The Key to Effective Minsitry

Spiritual ministry isn't dependent upon technique. It's the outflow of a way of life.

The moment we adopt the "technique" approach in Christian work we are little better than witchdoctors trying to manipulate higher powers. That might sound extreme, and perhaps it is. Nevertheless, whenever we try to gain the influence of another realm through rituals or techniques, we are engaging in a kind of shamanism. And that's not the way we enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit working in and through us. He will not be manipulated. 

Indeed, he is absolutely sovereign in the exercise of his power. Ultimately there is nothing we can do to ensure that his power attends our activities for Christ. We can, however, be assured of his presence if we live humble, dependent lives. Jesus has promised to be with his disciples until the job of discipling the nations is done (Matthew 28:20). From that point of view we don't need to do anything to gain his presence - he is already with us and living in us by his Spirit if we truly belong to him.

What we need to do is to "walk in the Spirit" rather than in the sinful nature (or flesh). Anyone who does that, seeking to integrate their lives into the spiritual kingdom of God, can be assured that the Spirit will work in and through them as he pleases. They will never be abandoned and left to their own resources if they fully trust in him.

That's the key to effective spiritual ministry - if there is such a thing as a "key."   

The Nature of Spiritual Influence in Christian Ministry

The idea that impressed me most deeply when thinking about the structure outlined in the last post was the point relating to the nature of spiritual influence in ministry.

I tried to capture what came to mind in the following words: "The spiritual dimension in effective Christian ministry is not the influence of an impersonal force but the co-working of a personal presence."

What did I mean by this? First of all, I wanted to establish that spiritual influence in Christian ministry is not due to an impersonal force. It is rather due to the personal presence of the Holy Spirit working in and with a Christian. In that sense it is not impersonal. And neither is it something that is random or unpredictable. It is the result of the Holy Spirit present within us, actively at work through us. Put another way, it is not the influence of a vague spiritual power that is manipulated by technique. It is rather the intelligent, definite operation of a Person.  

What is more, it is the operation of a sovereign, holy Person who has the glory of Christ and of the Father in his heart. He is not at our beck and call. He is always at hand when truly sought, but never at our disposal. The Spirit never surrenders his sovereignty, nor his commitment to God's redemptive purposes, to meet the whims of those he indwells.

True spiritual ministry, then, is the cooperative activity of a personal human agent with the indwelling personal Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Godhead. In that sense it can be called an act of the "co-working"of two persons. That is not to say that the two parties are of equal status. The Spirit always remains sovereign and the Christian always dependent. Nevertheless, the relationship is never mechanical. In working in and with us, the Spirit respects to our humanity. Our cooperative working is that of persons who love each other dearly, not the mechanical interaction of a technician and a robot, of a tyrant and his slave.

If that is indeed the case, then the foundation of Christian ministry lies in relationship - the interaction of persons - rather than the manipulation of force. That's got to be the starting point of any consideration of spiritual ministry.

Charting our Course

Yesterday morning as I was preparing to lead Sunday worship I saw with fresh clarity the direction I want this writing project on spiritual ministry to take.

It can be summarised in a series of successive steps:

• The first is to establish that Christian ministry (service for the Lord in whatever form that takes) has a spiritual dimension to it. This is evident throughout the Bible, but especially so in the New Testament era of the Spirit.
• The second is to establish that the spiritual dimension involved is not the influence of an impersonal spiritual force but the co-working of a personal spiritual presence. That is to say, ministry that is spiritually effective is the result of the co-working of God with us through the Spirit dwelling in us.
• Third, that this fact makes effective Christian ministry, from a human point of view, dependent on relationship rather than technique. The influence of the Spirit in our ministry or work cannot be manipulated or forced. It comes as the free gift of God's grace. And it is typically obtained in the context of an intimate, dependent relationship through prayer rather than through any "tried and proven" method.
• Fourth, the Lord Jesus provides a paradigm for such empowered spiritual ministry. His own ministry was a ministry "in the Spirit" - a ministry enabled and empowered by the presence of his Father with him (Acts 10:38). And the means by which the constant empowering of the Father was obtained is set before us in the dynamics of his relationship with his Father unfolded in the Gospel according to John.
• The dynamics of Jesus' relationship with his Father are not of a different kind, but the fulfillment and perfecting of, the relationship enjoyed by believers in every age. The book of Psalms offers detailed insight into the intimate, interactive, dependent relationship God has always meant his children to have with him.
• A study of Jesus' life and of the Psalms enables us to recognise several elements to the relational spirituality necessary to effective Christian ministry. These elements include reality, realisation, reckoning, receptivity, responsiveness, reliance and rejoicing. A consideration of each of these provides a framework for the kind of relationship that ensures the presence of God working with us in our service for him.
• These different elements have proved integral to the varied aspects of pastoral ministry that I have engaged in over the past two years. They have been true of my life in Christ for a much longer period than that, but have surfaces with greater clarity over the past two years.

The entries in this blog will fall within this broad structure. They won't be in sequence, but will fit somewhere within this framework. The task of ordering them will come later.

A New Way of Writing

Spiritual life and pastoral ministry have been a twin focus for much of my forty years as a Christian. From the time I was awakened to active spiritual life as a first year university student in 1969 I've been aware of the possibility of a personal relationship with God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. And I've been equally aware of how such a relationship is the basis of any ministry activity in which I might engage in the name of the Lord Jesus. Marrying these two things - spiritual life and practical ministry - has been an absorbing concern through the years since then.

When I had opportunity for a six month sabbatical in the USA in 2007, the Board of Grace Theological College asked if I would explore the possibility of doing a Doctor of Ministry degree through Birmingham Theological Seminary. I duly enrolled for such a degree, presenting a thesis proposal under the title "The Spiritual Roots of Effective Ministry". In the months that have followed there has scarcely been a day when I have not thought and reflected on this great theme. Getting these reflections on paper, however, has been another thing. I have lost count of how many abortive attempts I have made to do so.

I'm hoping that this blog format will allow me to do this more effectively than traditional "thesis writing". Part of the difficulty I've encountered up until this point has been trying to write on a deeply reflective subject in an academic way. Every attempt to polish and tighten my prose stifles the flow of thought and creativity so essential to the task. What I sense the need to do is to reflect on ideas one at a time, and short blog entries promise to be a way of doing that. Eventually I hope to gather them all together and organize them into the book form that the degree requires.

Meanwhile, the exercise of writing and reflecting on one thought at a time will be a way of clarifying what I've come to believe on how spiritual life is to be integrated with practical ministry.