Philippians 2: The servant Christ and how it informs our practise
Choices we make in how we serve God
1) Invitation or challenge?
We are wired to prefer one or the other of those choices. Some love invitation style discipleship: 'would you like to do this?' sort of questions. Some instead prefer straight talking 'you should do this.'
When it comes to serving God we take our preferences into an issue. Eg. when handling controversial topics some people take the approach of speaking out and challenging. Other churches take the stance of winsomeness and befriending over publicly challenging something.
It's not so much learning which approach/attitude is right or wrong but which is best in whats setting and to what audience?
Paul: 'it is not for me to judge those outside of the church...'
Jesus: spoke out about the behaviour of the Pharisees but not obviously about sinners.
2) Discipline or organic?
Do we thrive best by living a very disciplined life or do we thrive best when we are much more 'organic' or spontaneously spirit-led. Truth be told is that you need both.
Discipline is not the same as legalism. Discipline brings freedom. Eg. skilful guitarists. The same is true in the Christian life, eg to prophecy better and more freely requires disciplined soaking in scripture. Soaking in the Spirit then doesn't mean emptying your mind and waiting for the Spirit to drop things in. It means marinating in the truth and allowing the Spirit to bring things to the surface. To make a steak tasty you marinate it in flavoursome juices not just water.
3) Prophetic or planning?
Should we respond to what God initiates or should we proactively engage the gifting he's given us? Are you a responder or an initiator? There's choices there to make! After many years of ministry Mike Betts' conclusion is that the role of prophecy is not taken heed of as much as it should do. Scripture says that God will not do something without first telling the prophets. Whenever God wants to do something in your life he will always give indication of what he wants to do: 'the Lord is my shepherd, he leads me...'
God's problem is guidance, ours is obedience. Whenever people say 'I don't know what to do...' Mike's response is 'it's not your problem, it's his. Ask him and leave it with him. What he can't do for you is obey.
4) Legacy or achievement?
There will be a time when your earthly capacity to do anything will be over. Do you want to spend your time achieving things for yourself or do you want to make choices that help others achieve but that ensures that you leave a legacy yourself? You will in all likelihood not get the credit you deserve. Others will get it since you will have spent time investing in others for them to achieve.
You can either get other people to use their energy to serve your vision, but when you are not around your vision dies. The temptation in the world and the Christian world is for celebrity. Everything about Jesus was obscure (his birth place, his appearance, his posture).
You have to make those decisions everyday. Are you going to go for legacy or achievement?
5) Character or gifting?
Do you want to surround yourself with highly gifted people who are very capable or are you going to look for people of good character and who are loyal, faithful and true above all else?
Choosing character may take you longer to get there but it's more certain that you'll get there. You can put people on a course to learn skills but you can't put people on a course to learn character. That happens day by day in life.
6) Friendship or function?
Mike: 'I will only surround myself with people to work with who will energise me?'
Be with people who are different from you but who you enjoy being with. 30 years ago when we (NF) started planting churches we found people we enjoyed being with and then found ourselves on mission together. Now it is more a case of being on mission first and then trying to friendship along the way.
Don't sacrifice the pursuit of working in teams galvanised by friendship. Not cliques but friendships.
7) Principle or pragmatic?
This is a challenge in our day especially in the church. Is Acts descriptive or prescriptive? Is this a principle or a description? If it's a principle we have to build by it even if it's difficult.
We have to make choices about how we will build.
Comment: In the west we may not be facing persecution in the way other places are. Our persecution is more that of derision. It's a persecution upon the intelligence rather than upon the body. We have to make choices then, do we hold things out of principle and bear the societal shame or not?
8) Reliance or resource?
Do not live out of your own resource.
What God wants from us and what God has repeatedly said to Mike throughout his Christian life is that we are to be totally reliant upon him. Whether in our personal life, finances, health, vocation... whatever it is we are to be totally reliant upon him.
Unless what we live for is bigger than what we can achieve it's not of God because you can achieve that on your own!
Instead we ought to think: Come on God! Let's see what you can do with a wretch like me! Come on - let's do it! You haven't got to be anything special you only have to be obedience. If God tells you to do something, just do it!
He wants us to dig ourselves into a bigger and bigger hole of reliance on him. Job: if God were to withdraw his Spirit from mankind we would all return to the dust.
9) Calling or career?
Every person has a calling from God. Your calling has nothing to do with employment. If you don't know what God has called you to, he will tell you. In Davi's case his calling emerged out of his service.
A key is to ensure we remain focused on what he's calling us to. It's not primrarily a calling for our personal fulfillment but for his kingdom.
10) Influence or directing?
This isn't just about leadership but when in positions of influence or seniority in church or world do you tell people what to do or do you just influence people in what they should do?
Mike: Influence is a far more effective way of leading than directing is.
We do not have authority over people, Jesus does. We have authority to empower others to do what God has commissioned them to do it.
Don't go for quick fix solutions to deep heart problems.
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