Confessions: Buying Bullets

The first “official” chapter of Confessions of a Reformission Rev. is entitled Jesus, Our Offering Was $137 and I Want to Use it to Buy Bullets.  He talks about having 0-45 people in the congregation.

I had one of those Sundays recently.  The general fund giving was $1.  Yes, $1.  Not enough to buy the bullets for the gun I don’t own anyway.

In his coaching corner, Driscoll says “In the infancy phase, the church and the leader are one and the same because the leader is essentially the only person holding the church together and doing most of the work.”

Lots of pressure is on the planter/pastor.  There really can be a sense that if you aren’t there, no one is.  At times this feels unbearable, and lots of counterfeit guilt can pile up.  While you focus on keeping it alive, you really should be doing something else- “the hard part was figuring out how to get my vision into the minds of other people so that together we could build the church God had put in my imagination.”

Driscoll develops the Missional Ministry Matrix with 4 focal points or questions.  1st is Christology- who is Jesus, what has He done for us, and what does He send us out to do?  2nd is Ecclesiology- what church structure will be most faithful to the Bible & enable us to fulfill our mission?  3rd is Missiology- who can we most faithfully expand God’s kingdom where He has sent us?  4th is Ministry- how does Jesus us want to serve His mission in our culture thru the church?

The 1st focus of the matrix was developed as Mark visited a wide variety of churches on Sunday mornings (his plant met in the evenings).  He witnessed plenty of selective presentations of Jesus.  They were not wrong, but only part of the story.  As someone once wrote (Packer?) “A half truth put forward as the whole truth is a lie.”  That would be a rough approximation.

“I learned that in a small church, ministry is generally something the pastor does for his people and that the people chip in if and when they feel like it.”  This is a huge problem and is what keeps many churches small.  People don’t understand that they are meant to be more than observers or consumers, but participants in ministry. “Helping the pastor” is not an option, but all disciples of Jesus are called to do the work of ministry as they are equipped by the leadership.  If you spend your time with the participants, the others will pretty much move on over time.  In the short run, this can be discouraging.  We only have so much time and energy, and Driscoll is advocating good stewardship in saying this. 

In the early days, Driscoll found that leadership structure was not value neutral- it either helped or hindered ministry.

Another place we often go wrong is mission.  We have our own missions, rather than embarking on the mission Jesus gave us to transform people and cultures by the power of the Spirit through the promises of the Gospel.

If we don’t get these 3 right, ministry becomes very man-centered.  And very “church” centered.  I can identify with the tasks he mentions being performed by most small church pastors (though I hope the sermon isn’t mediocre).  I wrestle with the need to get out of the office.  Being hyper-responsible, I wonder how all the administrative junk I do will get done.  What will happen if I don’t keep those plates spinning?  Those spinning plates often seem like the only tangible evidence to congregants that I actually do anything.  And so this can be a whole self-perpetuating mess.

This chapter is pretty funny, as well as convicting.  There are some “Driscollisms”, some of the edgy humor uptight people don’t like.  We have not yet reached the passages that sent the internet afire in legalistic hysteria a few months ago.  I’ll say more on that when we get there shortly.

What does matter is that Mark lays out a foundation for the rest of the book, and effective, kingdom-building ministry.