In our world today there are so many ways to lose hope because so many things are wrong—to name a few, there’s the pandemic, political polarization, racism, injustice, terrorism, and declining interest in Christian faith. But this hasn’t taken God by surprise. We are not in a new scenario—we’re in a “once again” scenario.

You see, this current climate reminds me of the time I travelled along with the Jews through their history by reading a chronological Bible. As I began to read the New Testament in early December that year, I experienced Christmas in a whole new way as I saw clearly how wrong everything was going for the Jews at the time of Jesus’ birth:

• The Jews were back in the Promised Land, but they were a conquered people.

• They had a Temple, but it was only a pale imitation of Solomon’s Temple.

• They had lots of new religious writings, but they hadn’t had a prophet from God in 400 years.

• They had a king, but he was not a Davidic king.

• They had no sign of a promised Messiah.

In short, it seemed that God had not kept His Covenant promises to them. It was as though they were once again in the same situation as their oppressed ancestors in Egypt, who groaned in slavery.

And then, amid the sorrows of life under Roman rule, Jesus was born. Surely His birth would change everything and give hope to the Jews that their salvation was at hand! But that wasn’t the case. Jesus’ birth and its circumstances remained hidden. 

Yes, the Magi came…but they protected Jesus by saying nothing. Mary and Joseph wisely kept Jesus’ identity to themselves too. And who would listen to Anna and Simeon who’d spent years waiting for the Messiah? Only the shepherds proclaimed the news widely, but how many believed their unlikely tale?

All this stifled communication led to the fact that Jesus’ birth meant absolutely nothing to society at the time because they didn’t even know about it.

And yet, God had already acted decisively to set in motion a plan that would change everything. 

Just because the masses didn’t know the Messiah had been born didn’t change the fact that He had been. It didn’t change the fact that God was at work behind the scenes building up to the most significant intervention in human history. By the time people started noticing, thirty years had passed!

All through those years when Israel felt abandoned by God, they were unaware that He knew about their sorrow and suffering, just as He had known about the plight of their ancestors in Egypt. 

And He once again kept His Covenant promises and was already at work on a plan. What peace they would have had if only they had known that the plan was unfolding and they simply had to wait thirty more years, such a brief moment of time in human history.

In our current world filled with so much wrong, we are once again in that type of situation. Maybe God is once again doing something new behind the scenes and we will see its effect in thirty years. Or maybe God already did something thirty years ago and its effect will be revealed soon, maybe even later today! There are so many possibilities! And, while God has not communicated His specific plans to us, we can be sure that our Father is never remote from us and He is not idle.

Christmas is a beautiful reminder that God remembers us. Just like at the time of Jesus’ birth, He knows our circumstances, feels what we are feeling, and cares for us more than we could ever imagine. We can be confident that He does have a plan in motion, whether we see evidence of it or not. 

Friends, this Christmas, let’s embrace the reassurance that our Father is in control and actively at work in our world, giving us hope, once again.

Merry Christmas to you from myself, the board, and the staff at CCCC!

A number of churches have asked permission to share this post with their congregations. The answer is “Yes.” Please do two things:

1. Attribute it to: Rev. John Pellowe, CEO, Canadian Centre for Christian Charities
2. Use the email icon on this page just to let me know that you are using it.

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A Warning

In a nutshell, Miller (a 30-year Southern Baptist pastor and a theology professor) claims that the Western church has adapted so much to culture that it has been sapped of its vitality and influence. We’ve lost the mystery and the power of our faith. It’s hard, he writes, to distinguish between church and culture.

Some of the specific underlying causes of the problem are:

• Our desire to be big
• Our tendency to have a program for everything
• Our willingness to trade intimacy for anonymity

Miller doesn’t hold out much hope for denominations and local churches as they currently are. In this, I think he is overly pessimistic.

A Solution

However, in spite of his pessimism, he does call for a renewed vital faith at the personal level, which he believes will ultimately hit the ‘reset’ button on the church and birth something new, replacing existing churches.

My one disagreement with Miller is that I don’t believe God would write off existing churches. If pastors and congregations are off-mission, causing all the problems that Miller documents, the Holy Spirit can change anyone who is willing to be changed. He can birth new vision, new priorities, new understanding, new commitment, new passion, that will revitalize our churches.

Miller’s call for a renewed personal, vital faith is what I found really exciting and motivating! A vital faith is a living faith. And when people of no faith see people with a living faith that is working powerfully in their lives, they will want to investigate it because it is very attractive. People with vibrant faith are the best evangelists you could wish for.

There are two building blocks for a vital faith that will help Christians maintain the distinctive difference between church and culture, and that will give them the ability to discern God’s direction in their lives. They are:

1. Theological vitality, and
2. Spiritual vitality

Christians who are mature in these two areas will stand out in sharp relief from our culture and they will be the core of healthy, flourishing churches.

Part of the reason I found vitality exciting is because my own denomination (PAOC) rolled out a 2020 Initiative a couple of years ago, and it is based on three vitalities: Theological, Spiritual, and Missional. It’s always nice to see confirmation of something birthed through discernment. Some of the examples I give below come from the reflection given to these two vitalities by the PAOC.

Theological Vitality

A good question to ask is “Where is my congregation theologically?”

Theology is the bedrock we stand on.You want to be sure your congregation is growing in their knowledge of Christian beliefs. This comes across as rather trite, but it is true nevertheless and it warrants our focused attention. Helping people grow in theological understanding is not just another worthy goal. It is central to equipping the saints for the work of service.

When I pastored a small church, I realized that the theological depth of the congregation was not actually that deep. So preaching on theological topics became one of the core themes of my time there with the content very deliberately planned a year at a time to give them a full-orbed understanding of God.

But there’s much more to theological vitality than just knowledge. People who have theological vitality:

• know how to engage Scripture in a way that informs their daily life. The don’t just give intellectual assent to the Bible, they live by it. They read the Bible as a historical document detailing God’s self-revelation to us, but they read it as more than that. They also read it as a living document through which the Holy Spirit speaks to us now.
• understand the big picture of who God is and how we fit into his plans. They know that their purpose as a Christian demands an outward focus.
• know God and his ways well enough that they do not fall for whatever some author or speaker says. They can test it.
• are well-rounded in their life, majoring on the majors of our faith. They don’t obsess over minor topics of interest.
• are able to pass on the faith to others so that they too are theologically vital.

Vanishing evangelicals are like chameleons because their lives look pretty much like anybody else’s life and they just blend in with the crowd. When people understand who God is, the claim he has on their lives, and how he wants to work through them, “Sunday Christians” become “Sunday-to-Sunday Christians.” No one who knows them would ever be surprised to discover they are a Christian because they see evidence of their faith at work every day in them. They live their faith, they don’t just talk about it. Their attitudes, behaviours, goals, everything about them, line up with their faith. Our faith is meaningless if our lives don’t model authentic Christlikeness.

Pastors have the great privilege and opportunity to design a church that intentionally develops every member into a theologically literate Christian. Sermons, Sunday School classes, and small groups can all study the major doctrines and key theological ideas of our faith along with how to apply them. There are lots of study materials and curricula with titles like Foundations of the Faith that you could use. Make theological development a major focus of your church.

Spiritual Vitality

When I went to Tyndale Seminary in 2001, I thought I was already a mature Christian. After all, wasn’t that why God was calling me to prepare for full-time ministry? How naive! Did I ever learn a thing or two in the fall of 2001 when I took a course called Foundations of Christian Spirituality!!

I thought until then that the way to discern God’s direction was to think wisely, think biblically, and then make godly plans and pray for his blessing. That course taught me that there are spiritual practices that can help me discern God’s specific direction to me, and to discern it at the start of the process (ie., I’m not asking God to bless my plans!). It changed my life. I’ve blogged about some of these practices in my series Hearing God Speak.

Since I took that course, these traditional spiritual practices have become much more mainstream among evangelicals. What the practices have done for me is make my experience of God direct and personal. I have evidence in my own life of his reality and it does not depend on any faith-buttressing support from government, culture, or even my church. Those experiences are the only reason I have the job I have today. They have given me guidance and led to new initiatives at CCCC. My spiritual experiences reinforce my trust in God and give me a solid basis for my assurance that God is very real and very interested in me as a person.

How rich are the spiritual experiences of people in your church? Ask yourself, “Where is my congregation in terms of their spiritual practices?“

People with spiritual vitality:

• know intimacy with God through prayer and engagement with his Word.
• are actively engaged in Spirit-empowered, Christ-honouring living.
• demonstrate the adventure of living “naturally supernatural.”
• mentor others in a Spirit-filled life.

You can preach about how to discern God (and should), but ultimately you will need to give your congregation the experience of doing the spiritual practices. Have a series of classes in which you teach Lectio Divina, experience an extended time of silence, practice journaling, and so on.

Some resources that might help you prepare sermons or classes are:

• Space for God: The Study and Practice of Spirituality and Prayer
  by Don Postema
• Prayer
  by Richard Foster
• Streams of Living Water: Essential Practices from the Six Great Traditions of Christian Faith
  by Richard Foster
• Protestant Spiritual Traditions:
  by Frank Senn
• Christian Spirituality: An Introduction
  by Alister McGrath

These books are ones I personally own and can vouch for, but I notice that some of them are now quite expensive. I suggest for the expensive ones that you see who the authors are and see if they’ve written anything newer. You can also look up the topics and search for books that are more reasonably priced.

When I pastored that small church, I figured it was my job to bring the people to God in order to experience his presence, and especially to help them discern his leadership. One of the most interesting things we did was explore different forms of worship services from different Protestant traditions, drawing on their respective resources (hymns, prayers etc) to hold a complete service. It was wonderful to see people finding new ways of experiencing God.

The congregation was small enough and trusting enough that they allowed me to do that. At the time, I couldn’t imagine doing this level of experimentation in a bigger church! But with the right preparation and teaching, who knows?

If you can help your congregation enrich their spirituality so they experience God afresh, you won’t have to stir them up to do good works, God will do that for you! Your part as their pastor is to train them (just as you were probably trained in seminary) in the spiritual disciplines and practices that will help them ‘hear’ God.

Teach your congregation how to have a direct experience of God and then watch and be amazed.

Vital Christians

More than ever, Christians need to know the theology of their faith and have rich spiritual lives as they directly experience God. People living like that will never be mistaken for anyone but a Christ-follower. Unlike a chameleon, your congregation will stand out from its surroundings!

Key Thought: Congregations should exemplify the key distinctives of Christian spirituality and life.

“The book, The Vanishing Evangelical, has been provided courtesy of Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available now at your favourite bookseller.”

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I recently read  The Measure of Our Success: An Impassioned Plea to Pastors by Shawn Lovejoy. His urgent cause is to get pastors away from the three Cs of unhealthy measurement: comparing, copying, and condemning, because they are based on the wrong definition of success. We’re not trying to prove ourselves better than another church, or to copy and become another church or to put down another church by, say, attributing their success to a watering down of the Gospel. We are all trying to be faithful to the way God wants us to live and work and to the  mission he has given us. Given that noble calling, Lovejoy quickly knocks down the idols of bigness, numbers, fame and so forth that many pastors unintentionally serve.

The starting place for measuring mission success is theological reflection on your ministry’s mission. What is God’s heart for your mission? What does he have to say about it? What is his ultimate goal that he wants your mission to achieve? The answers to these questions will define what mission success is for your ministry.

Measurements Must Measure Mission, Values, and Strategy

One of the best questions I’ve come up with to help me decide what to measure is, How will the answer matter? What will we do differently depending on the answer? If the answer is nothing, or nothing significant, then find something better to measure. Did people enjoy the sermon or the worship? Good, but does that really matter? The real issue based on the mission of the church is, Did they change an attitude, have a new insight, or make a decision as a result of the sermon or worship? Will anything change in their life?

So don’t measure the unimportant things. Look for the important things, things that will cause you to make significant changes based on the answer. Important things are directly related to your:

• Mission: The purpose you are trying to fulfill
• Values: The non-negotiable values you will abide by while operating your ministry
• Strategies: The key initiatives for accomplishing the mission

Mission, values and strategy are important. Focus on them and measure how you are doing in each of them. That is what will move your church forward.

Numbers Don’t Count, Percentages Do!

The Great Commission is all about conversion and discipleship. One measurement that Lovejoy promotes is the number of baptisms in a year compared to the average number of worship attendees. That gives a percentage, so big churches and small churches are on a level playing field. As Lovejoy says, “You don’t have to be big to be successful.” He’s not interested in the size of the congregation but in the rate of conversion growth.

He does the same thing for discipleship. He measures the percentage of worship attendees who are “active in biblical community, meaning small groups of people who are connecting together with God, doing life with and serving each other, and reaching out to people outside the community of believers.” Small groups are a key component of discipleship.

 Self-Worth

The bulk of Lovejoy’s book is actually aimed at helping pastors find their self-worth and security in who they are, rather than in the churches they lead. Pastors would do well to consider his advice relating to their own personal vitality, their relationship with their ministry team, and how to keep going when you feel like quitting.

Other Metrics for Churches

Lovejoy says that we need to take the Great Commandment seriously, to love one another, and to focus on the fruit of our ministries. He doesn’t actually develop a metric in this area, but since pastors are given to the church for the equipping of the saints for the work of service (Eph 4:12), then another measurement would be the percentage of worship attendees who are involved in volunteer service in the church or elsewhere, or who have an active, personal ministry of showing love to other people. Here, I’m thinking of a widow in my church who for thirty years has made it her personal ministry to serve other widows in our church. It’s not a program, it is a purely personal effort on her part to be Christ to her widow ‘neighbours’. The point of this metric is, are people doing something with their faith (James 2:14-18)?

If you want conversion growth, you must have people involved with your church who don’t yet know Christ. They could be attending worship, a small group, or a regular participant in one of your ministries. Find out how many people your church has a relationship with who aren’t yet believers. The higher the percentage of total people your church touches to your worship attendance, the more opportunities you have for conversion growth.

If your church is going to grow and multiply, you need lay leaders for small groups and other needs. What percentage of your worship attendance are either currently ministry leaders or being developed to become a ministry leader?

In the end, it is not about numbers, but about results. Paul put it quite well when he wrote to Timothy, “As for you…fulfill your ministry” (2 Tim 4:5 – ESV)

“Book has been provided courtesy of Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available now at your favourite bookseller.”

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“People lack trust in leaders because of the poor character demonstrated by so many leaders. My interviews with 6,000 Christian leaders show that one of the greatest struggles they have is demonstrating godly wisdom. The issue is how worldly wisdom aligns with godly wisdom and how to discern the difference.”

I quickly wrote the quote down because it is exactly the reason why I write this blog. My purpose is to help Christians who are leaders become more authentically Christian in their leadership practices. I don’t think it is that hard to figure out a Christian approach to leadership, but it does take time to reflect on your faith and your work and how they intersect. That’s why I call this blog Christian Leadership Reflections. By sharing my own reflections, I hope to help you with yours.

Human Wisdom

Human wisdom is developed from a human perspective without any reference to God or his ways. It is often positioned as the opposite of godly wisdom, as if the two were diametrically opposed to each other. In this paradigm, human is bad and godly is good. But it is not as simple as that:

• If we believe that God created our universe with certain rules for how it works, then we can study it and learn about it.
• And if God gave us the ability to think, to discover and to create new knowledge, then we should do so.

It is inevitable that, quite apart from God’s revelation, humans will work out some knowledge and wisdom about how things work, or the way things are, that is right and aligns with God’s design or his ways. Don’t be surprised when this happens because it is simply the result of the orderly ways of God.

But sometimes we get it wrong and develop ideas that are not in alignment with God’s ways. This happens because our values are not in alignment with God’s or we have forgotten to leave room for God. Most often it is just a case of someone who doesn’t know God and doesn’t know any better, but sometimes a person develops something with evil intent such as when a con artist develops a con game based on understanding our (fallen) human nature.

Human wisdom, therefore, is not like godly wisdom. Godly wisdom is always 100% right. Human wisdom has a range, from downright ungodly to wisdom that unintentionally aligns with God’s ways. For example, people with no awareness of God can still do good deeds because they believe it is the right thing to do.

The issue isn’t that human wisdom is the opposite of godly wisdom, but that even at its very best it is incomplete without godly wisdom. On a continuum from foolishness/ignorance to godly wisdom, human wisdom can be anywhere from 100% wrong to being 100% right (about the topic at hand). If human wisdom meets godly standards, then feel free to use it.

Godly or human? Discerning the Difference

So when it comes to Christian leadership, there is much human wisdom we can draw upon to understand group dynamics, organizational theory, governance, motivation, planning and so forth. There are many very good secular writers whose models and advice are just fine for Christian ministries. But we must be careful to discern where human leadership wisdom is deficient and falls too far short of godly wisdom to be able to use with integrity. And that is why a Christian leader needs to take time to reflect on his or her leadership practices.

How to distinguish the difference? How to tell if a secular leadership technique is appropriate for a Christian to use? Here’s some advice from a great little book:

“From a Christian point of view, it is only when the direction and the method are in line with God’s purposes, character, and ways of operating that godly leadership takes place.”
(Reviewing Leadership by Robert Banks and Bernice Ledbetter)

That is how you tell. Ask the question, Does this align with God’s purposes, character and ways of operating? This is why I say it is helpful if at least one of your ministry’s senior leaders has formal theological education. It is not good enough to just find a verse here or there to justify something. In this context, verses are little thoughts, and you need BIG thoughts. You need to know not just the verses, but taken as a whole, what does Scripture say about God and his ways? What’s the big theological picture? You also need a vibrant personal relationship with God in which you submit to and then experience his leadership. You will get to know pretty quickly how to assess opportunities or methods for suitability.

Here are some illustrations that may help:

• In a commissioned sales environment, sales managers are trained to motivate their staff by appealing to their self-interest and greed. They have them develop vision boards – pictures of all the good things in life they want to have or experience. Looking at these every day motivates them to sell more. Since when would God have us motivate people by appealing to their greed or self-interest? What relationship does this build between the salesperson and the customer? Instead of truly helping customers, the salesperson has objectified them into a means to an end, an end in the best interest of the salesperson, not the client! Does the technique work? I guess so. Is it godly? No. This style of management cannot be introduced into a Christian workplace.
• Traditional strategic planning is based on analyzing the past to predict the future. To ensure the plan is achieved, staff are evaluated based on achieving goals that support the plan. Where does this leave room for God to do something new? When God told Paul to go to Europe, Paul went. He didn’t say, “I’ll do it on to my next mission trip” or even worse, “I’ll have to work it into my next 5 year plan.” The Holy Spirit blows where he will, and we have to stay nimble and flexible to respond quickly to his leading. Traditional strategic plan also relies heavily on setting your strategy based on distinguishing yourself from a competitor, but God wants you focused on what he has called you to do. In traditional strategic planning, your strategic options are limited by your SWOT analysis. Since when has God been restrained by your weakness? I’ve written more about this in Strategic Planning for Christian ministries. Strategic planning can be done, but be careful to design the process to include God!

Questions to Ask

So when I am confronted with a new leadership technique, I look for the aspects of it that need to be tested against God’s purposes, character or ways of being by asking:

1. What is this advice or method based upon? What assumptions does it make? Why does it ‘work’?
2. How would this affect the way I relate to another person or group?
3. Why does this appeal to me? What emotion or motivation makes this solution desirable? Does the appeal call upon something in me that runs counter to the fruit of the Spirit?
4. How does it maintain or contribute to my status as “a holy vessel, consecrated to God” and to our ministry’s representation of what life in the kingdom of God looks like?

Then compare your answers to what you know of God. Be wise. Be discerning. Take time to reflect.

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“Behind it all is surely an idea so simple, so beautiful, so compelling that when — in a decade, a century, or a millennium — we grasp it, we will say to each other, how could it have been otherwise? How could we have been so blind for so long?”

What is the simple, beautiful, compelling idea? The quote comes from a book that suggests there is a god beneath all the science we know. As Christians, we know the simple, beautiful and compelling truth is much more profound than that, that we were created by God to enjoy loving relationships. Jesus made it very clear:

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

So everything else hangs on this one idea of love, including (we can infer) everything to do with leadership. How do we incorporate love into leadership? Let’s turn to biblical-theology for some help.

As individuals, we are made in the image of God. The corollary is that as a community, we are made in the image of the Trinity.

• Being made in the image of God means that we are made to love, because “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:8
• Being made in the image of the Trinity means that we are made to love, respect and honour one another, just as the three persons of the Trinity do. As one theologian says, “Because all human beings are created in the image of God, the perfect community of love in God’s inner relationships are the foundation for all social ethics. Presence, reciprocity, giving, receiving and returning define the deep law of structure of both divine and human life.” (Donald Faris, “The Trinity as our guide” in The Trinity .)
• Also in The Trinity, Andrew Stirling wrote about the community of the Trinity being a role model for humanity. God wants us to enjoy the same quality of relationships as the three persons of the Trinity enjoy with each other.

Leaders must therefore love the communities they lead, and care for them just as God loves and cares for the entire human community.

So what does infusing leadership with love look like?

• Loving leadership will be patient and kind, not envious, boastful or proud. It will not dishonour others or be self-seeking. Leaders will not be easily angered nor will they keep a record of wrongs. Leaders will rejoice in the truth, and they will always protect, trust, hope and persevere. Those words from 1 Corinthians 13 are easily written and more difficult to live, and they are challenging in that in the workplace we need standards of performance and accountability for performance, and employment law effectively requires a record of any problems should it come to dismissal. So, leaders need to be wise as to how to meet civil requirements while always living out the godly life that God has called us to. That leads to the next point…
• Leaders need to be immersed in prayer, Bible study and other Christian spiritual practices in order to know God’s mind so well that they have the wisdom to deal with the issues they face in a Christ-honouring way. Returning to the question of meeting civil requirements in a godly way, just as Jesus had to confront his disciples about their lack of performance from time to time, ministry leaders will also need to confront and not gloss over performance issues, but it will be a confrontation based on love and not anger. It will be about looking for a better solution than the one that caused the confrontation. It will be about helping a person give the best performance they are capable of giving or helping them find a job they can perform well. It will be confrontation that honours and respects the other person while challenging the negative issue.
• Loving others surely includes loving Christ’s church and it must also include loving all who are called to vocational ministry (as a subset of loving ‘others’). That means that as leaders we will take into account the effect of our ministry’s actions on other ministries and we will do no harm to other ministries. We will not use their good ideas in competition against them nor will we do anything meant for our good at their cost. We will work together as much as possible to demonstrate Christian love and unity, because as a community we bear the image of the Trinity.
• Loving your staff includes:
  • providing for them in terms of fair compensation so they can live reasonably well and providing them the tools they need to do their work (so resourcing your ministry is an important leadership responsibility)
  • developing them to be all that God wants them to be in terms of their vocation (so you should have a continuing education budget and a professional development plan for each person)
  • developing policies and defining values that support their Christian life in a work context (for instance, some reward systems pit staff members against each other in a competitive environment, or expediency takes priority over what is right). Create a culture supported by policies that supports your staff’s Christian walk.
  • respecting staff for their contributions to the ministry (not only for the regular ongoing work they perform, but also for the ideas they contribute). To help them contribute well, make sure you have conveyed the criteria for good contributions, including how you weigh one idea against another. What are you looking for? What are the priorities?
  • Of course, in a Trinitarian model all persons have the obligation to love, honour and respect one another, and that includes team members loving, honouring and respecting their team leader! Leaders are just as entitled as staff are to be loved.

I’m sure there is much more to write about love and leadership, but this is enough to prime the pump and get you thinking about it. If you think of any ways to apply the idea of “loving leadership,” please post them below. And if you have other points to add about what loving leadership looks like, please add them too.

Please note that I am using “Loving Leadership” in distinction to “Servant Leadership” or “Visionary Leadership,” not as a replacement but as an additional aspect of leadership. The flip side of this post is that team members should also love their team leaders.

By the way, I found the quote at the top while on retreat at The Sabbath House in The Hand of God: Thoughts and Images Reflecting the Spirit of the Universe, one of the books out on a coffee table. The quote is from a scientist, John Wheeler. The book is full of beautiful pictures from space combined with quotes such as this one from scientists and theologians. The theme is that science and religion can peacefully co-exist.

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An article by Dr. John Jefferson Davis (“The Role of Theology in the Life of the Church“) makes a strong case for why theological training is critical for church leaders, and I believe his arguments apply just as well to agency leaders. I believe theology helps us understand what we are doing, why we are doing it, how we should do it, and how we should evaluate both our options and our results.

Dr. Davis writes that theology:

• provides the grounding for a vision that will not let you get off-track. It will ensure you approach your mission holistically. Always remember that we are not just trying to solve problems (hunger, people not in relationship with God, guilt, etc.) but we are helping bring this world into God’s kingdom where everyone can experience the fullness of God’s love and peace, and truly be the people God made them to be. So our vision must be bigger than overcoming the problem; it must incorporate God’s intended result. Theology should broaden and elevate our vision for the work God has called us to so that we always have God’s end in mind.
• keeps ministries healthy. Based on some research, Dr. Davis states that denominations that have “tolerated doctrinal erosion” have suffered great membership losses between 1965 and 1999 while denominations committed to a strong biblical theology have grown and shown great vitality. Staying true to your theological foundation gives workers and supporters something solid to commit to that fully engages them. Taking action based on a strong theology puts your ministry in a place where it is most likely to enjoy God’s many blessings.
• provides a standard against which to measure your success. How are you doing, really? How would God assess your results? Thinking about your performance from God’s perspective will likely lead you to include some additional performance criteria such as the manner in which you achieved results, and it will almost always lead to little niggling questions such as “Who did we overlook?” and “Did we do anything that really required faith?” I think it will also keep the leadership team humble as they analyze their own performance in light of God’s standards.

If you’d like to find a Bible college or seminary to take a course or two, or even to get a degree, a pretty comprehensive listing of them can be found at Christian Higher Education Canada’s website.

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Living with a Legacy

Dr. Andrew Stirling, Senior Minister of TEMC and adjunct professor at Tyndale Seminary, gave a sermon entitled A Hand Across Time that told how the senior ministers each received and passed along the same legacy of faith while applying it differently to meet the needs of their times. The children in the service were challenged to make a decision to follow Christ as their Lord so that the legacy would continue.

As Andrew reviewed the key messages of the senior pastors who preceded him, he captured quite well the role of leader as steward and the balance that must be achieved as leaders preserve their ministry’s legacy while adjusting its programs to meet the needs of the current circumstances. In Built To Last, Collins and Porras called this dual focus Preserve the Core/Stimulate Progress. The idea is to preserve the core ideology (your purpose and values) and stimulate progress in everything else. The core ideology must then be faithfully applied to every changing circumstance by adapting its manifestations to suit the times. Here’s how this church managed to do this:

The church’s core ideology comes from Timothy Eaton, who came to Christ as a teenager and became a lifelong Methodist, believing that God was active in his life and was working providentially in and through him. This speaks of a God who is present and interested in us as individual persons. Eaton was a very active lay leader in the Methodist church, and after he died his widow and others built a Methodist church in a growing area of Toronto to perpetuate God’s work. Each church has its own core ideology that drives it, and the core ideology of this church is Eaton’s emphasis on God’s providential presence in our daily activities.

In the sermon, Andrew Stirling showed how the ministers at TEMC applied this core ideology into the various contexts the congregation faced as the century progressed. To the best of my memory, here are some examples:

• During the First World War, when it appeared the whole world would be embroiled in the unimaginable misery of modern technological and chemical warfare, Rev. James Henderson encouraged the congregation with the hope that because God is active in this world, anything can happen. So press on!
• In the Great Depression years, Dr. Trevor Davies spoke of the compassion of God for all who suffer and he led the church in being the people through whom God was actively at work. They did what they could to relieve the suffering of others. For example, each week the church delivered 250 gallons of milk to the Yonge Street Mission.
• In the 1940s, Dr. David MacLennan taught the church about the sovereignty of God. Whatever evil threats may arise, God is ultimately in control and will have his way in the end. He reminded them after the war that their freedom had been preserved at a cost, and encouraged the church to stay faithful and redeem the cost by using their God-given gifts for the good of humanity.
• In the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s, with the threat of Communism and the new spirit of sexual liberation, drugs, and personal freedom, Dr. Andrew Lawson (my beloved pastor during my childhood and teenage years) unrelentingly spoke about God’s love for us and how that applied to social structures. He preached about faith as the antidote for fear and about allowing God to work through us in our relationships. He emphasized family, strong marriages, and real love. He gave us a moral compass to help navigate through the storms of protest and social upheaval.

These pastors delivered messages that applied the legacy of faith in God’s providential presence to the great needs of their times.

Leader as Steward

As I thought about leaders stewarding their ministries, I became quite intrigued by the rich context the stewardship metaphor provides for your time in leadership.

• First, it reminds us all that we are not ‘masters’ of a ministry (even if we founded the ministry). Jesus Christ the Son of God is the real master. That reality should shape our attitudes toward ministry leadership! Be a humble servant working alongside your team. While the board has given you the authority to ‘call the shots’, know that there is someone higher than you who really calls the shots and you need to be in step with that person!  Your personal spirituality is a vital part of your ministry’s success! If you take your stewardship role to heart, you will realize that it is not your ministry; you are just the one with temporary custody of it.
• Second, it puts your time in leadership into its historical context and provides a bigger canvas on which your years of leadership are painted. You are but one link in a long chain of leaders of your ministry that stretches across the generations (thanks to Dietrich Bonhoeffer for that wonderfully comforting image). There is a certain humility that comes with the realization that you are just one of the many people who will provide leadership in this ministry. The ministry is not about you at all. It is about a purpose much bigger than you, and that I find exciting. Being part of a bigger picture keeps your attention on God, not yourself.
• Third, although we often think of the senior leader as being in a lonely role, you are in a way a member of a leadership team of pastors or executive directors that exists across time! My church recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, and all five of the surviving pastors were present for the weekend. I sat through all of their ministries and it was amazing to think about the contribution that each one made in his own way. Very different people, but each of them spoke of the core values and purpose of the church and what they said was consistent across all the pastors. The widow of the founding pastor spoke as well, and told us how the core ideology was birthed along with the church. Although they never worked a day together, as the pastors stood side-by-side I thought, “What a team!” I find the thought of fellowship across time very heartwarming.

The Steward’s Work

Paul stressed the importance of preserving the core ideology throughout his leadership in the early church, saying in 1 Corinthians 11:23 “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.” He worked hard to stay true to the faith that was given to him and to maintain the integrity of his mission against all attacks. He preserved the core right to the end, at which time he could honestly say, “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:6-7).

To know what you are preserving, you may have to do some research. For example, to better understand our core at CCCC, I have talked with Ian Stanley (who had the idea for CCCC) a couple of times and visited him once for a more extended discussion of how and why CCCC was founded. I have read all the board minutes for the first 15 years and talked with several other senior leaders from the early years. I have reviewed our entire library of Bulletin newsletters and the programs for conferences back to 1983. And, of course, I have had many talks with Frank Luellau about his time of leadership. If you can crystallize your ideology, I believe it could be a major piece of your promotional material, because it clearly identifies who you are and probably will separate you from all the other ministries doing somewhat similar work. It will also give your strategic-thinking sessions more focus and provide an overall logic to your programs.

However, preserving the core is only half my job. As the leader of the ministry today in the circumstance we are in, I should not have a slavish devotion to the past or to the means by which previous leaders worked to fulfill the ministry’s purpose. They all worked on the same purpose, but were free to innovate and find ways to fulfill the purpose that were relevant to the circumstances of the time. I realize afresh how important it is to always be thinking, “If we were starting again today, knowing what we know now, would we do it the way we are doing it now or would we do something entirely different?” And so we work hard to stimulate progress at CCCC through innovation, challenging the ways things are and exploring the boundaries to discover how else we could fulfill our purpose.

Performing in the Arena

Finally, I cherish the idea of the universal church that crosses all geographical and temporal boundaries. I love to think of my brothers and sisters in Christ from everywhere and all time united one day in praise of our Lord and Saviour. So it was natural that, as I listened to the sermon, I thought of Hebrews 12:1, where we have the image of a runner in an arena competing in a race surrounded by (and cheered on by) all those who have gone before, including our predecessors who led our ministries. Andrew Stirling expressed the same sentiment in his church’s September 2010 newsletter:

I have had the privilege of examining a selection of the famous transcribed sermons given by preachers at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church over its one hundred year history. I have been struck by both the timelessness of the messages as well as the profound contextual nature of their content. I also have a fuller appreciation of the privilege of continuing this legacy and humbly feel the mantle that rests upon our generation. In a preaching class I taught a few years ago, I commented to the students that when I commence a sermon I am not only aware of the needs of the audience before me and the presence of Jesus as depicted in the Holman Hunt window behind me, but also the inestimable great women and men who have preceded me.

(The Holman Hunt window pictured at the top of this post is a depiction of Revelation 3:20 – Christ knocking at the door.)

As I perform in the arena surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, I know there is meaning to my work beyond my short time of performance. As the team I lead builds on the past, gets results today, and positions CCCC for the future, I can almost hear the crowd’s roars of approval as they discern our strategies and see how the way our team plays the game supports our shared mission and contributes to the fulfillment of their hopes and vision for our ministry. Looking at leadership a century at a time gives me a much clearer perspective from which to guide the ministry today. So what’s the long view from where you sit?  Enjoy the vista!

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The Ideal

In God’s kingdom, we know from Galatians 3:28 that, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Gender, ethnicity and power will not be divisive factors in heaven. My race, education, gender, and any other human attribute I have, will not give me any right to assert power or authority over anyone else. We will all stand before God as equals, the only variation in our position being whatever rewards we receive for faithfulness while living here on earth. That’s the way it is in the kingdom of heaven. That’s the way it is when God rules, when his will is done.

The Challenge

Given that, I find it an awesome thing to pray, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” because I can just imagine God’s natural first response to my prayer being, “Well, John, let’s start with you.  How well are you doing my will? Does the workplace over which you ‘rule’ look like the kingdom over which I rule?”

Oops! I can’t very well say, “Actually Lord, I was thinking of everyone else.” As a leader, I need to remember that “to whom much is given, much is expected” and that as a leader, I have the power and authority to actually ensure that the organization I lead exemplifies God’s will.

So how godly an atmosphere do we have at CCCC? How godly are our relationships with other ministries, suppliers and those in authority over us (such as our board)? If Jesus were to return now for a few years to serve as an employee at CCCC, would he fit in with our culture and way of being? Would he be able to say of my leadership, “John reminds me of myself?” Would Jesus be willing to stay under my leadership or would he soon be looking for some other ministry leader to share his talents and gifts with?

And then, what about when we all get to heaven? I wonder, with millions and millions of people in heaven to spend time with, will my staff members find any time at all in the endless eons of eternity to voluntarily spend a few minutes with me? If new teams are formed in heaven, would my staff want me as a teammate?

Moving Toward the Ideal

If I am really praying that God’s will would be done on earth now as it is already being done in heaven, then I should make sure that all relationships are based upon godly character, including love and respect, and a desire to serve and bless.

Thoughts like these led me to write a leadership philosophy in 2004 that I still agree with today. It draws upon a Trinitarian theology in which, according to many leading theologians, the inner workings of the Trinity are a model for relationships between members of God’s people.

The CEO is not over the team but part of the team, on the same basis that every staff person is part of the team. Just as the three Persons of the Trinity are all equally God, so every staff person is equally a team member. And just as each member of the Trinity has distinct roles and functions, so each member of the CCCC team has distinct roles and functions. The reason for distinct roles and functions is that, to get work done effectively and efficiently, specialization is needed. Work is assigned in order to take advantage of how God has equipped individual team members. But whenever there is specialization, there is also a need for direction so that order is maintained. The specialty work must be integrated into the work of the whole team and coordinated with the work of other specialists. Someone must take responsibility for directing the team’s work and thus there must be, even among peers, some form of hierarchy. This does not lessen the fact that team members are peers and, as Paul wrote, fellow-workers. The Greek word for ‘fellow-worker’ is synergon (syn means ‘with’, erg means ‘work’, on signifies ‘person’) from which we get our English word ‘synergy’ which means we accomplish more working together than we do working separately.

This Christmas, as I celebrate the birth of Jesus, I remember that he came to inaugurate God’s kingdom and that the best way I can honour Jesus is to allow God’s rule to govern my life. I am honouring Jesus when my “rule” at CCCC exemplifies God’s rule and life in the kingdom.

What a blessing it is to have the teammates I have who can work with me and together share in the accomplishment of our mission.

Merry Christmas!

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World Vision Canada

World Vision Canada sponsors the “30 Hour Famine,” an annual event in which people get together as a group and go without food for 30 hours while doing a variety of fun activities and educational sessions on poverty and hunger. What theological statements could this program be making? The design of the program speaks volumes: a simple donation is not enough! Donors can’t simply use money to avoid confronting an unpleasant issue. Rather, they are asked to share in the experience of hunger, to suffer alongside those who live with hunger every day. Doing so, they might get a glimpse of God, not hovering dispassionately somewhere “out there,” but suffering along with humanity, being moved by our plight (e.g., Exo 3:7).  Participants are acting like Job’s three friends, who did one thing very well; they came and they sat silently with Job for seven days and nights.  They identified with Job’s grief and sympathized and comforted him by sharing in the grief ritual: they tore their own clothes, threw dust over their heads, and they wept with him.  A strong theology of suffering can be discerned in this program. Observers of the “30 Hour Famine” might also get the idea that Christianity sees all humanity as one family, with responsibilities for each other. All are made in the image of God and all deserve their fair share of God’s creation, regardless of their faith. We can infer from the “30 Hour Famine” that indeed we are “our brother’s keeper,” something that Cain, holding a worldly perspective, rejected (Gen 4:9).

International Teams Canada

International Teams Canada has a “Ride for Refugees.” This family-friendly event raises awareness of refugees and internally displaced people. Participants have a choice of routes for a bicycle ride, ranging from 10 km to 100 km. An observer might realize that all of life can be put to use for God, because the program is based on recreational biking rather than an overtly spiritual activity.  Participants can have fun while serving God. By  offering routes that accommodate everyone from young to old, beginner to expert, single or with children, the ministry is modelling an inclusive theology that holds that everyone can be used by God. Churches and charities that arrange rides in their local community are allowed to direct 50% of the money raised to a qualifying refugee, ethnic or immigrant ministry of their choice (including a program of their own). An astute observer would see an open-handed theology of generosity that supports a spirit of cooperation between ministries, based on a theology of common mission and a belief that God will generously provide the necessary resources.

World Vision Canada and International Teams Canada may or may not have designed their programs with these  theological points in mind, but however they designed them, theological reflection reveals that they are well designed and make valid theological points.

Question to Ask

When you look at your programs, policies and practices, here are some questions to help you reflect on how well your espoused theology is reflected in them:

• What assumptions do they make regarding
  • values,
  • motivation, and
  • the root issue or problem?
• What are the relevant theological truths or doctrines for each one?
• What do they say about our view of God and humanity?
• How do they line up with our Christian responsibilities and ethics?

A Challenge

Scott Rodin, in Stewards In The Kingdom: A Theology Of Life In All Its Fullness, has a challenge that every Christian management team should take up. His question relates specifically to stewardship practices, but it applies across the board to all organizational practices. He asks:

If we were to start from scratch, with no preconceived ideas with regards to what works in fundraising but only with a firm commitment to the ethics of the kingdom of God in which we live, what kind of development program would we build? What would it look like, what techniques would we use and, most importantly, what would be the assumptions upon which this program would be based?

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There’s nothing like a good real-world example to test how theoretical leadership principles really work. This story made me think about how we apply our faith to our leadership practices. This is something we all want to do and here we have an excellent case study.

According to a news report, Father Tim:

…gave the example of prisoners being released from prison without benefits or other financial assistance, saying it was far better for people in such circumstances to turn to shoplifting from large retailers rather than prostitution, mugging or burglary.

“My advice does not contradict the Bible’s eighth commandment because God’s love for the poor and despised outweighs the property rights of the rich,” he said in a sermon Sunday.

A spokesman for supermarket chain Asda, in response, argued that shoplifting affected hardworking store staff more than the rich.

“Maybe Father Tim Jones could repeat his sermon at our York store and see what reaction he gets?” he was quoted as saying by the York Press.  “He’s one psalm short of a sermon!”

Now there’s a spokesman who knows how to turn a phrase!!! To be fair to Father Tim, I’d like to include some more of what he had to say, which was reported in the Daily Mail. (This paper also reported that his congregation includes “a wide mix of social conditions.”)

“I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither. I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices. I would ask them not to take any more than they need. I offer the advice with a heavy heart. Let my words not be misrepresented as a simplistic call for people to shoplift.”

“The observation that shoplifting is the best option that some people are left with is a grim indictment of who we are. This is a call for our society no longer to treat its most vulnerable people with indifference and contempt. We create a situation which leaves some people little option but crime. The strong temptation is to burgle or rob people – family, friends, neighbours, strangers.  Others are tempted towards prostitution, a nightmare world of degradation and abuse for all concerned. Others are tempted towards suicide. Instead, I would rather that they shoplift.”

Can a Spiritual Leader Endorse Illegal Activities?

Okay, so that is what Father Tim thinks, and I agree with his indictment of society. I also might possibly accept his argument of the lesser of two evils, if in fact evil was the only option available.  But it isn’t. There is another option that would be a demonstration of grace and redemption and unconditional love. I say respectfully (and without knowing what his church is doing to alleviate poverty), that Father Tim has not considered all the options. I don’t think his leadership reflects what we expect of a Christian leader in this situation. Please be assured, I am not condemning him as a leader. I am just saying that on this one point there is a better response to the crisis of poverty.

Principles for Thinking Theologically about Leadership

Here’s how I applied my faith to the answer. I started with some basic principles:

• The Bible says (pretty clearly I think) “Thou shalt not steal!”  That’s a good starting point.
• There is a general biblical principle of obeying the law of the land (in both Testaments) unless the issue is blaspheming God. Daniel refused to worship an idol and the early church refused to acknowledge Caesar as Lord.
• There is a closely related biblical example that is quite helpful. The consecrated bread of the Temple was to be eaten only by the priests and their families (Ex 29:32-33), but upon David’s request, the priest Ahimelech gave him consecrated bread for him and his men to eat when they were hungry (1 Sam 21:3-5). Note that they had permission from the custodian of the bread. Jesus commented on this apparent breaking of God’s law in Mat 12:1-8 by drawing on Hosea 6:6 and saying, as one commentator paraphrases it, “human need may take precedence over ceremonial laws.” In quoting Hosea, Jesus said “I desire compassion and not sacrifice.” David did not take the bread by force or stealth, but by openly asking the priest to extend compassion to his hungry men. One modern application would be to ask the stores to give their food to a foodbank when it goes past its “best before” date rather than throwing it out.
• Christians are to demonstrate God’s love to their neighbours.
• Churches are to be models for the way God expects us to live together.
• While God’s people have sometimes engaged in civil disobedience (i.e., continuing to preach when told not to), the more general approach has been to work within the law of the land (i.e., Esther approaching the king willing to bear the legal consequences, Paul appealing to his citizenship rights, Jesus “rendering unto Caesar” by paying his tax – (Oh I wish I might find a few fish like that!).
• The sharing of resources with the poor has been either ordered by God (i.e., leaving grain on the fields for the poor to glean – Lev 23:22) or has been an encouraged voluntary practice (i.e., the offering taken by Paul to support the hungry in Jerusalem – 2 Cor 8:1-15). Causing people to be involuntarily separated from their assets doesn’t seem to come up in Scripture as a God-approved option! Even the Israelites, when leaving Egypt, did not plunder the Egyptians; they asked and the Egyptians voluntarily gave (Ex 3:22).
• All sin is sin. Little sins as much as big sins. Sinning against the rich or a corporation is just as sinful as sinning against an individual or a small family business.

I then thought of an excellent application of these principles that comes to us in Acts 4:34-35 and that applies directly to Father Tim’s church, which has a wide range of social conditions in it. “For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as they had need.” Here was the community of believers looking after their own.

And when a dispute arose? What happened then? Acts 6:1-5 says that when a complaint arose from the Hellenistic Jews that they were being overlooked in the distribution of food by the Hebrew Jews, the apostles “summoned the congregation and said, ‘…Select from among you seven men…whom we may put in charge of this task…’ The statement found approval with the whole congregation.”

An Invitation for Churches to Be Authentically Present

So, I think the priest missed the mark on this issue. Instead of advising his congregation to steal, he should have taken this opportunity to call his congregation to be faithful to the purpose to which God has called them and challenged them to come together in mutual support to provide for the needy among them. Their generosity should spur other churches to do similar good deeds, encourage the public to be charitable and invite the government to step in and do its part. If the people of his own church were all poor and needy, then Paul’s example with the Jerusalem church would be for other churches to lend their support.

Father Tim could also have offered to connect the needy with the social agencies and charities that could help them. He could even lay out  some ideas for how the government could solve the poverty problem.

There are, of course, a lot of other issues related to the reporter’s question that I couldn’t get into without making my answer too complex to use, such as civil disobedience, dealing with the Nazis sending Jews and others to death camps, and so on. In the context of this priest’s sermon, the issue is shoplifting and to that I say, “No, it is not okay to tell your congregation to shoplift.” That avoids our Christian duty to take care of each other.

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