Servants or celebrities?
Mixed Messages
I had just finished reading an article on ‘Servant Evangelism’ and happened to glance at the biographical info about the author. I could not believe my eyes. It read “X is pastor or the Y church, recently listed as one of the top 25 fastest growing churches in the USA”.
To say that I was confused by the mixed messages of the article and its accompanying biographical sketch is an understatement. While the author may have been encouraging us to relate to unbelievers in a servant-like way, the biodata was suggesting that here was someone I’d better listen to and respect because his church happens to be a hugely successful and growing one (at least according to one set of values). He was an up and comer in the Christian world.
How ironic. For all intents and purposes that biodata or something similar could have been found at the bottom of an article on marketing or as a listed column in Who’s Who in America?
It may seem rather insignificant, but unfortunately this type of thing epitomises the totally unredeemed thinking we have in the church regarding status, power and value. Unless we begin to face our wrong value systems head-on, genuine ‘servant evangelism’ will never take place.
Values in the Kingdom
The more I read the gospels the more I realise that life in the Kingdom is so very different to life as we know it. The contrast is not subtle. We are talking about radical, fundamental differences in the way the world is viewed. Following Jesus will demand that our lives be turned on their heads. Listen to Mark, as he recounts one incident involving Jesus and his disciples.
When he was safe at home (Jesus) asked them (the disciples), ‘What were you discussing on the road?’
The silence was deafening – they had been arguing with one another over who among them was the greatest.
He sat down and summoned the Twelve. ‘So you want first place? Then take the last place. Be the servant of all’.
He put a child in the middle of the room. Then cradling the little one in his arms, he said, ‘Whoever embraces one of these children as I do embraces me, and far more than me – God who sent me.’ (Mark 9: 33-37 The Message)
Status and Value
Social pecking orders will exist wherever there are groups of people, and it certainly didn’t take long with the disciples. These power plays amongst the 12 occurred very soon after the glorious Transfiguration, and Peter’s recognition of who Jesus really was.
In fact, the disciples were so struck with whom they had teamed up with – the Messiah in living flesh – that they completely missed Jesus’ prophecy of his impending death! And to make matters worse, when some children turned up, the disciples told these social nobodies to go and get lost.
It’s not much different today. Just like the disciples, we too are often in danger of missing the point, of completely misunderstanding the nature of the new society that Jesus has come to bring about.
I have sometimes joked with a friend of mine who is a pastor in a denomination which favour using the word pastor as a title, that I might not have so much a problem calling him Pastor Bill if he was happy to call me Evangelist Wayne, or a pianist in his church Musician Mary.
Titles generally reinforce the pecking orders we have put in place. Rev, Pastor, Dr, the Very Reverend Doctor, Professor, all have implicit value and status in them. They create pedestals, respect for position rather than character, and automatically build barriers to relationships between the ‘honoured ones’ and everyone else.
Some of us, of course, are blessed to be part of local churches where titles are not used much. However, rather than naively thinking that because of this we have no problem, we need to recognise that our pecking orders are simply a little more subtle. In fact, my experience has been that there is often more power play, jockeying for position and pedestal-creation in churches which don’t use titles.
The reality is that where there are people there will be pecking orders, and a drive for status, power and privilege. The way I read what Jesus is saying in the Mark 9 passage is this:
“If you think my kingdom operates according to the same value system as the rest of the world, you haven’t understood. The values of my kingdom are completely different. Greatness in my kingdom is not defined by what you do, or in what responsibilities I have entrusted you with, it’s defined by who you are.
“If you’re playing power and status games, then you haven’t understood what life with me is about. When you attach celebrity status to a believer, you undermine the nature of my kingdom. In the new society I am establishing there’s no rank and privilege. Every person is valued and respected, because they are my children.”
The Christian Pecking Order
We will deny it to each other’s faces but there is a status system in operation, even if we aren’t consciously aware of it. It goes something like this:
1. Christian celebrity: Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, Cliff Richard, Derek Prince, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Amy Grant etc.
2. Cross cultural missionary
3. Pastor
4. Other full time Christian worker
5. Elder, deacon, others in church leadership
6. Everyone else
A friend of mine, having returned to New Zealand with his family after missionary service in Asia, struggled to find a local church to be a part of. This wasn’t just because he and his family were coping with reverse culture shock. It was more that they felt they were being treated as extra special people. They were held in awe. Being put on a pedestal meant that the chances of developing genuine, two-way relationships were remote.
In an article I read recently, Cliff Richard described a similar dilemma. He looked for a church to belong to, where he would be treated and related to like everyone else. However, the task was extremely difficult.
I can identify with these experiences – from the other side of the fence, so to speak. When I was studying in Canada I befriended a guy named Kevin who was from North Carolina. I enjoyed his company. He seemed to have travelled all over the world. His last name was Ford.
It wasn’t until I’d known him for some time that the penny dropped – he was Leighton Ford’s son, the nephew of Billy Graham. It was a challenge to continue relating to Kevin in the same way I had before I knew who his Dad and uncle were.
There is no doubt about it. In our church life we do value certain people more highly than others.
Think of any cross-cultural missionaries you know of. There is a certain awe and honour given to these marvellous servants of God. Haven’t they sacrificed so much to serve him? Mustn’t God value them highly because they are making a significant difference to his kingdom?
Generally, when we compare our own contribution to God’s kingdom and our value, we feel it pales into insignificance compared to the efforts of these great heroes and heroines of the faith. It is not long before we are regarding missionaries as particularly ‘spiritual’ and ourselves in our ‘secular’ work as rather ordinary.
Devastating Consequences
So what effect does it have on our lives when we value certain people as being higher (or lower) on the scale than ourselves?
Firstly, it places unfair and unreal expectations on those who are high up on the pecking order. At the best of times pedestals are difficult to stay on. They create distance between people. Sooner or later, our expectations are disappointed and the leader is found to be as human as everyone else. When this happens the result is generally much more than a bruised ego.
Secondly, the pecking order results in the majority of Christians doing one of two things: either feeling like a second class Christian who doesn’t have much to contribute, or striving desperately to climb the ladder of significance. For many, the most realistic way of doing this is to look for a calling to become a ‘fulltime Christian worker’. Deep down there is the belief that this is the ultimate way of serving God.
Perhaps this is one of the main reasons so many of us struggle to understand, appreciate and get excited about our occupations. The pecking order is so powerful that it simply serves to reinforce the view that what we are doing isn’t that important for the kingdom – at least not as important as what those in ‘full-time Christian ministry’ are doing.
Our work very often loses its place as part of our calling, and reverts to simply being a job. We are given little if any help in thinking through what difference our faith could or should make to our occupation, and how that fits into God’s wider calling on our lives.
Sure we try to take advantage of opportunities to witness, but it often becomes what we do outside of our work which defines our value in the kingdom. After all, this is the ‘real’ work of ministry. Isn’t it?
Not only is this thinking so very wrong, but it disempowers us from seeing what God has called us to do 40-60 hours per week as being of strategic value for his kingdom. After all, we are called to serve and glorify Christ with all of our lives.
Where to from here?
The value system I have been describing is so much a part of our Christian culture that when we read the Scriptures about status and power, we don’t even realise their relevance for our lives and relationships. We are caught in a trap. So what can we do to change?
If we’re to have any chance of realigning the value we place on ourselves and others to that which Jesus places on us, we need to
· Stop using titles in our churches and organisations. It is one thing to identify a role that a person plays by using the term ‘pastor’, ‘administrator’, ‘teacher’, ‘prophet’, ‘elder’ etc (all with a small ‘p’ or ‘a’ or ‘t’). It is quite another thing to turn these functions into titles.
· Stop using the term ‘full time Christian service’. This makes a totally unbiblical distinction between those serving God in the marketplace and those serving God in particular leadership functions within the body. All of us are full time Christian workers, though our function, place of service and means of financial support will vary.
· Stop using the terms ‘secular’ and ‘spiritual’. We are Christians, not dualists. The heresy of dividing life into two areas, one more important or pure than the other, was attacked vigorously in the early centuries. We too should resist being heretics. Let’s be more biblical by seeing our lives holistically. Certain activities are not more ‘spiritual’ than others.
· Stop measuring success by non-biblical standards (ie numbers, status, wealth, size etc).
· Start encouraging each other to see that God wants us to serve him faithfully whatever the task/s he has given us. Help each other to develop a good theology of work.
· Start valuing those in the body of Christ with seemingly insignificant roles – those who have no position or power, those who are neither articulate, obviously gifted nor attractive.
· Start identifying power games and manipulation for what they are – sin. Encourage our leaders, by the way we relate to them, to know that while God has entrusted them with special gifts to facilitate and lead, they are to be, like all gifts in the body, offered in humble service.
· Begin to recognise that regardless of achievement, status or gifting, all of us are broken people, vulnerable to sin, and in need of God’s grace and of transparent relationships with other Christians.
· Acknowledge our craving for recognition and encourage each other to look for ways to serve which don’t create attention or honour.
· Build secure, loving relationships with each other where affirmation of Christ-likeness is given in a way which values what God is doing in our lives, rather than what we are ‘doing’ for him. It is possible to ‘lead’ each other by character, not just gifting.
· Start talking in our churches and organisations about structures and ways of relating which reinforce the pecking order. Change these where necessary.
With God’s help it is possible to be ‘reprogrammed’. May we echo Richard Foster’s prayer:
Loving God, I choose this day to be a servant. I yield my right to command and demand. I give up my need to manage and control. I relinquish all schemes of manipulation and exploitation. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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