Danger...



Turkey isn't the kind of place where we have had to really be concerned about our safety on a day to day basis, although these recent events have made us all re-assess our approach to security. People here have taken different approaches to the delicate balance between security and ministry. Some people are extremely security conscious, evaluating every decision on the basis of whether it is “safe,” and only doing those things that fit the criteria for safety. Of course there are also people who don’t ever think about safety and spiritualize their approach with the rationale that they will be protected regardless of what they do… after all they are “on a mission from God.” I think there is another approach, however, which doesn’t disregard security, but also doesn’t make it the deciding factor in every decision. If we were looking to be safe at any cost, we should have just stayed home! And not to consider safety at all is being irresponsible with our families or with the resources God has given us to use for his glory.

So, instead of only doing those things which are determined to be “safe” by some criteria of security, we can make it our policy to persevere in those things that God has given us to do by doing them in the safest way possible, without sacrificing the essence of our ministry.

If we are convinced that God wants us to be in a place or involved in a particular ministry then we should not back down strictly because of security concerns, rather we should seek to do the thing we are called to do in the safest way possible. Sometimes, of course, it seems that the security situation is one of the things that God uses to change our focus or to get us to reassess what he has actually called us to do.

I sometimes get worried about the level of “security-consciousness” on the part of fellow believers. It sometimes feels like danger becomes an excuse not to take any risks at all, not to engage too deeply with people, as if we are only intended to trust God within a narrow set of “safe” circumstances.

And I don’t like what that kind of paranoia does to my soul. Developing two different persona in order to keep my Christian life “safe” from the scrutiny of outsiders creates an inner chasm, a divide that unravels the integrity of the life that I’m trying to live before God and my neighbors. So, I’m always looking for ways to avoid the divide, or to bridge the chasm that the actual security situation sometimes forces on me.

In the end, the purpose of my life, and therefore the reason that I am in a particular place at a particular time, is not to pursue a career or a set of goals, but to love God and to love people. If I can’t share that on some level with the people I know well AND the people I just meet during my daily routine then I think I have sacrificed some part of that ministry “essence” for the sake of safety.

“In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world!”

Comments

Unknown said…
The beginning of this entry in the stylite's blog offers two extremes in a continuum of positions on the balance between security and ministry: people on the one extreme are "extremely security conscious, evaluating every decision on the basis of whether it is 'safe,' and only doing those things that fit the criteria for safety;" people on the other extreme are dismissive of security concerns and "spiritualize their approach with the rationale that they wil be protected regardless of what they do." Frankly, the former sound like those whose god is their belly ("ministry is fine as long as it doesn't threaten our true concerns") and the latter sound like those who tempt the Lord their God ("might as well throw ourselves off a tall building because God won't allow our toes to get stubbed"). The fact that both of these extreme positions are reprehensible, however, may indicate that the problem is not that these two positions are extreme, that is, that they don't strike the proper balance, but that any continuum of positions bounded by these extremes is flawed, that is, that there is a problem with the operative notion of a "balance between security and ministry." How can there be a "proper" balance between idolatry and divine provocation?

I think I understand the stylite's intended point in sketching this continuum as a stimulus to his own reflections, and I find the trajectory of his thought not only unobjectionable, but challenging and edifying. I would like to suggest, however, that the process of making the difficult kinds of decisions which he describes is best approached from a different perspective. I think Jesus' teaching radically subverts our notions of security and thereby rejects not just both of the aforementioned extreme positions, but also the opposition between security and ministry which they presuppose.

"Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

Security for Jesus, at least in this passage, means being accepted by the Son of Man when he comes in the glory of his Father. It is not a matter of keeping safe my skin, my family, my money, my comfort, my career, my reputation, or anything else. All of these must be lost, put at the service of Jesus and his gospel. Anything less is equivalent to being ashamed of Jesus and his words, equivalent to being indistinguishable from, and indeed identified as, this adulterous and sinful generation. It is just as impossible to "balance" security and ministry (when these are set at odds with each other) as it is to serve two masters, because ultimately true security (saving one's life) depends on ministry (losing one's life for Jesus' and his gospel's sake).

Jesus' teaching here immediately follows the event in which Jesus predicted his sufferings, death, and resurrection, was rebuked by Peter (for the sake of Jesus' own safety!), and rebuked Peter in turn as having his mind set on the things of the world, not the things of God. Those who think God is concerned to spare our toes might do well to wonder why God was not concerned to spare his own Son; those who think we ought to be concerned with sparing our own toes might do well to wonder why Jesus called Peter "Satan."

Of course it is still necessary to make difficult decisions within ministry which affect our skins, our families, our money, our comfort, our careers, our reputations, and everything else. But ministry cannot be pitted against our lives when our lives are in service to Jesus and his gospel. The Apostle is a model in this regard. Sometimes he deliberately saved his own skin by skipping town. But he also deliberately lost his skin by skipping into town. His skin, in fact, was not the issue, but fulfilling what was lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, the church. He would rather have died and been with Christ, but for our sakes (not his own!) he remained alive. Whether he lived or died, his whole life belonged to the Lord.

Considerations of our this-worldly safety and security ought to be guided by our ultimate safety and security. Safety in opposition to ministry is not safe at all. Safety in accord with ministry is called wisdom.
June 7, 2007 at 9:47 PM
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