[This is the introduction to the book I’m writing now. I’d love to hear what you think of the theme.]
Major League Baseball fans drool over the “five-tool player” who can run like the wind, throw like a rocket launcher, hit for average like a machine, hit for power like Superman, and catch fly balls like flypaper traps flies. You get the point. To be a great ballplayer one needs to develop more than one skill. The guy who can catch the ball, but do nothing else the sport requires isn’t likely to be able to quit their office job any time soon.
I have friends who are multidimensional Jesus followers. They can do it all. Well, I only consider them “friends” when they’re not making me jealous. And to top it off, they’re humble! Don’t you just hate people like that?
One guy whose blog I follow calls himself: “An Anabaptist, lower-case evangelical, fairly charismatic, slightly liturgical, and sometimes contemplative follower of Jesus.” Talk about covering all the bases! On the other hand, I know people who seem content to be one-tool Christians. It’s not just a matter of their gifting. They seem to value only their preferred aspect of the faith. They’re scholars who know more than Paul––about his own Epistles! They may pray more than the Pope, preach better than Martin Luther King Jr., or fast more than Ghandi. But that’s all they can or care to do for God. It’s all they talk about and all they admire in others. And if you don’t excel in the use of their same “tool” you’re not likely to be admitted into their circle.
It’s my opinion that balanced Christians, not to mention healthy churches, should value and practice more than just one feature of the Christ-shaped life.
The text of our study, the tenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, features three scenes––each one unique to the good doctor’s biography of Jesus’ life and teaching: the mission trip of the Seventy, the parable of the Good Samaritan, and the account of Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to his words. These episodes depict three aspects of Christian spirituality and church life: missional, merciful, and worshipful. I don’t claim that Luke, or even the Spirit who inspired him, juxtaposed these three scenarios in the narrative intentionally in order to portray three particular essentials of the Christian life. But it does seem more than a little curious. Like a three-legged stool, each depends on all three for balance and stability.
Of course, the Bible’s chapter and verse breaks were not necessarily inspired by the Holy Spirit. Yet in this one chapter we do have three of the most important, if not the most important priorities for people of the kingdom, individually and collectively.
Reaching out to lost people, serving the hurting, and pursuing a deepening intimacy with God are all essential components for healthy Christians and balanced churches. As you might expect, people and churches tend toward one or another of these. Some major on sharing Christ everywhere they go, healing the sick, and confronting demons. Others aren’t as proficient at or compelled to good news sharing, yet are passionate about good news showing by serving poor and marginalized people. They’re drawn to social justice in the same way that others are attracted to evangelism. And then there are those whose primary passion is to cultivate a deeper intimacy with God through contemplative prayer, meditation, and worship; while mission and mercy are less of a focus to their spiritual tribe.
Each person, church, or spiritual movement has a particular stream in which they’re most comfortable swimming, while often overlooking, if not minimizing the others. From my vantage point, there are a couple flaws in this approach to following Jesus. First, when we swim exclusively in our own preferred stream to the near exclusion of the others, we tend to lack respect and appreciation for our brothers and sisters who swim elsewhere.
Ours is not a stream, but the whole river! Those other Christians (if they are Christians at all) do it all wrong because they don’t do it like we do!
I’d remind these one-tool Christians to honor one another above themselves, Romans 12:10 appreciate the gifting of others, support their calling, and glean from their passion. Just because others don’t prioritize the same things you do doesn’t mean they’re wrong and you’re right. It might just mean that they have a revelation of a different facet of Christ than you do. So, thank God for them, learn from them, and skim off even just a little bit of their passion for yourself.
I’ve observed that…
- The predominantly missional Christian can be critical of the merciful for exclusively serving the poor or judge the worshipful for “wasting valuable time” seeking God when they could be out making disciples.
- Those who major on mercy can tend to feel that both the missional and worshipful brethren should be doing more for the cause of social justice in the world instead of spending all their energy preaching or praying.
- The Christian whose primary passion is worship, might have a bone to pick with the missional and merciful folks for placing too much emphasis on working for God and too little time worshipping him.
Sometimes such opinions are generated more by jealously than theology. Rather than envy the strengths of others and concoct a perspective that devalues their contribution, we should celebrate and emulate those who excel in spiritual practices in which we fall behind.
On the other hand, we mustn’t assume that God called others who are strong and passionate in an area to do pretty much all the evangelism or work of justice or intimate worship. Don’t assume it’s their ministry, their gift, what God called only them to do. “Thank God, because I’m no good in that area. And since they’re doing it, I’m off the hook!”
I think it’s ill-advised to so focus our attention on our one tool that we abdicate responsibility to develop the use of the others. Though some are more gifted and compelled by the Spirit toward one or the other of these emphases, it’s unwise, not to mention unbiblical, to shirk our responsibility to improve in every dimension of Kingdom life.
Each person will naturally excel in one of these three areas over the others. Scripture does indicate that there are gifts of “evangelism” (Ephesians 4) and even of “mercy” (Romans 12). But as the ballplayer that isn’t a natural five-tool athlete is coached to work on the weaker aspects of his game, we should thank God for the spiritual task that comes most naturally to us, and then go to work on the others.
To change the metaphor, in order to keep your weight down (or get it down, as the case may be) most doctors will prescribe a good diet and adequate exercise. One or the other will neither adequately nor sustainably reduce girth or lower poundage. In order to get in shape or maintain it we have to practice both. In the same way, in order to be spiritually fit and for our churches to be sound and balanced, we have to work on being missional, and merciful, and worshipful.
barney wiget 