I have considered this question many times while pondering
the nature of the church and its ministries. This is of particular importance
as I think about developing a counseling ministry in my church and as I
continue to think about what shape that ministry will take.
The church is an army in the sense that we have been given a
mission, which is to make disciples, and that we have been given sufficient
resources in order to pursue that mission. For example, we have been given the
Scriptures, which are absolutely essential to any mission that involves making
true disciples of Christ. Paul tells us
in Romans that, “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” The Lord gives us the powerful resource of the
Word. I could not imagine doing ministry
without the Scriptures; doing so would be like entering a battlefield without
weapons or resources. I would be wasting
my time. However, God has not called us to waste our time. He calls us to a mission, and not just that,
He calls us to glorify Him throughout the process of our undertakings. I find it most troubling when we as a church
fail to glorify God in our pursuit of the mission. As a result, I am committed to help the
church remember that God’s sovereignty and rule are not limited to simply
ministry results or successes, but also extend to the means that we employ in
obtaining such results. When I reflect
upon ways that I have spoken to others in the context of ministry, I remember
the easy tendency to dim my gaze toward the process and instead focus tightly
on the goal. Though God has called us to
a goal, He has also called us to a process. We must not sacrifice one for the
other.
From a different perspective, the church is also a hospital. In this light, I remember Matthew 9, which
states, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” What do sick people need? They need a doctor. There will be times when the Chief Physician will
call upon you to be the instrument of His care, mercy, and truth by responding to
the needs of others in the church. There
will also be times when you may need to receive the care and mercy of others
that God has placed in your midst. Some will
experience more difficulty giving help, and others will experience difficulty
in receiving help. Regardless, care and
mercy flow both ways, and you may be called to both the giving and the receiving
in your life.
Because the church functions as both an army and a hospital,
she should look to provide care to those who are in pain as well as to train
others to be effective instruments of God’s mercy, grace, and truth. This dual function provides the rationale
towards the continued development of a Christian psychology that can serve the
church in her ministries, while at the same time striving to present the gospel
within the context of psychology, thereby demonstrating the power of the gospel
as a meta-theory through which all of our other theories can make sense and
become fully operationalized.
Rev. Jeffrey White
Pastor of Counseling
Park Cities Presbyterian Church
Dallas, Texas
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