Let's Rethink!

Sometimes in life you just got to do a rethink!  I did a rethink when I was studied for the ordained ministry.   My course of training was headed toward a study steeped in biblical exegesis.   My goal was set!  I wanted to know the Bible inside and out so I could teach people in the churches I would serve.   It was a great goal.   But midway through my studies I came to understand the gospel in a rich new way!   What it meant to be forgiven.  What it meant to be a disciple of Jesus.   And so I did a rethink!   What needed to take priority in my life's calling?   Teaching the members of the churches I would serve?  Or reaching the lost who never went to church, who had left the church, or were astray from church?   Teaching or reaching?   Both are important, and absolutely critical for effective gospel work.   But for me the priority would be on reaching people, on helping those who were lost, astray, or who had left the faith, find their way back home!

What might a rethink mean for you?   As churches we realize the importance of doing a rethink!   A rethink of ministry.   In our Fourfold Task we put it this way: "Full time ordained ministers take time to rethink ministry and seek further training in areas that would aid the fourfold task."  (Check out the full statement here.)  It takes time to do a rethink!   You can't do a rethink on the fly or fit it in quickly between pastoral visits, in the middle of sermon prep, or in the minutes just before a session meeting.  A rethink of ministry involves evaluating what you are doing, how you spend your time, where your priorities are, and checking whether or not the tasks of ministry are really developing the priority of prayer, growing a healthy church, penetrating the structures of society, making disciples, and training up a whole raft of gospel workers?  If not, what do you need to do?   As churches we suggest you might need some further training that would help you do these things more effectively, with a measure of success, bearing gospel fruit!

In my first congregation I knew enough doctrine to teach catechism classes.  I knew enough Bible to have sufficient content to preach twice each week.   But when it came to sharing the faith with the lost and making disciples, I need more training.   All six years of study leading up to my ordination did not prepare me to reach the lost.  So I got the training.  I was retooled for ministry.   When just a few years later I was called to plant a new church, more rethinking and retraining was required.   And I continue to rethink and filling up my ministry toolbox with the knowledge, understanding, and ministry compentencies that will enable me to minister well, right up to retirement and beyond.

So what about you?   What do you need to rethink?  Recently I spent some time with one of our churches wanting to reach their community with the gospel.   They realise that what they are doing is not bearing much gospel fruit.  They are a church in decline.   Their Sunday gatherings are not making a impact on the thousands of unchurched neighbours who are lost, without a relationship with Jesus!  So I am helping them do a rethink!   A rethink of ministry.  One of their members suggested that perhaps rather than having two worship services for their members on a Sunday they need to replace their Sunday evening worship service with one on Thursday evening, a timeslot more suited to reaching the unchurched.  Really?  But do a rethink of ministry!   Did not the early Christians meet everyday together in the temple courts?  (See Acts 2:46)   Perhaps a Thursday evening gathering is not that radical afterall!  And who knows if this is just what it will take to reach people with the good news of Jesus.

So let's rethink ministry!  As a church give time and space for your minister to rethink ministry.  Don't demand all of his time to be spent on you, or preparing sermons, or on the church programs.   Let him rethink ministry.  If you serve on a church session, ask your pastor how much time this past month he spent on rethinking ministry?   A good place to begin rethinking ministry, as an ordained leader in the church, is to spend some time regularly with another for some accountability, coaching, and/or encouragement.   More than 50% of CRCA pastors are currently doing this.   Check out the SHIFT coaching material to help you in this journey.  And remember, rethinking might mean retraining!   Be a lifelong learner.  But it all begins with a rethink!