On Discipleship, Ministry Leaders, & Critical Dialogue
You never know what that Facebook message from a congregant is going to say. As a pastor, people seek you on their way to finding or resisting rest in King Jesus. They seek rest in a deeply chaotic and broken world. They seek to be heard and find healing from sin and chaos. Often, I receive messages for more practical, informational reasons. But I often open the message anxiously to see if it’s another fire to extinguish or a critical analysis of something I did or neglected. To my surprise occasionally, it is a message of encouragement and refreshment.
This provokes consideration concerning what I want to communicate to those whom I serve, especially about who I am and what is important in relation to those whom I serve. There does not appear to be a comprehensive way to articulate a complete response, since I am everchanging and the vantage points to answering are many. Below are three commitments that I regard as important for those whom I serve to know.
I am committed to intimate, relational discipleship. I believe that deep, sacrificial discipleship is a fundamental task for God’s people. The discipleship paradigm given by the earliest Christians following Jesus’ model is death before resurrection. Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:34b-35). The apostle Paul says it this way: “For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you” (2 Corinthians 4:11-12). The Apostle Paul challenges the elders at Ephesus to sacrificially give themselves to the flock of God, because Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:17-38). Giving of ourselves to the needs of others is what the gospel commands from us (Philippians 2:4ff) and takes various forms in various contexts.
Discipleship happens in a variety of contexts, formally and informally.[1] I find sometimes that the most memorable and impactful discipleship happens at unexpecting times, in unexpecting places. Other times, the most memorable and impactful discipleship happens in expected times, in expected places. Discipleship is bigger than a time or a place. Discipleship is more than an event. Discipleship is a way of life. It happens anytime God’s people intentional or unintentional gather and live under the reign of Jesus.
Jesus modeled discipleship in this way: as he went. Jesus understood his mission and discipled on the way. Jesus’ discipleship was not static. Although people came to Jesus, he continued on his mission. In fact, there was a group of disciples that followed Jesus as he traveled and with whom he invested in more deeply, more intimately than the crowds that sought him. Jesus was found in the Gospels teaching others on the way or discipling while feasting with a group. Jesus took opportunity both in the synagogue and beyond to bring life to those who approached him in every given context. As a Spirit-empowered people, there is no difference how we disciple. Like Jesus, we disciple on the go. We bring people alongside us as we go-about doing life under the reign of Jesus, extending grace and thanksgiving to all who come.
Discipleship that is self-sacrificial and leads toward intimacy with one another and with the Father. It is easy for me to assent to the self-sacrificial nature of discipleship, because I know and rehearse the gospel often. But intellectual assent sometimes isn’t aligned with the heart. I know that to follow Jesus is to take up my cross and follow. I know the benefits of obedient sacrifice, but my heart rebels. The self-sacrificial nature of discipleship is rooted in Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives: Not what I will, but what you will (Mark 14:36). Our will for what is to come and what sacrifices are to be made for another to experience life in the Father is not always the will of the Father. We sacrifice desires, attitudes, and actions as we come alongside another on our journey to the New Eden, caring for and challenging one another in the faith as we are renewed day by day into the image of King Jesus by the power of his Spirit. Jesus agonized over what he took up: sacrificing himself so that you and I could be together in right relationship with the Father. While you and I are not appeasing the wrath of God for sins on behalf of humanity as Jesus did through his suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of the Father, we are divine partakers and emissaries of that good news on earth. The good news resides in us because the Spirit of Christ resides in us. As a result, we ourselves can rejoice in our sufferings for the sake of others and confess that in our flesh we are filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church (Colossians 1:24). And in the end, the Spirit of the Father gives life.
I am forever grateful for the men and women who vulnerably invested in my life and sacrificially embodied Jesus to me. These seasons have been good and refreshing to my soul and have deeply formed who I am, because they were willing to live out their faith vulnerably and sacrificially with me. My father’s theological acumen and rigorous pragmatics shaped my view of the relationship between theology and practice, my mentor’s generosity and desire to know God’s Word, my youth pastor’s weekly one-on-one discipleship, my mother’s quiet outworking of prayer and caretaking, my grandfather’s and generosity, my mentor’s wife’s hospitality and steadfastness, my New Testament’s professor’s careful exposition of Scripture and love for Christ’s kingdom, my evangelism professor’s love for the poor and homeless, my theology professor’s constant challenge to be shaped by theological belief, my father’s childhood friend’s mission endeavors, and I could go on have all influenced my intellectual, spiritual, and emotional formation. All this influence began because someone sacrificially cared. In many cases, it began with the question “How are you?” or “Will you come along with me?” Relationships formed and the Spirit worked within me. Discipleship begins with “follow me” (Mark 8:34) and “be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).
I am committed to ministry leaders. Though it may sound cliché, Jesus had his twelve. I have mine. No, it’s not a literal twelve; although, it could easily be. Investing in a few is committing to the multitude. I do not merely pour myself into these few others so that they may lead and serve well, but so that the few may pour into their few so that their few may lead and serve well. I do not necessarily mean that everyone is a leader, but those who are submitted to the Messiah are able to serve Christ’s kingdom according to Spirit-enabled gifting.
God’s design for the people of God covenanted in local communities is to serve one another and the kingdom of Christ through the gifts his Spirit has given. Investing in ministry leaders (and the congregation at-large) provides opportunity to equip people for the work of ministry which the Father has called them to do for the Christ. But let’s face reality. Many people do not know where they belong in the kingdom of Christ. They know that they love Jesus and desire to be like him, but their identity in Christ and place in Christ’s kingdom has not been foraged with clarity. Yet this is a necessity for the body of Christ to strive side by side for the faith of the gospel in harmony (Philippians 1:27). Thus, the worth of discipling ministry leaders: leaders shepherding the people of God intentionally and healthily into communion with the Father by the Spirit’s power.
Discipling ministry leaders is difficult but necessary work. Discipling ministry leaders requires devoting yourself to them and their plight all the while releasing and empowering disciples to do the same. This is no easy task, rather self-sacrificial and risky. Jesus invested into and sent out his disciples who throughout his ministry doubted and betrayed him. Nevertheless, Jesus invested. Jesus continued with the disciples though they routinely doubted. Jesus knew he would betray by a disciple yet did not remove those disciples from his presence. Rather, Jesus invested, empowered, and released those disciples to participate in the mission of the kingdom of God. As a pastor shepherding the people of God, I have that same aim: investing, empowering, and releasing those disciples to participate in the mission of the kingdom of God.
I am committed to critical, transparent dialogue. One scene from a short play by Will Eno reverberates in my mind often. The coach is in his end of season press conference. It’s him and the press. The spotlight is on him, his coaching abilities, and his team’s losing season. The Coach laments,
You’re probably thinking: Could someone in this condition ever get it together and grab it with both hands and win us a championship, given the fact he’s halfway-gone in distraction…Could someone like this ever show us how not to lose? Well, I’ll tell you, because I came here to tell you a few things. I came here to feel the burn from your flash bulbs, and to speak a few things into that harsh light, my heart included. And the answer is I don’t know. I don’t know if I can lead anyone to victory, or even lead anyone anywhere. I don’t know if my plan is a good one, or even if I have a good one.[2]
Leadership is difficult, and solutions are not always evident. After an uncomfortable loss, NHL Columbus Blue Jackets’ coach, John Tortorella, walked out of his presser after reporters continued to drill him with game breakdown questions during postgame press conference after a 4 -1 loss over the Washington Capitals in the first round of the NHL playoffs. [3]
It is easy as a leader to shut out criticism and critical dialogue. Criticism without encouragement wears down leaders and becomes exhausting. Leaders can’t avoid criticism. Even if the critic is not the same day after day, there will be a critic. Some will intend harm; others intend good. Nevertheless, criticism requires leaders to swallow pride. In my experience, criticism is easier than encouragement. You don’t have to look far for criticism. Something will stick out. However, finding encouragement sometimes takes work, especially if you can’t immediately see outstanding attributes of a given situation. I have found in my experience criticism often comes without a full picture of the given situation or a difference in expectations. Yet, I do not think this invalidates a given criticism nor the one who critics. Criticism allows the leader to see blind spots in his leadership and organization. Blind spots are inevitable, but not all criticism is equally received.
The underlying theological framework for critical, transparent dialogue in the local church begins with the identity of the congregation as a people under the reign of Christ as the people of God and of the Father’s family (Hebrews 2:10-11; 1 Peter 2:9-10). In this way we function, live, and decision-make: with our status together as fellow heirs of the kingdom, even amid a crooked world. In other words, we are eternally family. Thus, we fight and forgive one another faithfully. We disagree with compassion, bearing with one another in love (Colossians 3:12-17). We speak truth to each other in love (Ephesians 4:15). We are honest with one another. We are transparent about where we are, but we seek one another with the love of the Foremost Brother, King Jesus. We disagree but with patience seek unity in Jesus. We do all of this because the love of Christ controls us as brothers and sisters in Christ. We have hard, difficult conversations because the Father in his kindness spoke Truth to us when we were rebellious. Our brotherhood and sisterhood in Christ are evidenced by how we care for one another in critical, transparent dialogue.
A voiceless congregation is not useful for me as a pastor nor healthy for a congregation. The ministry of which I am a shepherd is not mine, but the Spirit-empowered church’s ministry; chiefly, it is Christ’s ministry, who is the Chief Shepherd. As a shepherd of the household of God, my responsibility is not to dictate oppressively what God’s people are to think and do. I appreciate a congregation that can think and do for themselves what God has called them to think and do. Sometimes this opens us up to diverse and opposing ways to achieve a given goal; yet is this not one reason God gave us reason and authority? Reason to think, and pastoral authority to serve and lead God’s people (see Acts 20:17-38).
Concluding Thoughts. The church is Christ’s congregation, in whom the Spirit is (re)shaping for the good pleasures of the Father in this present evil world. The church is an outpost and an embassy for Christ in the mist of broken world. This brokenness seeps, sometimes surging, into the life of the church as we live in the already-not-yet reality of the reign of Christ, eagerly awaiting his return. Yet we are commanded to love one another as Christ loved us; thus, the reason why we must be ready to love each other deeply, exposing our weaknesses and challenging one another to walk in Jesus’ marvelous light by dying to ourselves so that the Spirit will bring life to others through us.
[1] Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is an example of how discipleship happens in various daily activities, whereas the Didache is an example of a formal discipleship teaching tool (that is, a catechism). For those who are not aware, the Didache is an early Christian writing that seems to be intended for those preparing for baptism into the Church.
[2] “Behold the Coach, in a Blazer, Uninsured” in Oh, the Humanity and Other Good Intentions, 12-13.
[3] https://www.nbcsports.com/washington/capitals/john-tortorella-has-no-answers-walks-out-postgame-press-conference-after-game-4