One of my favorite videos from #thenines ::
Skye Jethani asks, “Where does our legitimacy (in ministry and leadership) come from?”
So many good points. So worth the nine minutes.
If we were to take the things we measure our success by and apply them to the ministry of Jesus — a lot of times we’d have to conclude that he was a failure.
Quite often in ministry, people were leaving Jesus rather than coming to him. By the end of his earthly ministry there was no one left. He was abandoned by everyone. And yet his ministry was a success because he was completely faithful to his father….
We’ve got to get our attention off the tangible outcomes of our ministry as being evidence of our legitimacy and root it in something deeper. That something deeper is exactly what Jesus rooted his ministry in. Jesus said that his bread — what sustained his life — was to do the will of his father…
Jesus had his identity rooted in the fact that he was the beloved son of the father.
How different would our ministries be and our souls be and our joys be if we disconnected our legitimacy from the outcomes of our ministry and instead rooted our identity and legitimacy in the fact that we are sons and daughters of our loving father?
Read more about the Daisy Cutter Doctrine.
So where does your legitimacy come from? Is it the outcomes of your ministry or your identity in Christ?
HT: @jonathanbrink
dude…he just blew my mind…i’m working on getting a copy of Divine Commodity
Pretty good stuff eh? Thanks for the comment Jim. Glad you enjoyed it.
dude…he just blew my mind…i’m working on getting a copy of Divine Commodity
Pretty good stuff eh? Thanks for the comment Jim. Glad you enjoyed it.
Just watched Sky Jethani’s “Where does our legitimacy come from?” He does challenge the success orientation that envelopes even the Christian church in the Western world. Identity is based in being sons and daughters of God through Jesus. This should be the basis of all ministry. However if you do have a clear legitimacy in Jesus then you will bear fruit and we are to judge people by their fruit (Matthew 7 and John 15) – some will have impact and huge ministries. Some will be good motivators and strategists. Small does not mean that God is blessing. In fact size of ministry does not matter. The key point in his message is true however the negativity to motivation and strategy and size is not necissarily true.
Glenn,
You raise an interesting point there.
I don’t want to put words in Sky’s mouth, but it seems that he’s suggesting that we can’t base our success solely on numbers.
Sure, there may be those who end up with huge numbers, but to think that’s the proof of a true leader or true Jesus follower is a bit backward (in my mind at least).
One of my other favorites from #thenines was a pastor Jorge Acevado (sp?) who said that the metric they measure their church’s success by now is the crime rate in their city. If the crime rate is going down, they’re doing their job. If homelessness is going down, they’re doing their job. If poverty is being taken away, they’re doing their job.
Rather than focusing on the numbers (as several other people seemed to suggest during #thenines) Sky and Jorge seem to be saying their may be other ways to measure success.
Just watched Sky Jethani’s “Where does our legitimacy come from?” He does challenge the success orientation that envelopes even the Christian church in the Western world. Identity is based in being sons and daughters of God through Jesus. This should be the basis of all ministry. However if you do have a clear legitimacy in Jesus then you will bear fruit and we are to judge people by their fruit (Matthew 7 and John 15) – some will have impact and huge ministries. Some will be good motivators and strategists. Small does not mean that God is blessing. In fact size of ministry does not matter. The key point in his message is true however the negativity to motivation and strategy and size is not necissarily true.
Glenn,
You raise an interesting point there.
I don’t want to put words in Sky’s mouth, but it seems that he’s suggesting that we can’t base our success solely on numbers.
Sure, there may be those who end up with huge numbers, but to think that’s the proof of a true leader or true Jesus follower is a bit backward (in my mind at least).
One of my other favorites from #thenines was a pastor Jorge Acevado (sp?) who said that the metric they measure their church’s success by now is the crime rate in their city. If the crime rate is going down, they’re doing their job. If homelessness is going down, they’re doing their job. If poverty is being taken away, they’re doing their job.
Rather than focusing on the numbers (as several other people seemed to suggest during #thenines) Sky and Jorge seem to be saying their may be other ways to measure success.