WIM Blog

Vic and Arline fell in love in the early years of the Great Depression (1930’s).  He was a carpenter and she, a dressmaker.  He drove beer delivery trucks when the building trade collapsed.  They were poor.  The highlight of their week was the local dance where, if you could do a snappy quick step or an elegantly romantic waltz, there was money to win. They won often.  They were so good they could dance without breaking the egg shells the judges taped to each heel. No heel touched the ground when they danced!  They were in love and they didn’t care about anything else but getting married. 

When they were in their eighties and they reminisced on the old days the sparkle was alive in their eyes and the room would ring with the laughter of their courtship the joys and the catastrophes.  And in those closing days of their lives, whenever they left the house he would reach out and take her hand in his, still lovers, even then.

At the movies last week I was struck by the wording of a promo for a coming film. It said ‘the greatest love story ever told may be your’s and you mightn’t even know it’.

With marrieds, like Vic and Arline, we know that there lies behind their relationship, be it young or old, a story of attraction, of passion, of love, of commitment, of faithfulness and endurance even if at times, it may also be a story of great sadness or even madness.  Regardless of its course or its end, each one’s story remains the greatest love story ever told simply because it is their human story.  Even if some relationships fall upon hard times and may even disintegrate, there has still been a love story if only for a time. The movies of ‘When Harry met Sally’, or the story of ‘Sleepless in Seattle’, or the really golden oldies like ‘An affair to Remember’, or even the crass story lines of ‘ Sex and the City’, all revolve around a great love story..

While I was letting all of this flow idly through my mind, I was at the same time pondering the truth that the course of our human love stories grows pale in the light of God’s passion for us.  For it is this, that is truly the greatest love story ever told; and, if we’re Christian, it is our story. 

The language of this love story grips us. On the one hand, God is the loving Father who gives his one and only Son to save his loved ones from destruction. On the other, He is described as the bridegoom, the lover, wooing his reluctant bride. In yet another place He is described as the committed, loving husband remarrying his wife after her adultery. God is pictured as constant in faithfulness to a people who by contrast, in their fickleness, frequently turn away to more seemingly attractive pursuits, interests and lovers.  In fact, God is the very definition of loving faithfulness, of compassionate kindness, of constancy and of everlasting commitment. 

The history of God’s passion for his people is by far the greatest love story that will ever be told. And it could be our love story. Yet, even if we don’t know it, or don’t want it or indeed, if we are bold enough to reject God totally, his faithful, everlasting commitment to humanity and, his persevering, committed pursuit of us, ensures that whether we want it or not, we will continue to be part of this love story, the greatest love story ever told.

To even use the word ‘call’ in some circles is regarded as either superstitious or mystical.  It is seen as the cause of many problems for young Christians who are often  seeking to find out what it is ‘that God is calling them to’.  Even for some of us who are ‘in’ ministry, when a ministry role doesn’t quite work out, we may find ourselves saying, ‘But I thought this was where God wanted me to be?’  Or, on leaving a ministry role, someone will sometimes say to us ‘What ministry do you think God is calling you to now?’

So why use such a problematical word in a conference title?

First because this is a conference for women who are in ministry be it full time/part time or lay/ordained.  Such women on the whole believe that they are where they are because God has opened that opportunity for them. i.e. ‘called them’ to that ministry.

Second because this belief can cause us problems if we find we are unsuited for the role or if there is opposition to changes we might wish to bring in, or if we are unable to live up to the expectations of either the team leader, of the team or of the parish.  In the secular workforce, faced by similar difficulties we’d just move on, find another job with a group heading in the same direction as us.  But ‘in ministry’ we are reluctant to be so pragmatic …because….God…

Third because when we find ourselves in turmoil because a ministry hasn’t worked out as we’d expected….when we had prayed before deciding to join this particular work and research had confirmed this as a good place where we would be of use, and when others had so lovingly confirmed our suitability….we will begin debating if we had misunderstood the ‘signs’ or whether it is godliness is to stay on rather than to resign?

Lastly, when we have not been able to find a ministry role here we may ask: Is this God’s way of ‘calling’ us to another place or to another country or to a different job?

The call of God is a call to ministry, in fact it is at the very heart of ministry. 

However unless we understand this call correctly, we’ll flounder when ministry becomes difficult; our confidence will be undermined when people question what we are doing; our resilience will fail as the exhaustion of ministry sets in or when our hopes for what this ministry could be, fall through.

So what is this call to ministry?  How do we live with it?  How do we live for it? And in what way is it the very foundation of who we are, how we live and what we do?

I will be leading a Bible Study on this at the mini conferences planned for February 2010 – see the Events Page of this web site for topics, electives, times and other details.  Tell others you know, bring them with you and enjoy this time of thinking about women’s ministry together.

As I think about the dearth of ministry jobs that there are for women, and as a result of attending the two-day Ministry Intensive at the Cathedral, I have become freshly aware of the power of ministry networks.

Men are great at networking.  It almost seems to be part of their genetic makeup.  Somewhere, they have learned that to be in a network of like-minded men is to their benefit.

These networks may be forged through College year groups or among members of associated churches or through a common commitment to a particular way of training, e.g. MTS, or even to a particular ministry, e.g. AFES or church planting. 

Such networks can be very powerful, forging new ministry roles for like-minded people or providing easier access to already existing roles.  The downside of networks is that they may operate to exclude those who are unknown or untested in the particular style of ministry favoured by a network.

I have observed that there is a vast difference between men and women in the way in which men are able to use their networks to pursue appointments, uncover possibilities and even to be able to persuade leaders to rethink what they might need in the light of what they as applicants can offer.

While women too have networks, they are frequently friendship-based rather than professionally based.  Women are certainly part of the MT&D and MTC networks but are less involved in networks that bring them into contact with current church leaders who are prospective employers.  This fact, together with the current emphases on church/congregation planting and youth ministries, may severely disadvantage women in securing any position in ministry.

How then do the wonderfully gifted female graduates of Moore, both past and present, find their place in the primarily male ministry networks?

We might say, ‘Well there is nothing stopping women from being in these networks,’ and while that is certainly true, I am hoping for something better than such a statement from ministry-minded men. That is, that they will invite women in ministry into their networks and that they will promote their ministry-gifted female friends to the ministers within their networks.

Could such ministry-minded men say:  ‘I know this really terrific woman – keen evangelist/youth worker/Bible teacher/trainer’? Or, ‘I know a woman who has the experience in ministry to do more than just maintain a ministry.  This woman is just the person to help you advance evangelism and mission in your church. You don’t know her?  Then let me tell you about her and maybe I could introduce you to her at the next Connect 09 Prayer Day.’ 

That’s the power of networks, the power of men.

Abandoning the Gospel

Before we became Christians our measure of our value was largely based on performance. Therefore it isn’t surprising that not long after becoming Christians, we construct a performance-based measure of our relationship with God. Very quickly we forget who and what we were at the moment of salvation. This shift back to a doctrine of works is damaging for our relationship with God and it is very bad news for those who aren’t Christian for we are in danger of putting unnecessary obstacles in the way of someone discovering the gospel of grace.

Unbiblical Thinking

For example, for Christians, godliness may become linked with the number of Christian activities or ministries we can tick off. Or we may return to thinking there is a hierarchy of sins, for example adultery, divorce, immorality being among the worst while at the same time we may live easily with envy, pride, selfishness, ambition, lying, jealousy, resentment, materialism and deceit.

A significant side effect of such unbiblical thinking is the impression we then leave with unbelieving friends and family. First we are labelled as hypocrites as our lack of perfection is clearly obvious. Second we imply that a person’s life must be straightened out before becoming a Christian, for example messy relationships have to be sorted, addictions resolved. The gospel becomes a gospel for the respectable or the self- righteous.

This is unbiblical thinking.

Reclaiming the Gospel of Grace

Two Bible passages bring us back to the core truth of grace; each one shines a brilliant light on the simplicity of a Christian’s birth. The truth of these passages needs to reform our thinking for each epitomises the simplicity of salvation, the simplicity of the gospel message and of God’s gracious dealings with sinners. This is the gospel to live by.

Luke 23:32ff presents a dreadful scene: the brutality of crucifixion, the guards gambling over Jesus’ clothes, the quiet watchers, his friends and his mother, the sneerers and the two criminals crucified beside him. One thief joins in hurling insults at Jesus, but the other rebukes him, “Don’t you fear God? We have been judged justly. We are getting what we deserve. But this man, has done nothing wrong”. Then he cries: “Jesus remember me”. His dying cry is Saviour save me!

Surely Jesus’ answer surprised everyone standing near and except for our familiarity with this event, it would most certainly surprise us.

Jesus answered: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise”.

This thief had only one event in life left i.e. his imminent death. In the process of dying, he found the hope of life. God’s Son’s words rang in his ears: Today, with me, in paradise.

The second Bible passage comes from 1 Timothy 1:16. Here we find Paul’s reflection on his own experience of the gospel of grace.

At the time when Paul was fully confident of his own righteousness, thoroughly involved in doing what he thought was God’s work; while his hands were still stained with the blood of Stephen and as he pursued the Christians from Jerusalem to Damascus, he was stopped by Jesus. The heavy weight of God’s judgement fell upon him. Having lost his sight, oppressed by the judgement of darkness, he had three deathlike days in which to rethink his understanding of the Messianic teachings of Scripture and of their relationship to the risen Jesus he’d just seen. In life, he was in death. In life he felt God’s judgement. Yet, like the thief on the cross he found acceptance, forgiveness and ‘resurrection’ to the life-consuming task of preaching the message of grace to the gentiles. It is no wonder that he would write later of the event of salvation as one of having been brought from death to life (Ephesians 2:1, 4).

Unlike the criminal on the cross, Paul still had the rest of his life to live and he lived it in the light of being brought from the judgement of death into the grace of a Christ. Listen to his words: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst. But for this very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life”.

As Jesus said:
“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners” (Mk 2:17).

When sinners hear the call of God, they come as they are, as sinners. The thief and Paul didn’t have to live righteous lives before they could become Christians. One had no opportunity to live righteously. The other thought he was righteous but found he was the ‘worst of sinners’. Both were saved alone by God’s grace - and so are we.

The gospel of grace is the only gospel to live by and the only gospel to proclaim.

Of course I’ve stolen this title from T.C. Hammond’s brilliant and well-known book “In Understanding be Men.”  His work challenges Christians to reach maturity in Christ by understanding the fundamental biblical doctrines on which evangelical Christianity stands.  I believe it is important that we women take up this challenge and strive for the maturity in Christ that T.C. Hammond extolled.

Women may immediately say, why challenge women?  Aren’t Christian women the mainstay of the church?  Aren’t we those who most frequently respond to the gospel?  And of course I would have to say ‘yes’ to each statement.  Yet I also have to say that while I meet many faithful Christian women who work diligently at being godly in thought and behaviour and to their credit are faithful in praying, I do not meet many who talk about the fundamental doctrines of the faith with any confidence.  Nor are many able to unpack the significance of these doctrines for our daily lives.

Let me give three illustrations:

1. In the face of a person’s illness or death or some unfathomable disaster, I hear: ‘We just need to trust God.  We don’t know why these things happen.  We just have to believe.’  While this statement has truth to it, what does it mean?  Is it an unthinking trust, a blind belief that’s recommended?  Or is there some teaching or evidence that we can, with good reason, consciously take hold of and find real God-strength in?
2. I often hear: ‘There are so many religions these days I think all of them must have some truth to them.  How can we claim Christianity alone is right?’  When Christianity is so significantly different from all other beliefs this is a sad and frightening response.
3. I frequently hear: ‘I don’t feel God loves me.  It makes no difference how often I read the Bible or pray, God seems far away.’  Why won’t we allow the knowledge we have of God’s eternal faithfulness re-educate our emotions?

Each of these illustrations reveals a deficit of Christian understanding for there are strong biblical answers for each situation.

In illness, suffering or death the Bible provides much more than ‘just believe’ as an answer.  We know from the Bible why pain and suffering exist and that these are to be expected.  We learn that God understands our frailty and stands with us and strengthens us by his Spirit.  God’s Word doesn’t protect us from reality, rather it tells us of the realities of pain, persecution, famine, war, illness and natural disaster.  God speaks about how to endure, where hope is to be found and in whom our confidence is to be placed.

On the uniqueness of God, the Bible provides testimony that extends over a 4,000 year period.  Those who have closely studied other religions, testify to their inability to provide answers to the great questions of life – why is there death, why is there suffering, why is there goodness, what is our purpose?  The Bible evidences the uniqueness of Jesus and the historicity of his life, death and resurrection.

On experiencing God:  why don’t I feel God’s closeness, love, approval, care?  I have to say that this is not a question I hear men asking, though I am sure some do.  Women ask this question.  While feelings and perceptions may be profoundly helpful they may also be a profoundly unreliable footing upon which to base our confidence or on which to make decisions.

Sometimes it can be helpful to think about God’s love in the light of a human example.  For instance I may be totally ‘in love’ with someone but unless that one acts in loving ways towards me, I would have to conclude that their words of love are insincere and even manipulative.  What then would be the point of pursuing this relationship?  We measure the sincerity of human love by the concurrence of word and action.

God’s love is clearly evidenced by such a concurrence e.g. ‘For God so loved the world – that he gave his only Son…’ Jn 3:16.  In 1 Jn 3:16 similar evidence is given: ‘This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us’.  John continues this theme in 1 Jn 4:10 ‘This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins’.

The challenge is will we believe God when he not only declares his love but also actively demonstrates his love for us?  His love isn’t fickle!  This knowledge can inform our minds, if we let it.  This knowledge will change how we think about ourselves in relation to God, if we let it.  God’s love is the one constant in the Christian’s life.  Irrespective of how we feel, God is faithful.

In understanding, ‘be men’.  How is this mature understanding gained?  Let me suggest 3 ways, each of which involves a choice:

1. Choose to read the Bible differently.  For example, rather than reading the Bible book by book, read by topic e.g. what does the Bible have to say on suffering or on the uniqueness of Jesus God’s Son, or on the significance of his death.  A helpful guide is Dr J. Packer’s work ‘A Concise Theology.’
2. Choose to go to a Bible Study group that studies doctrine as well as the content of the Bible.  Or ask your Bible study leader if your group could study one doctrine per term.
3. Choose to join a group that is studying doctrine/theology e.g. PTC course in Doctrine or study this subject with a college that offers part-time study.

Maturity is attained by getting to know God on his terms.  If we want a ‘feel good’ religion we will be like the seed sown on shallow soil that was unable to survive the difficulties of its environment.

Therefore women, in understanding, let’s be mature.

While advertisements on London buses say: ‘There’s probably no God.  Now stop worrying and enjoy your life,’ the atheists’ atheist Woody Alan, in a recent interview said, ‘I am an atheist. I’ve never found any comfort for the misery of life, or the terror of death’. 

A worry free, enjoyable life?   Woody Allen has a good awareness of what life on earth without God is like.  Without God there is no logic to pain, frustration, suffering, acts of mindless cruelty, nor of why death is written into our DNA and into that of the cosmos – death remains for all, a terrifying prospect.  Nor is there for the atheist, any explanation for the existence of ‘good’!

Unless God reveals his existence and provides the answer to these questions, we are all left in Woody Allen’s situation, though the more optimistic will try to take Eric Idle’s advice to heart: ‘You come from nothing; you are going back to nothing.  What have you lost? Nothing!’ These optimists will live denying the terror of death.

By contrast Christians have hope in the face of death and the down side of life.  That hope and comfort is drawn from words such as:‘In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth’. Written almost 4000 years ago this ancient writer declared that before the begining, there was God. Creation was not a random, meaningless event.

Hope and comfort is likewise drawn from words such as those written in the late 1st Century A.D. by John the apostle: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning’.  Some sentences later John continues, ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We (the disciples) have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.’   John is writing about Jesus, identifying him as the ‘One and Only’, as the Messiah making God known.

Before I became a Christian I was a youthful yet a severe critic of Christianity.  My ground for such criticism was similar to Woody Allen’s.  The very experience of life, to me, denied the existence of God.  Death made life meaningless.

In 1965 I left Newcastle to take up a teaching appointment in Sydney.  I didn’t know then that I was moving to a city that knew God.  Here, for the first time, I met men and women who spoke openly about believing in God and of having a relationship with God.  They read the bible, went to church and had a purpose and meaning to their lives that was alien to mine.  Some of these Christians talked with me about my questions; teased my mind with their answers and challenged my youthful assessment of ‘life the universe and all that’.  I remember being taught to pray in a coffee shop; being given a bible with a booklet to help me understand it; of being endlessly invited to church and, when I finally gave in and went, of hearing a sermon that challenged all my understandings of life.

Becoming a Christian wasn’t easy.  I had to rethink everything; my mind needed its questions answered.  What was even more difficult was learning to change my patterns of living. Yet, none of that mattered given the enjoyment of discovering that God is there.

Becoming a Christian wasn’t easy.  My non-Christian friends ridiculed me.  I was laughingly spoken of as having ‘got religion’.  And while this hurt, and of course I was upset that I didn’t ‘fit’ any longer, there was solace in discovering the authenticity of the Bible documents, in learning from others who knew the Bible well, and who could explain to me how God had acted to reveal himself and why the world is as it is. 

I was impressed by the integrity of these christians, by their honesty and transparency.  They didn’t think they came by chance from nothing, or that they were going to nothing.  Nor were they afraid of God!  They spoke of God’s love for them, of God’s generosity to them, they prayed and rejoiced in the plans and purposes God had for all.

I don’t think they found talking with me about God a straight forward encounter. My initial response was a scathing rejection of what they believed. I still thank God for each one who took the risk of speaking to me of Jesus for I was consumed by the meaninglessness of life and the terror of death.  Atheism a worry free life - even for an optimist, that’s a myth.

As we have contact with acquaintances, friends and family who aren’t Christian, let’s not be intimidated by their scepticism, opposition, ridicule, or total disinterest.  Let’s be encouraged by the fact that no Christians in the Ancient world expected Saul to become a Christian! Yet he did.  And let’s remember the thousands of men and women in Jerusalem who became Christians even though they had, just a few weeks earlier, participated in the condemnation of Jesus before Pilate. Trust God with our family and friends and keep praying for them, listening to them, caring for them. No one is beyond God. 

Paul wrote to the Christians at Philippi: ‘God is at work in you to will and to act according to his good purpose’,  and much of that purpose has to do with ‘shining like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.’ Phil. 2:12, 15, 16

Our answer to the Atheist is: ‘There is God! Stop worrying and discover him.’

In the very beginning God recognised that reflecting his image and filling and governing the earth required more than one person. As well as being the world’s first man and woman, husband and wife, father and mother, Adam and Eve were the first of God’s earthly ‘co-workers’.

There are many instances in the Bible of God providing co-workers for his leaders. For example Moses with Aaron, Jethro’s encouragement of Moses to appoint elders to assist in sorting out the requests and needs of the people in the desert; Elijah was given, by God, the help of Elisha; Samuel and Jonathon supported David; Jeremiah was assisted by Baruch.

The New Testament is replete with similar examples. Jesus chose 12 men to take up the responsibility of taking the gospel of the Kingdom of God to the Roman world. The 11 plus Mathias and Paul, chose men and women to assist them in that task – their names are well known –Stephen and Philip, Barnabas, Timothy, Titus, Epaphras, Priscilla and Aquilla, Euodia and Syntyche, to mention a few. Precious co-workers assisting the Apostles in encouraging and teaching congregations throughout the Roman world.

The principle of working with and alongside others in ministry is well established. A few ministers may be lone long distance runners, most of us however thrive best in working with and alongside others.

From within our groups and Christian circles, we need to find the one or two, who will listen to us, provide us with wisdom in challenging times, call us to grow in holiness - people who are a safe haven for us, knowing our strengths and weaknesses, praying with us and for us. Those who will rejoice with us and weep with us. Who will not draw back from providing the encouraging rebuke when it might be needed.

Everyone in ministry needs an Aaron or a Jethro, or a family like Mary, Martha and Lazarus’ to spend time with. Everyone in ministry needs a biblically wise person who will remind us of God’s teachings so that we become neither loose with doctrine nor oppressed by a doctrine of works.

Do I have such a Christian friend or friends? Yes I do.

Do you have such loyal Christian friends? If not, why not make it one of your first priorities in 09 to establish such relationships? Ministry is often very lonely – we need others to encourage us and to pray with, and for us. Who might God be providing for you? Jethro and Aaron were related to Moses; Samuel was a prophet and leader, Jonathon a friend; Elisha was God’s gift to Elijah; the fellowship of the apostles was established by Jesus; Paul was particularly encouraged by Barnabas; Paul invited men to work with him and then discovered the help of Phoebe along the way.

The work of ministry can be very lonely; finding support is our responsibility. Who will you approach? Could it be someone from your own extended family? Or a member of a bible study group? Or someone from College? Or a person you’ve met through MT&D? Or someone who attended a small group meeting with you? And if there is the opportunity, why not enlist several people to pray for you, to meet with you occasionally and to support you?

All servants of the gospel need support.

I hope it will be a useful tool for you – providing information regarding upcoming events, the opportunities there are for being equipped for ministry and the possibilities there may be for f/t, p/t, voluntary or paid ministry employment.

We are committed to encouraging women to explore ministry opportunities and along with that, to have an awareness of the gritty truths of ministry, so that we will all be better prepared for the demands, as well as the joys, of serving the people of God.

We invite you to help make this an interactive website:

• Respond to the blog by email – a selection of responses will be posted.
• Email your questions and the advisory group will answer.
• Watch for the forum facility to be enabled!

We pray that we, through this site, might be as useful to you as the slave, Onesimus, was useful to Paul. Philemon 10,11