ACT 3 Weekly E-mail : April 21, 2008
Equipping Lives for the Ministry of the Gospel, Part 2
April 21, 2008
John H. Armstrong
Last week I began a mini-series on the life of the minister of the gospel based upon my teaching at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando in March of this year. I gave four points from my presentation. This week I begin with the fourth point and expand it and then go on to three more points.
1. Develop a Healthy Imagination
I grew up in the old South. I saw racism in the 1950s up close. I have never gotten over it really. But I soon adopted the attitude that I was not a racist since I never did any of these bad things myself. I hated the overt racism and spoke out. By this stance I felt I escaped all racism, personal and corporate. Through these developments I never owned up to what my own white people did and to the way I profited financially and intellectually because of their racism, overt or otherwise. I also used this cover to shield me from listening to the stories of my black brothers and sisters in the present era. I assumed that the problems could all be solved by well-intentioned hard working black people. Any appeal to race was new reverse racism and the equation I adopted was that this was quite simply the "race card" played by liberals. I believe that this is what was behind my recent blogs on Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright.
Many of my white brothers and sisters still do not understand my approach because they have not yet seen how racism has a insidious and systemic quality about it that requires me/us to admit my/our advantages and then to listen more carefully to the anger that some black Christians feel about white people in America. If the Church is still divided by race then we have a missional problem. Can anyone deny that it is and be serious about this issue?
If I am committed to reconciliation and mission, which I am very deeply, then I do not know any other way to approach this very real problem. In this case truly knowing the African-American story helps me a great deal. I get that story from film, art, books and a lot of listening to real people, not myself. My imagination about the black experience is growing and I am learning and this humbling process is important to my mission and leadership as a minister. I pray that more white Christians will join me in this journey. I hope I can influence them to do so.
As another example of using imagination well you need fiction. I confess that I did not read fiction until I was in my forties. Sadly, I was exposed to literature in prep school and college but it didn't grip me like it should have. It was not the fault of my teachers for I had some great teachers. It was because my mind is wired for propositions and arguments more than imagination. I only tolerated art and saw an occasional film. Our age is now a visually driven culture. Thus telling a good story is still a real challenge for me. I had to work at every one of these problems with real effort. I believe my life, and leadership ability, is much better for that hard work. I encourage ministers to develop a healthy imagination if they want to impact the lives of others at the deepest levels.
2. Maintain a Good Sense of Humor
I do not innately possess a sense of humor. I take myself far too seriously and thus tend to think everything is life and death serious. I was given a wife, however, who was born with a sense of humor. She has spent her lifetime developing it even further. She has been a lovely gift to me in so many ways but this is one that truly stands out. (It is not the only one I assure you.)
I can still recall the late Vance Havner telling ministers that if you would succeed in the ministry you must have a sense of humor. I have heard it said by many since. One mission used to tell future missionaries that two things were needed to succeed as a career missionary: (1) Profound piety, and (2) A great sense of humor. I agree. Without both you will never make it in the ministry.
Christians in general, and ministers in particular, must be able to see humor in so many moments and events that happen in life. Most of all, we must learn to take our work seriously but never ourselves. Some of the most neurotic Christian leaders I have known had no sense of humor. (Beware of such leaders!) Their followers do not pay attention to this problem and the results are often deadly. If a minister does not have a healthy sense of humor I now tend to avoid them, since I have found such ministers will generally become fierce foes of mine in the end. They do not make good friends, just allies in causes. A lot of those I thought to be my friends proved to be allies who left me when they disagreed with me. My best friends disagree with me but they also laugh at me, and with me, and then stay by me.
3. Friendship
The minister must have real friends. Yet the typical pastor is told that they can never develop close friends within their local congregation. I have mixed emotions about this counsel. I think I would say, after forty years of thought about it, that you can have close friends within a congregation, but you must be very careful about how quickly you develop such relationships and what you expect of them. I am sure of this, however - you must have friends beyond your congregation. You need peers who are truly good friends and you need relationships that have nothing to do with your work directly.
And if you have true friendships you must come to value them very highly. You can only have a few. Work at them. Make them a priority in your life. The friendless pastor is far too common. Pastors are some of the loneliest people that I've known. (They suffer silently in most cases.) They need to cultivate times with people who are their own age as well as people who are older and younger. (As you get older you should actually want younger friends more than ever. This may seem counterintuitive but my younger friends keep me very fresh and alive.) Someone once told me that you needed to have in your life: (1) People you are mentoring, (2) People who are your peers, and (3) People who are mentoring you. I would agree.
My best friend is my wife. She is my "soul-mate" in the truest sense. I will tell her things I would tell no one else. She is not so much my partner in the ministry, a term I have never liked since she was not called to the ministry with me, but she is my true friend. She knows me like no one else. She reads me like a book. She knows my weaknesses and yet she still loves me. She gives me the advice I need even when I do not like it. Most of all she loves me for who I am, not as a pastor with a ministry to many other people or an author or leader.
4. Cultivate True Piety and Toughness
Piety literally means "duty to God." We live in a time when the ideas of duty and honor seem missing. But duty was bred into me via an ROTC background in a high school military academy, something I am still grateful for to this day. I understand the word and the concept and believe that I have a "duty" to obey God because of the love of Christ and his sacrifice for me. Thus I know I must be trained and work hard at cultivating true piety.
I use the word "true" here because there is such a thing as false piety. False piety has it all backwards. It seeks to make duty a means to gaining favor or impressing others. True piety does not need to be seen or heard. It is the formation of the heart by the presence and power of God himself.
The minister who lacks true piety will soon fail. This is what will keep you from falling. It will keep you true to your vows to your wife, true to your ordination promises and true to your God. You must, however, cultivate it. Just as a diligent farmer cultivates his fields this spring for planting so you must cultivate your heart day-by-day. You do this by acts of true devotion, by worship, by reading the Bible not for a sermon but for your soul. Lectio divina, or sacred reading, has become a key for me. Lectio requires me to read with intensity and care. It puts the emphasis on how this word speaks to me. Spiritual formation is a new discovery for many evangelicals. I pray it is not another fad like so many others we've embraced.
The faithful minister must not only be pious but that piety has to be linked to toughness, both mentally and spiritually. When I was at Disney World's Animal Kingdom, the same week that I spoke to the seminary class, I took the tour of the African open lands. We saw a black rhino and they told us that there are only a few hundred left in the world since poachers want their valuable tusks. The speaker said they had a hide that was over a quarter inch thick. I thought to myself: "I think I have such a hide."
A few days later I had a nurse insert an IV into my hand before surgery and she said, "I've never had so much trouble. You have very thick skin." I said to her, "I got it from being in the ministry all these years. It is the only way I made it."
Next Week: I have several more items to share in Part Three, my final article in this series, on April 28.
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