Look what fell out of my file cabinet! I would have shared with my church back in the day.
Dated July 15, 2003 (Edited only for
typographical errors)
Some Thoughts on Hiring
Larry Doyle
On Monday night, I sat and watched Dr.
Larry Doyle pour out his heart for what Cooperative/partnership
Missions looks like. This is his way of speaking about Associational
Missions work, which is what he as a Director of Missions will
promote.
His text for the sermon part of his
talk was Mark 2, the healing of the Paralytic: (Read Mark 2:1-12).
These four men were on their way
somewhere perhaps. Maybe they were going to the meeting to see Jesus
speak. They valued the ministry of Jesus, they knew that he healed
people and was a person of great power and strength. So first, Dr.
Doyle said that they had shared values. Next, these four men, on
their way somewhere, saw a person in need. They realize that Jesus
could make the man in need walk again. They valued the ministry of
Jesus, and this gave rise to their vision that Jesus could make the
man walk again. So they had a shared vision.
Next, these four men cooperated. They
each cooperated in carrying their share of the burden. What would
have happened if one man had decided not to carry his part of the
stretcher? So these four men had shared values that led to a shared
vision, that caused them to cooperate and share the work.
Next, these men had a problem. What
happened? Did they just get to bring the paralytic right in and set
him down? No! They could not get to the house. So they moved on to
plan B, they overcame an obstacle together. So, they had shared
values, that led to a shared vision, that caused them to cooperate
and overcome obstacles.
They believed in their vision
sufficiently to cooperate and overcome obstacles. But this common
vision wasn't imposed on them. It arose naturally because of their
shared values. They valued the ministry of Jesus.
One of the most difficult things to do
in life is to get different people working together. Consider the
following old sayings:
Too many cooks in the kitchen.
Too many chiefs and not enough Indians.
Too many generals and not enough foot
soldiers.
It seems that plenty of people want to
cooperate, as long as they are the one that is being cooperated with.
It seems to me that Dr. Doyle, if
indeed we are allowed to vote tomorrow night and if he is elected as
our DOM, will have significant challenges. Why is that? Because it
is rare to find a majority of churches and pastors that share their
values enough to have a common vision, a common sharing of burdens, a
common effort to overcome obstacles.
Why is this? Because everyone says
they are concerned about lost people, and believe that the gospel
should be taken to the lost through acts of service, love, and the
spoken word.
But wait, that sounds like a shared
value to me! But too often it is only the surface value. Consider
these other values and see if they sound like those ACTUALLY held by
pastors and church leaders:
We value our independence; so we don't
want to be told what to do by others.
We value our finances; so we don't want
to give money unless we get something out of the deal.
We value our reputations; so we don't
want to associate too closely with anything unless it is guaranteed
to make us look good.
We value our status; so we don't want
to be equal partners with those pastors of small churches or Bi
vocational pastors. They should be learning from us, we shouldn't be
partnering with them.
We value our correctness; so we won't
cooperate unless it is proven that other churches or pastors agree
with us on virtually everything that we consider to be important.
As you can see, there are some shared
values that don't work very well for a shared vision.
So what is the answer? I believe there
are two.
First, we can abandon Baptist ideals
and go for authoritarianism. We can have a top-down model of
cooperation, where Hitler tells us all what to do and we just do it.
He says jump, and we say how high.
Second, we can renew our commitment to
the real value we profess. Do we really value the ministry of Christ
like these four men did?
Do we really appreciate His help in our
own lives? Do we realize that He is the first and best of all
beings? Do we want to please Him as we should by delighting
ourselves in Him above all other things in life?
Do we love Jesus more than we love our
independence, our reputation, our finances, our status, our
correctness?
When we do, we will have a real
foundation for shared vision, cooperation, and kingdom growth.
So join me in praying that we will
glorify God by enjoying Him forever.
Dr. Larry Doyle is leaving us as
Director of Missions of the Piedmont Baptist Association at the end
of this year. He has been an encouragement to many pastors and
churches, and has led the PBA through many initiatives and
transformations. His ministry work continues with Unleashed by
Design at facebook.com/unleashedbydesign
