Growing Edge - Christianity Today

GETTING THE PREACHER CONVERTED

How to preach evangelistically–and how not to. Gordon MacDonald on Will Willimon’s newest release.

“The gospel is not a set of interesting ideas about which we are supposed to make up our minds. The gospel is intrusive news that evokes a new set of practices, a complex of habits, a way of living in the world, discipleship.”

This is William Willimon, dean of the chapel and professor of Christian ministry at Duke University, in the latest of his thoughtful writings on preaching.

The key word is intrusive because that is exactly what Willimon thinks we need to understand when we present Jesus to those outside the faith. Intrusive suggests a message unlike any other, something akin to a loose cannon on the deck. Something that invades the souls of unsuspecting people and, while being preached, may affect those inside the church just as much as it affects those outside.

BORN-AGAIN CHURCH

At its beginning The Intrusive Word: Preaching to the Unbaptized (144 pages, Eerdmans, $10.99) offers the story of Verleen, a single mother of two children living in the “projects.” Verleen is the sort of person many Christians believe need to be reached, but nimb (not in my backyard–read “church”).

The significance of Verleen’s story lies in the fact that she, representing the unbaptized, not only began to engage the intrusive Word of Christ when she heard it for the first time, but, as a result, the “baptized” (even the preacher) were also engaged, in ways none expected. The rest of the book is built with that story in mind. If you’re a preacher, you’ll want to read the story to your congregation. I did, and they loved it.

Willimon is not overly impressed with those who have gone out of their way to understand evangelism and church growth, marketing and “seeker-sensitivity.” He doesn’t think the gospel needs to be defended. Just preached.

Amazingly, this college professor isn’t greatly concerned that the preaching of Jesus be acceptable to the “thinker” because, ultimately, one does not think his or her way to faith. And while Willimon is masterful at putting the evangel into terms the hearer can perceive, he suggests that we should not be surprised when some folks simply do not understand it. Perhaps they never will. That’s sad, but okay.

“Alas, most allegedly evangelistic preaching I know about,” Willimon writes, “is an effort to drag people even deeper into their subjectivity rather than an attempt to rescue them from it. This spells big trouble for most of my preaching. Too much of my preaching begins at what I judge to be ‘where people are.’ Then, in twenty minutes, I attempt to move them to the gospel.”

This is quite an admission for one of the best preachers in America to make.

On the one hand, we pursue faith in a day when the large majority of professing Christians appear to have ceased caring about evangelism. Not that they do not thrill at the sight of a Billy Graham crusade. And not that they don’t express approval for those who still engage people in persuasive conversations. But it seems many have been subtly affected by a cultural pluralism that says, “I’m glad I have Jesus, and you have Shirley MacLaine. Now we’re both happy. What do you think about the Celtics’ chances this year?”

On the other hand, we have a bevy of sparkling communicators who have given us “worship services” designed for the unbeliever who has tired of (and withdrawn from) the traditional church. This “worship,” marked with marvelously produced contemporary music, drama, and sound/light displays, could thrill any of us.

I put the word worship in quotes because, while I thoroughly enjoy it and admire the folks who do it, I don’t think it’s genuine worship. It’s not much different from the innovative efforts of Young Life Clubs thirty or more years ago. Wonderful stuff. Praise, maybe. Pre-evangelism, in certain cases. But not worship.

To those culturally induced to loosen up on persuasion and to those who have gone the extra mile to wrap the gospel in the most scintillating packages, Willimon has written a first-class book.

The subtitle of The Intrusive Word (Preaching to the Unbaptized) warns that Willimon has his eye on the subject of evangelism. But one had better be careful; the author has readied an ambush. Before we learn how to preach to the rest of the world, Willimon suggests that we need to take a look at ourselves. Perhaps, in the largest sense of the word, we, the so-called baptized, need to “remember our baptism” before we can be of any use to those who still need it.

Remember our baptism? Willimon: “I contend that, through evangelism, through repeated confrontation with the intrusive grace of God, the church can be born again.”

The church? In need of being born again? It is a quote exemplary of the way William Willimon forces the reader to think about things about which some may have grown complacent.

BORN-AGAIN PREACHER

Willimon, a Methodist, contends that evangelism’s goal is to bring people to baptism. But in preaching to the unbaptized, a remarkable thing is likely to happen. The preacher and the baptized may experience transformation also. Implication: if one is not calling others, one just may not be making significant moves toward Christ.

“We preachers so want to be heard” Willimon writes, “that we are willing to make the gospel more accessible than it really is, to remove the scandal, the offense of the cross, to deceive people into thinking that it is possible to hear without conversion.”

But the Word, he proposes, will come when and where it wants, to people of God’s own choosing. And those of us in the church may not always feel comfortable with the “Verleens” of the world who enter and are drawn to the fresh Word of Christ. Their initial witness may sound embarrassing to church-shaped ears. But we may all be in for a surprise. In their baptism into faith, we may find ourselves in need of re-baptism.

“Everyone is in the conversion business,” Willimon notes. Every time one person communicates with another, there is an element of persuasion involved. Why should the church be embarrassed by the notion that it has been called by Christ to offer a new version of reality whose starting point is the cross and the One who died there?

I think you’re going to like this one–and at the same time, maybe, not like it. Having read through it several times, I found myself appraising some of my latest sermons. I found evidences of a lack of boldness, a slight hint of intimidation, even a moment or two of apology. I think I saw a tendency to guard the gospel I was preaching from being too intrusive, too confronting. And then I read Willimon again … and repented.

– Gordon MacDonald, pastor

Grace Chapel, Lexington, Massachusetts

A-RIVER-RUNS-THROUGH-IT MINISTRY

Doing away with pastoral technology? David Hansen may not have all the answers, but from the beginning, he obviously has a few.

The Art of Pastoring: Ministry without All the Answers (180 pages, InterVarsity, $10.99) opens with Hansen’s arrival at one of the yoked Montana parishes he served for nine years. He scans the bookshelves and files of his predecessor, which show an interest in church growth, the charismatic movement, small groups, and sundry theological movements of the 1970s. Then, in speculating on why this pastor eventually lost his faith, Hansen peers into the man’s soul: “Ultimately perhaps he confused following Christian movements with following Jesus Christ.”

He then turns his sights from trend-driven to task-driven ministry. This is fostered, he says, by “academic theology,” which “summarizes pastoral work this way: pastors do things.” This is a problem because it makes pastors want to become professionals, to become experts at doing things expertly. Hansen concludes, “Better to be a follower of Jesus, and no expert at that.”

That, in sum, is this book’s theme: following Jesus, not pastoral “technology.” But what exactly does that mean?

PASTOR AS PARABLE

Well, just as Jesus is a Parable of God–the unique and authoritative Parable–so are pastors parables of Christ to their people. “Jesus is communicated through us because of the likeness we share with him in our everyday life.” And that means that pastors must learn to follow the Way of the Cross, the life of self-denial.

To show what self-denial looks like for a pastor, Hansen spends not a few chapters talking about what he as a pastor does: Preaching, Prayer, Sacrament, Leadership, Leaving. Along the way, he is refreshingly honest about some of the temptations he faced in his first nine years of ministry, for example, with sloth (going fishing instead of visiting a dying parishioner) and heresy (flirting with universalism).

In addition, he effectively weaves in intriguing stories from his rural pastorates: baptizing a cancer-stricken woman in a stream when the Montana sky was “big and July-blue”; visiting a blind, 105-year-old woman as she contemplates death; conducting a funeral for a member of a motorcycle gang, with the denim-and-black-leather gang in attendance.

When Hansen talks about what he knows–rural ministry–he’s on target. But he takes cheap shots at ministries that usually characterize suburban churches. He couches his critique in the first-person plural, but it’s hard to believe he includes himself when he says, “We pimp short cuts. Everybody wants them. People pay good money for them. … Entertainment, management, and counseling are valid activities in their proper arenas, but for pastoral ministry they are easy outs, quick fixes, short-term satisfaction, shortcuts that bypass the cross.”

It sounds prophetic, and I’m even a member of Hansen’s school of prophecy: pastors and churches are often too enamored with technique. But there is no ministry without some technique. How could one possibly do ministry without, for example, organizing the congregation and giving counsel to troubled souls? It’s not simply a question of technique and programs versus following Jesus Christ.

The Art of Pastoring wisely warns us against making technique an idol. But I, for one, need more: guidance to discern how to use technique faithfully.

– Mark Galli

contributing editor, Leadership

RIDING THE WILD BULL

Garry Wills’s book looks at what makes an effective leader.

Simple statements and definitions on the far side of complexity are gold, while simplistic statements and definitions this side of complexity may be reassuring but worthless.

Here’s a new book that is simple yet complex: Garry Wills, in Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders (336 pages, Simon & Schuster, $23) offers simple principles of leadership hewn out of the complexity of historical leaders. Wills’s attention to the ambiguity and risks of leadership makes his historical tales gold, especially for those of us in congregational leadership.

The introductory chapter is worth the price of the book. It offers several insights into the art and work of leadership. Wills begins by stating that leadership is a process of “reciprocally engaging two wills, one leading (often in disguised ways), the other following (often while resisting). Leadership is always a struggle, often a feud.”

Anyone who has attempted to ride the wild bull of congregational leadership will break into a knowing smile.

Wills, professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, differentiates between two popular concepts of leadership. One is a Periclean model that relies on the person leading as being more virtuous, more insightful than those that follow. This person leads by dictating what must be done to willing followers who recognize his/her superiority.

The opposite is the “Dale Carnegie style” that seeks to discern the opinion of the people and then play to it. This simple dichotomy helps in assessing my leadership style. It also helps to assess the theories offered to pastors in so-called “leadership conferences.” Calls to be the “hero pastor” and at the same time to meet the “felt needs” of the people fill lectures on Christian leadership.

Trinitarian leadership

Wills risks offering us a fresh definition of leadership. He states that “the leader is one who mobilizes others toward a goal shared by leader and followers. … Most definitions on leadership are unitarian. But life is trinitarian. One-legged and two-legged chairs do not, of themselves, stand. A third leg is needed. Leaders, followers, and goals make up the three equally necessary supports for leadership.”

When I read this definition for the first time, it was as if someone had turned on the lights inside my leadership-theory-pounded brain.

Wills recounts how different leaders lived in this trinitarian context of leadership. Using historical material, Wills does his usual fine job of getting beneath the narrative of history to what is really going on. Half of his sixteen examples of leadership come from religious figures, including Martin Luther King, Jr., King David, Dorothy Day, Pope John XXIII, and Andrew Young.

Finally, at the heart of Wills’s thesis is an insight crucial for those willing to call themselves Christian leaders. Quoting Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Wills reminds us of the lines of Welsh seer Owen Glendower, who boasts that “I can call spirits from the nasty deep.” His bravado is quickly deflated by the slicing truth of Hotspur, who responds, “Why, so can I, or so can anyone. But will they come when you call them?”

Wills poignantly frames a critical insight for his readers: it is not the noblest call that gets answered, but the answerable call. Presenting an answerable call to the people and context in which one ministers is truly the most difficult and important task of pastoral leadership.

For faithful pastors, it is sometimes difficult to steer between the ditches of strong visionary leadership and that of consensual-responsive leadership. How much easier and cleaner the fall into a prophetic leadership that relies on the authority of the “word” God has laid on me as I impose it on my people. How much more comfortable to merely play to the prejudices and needs of my people as I am loved for being a good chaplain.

Garry Wills’s Certain Trumpets provides simple principles for the work of leadership without falling into simplistic directives. Wills’s blaring herald of trinitarian, shared leadership provides the necessary guidance to keep our aspirations for faithful ministry out of the ditch.

– David Alan Galloway, rector

Christ Episcopal Church, Tyler, Texas

AUDIOTAPES: ANY GOOD?

Reviews of two new series

Of late, audio-magazine subscriptions have found their way into the Christian publishing market. For many a busy pastor, the sighs of regret emitted in front of a stack of unread books have been replaced by the sound of a cassette slipping into a tape deck.

To these helpful tape clubs like Preaching Today, The Pastor’s Update, and Shared Ministry, add one more.

Encouragement for Pastors Only is produced by LifeEnrichment of Aurora, Colorado ($12 per tape, $125 per series). The aim of this twelve-tape series is to “strengthen Christian leaders in all their relationships at home, in their life work, and in their leisure.”

Wes Roberts, founder and president of LifeEnrichment, is the host. His years in the pastorate and as a church consultant have helped him identify issues that threaten effectiveness and integrity in the ministry. His casual-conversation approach is assisted by a variety of guests whom he interviews on the phone or in their living room or office. Guests include comedian Ken Davis, counselor Harry Schaumburg, Darryl DelHousaye, Jim Kallam, and Sid Draayer.

The titles of the tapes include: “When Pastors Need Counseling,” “Affairs,” “Raising Kids in the Ministry,” “Unloading Personal Secrets,” and “Humor in the Pastorate.”

In addition to winsome introductions for each topic and repeatable quips between interview segments, Roberts has collected cuts from the albums of Christian artists that underscore the theme being addressed. The music of musicians like Steve and Annie Chapman, Steve Green, Richard Allison, and Terry Clark woven through each presentation set this series apart from the other tape clubs on the market.

Wes Roberts states in the initial tape, “The pastor is supposed to move from sickbed to administrative meeting to planning to troubleshooting to budgeting to audio systems to meditation to worship preparation to newsletter to staff problem to missions projects to conflict management to community leadership to study to funerals to weddings to preaching. He is supposed to be administrative executive, sensitive pastor, skilled counselor, dynamic public speaker, and spiritual guide.”

It is to address these unique pressures that LifeEnrichment offers this helpful series.

– Greg Asimakoupoulos, pastor

Naperville Covenant Church, Naperville, Illinois

A friend recently asked me, “Do you have an older pastor you can go to for advice, a mentor who has been where you still need to go?”

I had to confess that I didn’t, and that I wouldn’t know where to begin looking.

His reply was pointed, “You need to find one.”

I’m working on finding a mentor, but in the meanwhile, I’ve discovered a competent substitute: Focus on the Family’s cassette series, Pastor to Pastor ($24 per two-tape volume). Created in 1992, it is designed “for pastors who desire to succeed not only at church but at home as well.” Mailed bi-monthly, each two-tape volume contains interviews conducted by H.B. London, Jr., former pastor and now assistant to the president of Focus on the Family.

Currently, there are ten volumes in the series, which contain interviews with church leaders (Leith Anderson, Chuck Swindoll, Jerry Bridges, for example). Though the interviews are informal, London asks good questions–the same questions I would ask if I had the chance. The listener may feel he or she is talking over coffee with ministry veterans.

Topics range from leadership to terminations, from the pastor’s devotional life to sexual purity. For example, John Maxwell, pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, details the “three times when people will change.” People change when they “hurt enough to change, learn enough to change, and receive enough empowerment to change.”

Another example is Bobb Biehl’s “Top Ten Questions You Should Ask Yourself for the Rest of Your Life.” Here are just three: “What am I good at?” (as opposed to “what is expected of me?”), “What is one thing I should resign from or quit doing?” and “What are three things I can do in the next ninety days that will make a 50-percent difference?”

Person-to-person contact, though optimal, isn’t the only way to receive sage advice. When an older pastor isn’t available, these audio cassettes are “the next best thing to being there.”

– Chuck Stober

free-lance writer

Louisville, Colorado