Mondays Reflection

For me, this week at Sojourn seemed to be a series of promptings. Not all weeks are like that. Promptings are those internal nudges that cause me to wonder (even aloud at times) if this is from God----to question if what I am sensing carries indicators of divine source. Or, do I just need a nap?  Despite uncertainty at times, they remain one of those consistent things in my life that cause me to pause and reflect. These whispers seem to come most often in the form of discontent—dissatisfaction with the way things are.

This week I found myself with a growing uneasiness that we are settling for far too little. Strange as it is, compromise often creeps in through the process we call planning.  Oh, I know, planning ahead is good. But it carries with it the presumption that we can and should.  It has a way of dulling my anticipation of God’s daily surprises hung like post-it notes amidst my daily routine.  Reminding me that there is a God and, I am not him.  So I am often torn between strategy and faith.  Is one the enemy of the other or are we simply called to balance the two—to live in the tension?  When it comes to the question of what right balance of ingredients allows a local church to flourish,  I believe Ephesians 4:11 is worth considering.

In Ephesians 4:11, we find reference to the 5-fold ministry, namely the five gifts given to the church by our Lord Himself. These include the Apostolic and Prophetic gifts along with those of Evangelism, Shepherding and Teaching. The problem has long been the retooling of these gifts in order to fit the confines of theological systems that can restrict rather then expand who God is.  Has Ephesians 4:11 become diluted to the point it has lost its potency in the Western church?  Many have dispensed with the apostolic and prophetic gifts in the confusion over office and gift, relegated evangelism to a program and restricted the gifts of Pastoring and Teaching to a hierarchal formula that divides the body of Christ into camps of “lay” and “clergy”.   So, with three-fifths of the church’s leaders MIA and the other two-fifths out of reach of the ordinary Christ-follower, is it any wonder we have drifted from faith in action to reliance on a strategic planning model?

When the leadership of a local church recognizes and invites a full compliment of gifts around its table, it can gift birth to movement rather then organization.  It allows the body of Christ, in the words of Habakkuk, to “live by faith”.   It is precisely at this point that the church has the right leadership ethos to move forward without reservation, understanding more fully the power of the Gospel to reweave the fabric of the culture around it.

Pastor Jeff