Get Out!

Two for One:

It happened twice in one weekend, and by two different people! I wasn't sure if I was overanalyzing things (which I have been known to do) or was it a misconception of the whole?  It bothered me so much so that I could not not think about it.  During the whole ride home, a 9 hour trip, I kept questioning the foundational premise to both of these young men who were complete strangers to one another.  Why did they define it this way? Why did they see it like that? What was the missing component?

Our understanding of the term ministry in large part is directly linked to our comprehension of the nature of the church.  I've written elsewhere on the purpose of the church, if you are interested its is under "God is in the Business of Making a People for Himself". Majority of individuals walk into the assembly of saints and perceive that the people who do ministry are the paid staff of the respective institution while those who keep the seats warm are merely observers.  Ministry is a job, a vocation, an activity that "serious" Christians engage in by becoming pastors. But what does the bible say?

I'll get to that.

Stacking Chairs:

He'd stopped attending church and was taking a break.  He wanted to find a church that he could support the vision and mission while understanding that his main posture within ministry was not to be a public figure, but rather someone who assisted in the background.  I could respect that! But he wanted to stack chairs.

Stack chairs?!?

Nothing against it!  We need people who are willing and able to serve the local gatherings through set up, tear down, refreshments, IT, and more.  Those things are not bad in of themselves—they're actually necessary in the life of the church—but there seems to be an underlining perspective that misses the mark of biblical ministry.  Have we boiled down ministry to stacking chairs and greeting people? In embracing an ideology of ministry in America have we lost something beautiful that is mandated through the divine words of Scripture? Has church been consolidated down to Sunday?

Running Programs:

I wanted to give the next guy the benefit of the doubt.  I mean, he's really just a kid.  So, I shouldn't have paid no mind to his statement, but then again how are we training our young people to see these biblical principles? How do they understand the nature of the church? Maybe it was important that I pay him mind.  Maybe he was speaking on what he had unconsciously learned from the church; the culture; the practice of ministry in the local setting.

Maybe he was speaking on what he had unconsciously learned from the church; the culture; the practice of ministry in the local setting.

He was a teenager who was burned out from youth ministry.  He may have oversaw activities, events, or the boy's group.  Whatever it was we didn't get into specifics, but one thing was sure; by year's end he was tired of serving.  On the bright side, he was ready to get on the horse again.  To saddle up and jump on the beast of ministry and give her another go-a-round.  But then it struck me! Was what he was describing ministry? By not engaging in the programs, does that mean one is not called to Gospel ministry? Was ministry merely what is done within the four walls of the church during a particular day of the week? Did he miss the forest for the trees?

Minimize in Order to Maximize: 

The disciples were convince that the messiah would come and make an enormous bang by shacking up the Greco-Roman empire.  In their minds, the messiah would turn Rome on its head and Israel would ride off into the sunset.  Jesus came preaching the Kingdom (Matt. 4:17), and these twelve disciples were on the brink of reaping a harvest of sheer power, dominance, and authority (from a human perspective).  N. T. Wright articulates this reality by saying:

The phrase 'kingdom of god', therefore, carried unambiguously the hope that YHWH would act thus, within history, to vindicate Israel; the question, why He was taking so long about doing so; and the agenda, for those with watchful hearts, not only to wait for Him to act, but to work, in whatever way was deemed appropriate, towards that day. Furthermore, the idea of YHWH's being king carried the particular and definite revolutionary connotation that certain other people were due for demotion. Caesar, certainly. Herod, quite probably. The present high-priestly clan, pretty likely. When YHWH was king, Israel would be ruled properly, through the sort of rulers YHWH approved of, who would administer justice for Israel and judgement on the nations.1

Yet Jesus came not in a militant fashion, but rather gathered twelve men and pursued the cross of Calvary.  The inauguration of the Kingdom did not come by force, but rather by humiliation—namely the cross. It wasn't the Roman empire that was turned on its head, but rather the ideologies that placed God's redemptive plan in a finite box of the human mind.

Maybe the church was meant to be the people of God on mission with God for the sake of His glory.

Maybe doing church wasn't meant to look like a billion dollar corporation or a Thriller concert or the neighborhood Starbucks.  Maybe the church was meant to be the people of God on mission with God for the sake of His glory.  Just like how Jesus didn't come the way the people thought He would, the church is not meant to look like what the people want.  Maybe God's plan for the church; His set up, His plan, His strategy; is better!

Empower:

We hoard. We love to keep it for ourselves.  We want to do it big. We want to make a name for ourselves (I've heard that somewhere; Babel).  Yet Jesus started small, and He was less concerned with the size and more concerned with the movement.  "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19).  "[You] will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

Its interesting that both of these familiar verses are attached with empowerment.  The former is attached to: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me" (Matt. 28:18); while the latter is attached to: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you" (Acts 1:8).

What does this mean practically for the church? It means that as the church, in particular the elders and pastors, we must empower (by the authority of His Word) the people of God to go.  To go to their families and preach the Gospel. To go to their work places; their cubicles; their offices; their shops.  To go to their neighborhoods, their schools, their communities, and their circle of friends to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Gregg R. Allison reminds us that "[missional] is a matter of identity first, then function."2 As the church, we are to call the people to move and to empower them to go! Out of the outflow of the joy grounded in Jesus Christ we are to engage the nations. John Piper synthesizes this notion well in saying, "[worship is] the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God's glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God."3

Discipleship:

The programs of the institutional church is meant to be a means to posture the people of God to stand on a trajectory toward discipleship.  Mark Dever helpfully states, "[but] the ministry of the ordinances and the ministry of teaching primarily occur through churches. Churches fulfill the Great Commission, and discipling is the work of churches."4 The "apostles, the prophets, the evangelist, the shepherds and teachers" have been given " to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:12-13).  The movements that are mandated by Paul are captured in the terms equip and building up. They are the mechanism in which the saints are to obtain unity in faith and knowledge of Christ Jesus. All of which is to serve the end goal of maturity and full stature.

The activities of the institutional church is meant to be a means to posture the people of God to stand on a trajectory toward discipleship.

If this is true, then stacking chairs and greeting people can not be the pinnacle of church ministry, but rather discipleship that is grounded in biblical formation.  The church must fight against the tendency of making the means (programs, activities, stacking chairs, etc.) the end and the end (discipleship) merely the means.  The pursuit of the church is to engage in the sanctifying work of discipleship that cements the saints of God toward the glory of God. Jeffrey P. Greenman articulates it well in saying, "Growth into the likeness of Christ accompanies our participation in Christ's mission to the world, in the power of the Spirit."5

Die or Die:

The implications of the church's unwillingness to engage in discipleship with any type of seriousness and/or zeal will be the death of several local churches.  Not that the Church will die because Jesus said, "I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16: 18).  But many local assemblies will shut down due to an inability to engage in discipleship with the next generation.  The Hmong church in particular, with its tribal tendencies, are already in the midst of loosing many of the Millennials.  With the lack of discipleship and an empowering vision toward Gospel ministry, the next generation of leaders find themselves bored of attending programs.

What's the solution? In my humble opinion, death!

Instead of being about our local institution, we will be about the Kingdom of God.

In the first scenario, our current trend, the church will die due to an inability to reach the nations and generations.  The second scenario, my humble solution, is to pursue death by sending.  Sending our best and brightest members to go and multiple for the sake of the Kingdom.  Instead of being about our local institution, we will be about the Kingdom of God.  This type of death is Gospel death, and Gospel death always breeds Gospel resurrection when Jesus is at the center and core.  We send and build those who remain to the point of sending them out again.  Instead of hoarding to form a megachurch, we send to establish the people of God in communities across the globe for the Name of Christ.  J. D. Greer captures the heart of this dilemma well by saying,

Fill a heart with passion for the lost, and it develops the skill of sending. No shouting required. What keeps us from proficiency in sending, you see, is not a lack of competency, but a lack of conviction; not a scarcity of skill, but a paucity of passion. . . What your organization does best grows out of what it loves most. To send effectively, we must love the glory of God and the lost more than we love anything else. Then sending comes naturally. . . Motivation for mission grows out of deep, personal experience with the Gospel. When we are amazed at the grace God showed in saving us, going to great lengths to save others seems an insignificant thing. We yearn to see the glory of our saving God spread throughout the earth and others find in Christ what we have found. . . Everything in the Christian life grows out of the Gospel. Thus, the deeper you and your people go in the Gospel, the higher you will soar in the mission.6

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*footnotes

1. N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), 203. 

2. Gregg R. Allison, Sojourners and Strangers: The Doctrine of the Church (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 147. 

3. John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad!: The Supremacy of God in Missions (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 17.

4. Mark Dever, Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus (Wheaton: Crossway, 2016), 19. 

5. Jeffrey P. Greenman, Life in the Spirit: Spiritual Formation in Theological Perspective, ed. Jeffrey P. Greenman and George Kalantzis (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2010), 27. 

6. J. D. Greer, Gaining by Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015), 58-59.
____________________________________________

McYoung Yang (M. Div., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary). He is the husband of Debbie Yang and the father to McCayden (8), McCoy (7), McColsen (5), and DeYoung (1).  He has recently accepted the position of Associate Professor of Theology at Crown College in Saint Bonifacius, MN and will begin teaching in the Fall of 2017. He is currently serving as a Counsel member of the Youth Ministry of the Hmong District of the C&MA. McYoung is continuing his post-graduate studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary where he hopes to obtain his PhD in Theology. He seeks to use his training and platform as a means to serve the local church in living life through the Gospel lens. McYoung enjoys reading/writing, sports, and playing with his children. 

God Is In The Business Of Making A People For Himself

More Questions Than Answers:

I went to seminary for two particular reasons.  Growing up as a second generation immigrant and a relatively new Christian I had no idea nor had I ever heard of anything remotely close to seminary. My understanding of pastoral training was solely linked to my denominational school in Saint Bonifacius, MN—Crown College. After graduation I had the privilege of pastoring in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.  With the rise of YouTube and social media, I quickly ran into a fiery preacher named John Piper; reason number one for seminary.

Let me explain.

When I started to listen to Piper I became fascinated with his ability to handle the text and proclaim Truth.  His exegetical prowess and intellectual precision had me questioning my own foundational groundings. As a young pastor and preacher I began to say, "I want to do that!"

The second reason for seminary had to do with questions that were being unearthed in respects to my vocational experience.  I began to feel a tension with the local church ministry and the Gospel I had encountered within the Scriptures.  As the weeks became months and eventually years, the questions piled up alongside the rigors of full time ministry and a growing family.  One question—amongst a host of others—was: "What is the Purpose of the Church?"

"I began to feel a tension with the local church ministry and the Gospel I had encountered within the Scriptures."

Biblical Theology:

One of the joys within seminary was learning about the discipline of biblical theology.  The art of tracing themes and motifs throughout the storyline of Scripture and finding gems to better understand the plot line of God's salvific purpose assisted in gaining a clearer and more well-rounded comprehension of redemptive history.  "Biblical theology," according to Graeme Goldsworthy, "is not concerned to state the final doctrines which go to make up the content of Christian belief, but rather to describe the process by which revelation unfolds and moves toward the goal which is God's final revelation of His purposes in Jesus Christ. Biblical theology seeks to understand the relationships between the various eras in God's revealing activity recorded in the Bible."1 Simply put, the themes and motifs throughout the Scriptures (the character of God; the people of God; atonement; etc.) begin to inform the expression in practical application.

The People of God:

The main question I kept asking was: What is the purpose of the church? Why did God create the church? I was persuaded that once I was able to grasp the answer through Scripture I would be convicted and convinced of pastoring His people toward that end.  But what was the answer? At this point in my pastoral career I was good at deconstructing the current state of the church, but I was not quite as skilled in reconstructing a biblical antidote.

"I was persuaded that once I was able to see the answer through Scripture I would be convicted and convinced of pastoring His people toward that end."

The answer began to crystalize as I engaged the entire biblical text through a Christo-centric lens.  The Old Testament, which was once boring and tedious, began to awaken in my heart through the illuminating work of the Spirit.  The theme People of God began to be the framework that assisted in my progressive understanding of God's aim in redeeming the world for His glory. 

Imago Dei: 

A particular motto began to flush itself out as I began to read and teach on the matter: God is in the business of making a people for Himself. This became evident from the beginning of Scripture.  The mandate that was given to Adam and Eve was to "[be] fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen. 1:28).  The decree to multiply implies that Adam and Eve were to fill the earth and create in the world a people for God.  Keep in mind that this command was given prior to the Fall.  This notion of multiplication is intrinsically linked to the ontological make-up of Adam and Eve.  Meaning, the multiplication mandate derived from the reality that humanity was created "in the image of God" (Gen. 1:27).  God wanted His glory within humanity to multiply, quantitatively, across the face of the creative order. "Metaphorically," says G. K. Beale, "humanity is a small picture file in the terabytes of God's glory in creation."2 

Abrahamic Covenant: 

Upon the Fall, the messianic seed that would descend from the woman, Eve, would be carried in contrast to the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15).  From the time of the Fall to the establishment of the Abrahamic Covenant the seed of the serpent sought to destroy the movement of the messianic seed.  From the killing of Abel to the worldwide flood to the Tower of Babel, the battle of the seeds was apparent.  It is within this context that the reader finds Abram who would become the father of many nations.

"The implication of nation is that God, through the means of Abraham, will establish a people for Himself to bring forth His redemptive purpose in the seed of the woman."

Robin Routledge makes the point that "[the] call of Abraham in Genesis 12 marks a significant turning point: it opens the way for the nations, on whom God's judgement has just fallen (Babel), ultimately to receive His blessing."3 God contends, then, that He "will make you a great nation, and [He] will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing" (Gen. 12:2).  The implication of "nation" is that God, through the means of Abraham, will establish a people for Himself to bring forth His redemptive purpose in the seed of the woman.  Thomas R. Schreiner infers that "[the] promises made to Abraham were the means by which God would undo the devastation wrought by Adam and would bring in His kingdom. . . The promise that God would make 'a great nation' from Abraham signifies the promise of the kingdom."4

God is in the business of making a people for Himself.  The people is the expression of the kingdom. 

Mosaic Covenant: 

The people of God preserved through Joseph made his way to Egypt, first, as a slave and, later, as second in command. In retrospect Joseph was able to see that "you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today" (Gen. 50:20).  In Egypt the nation of Israel would multiply (Ex. 1:6).  So much so that "the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves" (Ex. 1:13-14).  In God's faithfulness He rescued the nation of Israel out of Egypt through His servant Moses. 

Upon their voyage toward freedom, God would establish His people on the foundation of His decrees.  Through His commandments God was creating a theocracy in which He would govern His people and be their King.  The Decalogue (Ten Commandments) and, ultimately, the law was given to guide the nation in living as the people of God; set apart from the nations in order to reach the nations in retrospect to the Abrahamic Covenant.  Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum characterizes the nation of Israel by saying, 

As a kingdom of priests, they will function to make the ways of God known to the nations and also to bring the nations into a right relationship to God. Israel will display to the rest of the world within its covenant community the kind of relationships first to God and then to one another and to the physical world, that God intended originally for all of humanity. In fact, through Abraham's family, God purposes and plans to bring blessing to all the nations of the world. In this way, through the family of Abraham, through Israel, His last Adam, He will bring about a resolution of the sin and death caused by the first Adam. Since Israel is located geographically on the one and only communications link between the great superpowers of the ancient world (Egypt and Mesopotamia), in this position she will show the nations how to have a right relationship to God, how to treat each other in a truly human way, and how to faithfully steward the earth's resources. This is the meaning of Israel's sonship.5 

God is carry the seed of the woman through the descendants of Abraham unto the nation of Israel.  God is in the business of making a people for Himself.

Davidic Covenant:

In the midst of the Fall God calls forth a beacon of hope in the seed of the woman.  He calls Abraham out from paganism to carry the seed which had sprouted into the nation of Israel; a people for His namesake.  Through His servant David God inaugurates a kingdom by establishing the throne to which the greater David would rest upon in the Person of Jesus Christ.

"Through His servant David God inaugurates a kingdom by establishing the throne to which the greater David would rest upon in the Person of Jesus Christ."

The error of Israel, according to Gentry and Wellum, "was not, then, in wanting a king. It was in wanting one like the nations."6 God maneuvers in light of Israel's sin in such a way as to fulfill His redemptive plan.  God establishes a covenant with David in which "your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever" (2 Sam. 7:16).  This kingdom will be a people whose imprint will be that of the Lord's.  The rulership and direction will be to bring forth God's purposes; mainly to magnify His glory in redeeming the world.

God is carrying the seed of the woman through the descendants of Abraham unto the nation of Israel.  He affirms the seed of the woman through the establishment of the Davidic throne in which the Seed will come to possess.  God is in the business of making a people for Himself.

New Covenant—The Church:

The personification of God's promised Seed was grounded in Jesus Christ.  His work on the cross and the power of the resurrection inaugurated the new age in which the Spirit would rest upon His people.  This was realized in the historical event of Pentecost to which the church was birthed (Acts 2). As Peter proclaimed the Gospel "those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls" (Acts 2:41).  The Word is the originator of the church.7 The church is the conduit to which the Word, the Gospel, will be preached, because "faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ" (Rom. 10:17). Mark Dever adds that "God is granting a new beginning, a new creation through Christ, in which the people of God increasingly conform to the kingdom or rule of God."8

"The primacy of the preached Gospel and the discipleship of all the nations is to be championed amongst the people of God."

The establishment of the church, then, is to carry the Gospel message through the heralding of the Word and in the making of disciples (Matt. 28:18-20).  The primacy of the preached Gospel and the discipleship of all the nations is to be championed amongst the people of God.  Everything else derives for this aim.  Gregg R. Allison says, "[the] givenness and logocentricity of the ministry mean that the church must preach the Word of God—'without confusion, without change,' without compromise—as its first order of business."9

God has carried the seed of the woman through the descendants of Abraham unto the nation of Israel.  He has affirmed the seed of the woman through the establishment of the Davidic throne in which Christ Himself possess.  The establishment of the church is the vehicle to which the message of God's redemptive achievement is to be pressed forward.  The church is to champion the message of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

God is in the business of making a people for Himself.

The Aim of the Church:

The people of God in the Old Testament was the conduit to which God used to bring forth His redemptive purpose through the Seed.  The New Testament church is the agent that carries forth the finished work of the Seed; the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As the people of God, the church's call is to engage the world for the sake of the Gospel.  To be "[a] city on a hill [that] cannot be hidden" (Matt. 5:14).  To "let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16).  To "[go] therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:19-20).

The church is not a social club nor a public service hall, but rather the people of God on mission with God in a broken and depraved world.  Edmund P. Clowney writes, "Those united to Christ become stewards in a world over which He is Lord. Sharing the distress of a creation that is not yet delivered from disorder and frustration, they work in hope, anticipating the joy of the new heavens and earth."10 God is in the business of making a people for Himself.  He has allowed the church—His people—to partner with Him in this great endeavor we call Gospel ministry.
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*footnotes

1. Graeme Goldsworthy, The Goldsworthy Trilogy (Colorado Springs: Paternoster,  2000), 45-46.

2. G. K. Beale and Mitchell Kim, God Dwells Among Us: Expanding Eden to the Ends of the Earth (Downers Grove: IVP, 2014), 30. 

3. Robin Routledge, Old Testament Theology: A Thematic Approach (Downers Grove: IVP, 2008), 158.

4. Thomas R. Schreiner, The King in His Beauty: A Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013), 17.

5. Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical Theological Understanding of the Covenants (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 303. 

6. Ibid., 392.

7. Michael S. Horton, Calvin on the Christian Life: Glorifying and Enjoying God Forever (Wheaton: Crossway, 2014), 188. 

8. Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2012), 11. 

9. Gregg R. Allison, Sojourners and Strangers: The Doctrine of the Church (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 435.

10. Edmund P. Clowney, The Church: Contours of Christian Theology (Downers Grove: IVP, 1995), 140. 
____________________________________________

McYoung Yang (M. Div, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the husband of Debbie Yang and the father to McCayden (8), McCoy (7), McColsen (5), and DeYoung (1).  He has recently accepted the position of Associate Professor of Theology at Crown College in Saint Bonifacius, MN and will begin teaching in the Fall of 2017. He is currently serving as a Youth Counsel member of the Youth Ministry of the Hmong District in the C&MA. McYoung is continuing his post-graduate studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary where he hopes to obtain his PhD in Theology. He seeks to use his training and platform as a means to serve the local church in living life through the Gospel lens. McYoung enjoys reading/writing, sports, and playing with his children.