Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ve reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20).
NOT long ago an advertisement appeared in a church paper under the heading, "Pastoral Vacancies." It ran like this:
"Pastoral charge will be vacant October 31. Education facilities the very best. Sports activities second to none (curling rink). Artificial ice and large area for skating. Interested ministers please write or phone."
How strange! Is the lure of Christian service such? Were it really as described in this advertisement, Paul might have published a letter in the mother church at Jerusalem something like this:
"Corinth—Minister wanted for growing church. Metropolitan advantages. Good race track. Well equipped for all sports. Ideal situation for family."
"Athens—Church with attractive opportunity for athletic and scholarly man. Up-to-date congregation. Always interested in telling and hearing something new. Athletics unsurpassed. Home of the celebrated Olympic games. Boating on the bay."
Needless to say, the apostle did not couch his challenge to serve in such terms. How this would contrast with the call to service as recorded in Paul's vision at Troas! That night, there "stood a man of Macedonia," who prayed the apostle, saying, "Come over into Macedonia, and help us" (Acts 16:9).
Some modern promotion of ministerial recruitment and the motivation it appeals to sounds garishly cheap in the light of God's call for men to serve with Christ as heaven's ambassadors.
Yet it is in this area that the man of God comes face to face with perhaps his most deadly peril. Through some subtle process of deterioration he ceases to be an ambassador and becomes a professional.
Herein lies the lurking danger of the ministry. Professionalism is our natural peril. It arises in the very genius of the leader. The minister must impart to others definite convictions and set these convinced men and women to work for the cause they have been persuaded to espouse. That means that most of his time is, and should be, spent in exhorting others and planning for them. The leader must organize, guide, coach, and teach. His role is to inspire others to action and to the performance of high and important duties.
The besetting danger is that there may be created a great chasm between what he enjoins upon others and what he himself actually is and does; that a great disparity arises between preaching and practice, between profession and possession.
The mechanics of this failure are subtle and insidious. They include formalism. Whether the emphasis be upon too much form or upon too little, the result is "a form of godliness" that denies "the power thereof" (2 Tim. 3:5). Such formalism can only enhance the disparity between profession and possession, and is deadly.
It is possible for the minister to become so familiar with the works of evil that he is no longer profoundly moved when he witnesses the inroads and havoc caused by the forces of sin. He no longer feels emotions of revulsion and righteous anger, nor is he stimulated to aggressive warfare. This callous state is a sure sign of professionalism.
Then, it is possible for the worker for God to become so accustomed to sacred terms and expressions and to spiritual associations and processes that as he contemplates these realities he is no longer moved as he once was with a sense of awe, wonder, and reverence. This is another unmistakable indication that the man of God is drifting on the large, smooth road to formality and professionalism. And he no longer is sensitive to the divine appointment.
In the last analysis, this professionalism reveals spiritual starvation and anemia.
And what a pitiable sight! How pathetic indeed when a minister distributes the bread of life with emaciated hands. He is busy trying to feed others while he himself starves in bleak professionalism.
We rarely would arrive at the point to subscribe to the cheap sentiments revealed in the church advertisement; yet are we not guilty sometimes of an improper emphasis in our missionary service and ministerial duties?
Is there not often a tinge of materialistic selfishness in our interests? Certainly too much importance can be placed on lodging, salary, and the material advantages of the ministry. Personal advancement likewise can offer undue attraction. How tawdry and cheap these failures appear against the backdrop of Calvary and a mission to save dying men and women!
Very evidently God's men are to be separated from all of this. How clearly the Master defined proper motivation and challenge. Said He, " 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.' " " 'Here am I sending you out like sheep with wolves all round you.' " " 'You will find trouble in the world—but, never lose heart, I have conquered the world!' " " 'He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.' " " 'He who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthv of me.'" (Mark 16:15, R.S.V.; Matt. 10:16, John 16:33;* Matt. 10:40, 38, R.S.V.)
The Master knew how to challenge men and women to join in the Christian witness.
To understand God's challenge and the conditions in which it must be met, is the first step to possession as against profession.
The second is to preserve at all costs a life of transparent sincerity and reality. Outside of this sincerity and reality is cant and hypocrisy.
The third step is to exert extreme vigilance with reference to the cultivation of a spiritual life.
Each and every worker must have generous and farsighted plans for the maintenance and development of his spiritual life. Generally these plans, if there are any, are niggardly, miserly, and mean. How unworthy they are of the inexhaustible resources of the high and holy calling, of the indescribable needs of men to whom we are to minister, of the great days in which we are living, and of the stupendous issues and opportunities that are challenging us!
So often we give the impression of living from hand to mouth, snatching here and there a little enrichment from one source or another. Days drift by, and then under the influence of another circumstance coming from some unexpected quarter, a fresh impulse Godward is received. This cannot take the place of forward-looking, orderly, comprehensive planning for the symmetrical development of our spiritual sensibilities and powers. There must be preparedness against the day of trial for our leadership.
I believe every worker should observe an occasional quiet day for the express purpose of finding out where he actually is spiritually and of discerning whither he is tending. At such moments of retreat he should assess and revise plans and practices for furthering his spiritual growth and usefulness. Past successes and failures should be reviewed and the underlying principles and reasons carefully examined. Breaking away from the presence of men, he will shut himself in alone with God and His truth for self-examination, prolonged reflection, communion, and resolution. This practice has been the secret of progress in countless great ministries.
In this spiritual planning, time will be given to study, understand, and assimilate truth. Truth enrichment will become part of our store. Even Plato said, "The granary must be filled if the hungry are to be fed." And Christ said, "For their sakes I sanctify myself" (John 17:19).
We must come to grips with the real meaning and intent of prayer. Prayer will cease to be just a spiritual gimmick, a rubber-raft concept, a reciting of words. Otherwise a team of well-trained parrots could serve as well as men, and the prayer wheels of the Himalayas would be a brilliant idea. Prayer must become a total identification of life and purpose with God's life and God's purpose. And in this close relationship God's-men will be men of valor and effectiveness. They will ask rightly, and it will be given unto them.
Fourth, the worker who would possess rather than profess will step forth daily from the presence of God in the freshness of a new life and a new commitment. His tools will keep their keen, sharp edge. Nothing about him will be shopworn routine. His presence will not bespeak the staleness of professionalism but the morning freshness of ambassadorship.
Let me mention a fifth step toward true ambassadorship. It is a clear vision of the task. "What is my work?" will be a constant query.
The worker's mission embraces a multitude of activities. Every item, every detail, is important. A multitude of "things" must receive our attention. However, we mustnot fail to understand the difference between the primary and the secondary, the essential and the nonessential, the important and the less important.
Then, over and above all this, we must never forget the basic concept of ambassadorship. Said the apostle, "Now then we are ambassadors for [in place of Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."
Our essential mission is to stand for Christ on the battlements of sin, and to extend to all men the ministry of reconciliation. Our work is to save men and women for eternity. As a result of our endeavors men are to be made ready for heaven. The "spirit and soul and body"of men must be made "blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:23).
This is what the apostle had in mind when he counseled Timothy, "Do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of [fulfill] thy ministry" (2 Tim. 4:5). The "proof" of the ministry is stated clearly to the Corinthians, "You are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord" (1 Cor. 9:2, R.S.V.).
In direct speech this means that success in winning men and women to God's good news is the unmistakable demonstration of the validity of a divine call.
The man of God is not set as a foghorn to warn; he is a lifeboat guardsman who goes out and saves from the plight of sin. We are called to evangelize, and evangelize we must—with success.
I say to you today, my brethren:
Count your decisions. Reckon your life, your message, your mission, a failure unless souls are converted. Without this divine seal of apostleship we are not participants in the divine calling, and our work is simply a profession. With this divine seal we are men of God.
In a word, the absence of tangible results in soul winning belies the whole concept of ambassadorship. Indeed, we must and will win souls. Success here will be the supreme test of ambassadorship—the proof of our high calling in Christ Jesus.
* From The New Testament in Modern English by J. B. Phillips. Copyright 1958, by J. B. Phillips. Used by permission of The Macmillan Company.