Anush A. John Podcast
Anush A. John Podcast
The Person Matters - On Competency and Authenticity
https://www.anushjohn.com/post/the-person-matters
Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, October 2023
anushjohn.com
Good morning. Yesterday we looked at the overall goal, the mandate and how to get there. Today we will look at the person, at the missionary itself. In an economy that's driven by capitalism, the single biggest factor is money, right? So if in the West, where everything is driven by capitalism, the bottom line is money and everything else is built on top of that, so if you work at a place and you work there for 30 years and in your 31st year you are not producing as much as they would like you to produce, they may let you go because the basis is money. This is completely opposite to what the Bible is or the Christian faith is Christian ministry. Money is necessary, efforts are necessary, work, ethic are all necessary, but the single biggest factor, that is the basis of everything that is a center stage, is the person itself. This morning, in a sermon entitled the Person Matters, we will look at the issues of competency and authenticity in ministry. Now there are two sides to the sermon, so there are two parts to the sermon. In the first part we will look at competency and we will look at personal matters, and in the second part we will look at authenticity, and I want to talk about three different aspects of a person, and the first one is personal self-development.
Speaker 1:Who are we as persons? We all play different roles. So at one time we are a child, we are a parent, we are a sibling, we are a colleague, we are a friend, we are a church member, we are a missionary, we are a neighbor, we are a leader, we are a follower all of that at one time. And each one of those roles take time and effort, and not every role needs equal amounts of time, but every role needs appropriate amounts of time to function. But some roles can take an inordinate amount of our resources, such that other roles are suppressed. So, for example, in the ministry, the ministry can take your role as a minister can take so much time and effort and resources that the other roles that you play can be suppressed. We need to have some boundaries with our roles. We need to have boundaries with every role we play so that we can play every role appropriately.
Speaker 1:In the US, because of the focus on the individuality of a person, if somebody, if a pastor, told a church member saying, oh, I would love for you to come this evening to go visit the hospital and pray for some of our believers who are in the hospital. And if that person says, oh, actually I have to take my child to basketball practice, that would be seen as an appropriate response because they are caring for themselves. Now I'm not saying that's right or wrong, I'm just showing one side of the story. Now, if that same thing were done, let's say, for example, in India, if a person gave the excuse, oh, I want to take my son for basketball practice, the expectation would be I know your son has basketball practice, but you need to sacrifice that and come into the ministry. Now, I'm not saying that is right or wrong, I'm just showing you the other side of the story. Now. Both of them are different extremes, where we let the ministry overtake the role of a parent. On the other side, we take the role of the parent, overtake the role of the ministry, and so we ask which is the right approach?
Speaker 1:Let's look at what Jesus did. Turn your Bibles to Mark, chapter 6. Mark, chapter 6 and verses 30 to 34. Mark, chapter 6, 30 to 34. Let me read it for us.
Speaker 1:The apostles returned to Jesus and told them all that they had done and taught. And he said to them come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while, for many were coming and going and they had no leisure, even to eat, and they went away in a boat to a desolate place by themselves. So far, so good. Jesus is drawing boundaries and they are going to take a rest Verse 33. Now many saw them going and recognize them and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When he went to shore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. So Jesus drew a boundary and he wanted to get rest and, as we see, that didn't happen.
Speaker 1:So there is rest and personal roles on one side, and then there is the urgency of the ministry and compassion for people on the other side. And how do we bridge this? We need to find a balance right. I think the way to bridge this is by drawing boundaries, but not being rigid with it, allowing for changes to happen based on the circumstances. But we should not draw boundaries. We have got to draw boundaries with each of our roles so that we can have some semblance of sanity, so that we can perform those roles, but at the same time, we can't be rigid with it to the point that we say I've got to go for basketball practice and I cannot come for the ministry. So from this passage it looks like Jesus didn't rest.
Speaker 1:But actually there are five times that Jesus withdrew from Jewish territory into Gentile territory. We know that Jesus came for the Jews, but they rejected him. But there were five times, and this is one of them. So after this incident where he fed 5,000, they tried to make him king and Jesus withdrew from Jewish territory to Gentile territory. The second time it happened was when he healed the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman. The third time it happened, he fed 4,000 people. The fourth time it happened, he chided the disciples for their dullness and on the way across, across the northern border of the Sea of Galilee, he healed a blind man. The fifth time it happened where Jesus withdrew was towards the end of his ministry, when he came down to the southern part, to the side of Bethany, where he raised Lazarus from the dead.
Speaker 1:And each of these withdrawals was for several months at a time. It was not just a short break, it was a major withdrawal, and the reason for that? There were a couple of reasons. One was because he was trying to avoid Herod Antipas, who was trying to get him. Another reason was because he was trying to avoid political interest groups. For example, after the feeding of the 5,000, they wanted to make him king and he didn't want any of that, so he withdrew. But one of the other major reasons why he withdrew was for rest and to teach the disciples. So Jesus did draw boundaries and Jesus did use those boundaries, but at the same time he was not rigid in the way that he drew the boundaries.
Speaker 1:So we have to pay attention and make time for each of the roles that we play, and each of us have different roles and each of these roles need different amounts of time. So as adults, we don't need to spend that much time being a child. We are children, but we don't spend that much time as children, like we do parenting. So in different seasons of our lives we are Parenting takes a huge chunk of our time, and then we come to another season where something else takes a huge chunk of our time. As long as we are aware of the different roles we play and the different boundaries that we need to draw and have time that is proportional for each season. Obviously it depends on the culture. So when we were in India, if you drew boundaries in the ministry and somebody wanted to see you and you had any boundaries, that would not go well. It didn't work. Even in churches, even in Indian churches in the US, it doesn't work. The boundaries don't work because people don't accept those boundaries culturally. So whatever works in your culture, we have to find a way to make it work.
Speaker 1:The second aspect is personal spiritual development, personal spiritual development. In personal spiritual development, time is the biggest factor. It's not like we don't want to grow spiritually, but time is the biggest factor. And personal spiritual time is different than ministry time. Sometimes we can in the business of ministry, we can pass off ministry time, as the Lord was speaking to me during that time, and that's probably true. But we have to in our minds have a separation between the two.
Speaker 1:Come back to Mark, chapter six, where we were, and at the end of that story, in verse 42,. And they all ate and were satisfied and they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces and a fish and those who ate the loaves were 5,000 men. So they were tired and they wanted to eat and they came for rest. But that didn't happen. There were 5,000 men and other women and children there, and they went through this whole process where Jesus taught them, to the point that the listeners were now hungry, and they fed them. 5,000 men, they fed all of them. And then not only was that done, they had to gather up. After you host a party, the others go home, but you've got to clean up. So the disciples were cleaning up and now they're exhausted. What does Jesus do then? Does Jesus say okay, now you guys have done so much ministry, let's all go take a nap. Look at what he did In verse 45,. Immediately he made his disciples get into a boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida. While he dismissed the crowd and after he had taken leave of them, he went up on a mountain to pray the spiritual time that he didn't have during the ministry time he made up later.
Speaker 1:The ministry has to flow from spiritual growth and it cannot be substituted. Spiritual growth cannot be substituted by ministry time. In fact, ministry time should be proportional to spiritual growth. Otherwise we will be giving what we have not received, and if we do that, we are working on our own ability. We need to receive from God so that we can give in our ministries.
Speaker 1:The third aspect is personal skill development. Personal skill development and to develop our skills, we need to know what our skills are. Obviously, most of us know what our skills are. You go through so many tests and personality stuff and you know what your skills are, but many people in the church don't know what their skills are. That should be one of the first few classes that are done to find out what your skills are. What are your spiritual gifts, so that you can be useful in the ministry.
Speaker 1:There are numerous tests that can be done. The one I like and this is from Rick Warren's purpose-driven ministries the shape test, where his spiritual gifts and then heart is what do you like to do? And then ability is what are you able to do? Because there are some things that you like to do but you're not able to do. And then, what is your personality type? What fits in with your personality? So if you're in a super introvert, even though you may like to be a super extrovert, it's not gonna work. So let's find something that fits in with your personality. And fifth is experiences. What experiences have you gone through or your family has gone through that can contribute to what ministry you can do. And so every member of our churches need to take a test at the beginning of their Christian work so that they can know how they can be useful.
Speaker 1:And we need to develop our skills. What are our gifts? Once we know what our gifts are, we need to develop it. We can't just be okay I learned three chords 30 years ago and I still play the three chords for all these 30s. No, if you're a worship leader and you play the let's say you play the drums you can't just go with the four beat. You gotta learn something. Advance your skill, no matter what your skill is. Let me give you a couple of examples from my life. We my primary ministry is preaching and teaching, and so I have got to advance those skills.
Speaker 1:When I was doing my doctor of ministry program, one of the courses that were there it was not mandatory, but one of the courses that was there was a course in biblical Greek. For various reasons, I wasn't able to learn languages in my previous theological studies, so I jumped on it and I learned biblical Greek, for it was an eight credit course out of 48. So one sixth of the thing was biblical Greek. So I jumped on it and I learned it Last year in the course I'm doing now on Christian apologetics. It is not mandatory for this course, but I took a course on biblical hermeneutics. I taught how to interpret the Bible. I had read up about it, I had done so much about it already, but I wanted to have some formal education. So I did a course on biblical hermeneutics for two months.
Speaker 1:Why? Because, if this is my gifting, I need to advance it. I need to get better at it. So when I read the Bible, it's not just to preach, which is good, but I'm learning the Bible, interpreting the Bible, just for me to learn how to read and how to interpret. And so, whatever gifting you'll have, we need to advance our skills in that particular gifting so that we get better and better at it. Because my gifting, or my ministry, is preaching. I'm constantly looking at finding stories and illustrations and how something connects back to Jesus, because that's the bottom line of every sermon how does something connect back to Jesus? So in our lives, whatever our gifting is, we need to be thinking in those terms constantly to advance our skills. I want to mention two more things in this section. One is what I'll call gifting versus role-playing, Gifting versus role-playing.
Speaker 1:About 10 years ago I was asked to speak at Liberty Christian Fellowship in Kansas City, where Mark and Drew and the others are, and I spoke on the topic of evangelism. And as I was preparing for this topic, I decided to look up the times where it said the word evangelist in the New Testament. And so the word evangelist appears three times in the New Testament and I'm gonna read it for us. And as I studied it I had an idea. Let me just read it for us. Acts, chapter 21, verse eight.
Speaker 1:On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, ephesians four, verse 11. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and the teachers this is talking about Jesus in Ephesians, chapter four, giving gifts of leadership to the church. And the third verse second, timothy, chapter four, verse five as for you always be sober-minded, and your suffering do the work of an evangelist. So in the first two verses it says Philip the evangelist, and then it says the evangelist. And then Paul tells Timothy, do the work of an evangelist. So I thought, oh, I wonder if there is some difference between the first two and the third. I looked up in the Greek and there seemed to be no obvious difference. But as I thought about it it was as if Paul was telling Timothy to do a particular work, whether he's gifted or not.
Speaker 1:So sometimes we do ministry based on our gifting, sometimes we do roles because that's what the need is. I grew up in a church where my dad was a pastor back in India and it was a home church first. That grew bigger and so we had our own church and, as you know, in a small church that starts with a church. There's numerous tasks, numerous ministry opportunities and anybody gets put into any ministry role. So the ministry role they fell on me was teaching kids Sunday school. It's not my gifting. If I never taught another kid Sunday school for the rest of my life, I would not miss it. I taught kids Sunday school for a few years. I taught kids Sunday school that came for a season and taught Sunday school that had the gifting to teach Sunday school and the kids loved it and these guys were great. They knew how to bring the energy and they knew how to teach, how to engage. It was their gifting. And then they would go away. And who were they stuck with? They were stuck with me and for 15 years I taught kids Sunday school Because there was a need. It wasn't my gifting, but during the time I was trying to figure out what my other gifts were. My dad's gifting is the gift of evangelism. If you have the gift of evangelism, I have longed for the gift of evangelism. I mean, it is an amazing gift to have. If you've seen a person with the gift of evangelism share the gospel, it's just you're like watching a musician play and it's just beautiful.
Speaker 1:We used to go for summer holidays from Bangalore to Kerala. Bangalore is where I grew up and we used to go to Kerala for summer holidays and we used to take the train. And when we take the train, we get into the train at nine o'clock in the night and we reach Kerala at twelve o'clock in the afternoon. And if you've been on an Indian train, it's one compartment with multiple sections and each section has three bunk beds on one side and three bunk beds on the other side, so there are six beds. So in the night six people sleep on it, but during the day the bunk beds become just places to sit. So there are about 20 people sitting in each section or each part of the train Without fail. Every single trip that I can remember, we got in at nine pm in the night and by the time we reach our destination at twelve pm the next day, my dad has shared the gospel to all 20 people in that section and anybody else who managed to peek in, because he had the gift of evangelism. I have done street evangelism In Bangalore. We took Bill Bright's the Force Virtual Laws and we would go out and meet people on the street. But that was not my gift. I was playing a role.
Speaker 1:There is a difference between gifting and role playing. How does this play out in the church? In the church, you, as a leader, list every single task that there is. In the ideal world, there will be a person with the gift that you can match up to the task. But we don't live in an ideal world. So what do you do? You find as many people as possible that have the gifts to fill in whatever tasks are possible. What happens with the remaining tasks? Roles Everybody picks up some roles to play. So everybody in a church should be using their gifts one or two gifts, or three gifts and should also be picking up several roles that they need to be playing until a person with the gifting comes along.
Speaker 1:The importance of knowing who is playing a role is important because we can be less judgmental of them. If you're in a church, you're the pastor of a church, and you have this person teaching kids Sunday school, and they are doing a mediocre job, it's the best they can do, but their job is mediocre. If that's their gifting, then that's their problem, but if it's not, they are doing the best they can because they are just fulfilling a role. Sometimes, when we fulfill a role, it may look like this Belgian shot potter who competed in a 100-meter hurdle race to prevent a team from getting disqualified. That's how the role players may look doing certain roles. We've got to be patient with them because they are doing the best they can. They're filling in a gap, otherwise there will be nobody doing it. It's better that they do it rather than somebody that nobody else does it, until, of course, in the ideal world, like I said, if the guy with the gift comes in, that's great, they'll do it. So we cannot compare the gifted person with the role player and of course, the role player will need encouragement because that's not their gifting, but every now and then they will need some encouragement, which the gifted person does not need, but the role player will need.
Speaker 1:The second thing that I want to say, and finish up this section, is enabling by the Holy Spirit. We are never fully qualified, never. No matter how much we advance our skill, no matter how many courses we do, we are never fully qualified. If we were fully qualified, we would do ministry on our own strength, and God does not want us to do ministry on our own strength. God wants us to be dependent on Him. You know how, when you go for a job for the first time it's your first day at work you're nervous, your palms are sweaty, your brow is sweaty and you've got butterflies in your stomach. That may be the feeling that we may have for the rest of our lives in ministry, because we are always going to be slightly less qualified for the job. It is God who qualifies us during the job. We may never come to a point where we say, okay, I've got this and I'm going to do it. We may always be at the point where we're always learning, always making mistakes, always struggling, but always dependent on the enabling by the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:We looked at personal matters. Second, let's look at people matters. We will look at relational authenticity. Turn the Bible to John, chapter 13, verses 34 and 35. John 13, 34, 35. The new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
Speaker 1:Now I don't need to say that love is the basis of our ministry, right? Every church, every ministry, every Christian organization is built, or supposed to be built, on love, and every interaction should be based on love. But I wanted to see if there was an objective way to measure it. Yes, I need to love my church members, I need to love my colleagues in the ministry, but is there an objective way to measure it? And so I'm going to ask this question what would we do differently if we considered the church or ministry as our family? What would we do differently if we considered the church or ministry as our family? And I'm going to give you five things that we might do differently if we consider the church or ministry as our family. I'm sure there are more. I could just come up with five If you have an infant.
Speaker 1:Each infant is different, right? Each infant takes time to reach their milestones. When I was in medical school, during our pediatric rotation, I think we had two or three months in pediatrics. So during our pediatric rotation we saw many little kids, from infants to about 12 years old, and there's the American Association of Pediatrics that has written out what the milestones should be. So if there's a six-month-old that came with her parents, we would look at this print out of what the milestones for a six-month-old should be and ask the parent okay, or the verbally how are they? Are they responding to you? Are they doing this and that? So we expect certain things for a six-month-old, but as parents, sometimes we forget what our kids should know at certain ages. Right, if you're, if you're a parent of a five-year-old, we sometimes we are hard on them because we forget, okay, what does a five-year-old really know, or what are they supposed to know? Milestones are different for different kids, even of the same age.
Speaker 1:In a church setting a believer who is three months old, we'll have different milestones from another believer that's three months old, and this depends on their background and their culture and where they came from, what they know. So, for example, if in India you were doing evangelism to a Hindu, their their response in the first few months will be Different. If they were a Hindu that had no contact with anything Christian, or if they're a Hindu that grew up in a Christian school. There's a difference because of the background that they have. There are a variety of reasons why development can be different for different people. If we consider the church or the ministry as our family, we would be More patient during development. We would be more patient during development.
Speaker 1:Let's say that your little infant has grown up and it's a little toddler now, and toddlers do all kinds of ridiculous things that, no matter how many times you tell them, they just continue to do the same thing. It's like you never told them. When my, when my son was one year old, he he tipped over his glass of milk on my brand new MacBook and destroyed it. He's gonna graduate from high school next year. So at that time, when he was one, I told him that I'm gonna take away $1,500 from his non-existent college fund. But he didn't understand it at that time. But kids do all kinds of stuff. I had a patient when I was a Truman Medical Center who had a two-year-old and the two-year-old was sitting on the mother's lap and Inexplicably, like toddlers do, the two-year-old got up and the head Hit her right on the nose and busted her nose. Of course she came to our hospital and we fixed her nose.
Speaker 1:There are people in the church that are toddlers in the Christian faith and If we consider the church or ministry as a family, we would have more tolerance with actions of ignorance. We would have more tolerance with actions of ignorance. There may be new believers that still do things out of ignorance. If you are in a setting where there's other religions and you and the person becomes a Christian from, let's say, a Hindu or Muslim religion, they, in their first few years, they may Syncretize the two religions. That's, that's their ignorance. They don't know about it. Or another example is if they had a disease and they prayed and Jesus healed them and they become a Christian, what do they think? They think you just have to pray and God will heal all your diseases. As Older believers, we know that that doesn't happen every single time, but they are toddlers and we'll be more tolerant with actions of ignorance. Or there are new believers that still struggle with their Sins that they just left behind or they still continue some of those Sins into their toddler Christian life. Of course, even as adults we struggle with our sins from way back. Imagine the toddlers in the Christian faith that struggle with recent sins.
Speaker 1:Thirdly, let's say that your son has now grown up. Let's say that your son grew up and stole all your money and decided to cut ties with the Christian and decided to cut ties with the family and left. And For 20 years you've not seen your son and Suddenly one morning you open the door and bury his. What do you do? Do you say you stole my money and you left, get out of my house and say that it's your son? You will do what the father did to the prodigal son you will throw a feast, you will call everybody, you will kill the fatten calf, you will put the stroller on his back, you will put a signet ring on his finger, you would put shoes on his feet and celebrate. You've just forgotten everything that he did to you. If we treated the church or ministry as a family, we would have more forgiveness with actions of intention, more forgiveness with actions of intention. We get hurt by people in the church for the Easiest reasons right. Forget that they stole all your money and hurt you for 20 years. Forget that part of it. Forty in a healthy home.
Speaker 1:As the children grow, you know when kids are really young you do everything for them, but as they grow, you expect them to start taking some of the responsibilities. It's partly true, because as we age, we don't want to do every single thing, so we want them to do some of their own stuff. But on the other hand, as a healthy family, as a responsible parent, we are teaching them how to become responsible adults. So they need to wash their own clothes, they need to clean up after themselves, they need to put the dishes away. We give them responsibilities so that they can grow. Do they perform the responsibilities perfectly every single time? Absolutely not. Most of the time they mess up. What do we do then? Do we say, all right, from now on you don't wash your own clothes because you left it too long in the washer and now it smells like sweaty feet? Are you gonna say that? No, you still tell them to wash their clothes and dry their clothes so that they can assume responsibilities and be responsible adults.
Speaker 1:If we treated the church as a family, we would be more trusting with responsibilities. In 2 Timothy 2, verse 2, paul told Timothy what you have heard from me, in the presence of many witnesses, and trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Many times, christian leaders or church leaders give, give, give, give, give, give and the people receive, receive, receive, receive, receive and that's all they know. But in a healthy church, just like in a healthy family, the parents give responsibilities to the kids and help them become mature adults. Fifthly and finally, what would we not do for our kids? We would do anything for our children. If a thug came to your house and pointed a gun at your daughter, you, without without a a minute of thinking, you would tell the thug you take me, let my daughter go. Wouldn't we Turn your Bibles to Romans, chapter nine, to to read this astounding verse, romans, chapter nine.
Speaker 1:Let me just tell you the context of this verse. In chapters nine through 11, paul is discussing God's righteousness in view of his temporary rejection of the Jews. That is a context. In Romans, chapter nine, verses one, two and three, paul writes this I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen. According to the flesh, he is saying that he is willing to go to hell so that his countrymen can go to heaven, and that is something similar to what Moses said when the Israelites made the golden calf. In Exodus, chapter 32,. When God said that he is going to destroy the Israelites, moses said Lord, forgive them or blot out my name from your book of life, exodus 32, 32. If we treated the church as a family, we would be more willing to sacrifice oneself. Love is what the Christian ministry is based on, because Jesus loved us first.
Speaker 1:Cara Coombs was a 38-year-old mother in Missouri, mother of three, and she was pregnant with her fourth child. When she was 23 weeks pregnant she found out that she had stage 4 melanoma, and stage 4 melanoma can spread to your brain. The oncologist said you need to deliver this baby now so that you can start your oncology treatment, your cancer treatment, your chemotherapy. But the mother knew that if she delivered the baby at 23 weeks, the baby is less viable to survive, less likely to survive. So she waited until the 28th week, when the baby is more likely to survive outside. She waited five weeks and gave birth to her baby on December 5. Three days later, the mother died because she had waited too long and she could not take chemotherapy.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what Jesus did 2,000 years ago, isn't it, where he died to save us and gave us the reason why we need to love him and why we need to love the people that we are serving. Thank you, I'm going to give a time of reflection. You can just close your eyes. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the message you have given us. We know we need to love. We don't even need to manufacture it. You have shown us what it means to love. I pray that you would help us to find ways to make love as the basis of all our relationships. In Jesus' name, I pray amen.