my life and my doctrine

There were two big questions raised after the sermon on Sunday night (Isaiah 6.1-7).

Firstly, I mentioned something about whether anxiety was a sin if we’re commanded in Philippians not to be anxious.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6)

This was abbreviating a book review of Jerry Bridges’ Respectable Sins which was recently reviewed in the Briefing. The book review made me think it is definitely worth reading, to be reminded again of how easily our Christianity takes on aspects of our worldview that God is against. Other areas mentioned are impatience, selfishness, favouritism …

I’m sorry if what I said was insensitive to those thinking of friends and family with medically diagnosed anxiety issues.

What I was and am keen to challenge us on is the little things we may worry about that are out of our control.

John Bartik’s reflections on Bobby McFerrin’s Don’t Worry, Be Happy are worth a read.

Secondly, I ended with the reminder that we needn’t feel guilt about sin if we’re forgiven.

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.  7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah 6:6-7)

I think there’s a difference between feeling guilty and feeling remorseful about sin. I understand remorse as something which also implies regret and repentance. ie a desire to not keep sinning.

I think feeling guilty about sin can lead to two problems.

1. You feel more and more guilt in which case you don’t trust God’s grace to forgive.
2. The guilt makes you want to try harder and be more godly so you don’t trust God’s grace to forgive.

The right response to recognising the sin in our lives is to repent, to say sorry to God and to ask him to forgive us. I think the danger is that all too often we want to say sorry and I won’t do it again, as though we can make ourselves more godly.

What do you think? Have I overstated my case?

I know it’s not on my reading list, but I’ve recently finished reading Kent and Barbara Hughes’ book Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome. Though I’m only in my first year of full time paid ministry, I think this is a helpful book to warn and encourage me about how to approach a life of ministry. It’s a book that stems from ‘a dark night of the soul’ twenty years into their ministry which cause them to reflect on what success in ministry is all about.

They helpfully outline seven definitions of what success in ministry should look like: faithfulness, serving, loving, believing, prayer, holiness and attitude. While most of these are obvious things, it was helpful to consider each of them individually and assess my life and attitude. A realisation I came to, which I’d arrived at previously in my life, is that what God wants me to be is a godly mature Christian. This must be my first and foremost goal. It has the following implications:

1. My identity is not to be found in my ministry. I needed to remind myself that who I am is a child of God, not an evening church minister.
2. My worth is not to be found in my ministry. Being in ministry is not some kind of boost to self-esteem. On the contrary, the more I watch and hear from faithful, long term servants of the gospel is that this is an incredibly naive thought to have. Yet it is easy to feel better about myself in response to how people react and respond to my ministry. This shouldn’t be the case.
3. My maturity is not to be found in my ministry. Well, this is sort of true and sort of not. If I grow in maturity, this will hopefully be reflected in the people I minister to. Yet others may grow more mature as the Holy Spirit works in them and this be no reflection on me. To look for maturity in others and then assume personal maturity is putting the cart before the horse. However, I do suspect that over time, the more I mature, the more I learn, the more others will learn from me. I certainly know this is the case in preaching. If I’ve been particularly challenged in preparing a sermon, not only will this come through in the content of what I preach, it will come through in my manner as I preach.

They continue with five areas where we can gain encouragement: from God, the call, the ordinary, fellow workers and reward. I intend to post again about my thoughts and reflections of my call to ministry. It certainly prompted much discussion with my wife.

So, please pray for me, and others you know involved in ministry, that we may be faithful, holy  servants who love, trust and pray for those under our care.

We’re enjoying some holidays in Brisbane. Yes, the weather is better than in Sydney and we’ve had the chance to catch up with my brother and his wife. We’re also going to the Gold Coast to spend some time with friends from college.

Two interesting thoughts about holidays when you’re working in full time ministry.

1. Though we’ll be staying with other people, it is a great way for me to relax and to switch off thinking about work. ie when there aren’t others around, in particular other adults, Jo and I can end up talking about church. This isn’t a bad thing, but it’s nice to be able to switch off and be less self-interested by focussing our attention on others.
2. Another benefit of being on holidays on a Sunday is the privilege of being able to visit another church. I don’t know if there are legitimate reasons to go to another church on a ‘work day’, so it was great tonight to visit somewhere else.
   We went to The Village Church, a church plant from Mitchelton Presbyterian Church. It was great to be encouraged by other brothers and sisters from another city and another church, but keen to serve the same God and Father.