Living in Tension, 2 Volume Set

A Theology of Ministry

Webster

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781621894223
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

If you have picked up this book, chances are you are a committed follower of Christ. Like many searching Christians you are tired of religious busywork and showy piety. You long for authentic worship and meaningful service. You came to Christ with deep expectations of transformation and service, but those passions have been starved by shallow theology and superficial relationships. You are looking for something more. You are ready to sink your mind into what the Bible says about the call of God, the priesthood of all believers, and what it means to live for Christ and his kingdom.The two-volume Living in Tension offers in-depth spiritual direction on the crucial issues shaping a theology of ministry. This is not a book for pastors only. Webster intentionally blurs the distinction between pastor and congregation. This book is for all believers who take God's call to salvation, service, sacrifice, and simplicity seriously. Living in Tension provides need-to-know insights for every congregation. Pastors will find that this passionate and practical theology translates well into their own lives and into the life of the church.

Living in Tension

A Theology of Ministry

—Volume 1­—

The Nature of Ministry:
Faithfulness from the Beginning

Douglas D. Webster

Acknowledgments

First Presbyterian Church of San Diego and my students at Beeson Divinity School were the catalyst for this work. I wanted to offer to students a theology of ministry, tested and shaped over time, that grew out of the practical reality of serving a household of faith. My understanding of the themes expressed here, such as the priesthood of all believers, every-member ministry, and mutual submission in Christ, took a long time for me to grasp and to develop. I would have liked to start out with these wonderful truths worked into my life and ministry, but the Lord and his saints have been very gracious and patient with me. Sharing these perspectives with soon-to-be pastors and church members is the motive for writing. For the last couple of years, Central Presbyterian Church in Manhattan has also been a great place to work out and test these truths.

Many friends have helped shape this work. A special thank you goes to Jason Fincher, Jim Meals, Jeremiah Webster, and Kennerly King for their valuable suggestions. I am grateful to editor Rodney Clapp and to Wipf and Stock for publishing this work without regard to potential sales. I credit a lot of the joy of my work to my wife Virginia, who makes life and ministry feel fresh and vital. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has been very good to me and I hope that comes through in these pages.

Introduction

Working with ancient perspectives and contemporary practices is bound to generate a tension. The contemplative nature of the classics offers a level of reflection on ministry that seems as foreign as it is intense. In significant ways, the early church fathers understood the life and death significance of the work of the church. Their passion for Christ is evident.

The intensity of John Chrysostom’s Treatise on the Priesthood, Gregory the Theologian’s Oration II, and Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Rule, led me to rethink my relatively laid back approach to ministry. The example of these ancient pastors caused me to meditate on the nature of ministry in a new way, more as a passion than a profession. There is a contemplative intensity in Martin Luther’s The Babylonian Captivity of the Church and The Freedom of the Christian, and in Book IV of John Calvin’s Institutes and Richard Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor that I find inspiring. They wrote more as working pastors than academics, not for scholarly review, but for spiritual impact. While their focus tended to be on the pastor and his office, mine is on a theology of ministry for all believers. My aim is to convey in some small way the intensity and passion for ministry expressed by the ancients and to carry on the dialogue.

A theology of ministry is as much for the congregation as it is for the pastor. All believers are called to salvation, service, sacrifice, and simplicity. Books on pastoral theology that target the pastor inevitably and unfortunately split up the ministry into clergy and laity categories. We need to hold the ministry of the church together and resist the clergy-laity divide. Most Christians believe pastors should be gifted by the Spirit, thoroughly trained, and well-equipped for ministry. They believe that pastors are set apart by a Spirit-led congregation to teach the Word of God and exercise spiritual authority in the household of faith. Faithful disciples also believe in every-member ministry, shared leadership, the distribution of the gifts of the Spirit among all believers, and the mutually received call to ministry. Every member of the household of faith is in some way a pastor, a missionary, a theologian, and a servant leader. In Christ, we are all called to take up a cross and follow Jesus.

What would it be like to send the whole congregation to seminary, not just the pastor, but the whole church? In the past, we may have done a better job of bringing the seminary to the congregation. Week-long Bible conferences and missions emphasis weeks went a long way in training lay people for ministry and in shaping their expectations for service. John Sung was one of China’s early twentieth-century evangelists. Biographer Leslie T. Lyall explains that Sung longed to see Christians better established in the Scriptures. In the summer of 1936, Sung hosted a month-long Bible conference from July 10 to August 9, in southeast China. Sixteen hundred believers came from all over China for thirty days of Bible study. Beginning with Genesis 1, Sung taught the Bible chapter by chapter, until he reached the last chapter of the Book of Revelation. In his closing session, Dr. Sung said, “Beloved brothers and sisters . . . Within one month the Lord has enabled us to study the Bible book by book, and now this Bible is yours to take home with you. I have but given you a sort of key and you must go on studying for yourselves . . . During these thirty days I have trembled before the Lord, that I might rightly expound to you the Word of God.”1 Can you imagine what it would be like for a congregation of sixteen hundred members to gather together for thirty days of intense Bible study? Before you dismiss the idea as hopelessly unrealistic, consider what the impact would be on the life of the church. Even one week of serious Bible study, table fellowship, daily worship, and life together would transform our churches.

Few students today learn their theology at their mother’s knee. Seminary seems to be where they begin to cultivate a deep familiarity with the Bible. But for earlier generations the home was the “little seminary” that introduced the theological curriculum long before formal ministry training began. It was worked into the daily family routine as nothing unusual or especially spiritual. I cannot think of any particular course in the seminary or divinity school that would not benefit ordinary believers. Studies in Hebrew and Greek may be asking too much, but a course in linguistics and the Bible would not only encourage humility but enhance a person’s understanding and application of the Word of God. Studies in church history, theology, biblical interpretation, spiritual formation, preaching, and pastoral counseling would serve only to strengthen serious believers, whether or not they were gifted for teaching or church leadership.

Instead of viewing the seminary as a professional school for pastors, we ought to see the seminary as a learning center for the church. The rigors of graduate school are designed to develop natural aptitudes, convey essential knowledge, and prepare a person to specialize in their chosen field of expertise. Medicine, law, and engineering are professions that require a high degree of specialization, but theological education is different in one very important way. All theology belongs to the church and serves to strengthen the Body of Christ, and all seminary courses ought to be designed to strengthen the church and its mission. Even a general knowledge of medicine, law, or engineering is beyond the capacity of the ordinary layperson, but biblical and theological studies are essential to the worship practice and body life of the local church. It makes good sense for a doctor or a business person to take courses in spiritual formation and Old Testament theology.

In this theology of ministry, we face a positive tension. We want to strengthen the authority of the pastor without diminishing the responsibilities of the congregation. We want to take seriously the Spirit’s gifts for every-member ministry and the priesthood of all believers. A theology of ministry is multi-faceted. Instead of a linear approach, laying out the ABC’s of ministry, or a simple listing of the ten easy steps to a successful ministry, I have opted for a more layered approach. Our aim is to add truth upon truth, layering biblical insights one after another as we explore the nature and practice of the ministry. Then, we want to laminate each of these layers into a composite that produces a realistic and resilient theology of ministry, not only in our thinking, but in our living.

To get our bearings, we have to enter into the story of salvation history beginning with the priesthood of all believers and the call of God to salvation, service, sacrifice, and simpli...

Table of contents

• Living in Tension, Volume 1
• Living in Tension, Volume 2