{"id":865,"date":"2011-06-16T12:15:20","date_gmt":"2011-06-16T19:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=865"},"modified":"2011-06-16T12:15:20","modified_gmt":"2011-06-16T19:15:20","slug":"the-pragmatics-of-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=865","title":{"rendered":"The Pragmatics of Ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bible works<\/em>. The Bible is true<\/em>. The Bible works<\/em> precisely because it is true<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But what precisely does that mean? What does the Bible do<\/em>?<\/p>\n

I ask because the fact is there are many, even within the ranks of Evangelicalism today\u2014even among ministry leaders within Evangelicalism today, that doubt this.<\/p>\n

The evidence?<\/p>\n

The widespread dependence upon other things, rather than the Bible to produce the desired effect of ministry labors. Things such as programs, celebrities, music, staging, choreography, lights, lasers and smoke (yes, I\u2019m serious!), marketing, makeup, organizational structure, etc., etc., etc. To any combination of these add generous seasonings of hype, pizzazz and zest and you\u2019ve manufactured a \u201cmove of God.\u201d The crowds will follow.<\/p>\n

And in all things change<\/em> is essential. We have a culturally inbred disdain for anything that we even think might smell of \u201cyesterday.\u201d New<\/em> sells. Old<\/em> repels. It is enough to make one wonder about the shelf-life of the things of God. Things like prayer and the Bible.<\/p>\n

We are\u2014in a word\u2014pragmatic<\/em>. Pragmatism is not concerned with whether something is true. Pragmatism asks \u201cDoes it work<\/em>?\u201d It has no time for anything it deems to be theoretical. Philosophizing and dreaming are deemed a waste of time. Just tell me, \u201cDoes it get the job done?\u201d Thus the famous line by the TV psychologist: \u201cHow\u2019s that working for ya?\u201d<\/p>\n

As good 21st<\/sup> Century, North American Christians we take the same basic approach to the things of God. If it doesn\u2019t \u201cwork,\u201d we conclude, without a moment\u2019s hesitation or even a nanosecond of reflection, that we need to just move on to the next ministry technique, trend, fad or hot topic. If people aren\u2019t buying the Bible right now, try talking about their needs. If they aren\u2019t interested in gathering for prayer, talk with them about what they are interested in. The hope\u2014latent and under the surface, almost so much so as to be completely forgotten\u2014is that eventually they\u2019d come to like the Bible and be willing to pray.<\/p>\n

The concern in all this is: who defines what it means to \u201cwork\u201d? Does it mean, as we hear people say, \u201cThat just doesn\u2019t work for me<\/em>\u201d? What do we mean when we say the Bible works? By whose definition? By what standard? On whose timetable?<\/p>\n

I am afraid that in all this we forget that we live and labor on an eternal continuum. This is not just something we should<\/em> do, a perspective we ought<\/em> to have, but something that is in fact real<\/em>. Eternity is real. And if it is, the finish line is not where we\u2014bound by and living in time\u2014naturally conclude it to be. So I ask, when is it ever time (in this world) to decide something, defined and demanded by the Bible as unchanging, \u201cdoesn\u2019t work\u201d? It may not appear to be effecting the change we long for and, indeed, which God promises\u2014but is that the fault of the Bible or is it possible that the fault resides elsewhere?<\/p>\n

If we abandon the Biblical and embrace a time-defined pragmatism in ministry, when are we ever going to be able to say with the Apostle Paul, \u201cFor our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.\u201d (2 Cor. 4:17-18)<\/p>\n

Perhaps our contemporary spiritual bankruptcy is because we\u2019ve drawn artificial, time-bound, self-centered timelines by which we decide if something \u201cworks.\u201d Maybe things don\u2019t \u201cwork\u201d because we\u2019re using them to the wrong ends or are evaluating them along an arbitrary timeline.<\/p>\n

Could it be that our preoccupation with self is something to be repented of, rather than something to be cultivated and coddled in marketing our newest ministry strategy. Is it possible that our impatience with the Bible and prayer as \u201cterribly inefficient\u201d betrays the real reason the power of the Scripture doesn\u2019t show up more often in our thoughts, words and actions. Maybe all this \u201cdoesn\u2019t work for me<\/em>,\u201d precisely because we\u2019ve got \u201cme\u201d in the center of everything when the center of center stage is reserved for Someone Else.<\/p>\n

The Bible is true<\/em>. It is for that very reason that it works<\/em>. The Bible does what it says and performs what it promises. It may not do as I wish. It may not cater to my interpretations. It may not inquire about my deadlines. But it will do just what it says it will do. If that appears not to be true, step back and examine the grid by which you are examining the Bible. Today<\/em> may be too soon to prove the Bible \u201cworks\u201d (for not all is promised to us instantly), but I can assure you that tomorrow<\/em> will prove the ultimate failure of whatever you may have substituted in its place.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bible works. The Bible is true. The Bible works precisely because it is true. But what precisely does that mean? What does the Bible do? I ask because the fact is there are many, even within the ranks of Evangelicalism today\u2014even among ministry leaders within Evangelicalism today, that doubt this. The evidence? The widespread […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2-corinthians","category-pastoral-ministry","post-preview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYGxX-dX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=865"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865\/revisions\/869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}