INTRO
The following pages are an attempt to understand my own struggles with this question, the process by which I realized my idolatry of The Church, and it’s assumption that the only Gospel-worthy work to be done must be an outflow of local church. Are parachurch ministries biblical? If so, where is the evidence and how should the local church and parachurch ministries function together? A mix of traditional answers create an operational theology that has affected my vocation, friendships and worldview for if we are all meant to bear fruit, why is it that we compare apples to oranges if what the world needs is a great fruit salad?
A PERSONAL INQUIRY
Let’s begin with original intent. God’s original intent to cohabitate in covenant relationship and friendship with His creation, the crown jewel and highest achievement being us. Humans, given the greatest gift of freewill decide to doubt God’s goodness and sin. In the aftermath of the rebellion, a cycle emerges in which Humans look for something to put their trust and worth in, only for it to fail them. Wooden, golden or wrapped in flesh, they all bent under the weight of expectation and wealth of sin. The rescuer came, dying in our place for our sins so that we could be reconciled to a living God. Adopted and given the ministry of reconciliation, we were commissioned to do the same as Jesus, and even greater things.
In considering my place in Jesus’ mission, I assume that the community in which I live is the same community that I should be ‘gospel-ing’ in. Similar to Jesus, many needs may come to me, but I must also seek them out. Like Jesus, I must place myself in the right situations, scenarios, committees, associations and relationships to become aware of the needs so that I can participate in what Jesus desires to do in that situation or group of people. To join His mission is to join His agenda on His terms and His timing. If I am to engage in Jesus’ mission I must have a proactive posture in producing fruit by which the world may know Him.
Even though I understand and agree with the above statement of joining Jesus mission by seeking out needs, I find myself avoiding conversations with my neighbors when we’re out working in the yard or with other parents at school when picking up my children. Additionally, I find myself avoiding the more impoverished areas of my city as well as not attending community events or festivals. Lastly I even ignore invitations to join the Parent-Teacher association which would expose me not only to my community, but the needs of the school and parents associated with it.
My actions preventing this ‘gospel-ing’ are rooted in worries. I avoid deep conversation with people since it could lead to revealing their needs. I choose not to travel to the more impoverished areas of my community since that would get me into the proximity of needs within it. Worrying that I’ll become aware of the lost and have a responsibility to them drives my decisions to ignore invitations to join associations and committees that address needs. I choose to not attend community events and festivals because I worry that I will be approached to join causes which address those needs.
My worries reveal hidden competing goals and commitments to not grow in this area. I’m committed to not knowing the needs in my community so I get anxiety when there is a situation or scenario that would expose me to those needs. I have discovered that I’m actually committed to not being compassionate since I avoid feeling people’s needs knowing that I will then be responsible for them. I’m committed to not knowing people outside of God’s grace and I’m committed to be focused on my own cause and agenda, not others.
My hidden commitments are anchored to some big assumptions. These assumptions are quite ugly in the face of The Gospel. I assume that the needs of the people in my community will become my responsibility as soon as I discover them. I also assume that those same issues are trivial and are not worth my time. Additionally I assume that God will use other people in other ways to ‘get the job done’, and that my cause is the only one worth my efforts.
I assume I spend my time, effort and energies in the best way already. That the cause and assignment I have committed to in my church is the only one worth pursuing. I assume that my time, effort and energies are best utilized in my church. Leaving margin for additional need that may cross my path would be a waste of time and I would actually be stealing from my focus in the mission of my church.
I have always assumed that the entirety of Jesus’ mission would be fulfilled through the local church. That His desire to both reconcile people and establish a kingdom would and could only happen if the local church was vibrant and healthy. I have devoted the last thirteen years of my life in service to the same local church. Have I seen drastic change in my city and community? No. Change, yes, but radical revival, no. Perhaps I’m missing something. Perhaps the entirety of the mission of Jesus cannot be fulfilled only through the local church. Maybe a portion of Jesus’ mission is assigned to The Church, and the remainder is for the individual believer. Perhaps the need for parachurch organizations and individual gospel-ing within our vocations is equally important. Perhaps the local church is not the end-all-be-all of The Gospel. This leads to an interesting and surprising emerging question. Why would I assume that Jesus mission is fulfilled by the local church when the ministry of reconciliation was given to the individual believer? What must I understand to fully appreciate the grander vision Jesus had for his mission and what are the benefits of seeing Jesus’ mission through the eyes of the believer instead of just the local church?
SOME TRADITIONAL ANSWERS
1. The Priesthood of all Believers
There is a strange story told of Jesus in Mark 11. He and his disciples are on a morning journey to Jerusalem, coming from Bethany at the time of the Passover in early April. From a distance Jesus sees a lonely fig tree with leaves on it. Getting closer he investigated to see if it had any figs, the scripture says because he was hungry. He found none – not surprisingly, because it wasn’t the season for figs. Although leaves came out in early spring, figs wouldn’t be produced until early summer, 2 months later. Frustrated, Jesus declares that no man would ever eat figs from that tree again. The next day when they exited Jerusalem to head back to Bethany for the night, that same fig tree was dead and withered.
There are several puzzling aspects to the story. First, why did Jesus, who knew the nature of growing things, and often used that knowledge as a tool for teaching truth, expect to find fruit on this lonely tree, out of season?
Second, why did the tree deserve to be cursed for not having fruit at a time when, by nature, it should not have had any?
Let us imagine ourselves to be the fig tree. Jesus comes to us “out of season” and seeks to find fruit on us. We are confronted with the need to supply what he would ask of us. A crisis! We are a mere fig tree trapped in our fig-tree-nature in a season of fruitlessness. Jesus is asking us to do the impossible. If we could speak, we would say, “Come back when I no longer am trapped in this season, and I’ll have fruit for you.” But he would say, “No, I expected fruit now. If I ask you for fruit it is because I know you are capable of providing it, even in this time and place.”
We formulate a rebuttle, “But Lord, how could I be expected to do what is against my nature? None of the other fig trees are bearing fruit in this season.” To which he would reply, “but you were created to be fruitful in AND out of season. You were created to be miraculously counter cultural to your original nature.” Yes, you are a fig tree, and fig trees only produce fruit when certain conditions are right. But Jesus seems to expect you to bring fruit miraculously out of season!
If this is the meaning of the story it has sobering implications for all of us. We are all, in a sense, fig trees trying to bear fruit acceptable to God in a hostile – almost impossible – environment. But could it be that, as re-born sons and daughters of God, with a new nature, that we are now expected to bear fruit, even in impossible times and impossible situations? Could it be that God empowers us to do this so that we can fulfill our purpose and that our purpose is tied to fruitfulness?
If you and I have been given the ministry of reconciliation, we have also been called the priesthood of all believers. In the same way that Jesus expected to find ‘fruit’ in the temple of Jerusalem, he earlier expected to find fruit in the lone fig tree. I am thankful that through the generosity and charity of my local church my time has been freed up through employment to focus on the Gospel efforts through the church. My vocation offers more time to disciple, evangelize, study, guide, pray and teach. However, because of the priesthood of all believers, my vocation does not give me the authority or ability to control or oversee how others would utilize their time in gospel-ing. Christians have been given the opportunity by God to fix cars, hang drywall, deliver babies, sweep streets or anything else to the glory of God. If they do so with integrity and excellence it honors Him and inspires people. Since ‘there is no biblical prohibition against the parachurch, Christians have freedom to serve in the parachurch.’ Not only can their vocation give glory to God, their service can as well.
2. But About The Bride
Acts 2
Cleansing the temple
3. Effective Evangelism
Jesus acts in judgement with both the story of the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple. Additionally, he speaks of eternal judgement often throughout the gospels and “… he [Jesus] himself speaks twice as often of hell as of heaven.” As believers in Jesus’ words we should adopt an urgency in evangelism. Paul exhorts us that the message of salvation must be received by faith and faith by the hearing of God’s word. To maximize the reach of this good news and act on this great urgency, God has endorsed Christians to evangelize, heal, teach, care and translate outside of the supervision or promotion of the local church. As a result, we should be seeing Christians organize around these ideas for the purpose of the Gospel. As a Pastor I should find great delight in watching people walk out the great commission with initiative and passion.
3. In Our Weakness, They Are Strong
Although Christians have been doing ministry outside the supervision of the local church since the time of Acts, it is possible that the recent surge in parachurch ministries are because the local church has failed in many respects. The National Association of Evangelicals was created in 1942 as Protestants came together to re-prioritize evangelism during the rise of modernism. As a result the NAE made interdenominational cooperation possible and that gave birth to what we now know as the category of parachurch ministries. As Willmer explains, “for centuries, Christians have been comfortable with an understanding that God works in this world through the traditional church, through denominations. But in the last fifty years, the strength of the independent parachurch has grown by leaps and bounds.” As parachurch found great success in their focus (which we will talk about more in a moment), the result was that local churches became lazy and began to give all their attention to sermon series, buildings and growing their brands throughout the already Christian cultures. The parachurch observed the church’s drift and ramped up their efforts to serve even more. Great talent among Christians felt called to support the parachurch effort. “The most gifted and ambitious influencers in our movement serve and take their cues from the parachurch. In short, the parachurch has become a de facto leader in contemporary evangelicalism.” Finding continued success, the church saw the growing expertise of the parachurch and came to the conclusion that they were being given permission to outsource aspects of The Gospel. As Menikoff concludes, ‘the failure of local churches may be the best, most enduring reason for the need for solid, gospel-centered, evangelistic parachurch ministries.’
4. Focus Without Failure
Ralph Winter put forward a “two-structure theory” of God’s redemptive plan. The first structure is local. Local churches are planted for discipleship and evangelism. The second structure is mobile. Apostles in the first century foreshadowed mobile (parachurch) ministers today who work outside the confines of local church authority.
Consider Acts 6 where Greek widows were being left out of the church’s distribution of food. Hebrew widows were most likely receiving the food because they had Jewish connections and were ‘insiders’. Greeks on the other hand were ‘outsiders’ and had noone advocating for them as well as cultural racism going against them. Having courage enough to complain to the Apostles they were faced with a choice. They knew that The Gospel certainly applied to these widows, but their time was already spent in proclimation of all that Jesus had did. Should they turn the widows aside to continue their work unhindered, or should they reduce their preaching so that they could care for the widows? A third choice arose and they assigned seven godly Greek men to care for the widows and any that would come in the future. Why?
“It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word’. For possibly the first time, secondary responsibilities of the church were delegated to others so that the Apostles could do what only they could do.
‘Parachurch ministries should come alongside the church both to fulfill important roles and to protect the unique and primary calling of the church.’
Parachurch ministries are doing an incredible service to the world and are continuing what Jesus began. They also provide a great service to the church in allowing it to focus on its central mission, the equipping of the believers and the proclamation of The Gospel. Food banks, homeless shelters, job readiness and afterschool programs are abundant in my city. All of these things are things that Jesus approves and applauds, but they are not central to the mission of my church. “Parachurches can pursue laser-like focus on core issues. And they can ignore other issues that the local church cannot.” We often refer those in need to the resources already available through these excellent parachurch ministries. This is ‘much better than asking the local church to do everything under the sun through its limited resources.’
OPERATIONAL THEOLOGY – Unity Through Diversity
When speaking about the relationship between church and parachurch, Jerry White, former executive director of Navigators, referred to their relationship as an “uneasy marriage.” It may be uneasy, but what marriage isn’t at times? “It is pretentious to think we can be Christian without the church.” One cannot exist fully without the other. Like any great relationship, weaknesses are compensated by the other’s strengths and there is a mutual submission. “Essentially, they can do what the name suggests: they can work alongside the church to support the church.”
Children are excellent at causing division between a father and mother. They live in the grey area inbetween territories. Finding loopholes and inconsistencies which can lay traps to cause tension and division between husband and wife. They must each stand strong, admitting wrong and defending one another at all costs. If either husband or wife takes the side of a deceitful child, disaster is soon to follow. The parachurch ‘must make it clear in deed, and not simply in the occasional act of verbal throat clearing, that they are not the church, do not seek to be the church, and must not be regarded by anyone as the church.’ I believe that the local church should be pro-parachurch and the parachurch ministries should be ‘prochurch.’
We are masters of the masquerade. Faking the funk and pretending to have it all together from a distance. But when Jesus gets close to our life, does he see the good works that he prepared for us? Does he see fruit?
If fulfillment is tied to fruitfulness and fruitfulness is tied to Jesus, how’s my relationship with him?
When I feel unfulfilled, distant, dissatisfied, impatient or even apathetic, I know that my times with Jesus have been lacking. I have the appearance of life without it’s fruit.
In John 15:5 Jesus reminds us “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
Apart from Jesus we CANNOT be fruitful.
There is a second practice to being fruitful.
Ezekiel 47:12 And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”
PRACTICE
Meeting with Mike – ECM
Meeting with Daron – Campus Crusade for Christ
Meeting with Paul – After School Programs
Conclusion
“We’ve got to get it together because Jesus is coming back. And he’s coming back for a bride—not a harem.”
May we be a fruitful people. Church or parachurch, individual or assembly. May we accomplish all those good works that God prepared for us to do. May we be fulfilled by fulfilling our purpose. May the fruit of our lives bring life and our leaves bring healing to a broken world.