Igor, do not try this at home.

If you mix sulfuric acid with sugar, in a beaker, you will get the same reaction every time. If you want to see what happens click here. God’s physical world is designed to be consistent. That is God’s loving protection for us. Imagine if every time you dropped a penny you wouldn’t know if it would go up, down or sideways and with how much force.

Spirituality and ministry are a different matter. God has designed a way of dealing with us which is incredibly flexible and creative. We are in contact with his Spirit, both individually and in community. We work in cooperation with him, under his lordship and guidance to accomplish his goals. By doing things this way, God maintains his lordship, draws us into closer relationship to him and is able to contextualize his ministry to any culture or context.

God tends to work within parameters and patterns, not through programs and procedures. God has a number of parameters he will not violate. He always lives within his own character. He will not become cruel, hateful and arrogant on a whim. He functions within the moral code laid out in the Bible. He will never ask you to steal from someone, or lie or, in fact, harm anyone. He also functions within the parameters of his current operating system, the new covenant. Actually, what I’m describing here is new covenant spirituality and ministry.

In the same way, he tends to follow certain patterns. Here’s a pattern. Those who abide bear fruit. Here’s another: To whom much is given much is required. And another: those who sow sparingly reap sparingly. Luke 10 apostolic ministry should be seen as a pattern, not as a procedure or technique.

When God works within a pattern, he maintains his lordship. Techniques and procedures are something that we can manipulate. What is the technique for finding a person of peace? There isn’t any. But I can tell you from experience, when I pray consistently for God to connect me with people of peace, I seem to bump into them. If there were a technique, all I’d have to do was follow the technique. This way I have to live under God’s lordship, guidance and power. The very act of doing ministry with him brings me into closer relationship with him; and that is pure joy.

Our humanistic, fleshly nature causes us to crave programs and procedures. We really don’t want to give up control to God. We’d rather read a book or go to a seminar. How do you get a huge church? Just go to the seminar put on by the latest mega-church pastor. How do we evangelize? We do it just like such and such an evangelist does. You can get his latest book for $19.95 on Amazon.com. So we all go out to the latest seminar, we buy the current hot book and we get the same measly results as before we read the book or paid conference fees. Am I against conferences and books? No, I’ve written a book and I attend and occasionally speak at conferences. But I don’t expect to get some sort of life changing technique or procedure from either. I might, however, gain some insight how to draw closer to God within his parameters and patterns.

What I expect and what I often experience is a God who loves me and knows just how to work with all my weaknesses, personality and gifting. He knows who he wants to team me up with. He knows what context I’m living and ministering in. He knows who I’m going to talk to next, even if I don’t. He knows what has been going on in their life, even though I probably don’t. He knows what resources I need to get the job done, and what is just wishful thinking on my part. He knows what I need to learn next and how to teach it to me. Why would I try to standardize anything given that reality? And that’s not just my reality, its everybody’s reality.  I believe we try to standardize things because we tacitly think that we somehow gain control through programming and techniques. What we fail to realize is that in gaining control we lose spiritual power and abiding connection with God. We are selling our birthright for a pot of beans.

  • What other patterns can you see in the Scriptures?
  • Are there other reasons we tend to want to rely on programs and procedures?
  • Have you ever experienced God’s individualize leading? Did it lead to fruit?
  • Do you find programmed or procedure oriented ministry to be joyous? Why or why not?
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