On A Journey - part 4

You do not have all the answer and you are not always right.

This is my 10th year of full-time ministry and 13th year of ministry total. In that time I have lived in four cities and served at four very different churches, with five very uniquely different men of God. I have been exposed to several different styles of ministry and there is one thing that I find true, if Jesus is the center focus, how can any of them be wrong?

There is a problem in the church when we condemn a style of ministry that we do not agree with or do not fit in with. Just because there is a style that is different that yours, it doesn't mean that others are wrong and you are right. We have a tendency to focus on contemporary or traditional, or emergent or conventional as the only "right" way to do ministry. We get stuck in the rut of whether a church is pentecostal, seeker sensitive, or post-modern and then if it is not the style we are comfortable with, we bash it.

My favorite is when we try to class Jesus as a certain style, or say He used a certain method. When we say those kinds of things, we cheapen who Jesus was and what He did. The quicker we learn that it is not about you, or the style you like, the quicker we learn that it is ALL about Him and the people He loves. It takes all styles to reach all people. If there is style you are not comfortable with, it does not make it wrong and just because there is style you have been successful with, does not mean you have all the answers.

A wise man once told me:

There has to be unity in the essentials

There has to be liberty in the non-essentials

And in all things there must be love.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009 Posted in | | 2 Comments »

One Responses to "On A Journey - part 4"

  1. Anonymous says: February 12, 2009 at 6:07 AM

    Name Brand Christianity stinks in the nostrils of God!

  1. Eric says: February 14, 2009 at 4:16 PM

    I am not sure that I full agree with that comment on a couple of levels. I can not speak for God per say but I know that it takes all styles (or name brands) to reach all people. The only problem I see with "name brand" Christianity is when certain brands become elitist.

Post a Comment