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The Ministry of Forgiveness

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Here are the notes from my talk today to Pastors/Staff at the Westcoast Baptist Association Prayer lunch.

The Ministry of Forgiveness

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  Colossians 3:13

If I were to write a book on The Minister and Forgiveness here is a rough outline of my chapter topics:

1.  The Minister receives forgiveness from God.

2.  The Minister gives forgiveness to people.

3.  The Minister receives forgiveness from people.

4.  The Minister models and teaches the forgiving life.

5.  The Minister conveys the forgiveness of God.

Jesus has set the work of forgiveness into the center of our prayer life.

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”  He said to them, “When you pray, say:

“‘Father,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins,

for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.

And lead us not into temptation.'”

Luke 11:1-4

Matthew 5:23-24

23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

Our capacity to minister fruitfully in the Gospel depends on our continuing experience of the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.  1 John 5:5-10

The ministry of forgiveness requires us to lead people wisely, firmly, and with respect to reorder their  relationships in Christian community.

5 If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent-not to put it too severely. 6 The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. 7 Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. 9 The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. 10 If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven-if there was anything to forgive-I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11 in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. 2 Corinthians 2:5-11

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”  22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”   John 20:21-23

In the ministry of forgiveness the church practices the ministry of healing prayer that accompanies confession.

Galatians  6:1-3

6:1 Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

James 5:13-20

13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

19 My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.   NIV

In the ministry of forgiveness the minister of the Gospel sometimes may need to lead others into the process of forgiveness and healing by “leading from who we represent” to them.

“I am so sorry _______________ happened to you.  I believe what __________ did is wrong.  I wonder if you would forgive ___________ and enter into the freedom that Christ wants you to enjoy.  When you forgive you are not saying that ________ is OK or right.  Rather you are saying that ________ no longer owes you anything because of Jesus’s love in your life.  So could we enter together now into prayer and ask God to help you forgive and to enjoy your freedom in Christ?”

Forgiveness and Prayer Exercises of Examine

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know

my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.   Psalm 139:23-24

1. Ask God to search you and reveal any sin to confess to Him and to receive forgiveness.
2. Ask God to search you and to reveal any relationships and offenses for which you need to forgive.

Parent/s
Spouse
Children
Extended Family
Neighbours
Friends
Co-workers/Bosses
Church
Organizations/Businesses
People-groups
Countries
Governments

3. Ask God to search you and to reveal any relationships in which you need to confess your wrong and ask for forgiveness.

4. Forgiveness is a process we enter into in response to the Gospel.  Ask God for His grace to sustain you through the process.

2 Corinthians 12:8-10

8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Raising Cross-Cultural Competance in Leaders for the Urban Multi-Cultural Church

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In 2003 I graduated from Golden Gate Theological Seminary with a Doctorate of Ministry.  Its been six years since I laboured through courses and my project, Raising Cross-Cultural Competance in Leaders for the Urban Multi-Cultural Church.  I recently made a digital copy of the project so I could publish it here.  I hope that it may be helpful to others in church and marketplace ministry who desire to increase the depth of their relationships and the fruitfulness of their  leadership across cultures.

Part 1, Raising Cross-Cultural Competance in Leaders

Part 2, Raising Cross-Cultural Competance in Leaders

Part 3, Appendix A, Developing a Christocentric View of the Disciple

Part 4, Appendix B, Cityview Mission and Values

Part 5, Appendix C, The Learning Needs of an Emerging Cross-Culural Leader

Part 6, Appendix D through O

Part 7, Selected Bibliography

integrity test: will I stand with the friends of Jesus?

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Here’s the reality:  there are forces subtly and not so subtly arraigned to divide the friends of Jesus from Him and from each other.  The disciples experienced this pressure early on when Jesus called Levi, the tax collector to follow Him.

Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth.  “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.  Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.  But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners.’?”  Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  Luke 5:27-32

The party has been crashed.  The Pharisees are making a scene.  And Matthew (Levi) stands to be embarrassed.  Perhaps the music stopped and everyone gets quiet to see what would happen next.  Its Matthew’s party…but its Jesus who gets in the face of the Pharisees and challenges their self-righteousness with a statement of defence crafted not on the merits of the tax collectors and sinners, but rather on the merits of His own mission.  Jesus will not be divided from the people He has called out even when others call them down.

In our setting, self-righteousness comes in many forms and has many preachers.  The “new” self-righteousness may not be religious, but may actually pride itself in not being religious.  This self-righteous non-religiosity creates a pressure that can divide many followers of Jesus from living an integrated life.  It happens on Monday morning.  “Hey, how was your weekend.”  Great.  “What did you do?”  uhm…watched the game, went hiking with the family…

What’s missing?  A vibrant confession:  “I got to hang out with some friends who have been accepted by Jesus Christ and consider how God is making a difference in… I’m amazed that this group of imperfect, diverse, people are drawn to Jesus and have been given life.  I’m really happy to be a part of this group.”  

Or whatever…but that’s the integrity test.  Its in the subtle ways we avoid pressure, question, conflict, and therefore never create the space to address one of the hot deafeaters of faith in Jesus:  the weaknesses and failings of Jesus’ own people.  Unless we confess with absolute joy and awe at what Jesus has done in accepting us–all of us who call Him Lord, then we will rarely have the opportunity to proclaim the gospel as a way of living that is neighter religious or irreligious, moral or immoral.  Unless we celebrate the mission of Jesus to us–to meet the sick and to heal them–and to call the sinners to repentance–then we will struggle on Mondays and Tuesdays and Fridays–and even Sundays to stand with the church.

nice churches and mean truths?

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Outrage calmly erupted at my breakfast table when, after reading from James 3:1-12 on the tongue, I addressed every person sitting there with me, “Your tongue is evil.”  The retort was, “That’s mean.”  My response was, “No, the Truth is not mean.”  

I feel that we are inundated with a cultural tide of tolerance that denies the truth for the sake of nice.  Our ability to take a stand within these rising waters will be directly related to our ability to hear God’s prophetic voice in His Word as a Word that reveals the truth about us.  Just as we may say in organizations, “Facts are our friends,” in the depths of our souls, “Truth is our friend.”

Daniel joined the ranks of the great prophets when he interpreted the dream of the great King of Babylon,  Nebuchadnezzar, and called on him to “Renounce your sins.”  The dream terrified them both.  Yet Daniel respectfully and fortunately with a liberty granted by the King pronounced the judgement and hope in God’s graceful vision to Nebuchadnezzar.  Then, he says, “Therefore, O king, be pleased to accept my advice:  Renounce yours sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed.  It may be that then your prosperity will continue.”  (Daniel 4:27)  King Neb did not heed the warning and suffered the full extent of the vision, but he also became the poster child of God’s sovereignty and grace.  He experienced the humbling power of God to bring down the proud, but he also experienced the graceful power of God to exalt the humble.   As Nebuchadnezzar shares in his testimony contained in Daniel 4, “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just.  And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”  

For the follower of Jesus, Truth in the Word of God becomes intensely personal for it is the sword of the Spirit.  Declaring it does not exempt us from the challenge of “bearing fruit in keeping with repentance,” as John the Baptizer says in Matthew 3:8.  But if we value nice we will treat truth as meanness, and we will join in with the throngs who seek a broad road rather than a narrow path.  We will abandon our birthright of authority that is intended to accompany the obedience that comes by faith and the sacrifice that comes by love and the endurance that comes by our hope.  We will be nice churches–and no one will listen.

The call to honour the Living Trinue God by renouncing sin sounds mean when it challenges the accepted norms of our own goodness, but it is the sound that gracefully invites us to enter the fullness of life.