The science of ministry, work, administration, and the summing up of everything
If you find yourself stuck and hitting a Wall, I encourage you to explore the Road Ahead on the Houston campus of Fuller Theological Seminary. There is an entrepreneurial path forward. It involves knowing your true value and worth. It involves empathy and imagination. And it involves Risk. May new entrepreneurial initiatives spring up from your reflections on entrepreneurial vocation.
1. LUKE 14:25-35
2. A SELF-INVENTORY OF VALUE & WORTH
3. THREE CLOSING PRINCIPLES:
1. Without value, we cannot become disciples, because we cannot count the cost.
2. When we understand value, we become worth our own weight in salt.
3. Weighty people make solid disciples.
The Critical Journey stages (Figs. 1-4)
Also: if you are interested in finding out more about the Road Ahead cohort, click here.
1. WORK for the POOR
2. WORKING for the POOR
followed by 3 principles:
1. The poor come first.
2. The best way to serve the poor is to create wealth.
3. Therefore, the pursuit of wealth is appropriate and reasonable if the primary motivation is to serve the poor.
GETTING THE KINGrichDOM
THE ECONOMICS OF THE KINGDOM
The Preferential Option for the Poor
We become what we consume
THE SCOPE OF WORK
Ephesians 1:10 “the summing up of all things (ἀνακεφαλαιόω) in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth“
Irenaeus of Lyons “recapitulation theory”
THE ADMINISTRATION OF WORK
Ephesians 3:9 “to bring to light what is the administration (οἰκονομία) of the mystery“
oἰκονομικά = the science of household management (or, economics: Aristotle)
“The way we win matters” -Ender Wiggin
THE FUTILITY OF WORK
Tim Keller, Katherine Leary Alsdorf, Every Good Endeavor
THE HOPE OF WORK
Gnosticism: the great antagonist of Scripture?
What is on the other side of the Wall?
Jim Manney teaches the Ignatian Prayer of Examen, a vital tool in vocational self-awareness. Without self-awareness and the ability to see God’s manifold graces to us, we are apt to fall into what Ignatius considered the deadliest of all sins: ingratitude.
Jim Manney teaches the Ignatian Prayer of Examen, a vital tool in vocational self-awareness. Without self-awareness and the ability to discern our own desires we are liable to become not only unhealthy, but unsafe for spiritual leadership. The Prayer of Examen is an important tool for honesty and clarity.
Ministry is the unpredictable plant. Therefore, the formation of the minister is just as important as the ministry itself. God is interested not only in Nineveh’s salvation, but Jonah’s as well. “Do you have good reason to be angry?…”
There are reasons why Jonah avoided Nineveh. We can see those same reasons within ourselves if we look close enough. Acceptance is key. True ministry happens when we recognize and accept the Ninevehs in our own lives.
The significance of Jonah's prayer is not that he prayed, but what he prayed. Find a deeper language as you build a Rule of Life for seminary.
Ministry is not about selecting a community, it is about accepting a community. It is not about emotional entanglement, but geographic and circumstantial entanglement. It accepts whoever is on the premises.
HUMAN LOVE:
“human love continues to desire even when it seems to be serving” (34)
“The basis of all human love is the dark, turbid urges and desires of the human mind… it is the deep night that hovers over the sources of all human action, even over all noble and devout impulses” (31)
“Human love is by its very nature desire… So long as it can satisfy this desire in some way, it will not give it up, even for the sake of truth, even for the sake of genuine love… Human love cannot tolerate the dissolution of a fellowship that has become false… Where Christ bids me to maintain fellowship for the sake of love, I will maintain it. Where his truth enjoins me to dissolve a fellowship for love's sake, there I will dissolve it, despite all the protests of my human love.” (34-35)
“Thus there is such a thing as human absorption” (33)
“The human soul seeks a complete fusion of I and Thou” (33)
“Human love loves others not as a free person but as one whom it binds to itself” (34)
How do we recognize if we’ve undertaken a ministry out of human love? Ask:
What are my true motives in being part of this community?
What are my needs that I am trying to have met by this community?
How much of my involvement in this community is driven by self-interest?
How did I enter into this system?
SPIRITUAL LOVE:
Mark 10:45 “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many”
John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
“where human love can no longer expect its desire to be fulfilled, there it stops… in the face of an enemy” (34)
“human love becomes personal hatred” (35)
“The existence of any Christian life together depends on whether it succeeds at the right time in bringing out… spiritual community. The life or death of a Christian community is determined by whether it achieves sober wisdom on this point as soon as possible.” (37)
“spiritual love must release the other person from… all too personal, direct influence, impure interference… every attempt of mine to regulate, coerce, and dominate… The other person needs to retain his independence of me… I must leave him his freedom to be Christ’s… it respects the line that has been drawn between him and me… spiritual love creates freedom” (36-37)
“The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God himself accordingly… So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.” (27-28)
How can I move away from human love towards spiritual love?
Detach my ego from the success or the failure of this church / ministry.
Release them from soft shaming, guilt feelings, and silent expectations.
Be gentle on myself (and thus others).
Decouple from them and break enmeshment & codependency.
Liberate them (from me) to be free.
Music credits: Aleksey Chistilin
See:
Five Steps which are the sine qua non of Lectio Divina
Begin with a reliable text
Sit still
Observe grammatical phenomenon
Suspend interpretation
Adopt this posture in all of life
My agenda is to make us self-aware of our bent towards power - that every. single. one of us. are seducible, and that overcoming it is not always through a singular, defining act of downward mobility, but rather through small everyday deeds of kenosis.
A disclaimer: some serious allegations have been raised about L' Arche, where Nouwen was shaped profoundly as he wrote his book "In the Name of Jesus." The issues he raises still speak proleptically about the circumstances surrounding the scandal to come, and our own ongoing need to be both WHOLE and HOLY.
Our primary calling is to be the beloved and to follow Christ. That is all, and we shall remain here for as long as he calls us to this first-love identity. That said, if he bids us beyond, into more specific secondary callings, we do well to take heed and obey, for denial of such can be dangerous to our souls.
Seminary can easily be a place where you are living in your head all day long, and scholasticism can be a pathway away from God just as much as it can be a pathway to God; You will need something more than academic and intellectual formation – you will need a vital spiritual encounter with Christ.
Build an ark.
