Christ

Have you found joy in your life? I mean, real platformless joy.

Over the years, I have learned that the most significant ministry happens in relative obscurity. Like the small church pastor who has faithfully led fifty members through God’s Word. Or the missionary who has spent sixty years of her life taking the gospel to unreached people group. They find joy in these opportunities God has afforded them.

As we hear these stories, we aren’t envious. We ask questions. Why isn’t the pastor’s church growing? Is she married? What does her family think about her doing this? Their lives are hidden. Undesirable.

The hidden life might not be desirable, but it’s biblical.

The message is counter-cultural. When media portrays the fabulous life day in and day out, you can’t blame people for desiring that kind of lifestyle. Even Christians fall victim to the fabulous life mentality. The Apostle Paul bristles at this idea: “Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ” (Colossians 3:4 The Message). For Paul, the hidden life was Christ-like. 

Barefoot and Hidden

Take your mind back to the streets of ancient Capernaum, Galilee, and Cana. Barefoot, with one outfit, and walking as his only means of transportation, a carpenter from Nazarene traversed the highways and byways in relative obscurity.

It wasn’t until he began Jesus public ministry that people began to talk about him in the upper echelon of Jewish culture. And even then it was to hear complaints that he spent his time communing with vagabonds, sinners, and prostitutes. Surely anyone who would associate with these people had no aspiration to “make it” in Jerusalem. He was going about it all wrong.

The religious leaders had the right idea. They had arrived. They knew what it took to get ahead, and this Jesus of Nazareth was not going about it the right way. They recognized him, but for the wrong reasons. He was counter-cultural and platform-adverse. Who was this man? They were intrigued.

Yet, with this newfound recognition, he desired to remain hidden, stealing away from the crowds in solitude for days. And that’s the paradox. Christ’s platform sprang from his obscurity and obedience.

The Right Desire

Time and time again I see people who desire a platform more than they crave humility and obscurity. David’s story is helpful here. What happened after David was anointed king of Israel? He was sent right back into the field to resume his duties as a shepherd. Hidden.  It wasn’t until years later that he took his place as king. How did God know he was ready? David became a ” man after God’s heart” and not his agenda (Acts 13:22).

The hidden life drives you from a platform mindset to a lifestyle where you remain on your knees. In the hidden life, you desire that God reveals his heart through you.

This is the life that I desire. How about you?

Let’s admit it. Ministry is tricky. So many things in this world compete for people’s attention. Churches are looking for new ways to engage a culture that has now become unchurch.

Most churches spend a considerable amount of time trying to discover new ways to reach the lost. The prevailing question: How can we reach more people for Jesus? It’s a valid question. But I’m concerned about how some churches answer that question—valuing methods over the message.

Sometimes church staff members get more connected to the how of their messaging than the why.

How are we going to fill our seats? How are we going to staff our children’s ministry? How can we reach teenagers?

The Crucial Question

The most critical question gets lost in the shuffle. Why are we doing this in the first place? The answer: The gospel.

The gospel is the good news that Jesus came and lived the life we could never live to give us an unearned right standing with God.

Unfortunately, in exploring different methods of church ministry, many churches lose the message of the gospel. And that is tragic.

As I taught in a recent course, in the first century, heralds would travel from town to town proclaiming various gospel messages. In that culture, gospel proclamation happened when kings were born—when they entered the world.

Heralds had ONE JOB. Tell the world of the new king. 

Christians have one job too—to proclaim the good news of the gospel. Our job description is simple. But we complicate it when we esteem our methods over the message. And we ultimately lose our heralding ability.

Message over Methods

I love what Larry Moyer writes in 101 Tips for Evangelism:

If the message isn’t right, the methods don’t matter. Methods may be attractive in drawing people to church, but if the message isn’t correct, people will not come to God.

Well, then.

So much truth there. When it comes to ministry, may we always remember to esteem the message over the methods. When all the methods find their ways into our ministry storage space, the gospel remains. The gospel is the most precious thing we carry in this world. Church, let’s start acting like it.