Posted by Tom Welch on January 27, 2009 under Essay | 
I haven’t figured out a lot of things about ministry. One of the things I have definitely not figured out is the tension between spreading the fame of Jesus and spreading the fame of yourself - or your church. It would seem that one must sell yourself or sell your church as a means of “selling” Jesus. At least that seems to be the way things are usually done by “successful” churches.
But I am haunted by a couple of quotes:
“Missionaries are very human folks, simply a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt somebody.” - Jim Elliot
“Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!” (Psalms 115:1)
How do I stay in the background while moving Jesus into the foreground? Elliot and the Psalmist agree that self-exaltation is the very thing to avoid. Yet the tribal people had to meet Jesus “through” Elliot - and those that would follow him.
Elliot had a “go and tell” orientation to ministry. When you “go and tell” you have to lead with Jesus. We have a “come and see” orientation. Not a bad thing - Jesus told people to “come and see”. But when we market a “come and see” ministry to people we inevitable end up telling them to come and see “us”. And so we must market and promote ourselves.
So, how do I spread the fame of Jesus while avoiding spreading the fame of Tom? Maybe the answer is being so caught up with the glory of Christ I am blissfully forgetful of myself as I passionately pursue the renown of Christ. Yes, people may look askance at this “wild man”, but they won’t look long before they see the one a lot wilder than me!
As Elliot also said:
“Forgive me Lord for being so ordinary while serving such an extraordinary God.”
Posted by Tom Welch on January 24, 2009 under Essay |
I finished my class on Friday, so I’m back to my normal routine. The class, “Empowering Leaders in Soul Care”, was really good, better than I thought it would be. And though I may whine a bit about being in class all week, and though I did come home each day pretty tired, I think I like being in class better than being on vacation!
I am hoping to revisit my class notes and reading list soon so I can better apply the principles to ministry. My hope is that our church will become a more and more emotionally healthy environment where real relationships can thrive.
Not that I want to become Dr. Phil and our church a big encounter group. I just want us to be able to love each other and lay down our lives for one another in a healthy way. I think everyone wants that, some where deep down. Somewhere.
Posted by Tom Welch on January 19, 2009 under Essay |
Between His resurrection and ascension Christ was busy commissioning his church. Our commission gives us our “marching orders” as we look to Christ’s return. Last Sunday we looked at how our “commission” is seen in our Vision, Mission, and Values statements:
Our Vision:
”We will be a community of believers who love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and make Him known in our community and around the world”
Our Mission:
“Our mission is to develop fully devoted followers of Christ who will meet the spiritual needs of our church and our community”
Our Values:
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Worship: We are created to find our joy in worshiping God.
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Teaching: Knowing and obeying God’s Word is fundamental to all true success.
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Outreach: Lost people matter to God. He wants them found.
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Discipleship: Completing the Great Commission will require fully devoted followers of Christ of all ages.
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Prayer: Prayer is the primary work of the people of God.
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Community: Building community is essential for church health.
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Stewardship: Everything we have belongs to God. We are only stewards.
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Growth: Achieving God’s purposes involves taking faith-filled risks.
These aren’t nice items to post and forget. They can shape our ministry and motivate us to Kingdom work. We believe they reflect the vision and mission of God. Do they reflect your vision and mission? Take some time to consider these statements and how we as a church can shape our ministry around them!
The well wisher of your soul’s happiness,
Pastor Tom
Posted by Tom Welch on January 13, 2009 under Essay |
The resurrection of Christ, along with His crucifixion, is a cornerstone of the Christian faith. We affirm our faith in the resurrection of Christ when we say in the Apostle’s Creed, “On the third day He rose again from the dead”. But be careful not to leave the resurrection there. Christ’s resurrection is not only the ground and hope of our resurrection on the last day, but of the very life we have with Christ right here and now.
The Bible tells us that the beginning of our life in Christ is a product of the empowerment of Christ’s resurrection. It’s as if the impact of Christ’s “re-birth” from the dead empowers the rebirth of His people. We have various words and images to describe this power: conversion, regeneration, new birth, “born again”. The apostle Peter describes it like this:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” 1 Peter 1:3
Peter links the resurrection of Christ with our “new birth”. The very power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power that resurrected your dead heart to a living faith and hope! Truly this is an amazing mystery, one that goes beyond my capacity for explanation. So I will leave it to a poet to frame this mysterious connection (Mary Karr, “Descending Theology: The Resurrection” Poetry, January 2006):
“From the far star points of his pinned extremities,
cold inched in—black ice and squid ink—
till the hung flesh was empty.
Lonely in that void even for pain,
he missed his splintered feet,
the human stare buried in his face.
He ached for two hands made of meat
he could reach to the end of.
In the corpse’s core, the stone fist
of his heart began to bang
on the stiff chest’s door, and breath spilled
back into that battered shape. Now
it’s your limbs he comes to fill, as warm water
shatters at birth, rivering every way.”
The well wisher of your soul’s happiness,
Pastor Tom
Posted by Tom Welch on January 6, 2009 under Essay |
We speak a lot about the power of the Gospel to set us free. We speak often of being “free in Christ”. We believe whole-heartedly that the message of the cross is a liberating message. But from what does the gospel set us free? The simple answer is, the cross sets us free from our selves. And that looks a lot like humility!
To a church that seems to be so enamored with its prestige and presence, the apostle Paul writes:
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:27-29)
The Corinthian believers were puffed up with pride, boasting of their own spirituality. Paul reminds them that at the foot of the cross, none of us have anything to boast about. The marvelous secret of the gospel is that we are set free from a relentless gaze upon ourselves to boast in Christ! C.S. Lewis puts it this way:
“The pleasure of pride is like the pleasure of scratching. If there is an itch one does want to scratch; but it is much nicer to have neither the itch nor the scratch. As long as we have the itch of self-regard we shall want the pleasure of self-approval; but the happiest moments are those when we forget our precious selves and have neither but have everything else (God, our fellow humans, animals, the garden and the sky) instead.”
And nothing helps us to “forget our precious selves” better than gazing at the cross. Tim Keller, echoing Lewis, says this:
“The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.”
Thinking of ourselves less? What a concept! How do we do that? Get close to the cross and be liberated from the bondage of self-consciousness to the liberation of self-forgetfulness!
The well wisher of your soul’s happiness,
Pastor Tom
