Man Centered Ministry

I just finished reading Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour.  It’s the story of a Palestinian Christian who grew up in the early years of Israel’s reestablishment as a nation.  His village was destroyed and his family lost everything.  The one thing that remained, was his faith in God.  Elias was especially impressed by the Beatitudes.  It was from this teaching, that he found his calling in life.  “Blessed are the peacemakers.”  To this day, Elias Chacour is still working for peace in Israel.

I highly recommend this book, but, this is not why I’m writing this post.

While reading it, I was especially impressed by a comment that Elias made while in seminary.  He made an observation and shared his frustration concerning the church being so “man centered” rather than “God centered”.

It was just a few lines.  He didn’t even explain what he meant.  I’m not sure what Elias would have defined as being: “man centered” as opposed to “God centered”.  In the book, it was a passing comment.  In my mind, it was etched with undeniable emphasis.

It’s been nearly two weeks, and I’m still brewing over this concept.  Last night, it came to life.  In II Thessalonians 1:10, it speaks of God being “glorified in His saints..”.  That’s it!  That’s what God centered ministry is all about. 

There is a trend in the church that I have found unnerving.  Most churches are obsessed  with the nice self help topics that are designed to improve the quality of human life.  They have the series on: finances, followed up by the series on family life, followed up by the series on marriage, followed up by the series on sex followed up by the series on leadership, followed up by the series on parenthood…  and so on.  ALL OF THESE THINGS ARE FINE AND GOOD… but, so many of them stop there.  Improving the quality of human life is the end to the means and there is nothing more significant beyond that.  THIS IS MAN CENTERED MINISTRY.

God centered ministry takes it to the all important next step.  Why do we want to excel in all these previously listed areas?  Ask most people in the hip topic driven churches this question and their answers will validate the “man centered” agenda.  But really…  why?  The answer is found all over the Bible (I Cor. 10:31…  “all to the glory of God”), but it was confirmed for me while studying II Thessalonians.  God wants to be glorified in us.

Improvements to our quality of life should translate directly to our ability and our opportunity to: worship, serve, give unto and speak of our benevolent and loving Father.

Consider the job description of the pastor, (Eph 4).  “To equip the saints for the work of the ministry.”  Not..  “to equip the saints for a nice comfortable life in the suburbs with 2.5 children and a golden retriever”.  We are equipped for a reason.  That reason, is God centered.

This is both, a challenge for me and for the congregation that I am pastoring.  It can’t just be about “me”.  It has to go to the next step.  God has to be glorified in us.  Without that, we are pitiful at best.