeal
for it. As they say, "talk is cheap." In his
first letter to the Corinthians Paul expressed what drove
his ministry: "Yet when I preach the gospel, I
cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if
I do not preach the gospel! " (9:16). This motive is
not external, but internal. It is not imposed (law) but
is done willingly (gospel). Can a pastor have any
different motive? Can the people have any other motive?
It is this motive that drives the ministry even in the
midst of problems and heartaches. One of my favorite
passages on this is from the prophet Jeremiah who says:
"But if I say, 'I will not mention him or speak any
more in his name,' his word is in my heart like a fire, a
fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot" (20:9). The pastor teaches the
people the same truth in word and deed as Paul says to
Timothy: "Don't let anyone look down on you because
you are young, but set an example for the believers in
speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity" (1
Timothy 4:12).
This drive, this motivation has been established by
Christ himself in the Great Commission: "Therefore
go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the
very end of the age" (Matthew 28: 19,20). As we have
already seen, the priesthood shares in this
responsibility to bring the gospel to others and every
opportunity is to be used by the priesthood as Peter
reminds us: "But in your hearts set apart Christ as
Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone
who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you
have. But do this with gentleness and respect...."(1
Peter 3:15). Paul gave the same instruction to the
Colossians: "Be wise in the way you act toward
outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your
conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt,
so that you may know how to answer everyone" (4:5,6).
The driving force of the pastor and the people is to make
disciples of all people. This goal has two basic, closely
related, parts. The first part of this goal is to make
new disciples i.e., that people become disciples through
faith in Jesus Christ and Baptism. The passages just
mentioned above establishes the goal of bringing the
gospel to others that they might believe and become
disciples. The second part of disciple making is that
disciples grow in their relationship to Christ and become
mature disciples. There are numerous passages that say
these things. In a beautiful passage from his second
letter Peter says: "But grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (3:18).
James says: "Perseverance must finish its work so
that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything"
(1:4). The author of Hebrews pleads: "Therefore let
us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on
to maturity...."(6:1). Such discipleship will
involve all that can be said about life with God: "Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and all your mind...love your neighbor as yourself"
(Matt. 22:38,39). It seems that everything we can say
about the purpose of Christ's Body, the Church is
included in making disciples. That this is the function
of the entire congregation, the pastor and the people,
seems clear from Paul's letter to the Philippians: "Whatever
happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the
gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or
only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you
stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the
faith of the gospel" (1:27).
Since the pastor and the people are in ministry together
certain questions must be asked. Do the pastor and the
people share a common vision of ministry? Are too many
assumptions made without clear communications? Again
Joseph Wagner writes: "Shared vision becomes
intriguingly complex when we seek to analyze and
understand the points of view of both congregation [read
"people"!] and pastor. Unless the pastor and
the people share an understanding about the fundamental
commitments and general focus of the congregation's life,
there will be little sense of congregational direction.
Congregational life will feel like a series of short-term,
repeating cycles without a sense of long-term purpose or
progress."[17] It is the pastor's responsibility to
communicate the vision and the ministry in dialogue with
the people of the congregation. This dialogue must be on
going as the vision is repeated and re-enforced with the
people and especially the leaders. This is often very
difficult for a variety of reasons. Perhaps some pastors
are not aware of this dialogue at all. If they are aware
of it they might assume that it need not be repeated or
re-enforced on a regular basis. For those pastors who do
know and accept this need, they still face the challenge
of making the concerted and repeated effort to
communicate the vision of ministry. This process may also
include evaluating the ministry and making the necessary
adjustments to better carry out the ministry given to us
by Christ. But Christ has not only given us our purpose,
our motive, our drive; he has also given us the means to
carry out our ministry as a "team". We now turn
to a discussion of a Word and Sacrament ministry.
_____________
14. Parallel accounts
in Mark 2:18-22; Luke 5:33-39.
15. Growth in Ministry, Ed, Thomas E. Kadel (Fortress
Press: Philadelphia, 1980), 39.
16. A better choice of words might be "what God does
through us". But in this section we are focusing on
the visible activity of God's people, his church.
17. Growth in Ministry, 36, 37.
on to page 4
|