Rude Awakenings

This morning my wife and I woke up to the dulcet tones of William Crawley and his Sunday Sequence programme on BBC Radio Ulster, nothing new or unusual about this as this is always the radio station that we wake up. First up this morning was a very famous preacher from Northern Ireland, and a very fine public speaker he is as well. Much of what the contributor had to say was good and worthy and encouraged the soul. His desire to reach out into the Catholic community in West Belfast, was particularly praiseworthy initiative, and his recognition that the Holy Spirits working was what was required for true conversion also drew a loud AMEN.

But it would be wrong for me to suggest to you that everything he said was perfect, that everything he said was useful and I have two points in particular where I diverge from what was said on this mornings programme.

Firstly for me there was a little too much of the praise of man in the interview and not enough of the praise of God. Two statements for me highlight this fact:

"I established a work in Dublin."

"I lost 350(from the church), but i got 350 back " Italics mine.

It's all him, there is no mention of God, in speaking of the split from his church, he said that he lost 350, not that the church lost 350 but he personally lost 350. I could cope with that to a degree but the next statement really galled me, I got 350 back, not Jesus Christ, not God, not the gospel but he himself. I think this man is in danger of worshipping at the shrine of self, its all about him, there is no sense in which God was at work it was him.

But so what why did this annoy me so much at such an early hour of the morning? Well it annoyed me because the church where we praise/serve/minister is not our church, well it is in some senses but ultimately the church where we praise/serve/minister is part of the body of Christ and ultimately belongs to Him because He paid the price for it. It also annoyed me because not one of us is able to bring people to know God, and in fairness he did mention that the Holy Spirit had to convict people but this was not carried through with the later message he brought about the success of his ministry. We read in 1 Corinthians 3:

"What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the LORD assigned to each.I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants or he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth."

Its always God who gives the growth, never our snazzy programmes, our catchy sermon headings, never the buzz around our youth group, we plant the seed and God is the one who makes it grow, and none of us really matter but only God who makes the seed grow.

I suppose the second thing where I disagreed with the contributor was his definition of success in terms of sharing the gospel, talking about his upcoming event in West Belfast William Crawley asked him "What is your test of whether this mission in west Belfast succeeds for you?" To which he replied "I know by the response of the people I know by the sincerity of the people." Basically success boiled down to the number of people who responded in a positive fashion to his message. Success in ministry is never about numbers, its never about the number of people that we convert, success in ministry should always be about being faithful to God's word, faithful to the gospel that we find in there. Again we read in 1 Corinthians 4:

"Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful."

The test of true success in ministry is being a steward of the mysteries of God, is that one be found faithful, not that one be found with massive numbers, not that one be found with ultra tight doctrine but rather that one be found faithful to God's word and the message contained within it.

I don't want this post to come across as negative and bringing the man down, much of what was said was good and excellent and praiseworthy but for me these two issues are not ones that can be overlooked, i pray that his ministry in west Belfast will bring many to know our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ...