If I speak in tongues of human beings and of angels but I don’t have love,
I’m a clanging gong...I Corinthians 13:1
I’m a clanging gong...I Corinthians 13:1
Jesus' ministry was a miserable failure by any standards we hold so dear in churches: bigger budgets and buildings to hold more behinds in pews.
Effectiveness? I have to smile every time I see another training manual that touts Jesus' ministry as a blueprint for how to do just about anything successfully, from evangelism to corporate leadership. They talk about how carefully Jesus chose his followers and how, after living intimately with him for three years, they would be prepared to spread the word to all the world. The flow chart forms a holy pyramid with geometric growth.
Really? The success coaches never talk about how every one of Jesus' disciples ran as fast as they could as far away as they could once Jesus was taken into custody of the Temple authorities. Mark 14:50. They may point out that Jesus chose Judas Iscariot, the disciple who turned Jesus in, as an exception, or as simple human error. If so, Jesus, who had keen insight into people to begin with, realized, perhaps early on, that he really blew that one and could not undo it. John 6: 70-71
Any way you look at it, it's not a good idea to choose an untrustworthy son-of-a-gun into your circle of trust, is it? But Jesus ministry, including his suffering, death, and resurrection, is not about having God's little rule book for prosperity and leadership. Anyone who thinks this is the way to the life Jesus offers will end up as crushed as the disciples were when they were confronted with the truth that the top for Jesus was crucifixion, not their equivalent to the corner office.
Any way you look at it, it's not a good idea to choose an untrustworthy son-of-a-gun into your circle of trust, is it? But Jesus ministry, including his suffering, death, and resurrection, is not about having God's little rule book for prosperity and leadership. Anyone who thinks this is the way to the life Jesus offers will end up as crushed as the disciples were when they were confronted with the truth that the top for Jesus was crucifixion, not their equivalent to the corner office.
The true north of Jesus' ministry then and today, is not the way of following all the right rules or catching pixie dust from the gurus. Instead, it's all about an amazing love- how God creates us in love. And how the love between Jesus and his Daddy becomes our never ending source of love- for God, love for the lives we share, for the world, and the universe.
That's the epicenter that grows into ministry with others, with any possible sound and light shows following.
That's the epicenter that grows into ministry with others, with any possible sound and light shows following.
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