After stirring up a bit of debate on the subject of ‘excellence’ recently (thanks to those who posted comments) – let me add a further thought on this topic.
Excellence is good – we rightly enjoy and praise excellent food, music, football, woodwork, etc etc. We may not always be able to define exactly what ‘excellence’ is but we know it when we see (hear) it. However, appreciating when things are excellent and, as it were, requiring excellence need not go hand in hand. Because if we make the attainment of excellence central to how we do things in ministry – we risk ‘professionalising’ ministry and only attaching real value to the contributions of a highly gifted elite in the church.
The church is described in the NT as a family – so what is good and true our domestic families should hold good in the church family. So what therefore is the place of excellence in our homes? Do we forbid our children to pray at the dinner table because they're not, let’s be honest, very eloquent? Is the best reader in the house the only one who can read the Bible out loud at bed time? Should Mum always cook the dinner because she has the most experience?
I’m much more comfortable the idea of people doing their best and being appreciated for that (even when it’s not ‘excellent’). The church is a family – and families need to give space and time for its members to develop gifts, make mistakes, have off-days and grow in an environment of encouragement, support and appreciation. You know that feeling you get when your child is excluded by other kids from taking part in something (because ‘they’re rubbish’) – I wonder how God feels when it happens to His children?
4 comments:
Andy
Again, I very much enjoyed reading your Blog. Thank you for once more raising this issue. However, I wonder if you have chosen the right metaphor to illumine the issue. More often that not the use of the ‘family’ analogy in scripture has to do with resemblance [family likeness – be like your Father] or the need to show practical love to one another - not with gift or how we function in the Church. When discussing the use of gifts Paul uses a different analogy – that of the body.
1 Corinthians 12
1Now about spiritual gifts… 4There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men…
12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31But eagerly desire the greater gifts.
Here the conclusion Paul comes to seems, at best, different from your own. In the context of this analogy encouraging the poor or ungifted to perform a function they are not suited for is like asking an ear to be an eye or a foot to pick up something.
It is the job of the church to identify and encourage gift. It might make you or me uncomfortable to have to tell someone that they are not gifted preachers [you can add other gifts at this point] but in the end it is best for them and the Church.
Both metaphors are true and important aren't they? More, in the church they can't be fully separated can they?
Immediately after discussing spiritual gifts in 1 Cor 12, Paul goes on to discuss in 1 Cor 13 'a more excellent way'; it is the way of love. Here we are moving seamlessly from 'body' to 'family' metaphor. Both have to be held in tension and tandem in the church.
The world at large pursues 'excellence' but has little place for excellence in the context of love. Excellence is pursued ruthlessly and singlemindedly, often devoid of human compassion far less Christian love. It has no room for sentiments like, 'Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy... It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs... It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres'.
John Piper's comments are worth repeating,
'We pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral
ministry. The mentality of the professional is not the mentality of the
prophet. It is not the mentality of the slave of Christ. Professionalism has
nothing to do with the essence and the heart of the Christian ministry.
The more professional we long to be, the more spiritual death we will
leave in our wake. For there is no professional childlikeness, there is no
professional tenderheartedness, there is no professional panting after
God. Brothers we are not professionals. We are outcasts. We are aliens and
exiles in the world. Our citizenship is in Heaven, and we wait with eager
expectation for the Lord (Phil. 3:20). You cannot professionalize the love
for His appearing without killing it. And it is being killed.
The world sets the agenda of the professional man; God sets the agenda
of the spiritual man. The strong wine of Jesus Christ explodes the
wineskins of professionalism.'
This short essay is well worth reading and is available to read at google books.
We do need to make judgements about gifting but these judgements are more likely to be appropriate and edifying if love suffuses. Donald is (surely right)cautioning against a 'laissez faire' approach to church that opts out of appropriate evaluation of gifting: Andy is (surely right)cautioning against a soulless professionalism that is carping, loveless and destructive.
In my view, both perspectives are correct and together create a context for church ministry.
John
I agree entirely. We must exercise our responsibility to identify and develop gift gently and graciously. We treat each other as family and we function as a body. Both are needed. I apologise if I implied that we did not need to exercise love in our application of biblical principles.
I grew up in a church where you only had to be male to exercise your “gift” to fill the platform - either chairing or speaking, able to sit up straight at the pedal organ and press random keys to exercise your “gift” to lead the singing, able to stay in a room without murdering a child to exercise your “gift” to teach Sunday School. Therefore, I quite like hearing excellent preaching and excellent chairing, excellent music and excellent children's talks at church. I also love to hear new people starting out on the road of any of these paths and seeing them develop.
I also love it when people are gently guided by their leaders to leave the round hole and find the square one, especially when it's blindingly obvious to everyone looking on!
I can play the piano...
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