The Grace Awakening
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Are You Really a Min„ >ter of Grace?
professing to educate eaglets; a limpet elected to preside over angels. . . .
Moreover, when a preacher is poor in grace, any lasting good which may be the result of his ministry, will usually be feeble and utterly out of proportion with what might have been expected. 5
All this brings us back to my opening question: Are you really a minister of grace? Is yours a "grace awakening" ministry? Is your leadership characterized by grace? In almost thirty years of ministry I have observed two very noticeable characteristics of those who lack grace and operate in the energy of the flesh. Both could be called grace killers. One has to do with projects and the other with people.
First, I notice that those who operate in the flesh use human might in order to accomplish visible projects. There are always telltale signs: Great emphasis is placed on "success." There is no hesitation to use strategies from the world; secular managerial styles are employed, impressive techniques are used, size and numbers mean too much, and manipulative methods are used for raising money. It is extremely important to make a good impression. Without exception, the importance is placed on impressing people, not glorifying God. Weaknesses are hidden. Vulnerability is out of the question. The great hope is to hear people exclaim, "Wow! Look at that." There is a gnawing hunger for a place in the headlines.
Second, I notice that those with a might-and-power style rely on personality power to get their way with people. Several ingredients go into this style of ministry: Charisma. Power plays. Pressure. Force. Threats. Control. Intimidation. Deceit, if necessary. Embarrassment, if essential. Rather than encouraging people to pray, to wait, to seek God's mind, and to rely on His Spirit for clear direction, this style of leadership (I have a hard time calling it a "ministry") abuses people, uses them for unfair advantage, bullies them if they get in the way, and discards them once they are no longer "useful."
Are You Really a Minister of Grace?
All who desire to be ministers of grace need the reminder that this counsel is not popular in a day of great emphasis on rapid church growth and highly efficient methods for making things happen. A prophet today who uses words like, "not by might nor by power" is a lonely voice in the wilderness. You will not find it in newspapers or most magazines (secular or Christian), nor will you find it promoted in most churches. Sadly, it isn't overtly taught in most seminaries, either. There, you may learn to handle the text of Scripture or a system for understanding theology, maybe a fairly good grasp of church history, but being a grace-oriented minister? Not likely.
My warning stands: Anything that does not result in God's getting the glory ought to be enough to restrain our own might and power so His Spirit can do the job, which includes removing the obstacles. It is easy to forget that not all the grace killers are "out there" trying to get people under the law. Some are "in here," within the ranks of leadership, trying to do God's will their way.
I once knew a very kind college president who framed a small sign and hung it on the wall leading to his office in the administration building on the campus. Only three words appeared, but they spoke with eloquence, inviting students and faculty in:
KINDNESS SPOKEN HERE.
Enough of the negatives and the warnings in this chapter. Let's turn our thoughts from those who are not examples of grace to how we might become better at modeling and promoting it. Hopefully, the things we uncover from the New Testament will be so invigorating and inviting, some who are now grace killers will become grace givers. And speaking of that, what are some of the characteristics of a grace-awakening ministry? How would people know if there is grace to be found in your ministry? I've never seen anyone advertise it, at least not in printed form, but there are ways others can know that "Grace Is Shown Here." Five come to mind.
Are You Really a Minister of Grace?
OBVIOUS MARKS OF A GRACE-AWAKENING MINISTER
The first of these characteristics is generosity with personal possessions (absence of selfishness). In the earliest days of the church, the generosity of God's people was notorious.
And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own; but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales, and lay them at the apostles' feet; and they would be distributed to each, as any had need. (Acts 4:32-35)
There they were, a flock of sheep struggling for survival in a hostile world of Christ-hating citizens and politicians. They had every reason to live frightened, selfish lives of isolation and secrecy. Not so! Do you know why? We just read the answer: Because "abundant grace was upon them all." That prompted a spirit of generosity, a genuine desire to meet needs. Can you believe the results? "There was not a needy person among them. . . ."
An atmosphere of grace creates an absence of selfishness. After all, it isn't your money, it's God's money. So you give it. It isn't your church, it's God's church; so you share it. They aren't your people, pastor, they're God's people; so you release them. It isn't your project, it's God's project; so you rely on Him. Going back to what we learned from Zechariah's vision, it is His work done His way for His glory. Even though you could raise twice the amount in the energy of the flesh, you refuse to do so. You won't do it! You will trust God to work in His way and in His time. Understand, you will present the need and invite a response, but you will refuse to strong-arm your own plan.
Are You Really a Minister of Grace?
By the way, I've noticed that words like mine and keep and ours are not heard in ministries of grace. Neither does a suspicious kind of spirit pervade a place where there is grace. Instead, there is open-handed generosity.
I have learned a lot about grace from the flock I have served here in Fullerton, California, since 1971. What models of generosity! Several years ago when a sister church in downtown Los Angeles was struggling for survival—the historic Church of the Open Door—we were moved with compassion. We kept hearing of their plight over television and reading about it in the paper. We began to pray for them. Our pastoral staff and boards unanimously agreed that we should do more than pray, however. One Sunday we announced that we were going to receive an after-church offering, all of which would be sent to that church to encourage them. I will never forget the enthusiasm. Everybody was thrilled to participate. I cannot remember the exact amount, but somewhere around $18,000 was contributed. More recently, the mid-October 1989 San Francisco earthquake took its toll on two of our sister churches in the Bay area. One was greatly damaged, and the other also needed a fair amount of repair. Again, we felt we should do more than pray and write. With only a brief announcement, an after-church offering was collected, allowing us to send over $8,000 to one church and more than $4,000 to the other. Ours is not a wealthy church, but there is an abundance of grace, which brings generosity with personal possessions. Such unselfish joy is contagious.
Another characteristic of a grace-awakening ministry is encouragement in unusual situations (absence of predictability). Where grace abounds you will not only find generosity with personal possessions, you will also find encouragement in unusual settings. Grace keeps us flexible, willing to adapt.
Some time after the Jerusalem church was established, God's desire was that they take the gospel to the Gentiles. We read in Acts 11 how it happened.
Are You Really a Minister of Grace?
So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. (Acts 11:19-20)
They first went to Jews alone, bu
t later they found themselves surrounded by Greeks, and so they went to the Greeks also. They didn't change their message. They were still preaching the Lord Jesus. But they were flexible with their method. The target changed from strictly Jews to Jews and Gentiles. That took grace.
When the church at Jerusalem heard of the large numbers of Gentiles who were turning to the Lord in Antioch, they sent Barnabas to check it out. Once in Antioch, he witnessed a new setting. Rather than an all-Jewish congregation, there were Greeks everywhere. He saw the grace of God at work, and he applauded it. He encouraged them. There was no legalism, no "you-ought-to-be-grateful" speeches. No place for shame or warnings. He modeled grace in a different setting. He adapted. Likewise, when you and I minister graciously, we have room for a different way of ministering.
Missionaries who do the best job are people of grace. If they minister cross-culturally, they don't try to change people into Western Christians. They don't try to make the American culture the standard for Christian living. When they are in Latin America they minister to Latinos in a context of Latin America. When they are in the Orient, they adapt to the Oriental way of thinking, because the mind of the Oriental is so different from the Western mind. That is grace! There is a lack of predictability, true freedom, willing adaptability—a sense of comfort in other methods of expression. The absence of a narrow, rule-book mentality frees anyone for an open-hearted ministry. It is fun to be around those who minister like that.
Are You Really a Minister of Grace?
There is affirmation along with a lot of flexibility. Rather than requiring a predictable style of response, grace-awakening ministries encourage openness, acceptance, and a willingness to go with the cultural flow. Best of all, converts are given plenty of freedom to learn and to grow,
Years ago, when the Jesus-people ministry was meeting needs out here on the West Coast, some of the churches got pretty nervous with the results. Frankly, I admired the outreach of Calvary Chapel under Chuck Smith's competent and wise leadership; it became one of the dominant forces in that era. Interest in spiritual things remained strong, thanks to Chuck (and others, of course) who decided to reach out to those who were disillusioned on the bleak backwash of the Timothy Leary philosophy. Some of the churches flexed back then and as a result became harbors of hope for young men and women who had dropped out of society.
During that same era a young man stumbled into our church one Sunday evening. He was stunned to see a building full of folks, singing and having a great time together. There he stood, barefoot, cutoffs, no shirt, full beard ... all alone. I watched from the platform as he stared in amazement. We found out later it was the first time in his life he had ever been inside a church among a congregation. He wandered down a side aisle, looking at us like a calf staring at a new gate. One of our members invited him to sit next to him, shared his hymnal, and answered his questions. It was wonderful to see such grace in action. I loved it!
Following that particular evening meeting the young man immediately came down front to talk. He had a dozen or more questions, all of them excellent. I noticed sand still sticking to the hairs on his legs. He was fresh off the beach. He was treated with kindness and respect. No one told him what he "should" wear or how he "should" act. A couple of fellows invited him to have a Coke and a hamburger with them. He was surprised and accepted. Not surprisingly, he was back the next Sunday. And the next. Within a matter of weeks he became a Christian. He
Are You Really a Minister of Grace?
spoke of how our love and acceptance won him. He publicly testified of his faith in Christ when he was baptized. The context of grace gave him room to grow, to think, to be himself, to ask questions. That young man later finished his university work, attended and graduated from seminary, and is now in ministry. I think he's even wearing shoes.
Now let me mention a third mark of grace: life beyond the letter of Scripture. When there is a grace-awakening ministry, there is an absence of dogmatism and Bible-bashing. I love the way the apostle Paul writes these thoughts in 2 Corinthians 3:
Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (vv. 5-6)
I want to be careful here, lest you misunderstand. Paul's emphasis in this section of Scripture is on a new-covenant (as opposed to an old-covenant) ministry . . . a ministry of grace rather than law, a thought which he spends quite some time developing. Anyone who reads the second and third chapters of his second letter to the Corinthians with an open mind cannot help but observe a marked departure from what could be called a "traditional" type of ministry.
He promotes—
• a lack of professional adequacy (2:16, 3:5)
• the presence of vulnerable authenticity (2:17)
• an emphasis on personal relationships (3:1-4)
• the importance of a servanthood mentality (3:6)
as he pleads for an attitude of grace, which leads to a teachable spirit rather than the hammerlike poundings of a dogmatic style of teaching.
Are You Really a Minister of Grace?
Handling God's Word accurately is essential for those who minister. Only through its being correctly interpreted can it be correctly applied. The disciplines of good hermeneutics (correct method of biblical interpretation) and capable homiletics (clear communication of biblical truth) should be blended together by those who teach God's Book. Care must be taken, however, to interpret and communicate with grace. When grace is present, there is a spirit of openness, an attitude of compassion, which includes an absence of Bible-bashing and dogmatism.
It is not uncommon for me to meet people who have come out of strict fundamentalistic ministries where they were bruised and wounded by a grace killer who presented Scripture in such a rapid-fire, harsh manner, they felt beaten by the "letter of the Law" rather than led and comforted by the Spirit of liberty. Having come out of such a climate many years ago, I understand whereof I write. "The letter kills," states Paul. But the Holy Spirit, ministering in a context of freedom mixed with the charm of grace, "gives life."
While we are here in 2 Corinthians 3,1 find a fourth characteristic of a grace-awakening ministry: liberty with creative expression. When grace is present there is plenty of freedom provided for creative expression. Paul writes of that this way: "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (v. 17). This means there is also an absence of expectations.
I really hope you will let these words seep in slowly and permanently guide your ministry: Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is room—plenty of room—for liberty.
Commenting on the meaning of the liberty of the Spirit in verse 17, one New Testament authority writes:
He means that so long as man's obedience to God is dominated and conditioned by obedience to a book and a code of laws he is in the position of an unwilling . . . slave. But when it comes from the operation of the Spirit . . . then the very
Are You Really a Minister of Grace?
centre of his being has no other desire than to serve and obey God, for then it is not law but love which binds him. 6
I observe an interesting phenomenon among caring Christians. I notice that most of us are pretty good in evangelism when it comes to grace. Most of us don't require the lost person to clean up his life before he comes to the Savior. We flex, we bend, we forgive, we tolerate whatever among the unsaved. But we don't provide nearly as much liberty once folks come to the Savior. We don't care if they blow smoke in our faces while we witness to them. We don't even talk about it. We cough, we smile, and we continue to share Christ with them. "But they had better not blow smoke in my face as a Christian, not if they claim to be converted!"
Why not? What if that part of their life hasn't been dealt with yet by the Spirit of God? Why are we so intolerant of and impatient with our brothers and sisters? Where'
s the grace? Think of what others have to put up with when it comes to you and me. Think of the things in your life that are not yet cleaned up. Now maybe it isn't one of the "dirty dozen" or the "nasty nine" that is obvious to everyone, but think of the stuff you still have to work through—things I need to be gracious with you about . . . and you with me. I ask you, where is all this wonderful liberty of which Paul writes? Why do we lay such heavy expectations on each other? Furthermore, what makes us so afraid of creativity?
Do you encourage individuality? Do you find delight in a person on your discipleship team who is just the opposite in style from you? Do you live with that graciously? How about the kid in class who is bored? Let's say he is hyperactive ... his mind is off somewhere else. I know he is a challenge. (Believe me, I understand, I was like that years ago and was a real task for my teachers.) But what an opportunity for us to demonstrate grace in finding creative expressions for those individuals, encouraging them to develop and become all they are meant to be. The creative minds today were quite likely
Are You Really a Minister of Grace?
the hyperactives of yesteryear, the ones who were bored stiff twenty years ago.
If the Spirit of the Lord provides liberty, I suggest that the saints of the Lord take their cues from Him and do the same. Rather than reminding people of all the things they are not, how great it would be—how full of grace, actually—to give them all the room they need to fail and recover, to learn and grow.
This reminds me of one more characteristic of a grace-awakening ministry: release from past failures. A ministry of grace doesn't keep bringing up the past for the purpose of holding it over people. There is an absence of shame. Paul addresses this in 1 Timothy 1:12-14:
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service; even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. And yet I was shown mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus.