Living In The 3rd Culture: June 2013

The Pastor is a Leader - Part I

Tis the season for class preparation, and since I will be teaching a class entitled “Theology of Ministry II” later this summer, I have been digging through my stack of leadership books. And yes, I have collected quite a few over the years. The course that I will be teaching focuses on the five themes of Ministry fruitfulness and longevity: Spiritual Formation, Self-Care, Emotional and Cultural Intelligence, Marriage and Family, and Leadership and Management, and means of personal implementation.

Today I want to take a quick look at the leadership roles of the average pastor. From my experience there are both broad and general leadership roles that may not be tied to a specific task; there are many specific roles to be filled. This blog will focus on the general leadership roles, and hopefully next week I will move on to the specific. Please understand this is nothing hard and fast, but simply comes from experience as a pastor.

First and foremost I am convinced that pastors are men called by God to live out their lives in front of people. That being the case, the most important way we lead is through our personal and passionate pursuit of Jesus. This is what I would categorize as leading through Growing in the Grace and Knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. People need to see that you are still messy and need Jesus as much as anyone else, in other words you are the “chief repenter”. Do people see your love for Jesus? The closer we get to Jesus, the more like Him we become.

A second general area of leaderships is prayer. This is not simply leading prayer in a service, or as an example, but rather assuming the role of “chief prayer” where being totally convinced of power of Kingdom prayer we faithfully pray for the church and her ministrThere are many reasons why that is the case, but my point here is a challenge to make prayer a top priority in your life and ministry. Many of us pastor types find it much easier to spend time in sermon prep and with people rather than in a prayer closet. Let’s not forget the reason the office of Deacon was established in the first place was so the elders could “devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Act 6:2-4, ESV). Note well the word order of prayer and ministry of the word (Again another blog topic).Our people need to know that we pray for them. I have a close friend who is remarkable in how he remembers the names of those in his church. When I asked him his secret, he simply commented that he prays for every one of them every day! When you pray for them, you remember their names! His church at that time had over 300 in attendance.

A third we are called to lead is through our relationships. As I have already written in a prior blog, a pastor is a shepherd and a shepherd lives with his sheep. Culturally this looks different in each context; nevertheless as we live in community we create community. If a pastor simply teaches or preaches about community or hospitality, and yet is not in a community himself, his words are empty. Obviously the size of the church will determine how this plays out, but every pastor should have a community within the church he serves. It is in relationship where effective evangelism takes place.

I recently had a discussion with friend in regard to the church interns at. Over the last 5 years or so, this church has plummeted from over 300 in worship to less than 50. In the last year they changed location and name to no avail. This young man wisely said, “We are focusing on what we do on one day, and not the other six”. Unfortunately, most of the energy is focused on a Sunday “event”. There are many reasons why this church is in decline; however a key ingredient is a pastor that sees the need of evangelism, yet is not spending time with non-Christians. Ant it is probably safe to assume that he has none as close friends. Pastors cannot call people to evangelism when they are not doing it themselves. Once again we lead by example. We are not to be THE evangelist, but the “chief evangelist” showing others the trade.

Another essential leadership role of a pastor is that of “chief peacemaker”. Leadership can be challenging as God has called us to work with broken people. Being somewhat facetious, I am convinced there is little middle school in all of us! Or “where two or three are gathered together, there will be conflict”! I believe it was Steve Brown who once said to me as a young pastor, “it doesn't matter what church you go too, 5% of the people there will be neurotic and they will follow you to where ever you go. They may look different, but it is the same people.” I realize this may seem callous or pessimistic; however my point is that we live in a fallen messy world where conflict abounds. Therefore pastors must assume the role of peacemaker!

There is so much I could include in this area (I will spend considerable time covering in my class), but important to relationship dynamics is what we commonly call “triangulation”. Emotional triangles are the “molecules” of an emotional system. A two-person relationship is notoriously unstable, so all it takes is one person to feel uncomfortable and things get shaky. To manage the increased anxiety, one of the two often brings in a third person thus creating a triangle. For good or bad, triangles are the building blocks of an emotional system. Most of the time they go without notice as long as the atmosphere is calm and stable. Triangles in themselves are neutral and exist as part of human behavior. However if you forget they exist it can be deadly. Understanding triangulation helps with peacemaking and also guards you from being pulled in to a conflict, often before you know it is conflict.

If you are married and have a family, the first place these roles will be played is in your family. Never forget to lead your family well, and make it a priority to fulfill each of the above in that context.

^{^[1]} The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Acts 6:2–4). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

The Pastor IS A Shepherd

“The whole of our ministry must be carried on

in tender love to our people.

We must let them see that nothing pleaseth us

but what profiteth them;

and that what doeth them good doeth us good;

and that nothing troubleth us more than their hurt.

We must feel toward our people,

as a father toward his children:

yea, the tenderest love of a mother must not surpass ours.

We must even travail in birth, till Christ be formed in them”

- Richard Baxter - The Reformed Pastor

I’m not hearing much about the pastor’s role as a shepherd. I suppose coming to conference on shepherding isn't all that exciting. How about TSC, “The Shepherding Coalition”… you get my point. I don’t have the time to fully analyze why that is the case, however I am convinced that the root cause of our ignoring this thoroughly Biblical focus is because it means a ministry that is hard, intrusive, and messy! Most of us would rather find another method to grow a church that would free us up to be left alone so we could study, preach, teach, and blog!

Irrespective of your ministry model, philosophy of ministry, or leadership style, every pastor is to be a shepherd at some level. The truth is, if you are called to be a pastor, you are an Elder or “overseer” whose definition is rooted in the shepherd analogy. Remember these words from Peter, “So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3 not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory”. (1 Pe 5:1–4).

Here are a couple of things to consider:

Good Preachers are Good Shepherds. You can be a great communicator and not shepherd the people in your church and community, but you cannot be a great preacher and not shepherd. A good preacher accurately communicates the truth of Scripture and applies it to the lives of the congregation. If you are not shepherding your congregation, you will not know your congregation and you will not effectively apply your sermons to both the heads and hearts of your congregation. When you shepherd your people you get into their lives and see their spiritual needs. Another important part of shepherding is that as you immerse yourself in people’s lives they get to see your life, adding impact to your preaching.

Good Shepherds multiply. On the other end of the scale from those who don’t do any shepherding are those who do all the shepherding. For many keeping busy with shepherding gives a purpose, fills a personal need, or is simply job security. Others find it a pure joy and honor! Nevertheless, regardless of the size of your church it is important that you are continuously training new shepherds as you shepherd. Make the effort to shepherd your elders and other leaders and therefore modeling how it is to be done. Trust me there will never be a shortage of shepherding needs! Don’t make the mistake Moses made and try to go it alone.

Good Shepherds do not forget the Lost Sheep. A third area that is often neglected when it comes to shepherding is the ongoing task of growing the flock or as Scripture teaches, finding the lost sheep (Luke 15). Good shepherds both tend too, and grow their flock. A healthy growing flock is not accomplished simply through the existing sheep having lambs. If a shepherd relies exclusively on this method for growth both the sheep and the flock will become unhealthy due to inbreeding. New sheep bring both health and vitality to the flock. Adding to point one, not only are good preachers good shepherds, but good evangelists are good shepherds. You cannot expect to connect with lost sheep, if you don’t spend time with them.

There is much more that could be written on this topic, yet I will conclude with these passages of Scripture for you to think about as we follow in the footsteps of our Brother and Savior, the true Good Shepherd – Jesus Christ.

Love: “37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ i 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ j 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”” (Matthew 22:37-40)

Humility: “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Philippians 2:1-3)

Compassion: “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.” (Mark 6:34)

Courage: “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.” (Acts 20:28-30)

Delight/Eagerness: “So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.” (1 Peter 5:1-3)

Are You Called to be a Pastor?

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, God has graciously called you to Himself through the finished work of His Son. Theologically, this is our primary calling. This call is primary because it not only changes who we are, but effects what we do. Because we as a people have been called to Him, what we do is also His – every corner of your life belongs to Him. Therefore, we are all secondarily called to live out our lives in ministry for His glory. That means that whether you are a student, homemaker, physician, landscaper, missionary or pastor, everyone is called to ministry in the place that God has put you. This is what we term our secondary call.

Within the category of secondary call, God selects men to serve the Church as pastors. Paul communicated to young Timothy that those who desire to be a pastor, “desire a noble task” (1 Tim. 3:1, ESV). The question we are asking today is, “How does one know if they are called to be a Pastor”? In the tradition of the reformers John Newton summed it up this way. First there must be “a warm and earnest desire to be employed in this service". Second, this is accompanied by “some competent sufficiency as to the gifts, knowledge, and utterance”. And Third, a call is confirmed by “a correspondent opening in Providence, by a gradual train of circumstances pointing out the time, the place, of actually entering into the work”. Let’s take a few minutes and look more closely at these three areas.

Internal Call: “A warm and earnest desire”. This is an internal work of the Holy Spirit where we have a growing compulsion to preach, teach the Scriptures and shepherd the people of God. Charles Spurgeon described it this as “an intense all-absorbing desire for the work”, or like the prophet Jeremiah wrote “fire in my bones” (20:17). Often it may come at a time that does not make sense to the average person around us, as it may take us away from prestigious or lucrative jobs. I like how the reformer Martin Luther describes it as “God’s voice heard by faith”. An internal call to the pastorate will always lead you to high commitment and involvement in a local church, even if there is not one in your community that is a theological match. If you believe that you have an internal call to be a pastor, yet are not involved and serving in a local church, you may not be called.

External Call: “Some competent sufficiency as to gifts, knowledge and utterance”. The local church is the place where your internal call is confirmed. As you serve and live within the body of Christ, those around you will see your heart and gifts and encourage you in them. Because many of us have poor self-awareness it is crucial that our internal call be confirmed by those who see you serving and know you the best. This is not a subjective compliment from an endearing friend, but recognition from mature believers that the gifts and qualifications listed in 1Timothy and Titus are evident in your everyday life. Simply having good people and public speaking skills are not evidence of a call unless they are rooted in the qualifications for leadership given in Scripture. The call to ministry as a pastor is far more than the ability to communicate well. It is a calling to live out what we preach as a public display of the Gospel.

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to have Godly people who will be truly honest with you in this regard. Sadly, many are given flattery when they need to hear the “truth spoken in love.” You must have those who can speak into your spiritual maturity and gifting in respect to how that works out in a church community. In my own denomination, the first step in pursuing training in ministry is to place oneself under the care of group of pastors in a given region called a presbytery. You cannot come under care unless you are recommended by the elders of the church where you are a member (Note well the requirement of church membership). Their recommendation is based on seeing your internal call worked out through your gifting, character and service. My encouragement is that you do not consider seminary until you have both an internal call and external call. Seminary can refine gifts and provide knowledge, but it cannot build on what is not already present.

A Place to Practice the Call: A correspondent opening in Providence, by gradual train of circumstances pointing out the means, the time, the place, of actually entering upon the work”. The last step in confirming a call to the pastorate is when God actually provides a place for you to serve, a church. In other words, God in His providence will provide a place for you to exercise your gifts. At times one may sense an internal call, be encouraged by others to pursue it, only to find that God does not provide a specific call where you can serve. It is not uncommon for men to go through seminary having felt the call, assuming that seminary would automatically result in finding a place to preach, only to discover that God does not open a church for them to serve. If God is not providing you a church to serve as a pastor, He may be calling to serve in another area of service, at least for a season.

As I close, let me take it full circle. If you are one who has gone through seminary convinced that God was calling you to serve as a pastor, yet He has not provided you an opportunity, please see this as God graciously redirecting you. Remember every Christian is called to ministry and there is no hierarchy! Though it is common within the Christian community to place the pastor on a pedestal, the only reason he serves in that position is because God has called him to do so. Every Christian’s goal should be to have an effective ministry that points others to Jesus, regardless of how God provides our income. If you went to seminary and are disappointed because you have not been given the opportunity to preach, don’t be discouraged because your training can and will be used by God as you faithfully serve in the work that God has given.

Third Culture Defined

The term “Third Culture” has been used in various ways. One “Third Culture” group “consists of those scientists and other thinkers in the empirical world who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional intellectuals in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are.”Another common use of “Third Culture” in fact describes my personal experience. The term was first coined by sociologist Ruth Hill Useem, professor emeritus of sociology and education at Michigan State University. She used the term to describe children growing up outside their citizenship countries because of a parent’s work abroad. A “TCK or Third Culture Kid has since been defined as, “someone who as a child has spent a significant period of time in one or more culture(s) other than his or her own, thus integrating elements of those cultures and their own birth culture, into a third culture" Though I am a TCK, it is my desire to use the term in referring to the people who make up the true Christian Church (Theologically defined as the “Invisible Church”). In other words, the Church is a Third Culture. Scripture teaches us that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law and the punishment of Hell, and through faith in Him we become citizens of His Kingdom, receiving not only the full benefits of citizenship in His Kingdom, but indeed the right to become sons and daughters of God. The moment, we step into this Kingdome we experience a new and different culture. We are no longer in the kingdom of darkness, but now live in the kingdom of light and that changes everything! At the same time we never went anywhere physically as we continue to work, live, and play with the same people as before, we see the world differently, we no longer truly fit – we are “in the world, but not of it” -- we have a new culture. For most of us this life changing experience occurs within our birth culture and our Christian experience is saturated by those influences. For those who grew up in non-Hispanic White North America, Christianity is uniquely different than those who grew up in an African American context. Our birth culture effects how we live out our faith in the Kingdom of Christ. Yet the Kingdom of Christ requires one more cultural shift and that is away from birth culture and into a culture made up of people of every ethnic and cultural group that has ever existed on the face of the earth. This Kingdom is no more North American than it is Tanzanian or Tibetan. It is a unique or shall we say a “Third Culture” that integrates elements of all cultures into one new and better one, where there is no Jew or Greek, slave nor free, male nor female“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Gal 3:26-298). In fact Revelation 7:9-10 gives us a description what this will look like one day:“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." A Third Culture Perspective is one that understands and appreciates that God gathers people from every ethnic and cultural group and brings them into the new culture of His Son Jesus Christ. It is a perspective where birth cultures are appreciated and respected as coming from God, but none are superior. It seeks to have a deeper understanding of the Gospel, pays attention to culture, our own as well as others, and then attempts to bring them together. It is a perspective that “seeks first His Kingdom and His Righteousness” and lovingly and passionately enjoys and glorifies God in all we do. It is a perspective that welcomes immigrants….