PRINCIPLE 1 |
There are all kinds of ministries that are not Christian ministries. They include the personal and spontaneous ministries that parents perform for their children, the huge governmental and international agencies that work with millions of people every day, and everything in-between. But only a small percentage of all ministries are truly Christian. What sets a Christian ministry apart from all others?
A true Christian ministry always involves the Bible and the Holy Spirit. The Bible (properly interpreted) and its teachings (properly systematized) supply the main message and content of all Christian ministry, whether it is preaching, teaching, counseling, missions, publishing, or whatever. If anyone ignores the Bible in his ministry, his ministry is not Christian. It might be positive and humanitarian, but not Christian.
Likewise, the Holy Spirit supplies the spiritual dynamic of all Christian ministry. When the Holy Spirit is not active there can be no spiritual results from the ministry. There may be cognitive, psychological, or attitudinal results, but no spiritual results.
Christian ministry is aimed at two basic kinds of results, salvation and spiritual growth. Scripture makes it quite clear that both the teachings of the Bible and the activity of the Holy Spirit are involved in both salvation and spiritual growth.
| Salvation | Spiritual Growth | |
|---|---|---|
| Bible | The Bible's teachings are involved in salvation. "The holy Scriptures ... are able to make you wise for salvation" (2 Timothy 3:15). "Faith comes by hearing the message" (Romans 10:17) |
The Bible's teachings are involved in spiritual growth. "Scripture ... is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17) "Asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will ... in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord ... growing in the knowledge of God" (Colossians 1:9-10). |
| Holy Spirit |
The Holy Spirit is active in salvation. "He [the Holy Spirit] will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment" (John 16:8) "Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5) |
The Holy Spirit is active in spiritual growth. "We ... are being transformed into his likeness with every-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18) "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23). |
An individual's psychological experiences are often mistaken for the activity of the Holy Spirit. There is an important difference between the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit and a person's natural psychological functions. On the one hand, we need to understand this difference. But on the other hand, we must not oversimplify this difference by saying that when the Holy Spirit is at work, the person's normal psychological functions are not, or vice versa.
Suppose a young man publicly dedicates his life to the Lord. One observer might say, "The Holy Spirit was certainly at work." But another observer might say, "No, that young man just got worked up emotionally." Perhaps both observers are oversimplifying a complex event. Of course, strong emotional feelings and reactions can be falsely labeled as the work of the Holy Spirit. However, often both the Holy Spirit and strong emotions are at work at the same time.
When we claim that the Holy Spirit must be at work for a ministry to be a Christian ministry, we are not saying that other factors are not also at work. Indeed, a wide variety of psychological factors are involved in every Christian ministry. Personal motives, fears, social pressures, emotional reactions, need for recognition, fatigue, disposition, conditioning, false guilt, identification, rationalization, and competitiveness are only a few of the many psychological factors that can enter into any ministry. But nothing spiritual is happening in a ministry unless the Holy Spirit is involved in addition to these psychological factors.Furthermore, the Lord often works indirectly as well as directly. For example, he worked indirectly when he made use of such natural things as locusts and wind (Exodus 10:13; 14:21). So we should not be surprised if he makes use of people and psychological factors as well. The question is not simply, Are these results caused by psychological factors or by the Holy Spirit? Rather, the question is, Are these results caused merely by psychological factors, or is the Holy Spirit also at work?
In any Christian ministry, psychological and spiritual factors are often present side by side. It is helpful, in carrying out a truly spiritual ministry, to be able to distinguish between these two. If we cannot detect psychological factors at work, we may mistakenly identify human manipulation as the "conviction" of the Holy Spirit. Or we may mistake some of our own fears and motives as the "voice" of the Holy Spirit. Or we may observe mere group dynamics and emotional experiences and call it the "moving" of the Holy Spirit. Of course, it is wrong to explain all religious activity as psychological. But if we label everything that looks like religious activity as from the Holy Spirit, we are just as wrong.
This subject of psychological factors and how they relate to the work of the Holy Spirit is a matter that should be discussed more fully. Several other principles, including Principles 5, 6, and 7, will describe some of the inner dynamics of the individual, and under Principle 16 we will discuss psychological conversions.
We have emphasized the necessity of the Bible and the Holy Spirit. But this does not mean that every ministry in which they are involved will bring about positive results. Suppose that we clearly and prayerfully present the gospel message to a friend, with the leading and the power of the Holy Spirit. Does that guarantee that our friend will accept Christ? No. That is his choice to make.* Or, suppose that a pastor faithfully and prayerfully teaches his congregation that they should be honest in filling out their income tax forms, and he teaches this under the leading and power of the Holy Spirit. Does that guarantee that each person in his hearing will actually be honest at tax time? No. Each person makes that choice for himself.
When we are ministering to another person, whether or not a positive result comes from our ministry depends on the other person, even though our ministry involves the teachings ofthe Bible and the work of the Holy Spirit. The other person's response makes the difference. He must decide to make the positive response of faith and obedience.
Some may feel that the above idea casts a poor reflection on the power of the Bible and the Holy Spirit. They may argue, based on such passages as Hebrews 4:12 and Isaiah 55:11, that any presentation of God's Word (especially any presentation blessed by the power of the Holy Spirit) must produce a positive result. But that is certainly a false interpretation for two reasons. First, the correct interpretation of the above passages must take their contexts into account. Note that earlier, in Hebrews 4:2, the writer claimed that the ancient Israelites had a divine message preached to them, "but the message they heard was of no value to them because those who heard it did not combine it with faith." This verse clearly indicates that the response of faith is a necessary ingredient in bringing about a positive result. Also, the context of Isaiah 55:11 indicates that the phrase "my word" refers not to the Bible as a whole, but to God's specific promise of favor upon repentant Israel. Second, other passages must be taken into account. For example, consider Jesus' parable of the four different kinds of soils in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8. In each of the four cases the Word was sown, but in each of the four cases there was a different result, caused not by a different message, but by a different inner condition in the person who heard the message. Also, we should consider the many times when Jesus ministered both to his disciples and to strangers. Sometimes those listeners failed to learn their lessons. Some of them rejected Jesus and what he taught. Some of them repeatedly lacked faith. Was this because Jesus failed in some way? Did he neglect spiritual truths and values in his teaching? Did he attempt to minister merely on a human level, with no divine power? Certainly these cannot be the proper explanations of these failures. In every case, when an individual responded negatively to Jesus' ministry, he made that choice for himself.
Thus, we can say that the Bible is necessary for a spiritually productive ministry, but it is not sufficient. This does not degrade the value of the Bible, but is a recognition of the importance of individual response. We can also say that the Holy Spirit is necessary for a spiritually productive ministry, but he does not force salvation or spiritual growth on anyone. Men and women decide for themselves whether or not they will accept God's free gift of salvation and whether or not they will grow in their Christian lives.
* The emphasis in this final section on the necessity of response may not set well with those who, from a Calvinistic perspective, emphasize the sovereignty of God and believe in irresistible grace. Those who are concerned about these issues may want to read the paper: Calvin and Arminius