"Safe" Ministry

In Matthew 14 we read the story of when Jesus fed 5,000 men, not counting the women and children, with only five loaves of bread and two fish. As incredible as that is, what I want to focus in on is the amazing event that took place right after. Matthew 14:22-29 – “Immediately after this, Jesus made his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake while he sent the people home. Afterward he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone. Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came to them, walking on the water. When the disciples saw him, they screamed in terror, thinking he was a ghost. But Jesus spoke to them at once. “It’s all right,” he said. “I am here! Don’t be afraid.” Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you by walking on water.” “All right, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.”

I’ve always heard this preached on from Peter’s perspective. But it’s much more interesting to think from the perspective of the other disciples in the boat. What was on their minds while all of this played out? The only thing we know for sure is they were scared to death and none of them got out of the boat. There are obvious good reasons why they wanted to stay in.

Good reasons to stay in the boat

It makes sense.

They were obeying the command of the Lord. He told them to get into the boat and make their way to the other side. As experienced as they were, they had to have some inkling that inclement weather was on the way. After all, if you want to cross a lake, you use a boat. You could walk around, but that would be ridiculous when you have a perfectly good boat.

But when they saw what appeared to be a ghost on the water, they freaked out. Have you ever wondered, “Why did Jesus walk on the water?” He could have just appeared on the other side. But I think he wanted to blow his disciples minds and mess up their sensible world and make room for faith.

Sometimes we are so sensible that we forget faith. Faith has been described as stepping out on nothing and landing on something. It doesn’t make sense, but it’s the only way. But they were in the boat because it made sense.

There is security in the boat.

Sure, the disciples weren’t doing so hot in the boat, but it was better than certain death in the water. The fact is we like feeling secure. In fact, we would prefer a false sense of security to no sense of security at all. The disciples’ boat was not secure, but it was all they had. Things aren’t so great in my boat, but it makes sense to stay here because it’s safer than the alternative.

Now, this apparition is beckoning them out of the secure feeling of the boat. They heard it say, “Don’t be afraid. It’s me, Jesus.” But fear had already paralyzed them. Now way. I’m staying right here. If that really was Jesus, he wouldn’t ask me to commit suicide!

But the fact is that nothing is as secure or reliable as Jesus. But now he’s on the water, calling to them to do something that anyone in their right mind would not see as safe. What am I supposed to do? I don’t know what to expect. What’s going to happen to me? Therein lies the real motivation for staying in the boat…

I’m afraid to get out.

It was dark. The winds were strong. The waves were huge. They thought they saw a ghost. I used to go night fishing every now and then. If you have ever been out on a lake at night, you know it’s a much different place than during the day. It can be a little freaky. Add a storm to that and you could have a terrifying experience.

Who wouldn’t have been afraid? I can imagine Thomas or Andrew grabbing Peter saying, “What are you doing?” “Get back here!” This ghost is only trying to kill you. It can be a fearful thing to step into the unknown. You don’t know what’s going to happen to you. You don’t know if it’s God or not. They can’t decide which basket to put all their eggs into and they are scared to death that some of them are going to break.

Maybe that describes you. Is God calling you to step out into the unknown? To do something in ministry that seems unsafe? Right now everyone likes you. If you mess things up, all that could change. Again…we prefer a false sense of security to no sense of security at all. The only real option you have is to trust God and do what Peter did—get out of the boat. Now let’s turn out attention to Peter and take a look at some good reasons to get out of the boat.

Good reasons to get out of the boat.

They were in trouble.

The disciples had been fighting a raging sea for a long time and were, no doubt, very tired. They had been giving it everything they had and were getting nowhere. I can imagine that discouragement had begun to set in. They had been around the sea enough to know they were in trouble. Mark’s gospel says that they were in serious trouble. For someone who was that accustomed to the sea, to say they were in “serious trouble” was saying something. They had probably known excellent fishermen who had perished in these very waters.

Now they found themselves in a literal sinking ship. But it was all they had, so they held onto it. They didn’t see any other option. Actually, they saw the other option, but it wasn’t something they wanted to accept. It was too risky…unsafe. But they had to do something because they were in trouble.

Jesus was in the water.

Who would you rather be with in a storm? Peter realized that they were as good as dead in the boat anyway. Why else would a guy like him jump into the churning waves? “If I stay in the boat, I’m dead. If I get out, I’m dead. But if that really is Jesus, I’ll be okay.”

The only unsafe place is anywhere away from Jesus. If Jesus was not in the boat, I better get out of the boat. Even if where Jesus is seems unsafe, I’ll be better off with him. They were in trouble in their boat, but Jesus was in the water.

Jesus wasn’t getting into the boat.

For some reason, when Mark wrote about this encounter he didn’t include the part about Peter walking on the water. But he does include an interesting piece of information. In Mark 6:48 it says that Jesus came to them, “walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them.” Jesus ended up getting into the boat, but that wasn’t his original plan.

Why in the world would Jesus walk so close to his disciples, knowing that they were struggling, and intend to pass right on by them? Because getting into the boat wasn’t his plan. He had a divine appointment on the other side of the lake with people who needed him. So Jesus just keeps going. He came for a reason. Those reasons were going to be waiting for him on the other side of the lake.

The disciples were trying with everything they knew how to do to get across to the other side. But despite their hard and very sincere efforts, they were not being effective. The only way they knew how to do it was the way they were doing it—using a boat. You just can’t do it any other way, right? But Jesus had another way. It called for them to step out into what seemed impossible. What others said couldn’t be done. What some say isn’t the right way. What does not seem safe. But that is just what Jesus was doing.

Peter weighed all of these options and decided it was best to leave the false sense of security of the boat and follow Jesus. What Jesus was doing had not been done before. What person ever dreamed of such a thing? Can you imagine the thrill?

How do you think of Jesus reacted when Peter began to sink? He said, “Oh you of little faith. Why did you doubt?” The man just walked on water and Jesus is saying he’s a man of little faith? We know what he said, but not how he said it. I think that if you’ve ever taught a child to ride a bike, you’ve been in Jesus shoes.

I would run along side my daughter’s bike, holding on, while she peddled. I let go but kept running beside her. She was doing so well until she figured out that I had let go. She fell down right away. I reached down, picked her up and with a tone of bitter disappointment said, “I’m so disappointed that you fell. How could you be so lacking in self-confidence?”

Okay, that’s not what I said. Not remotely. I jumped up and down, running to her shouting, “Madison! You were doing it! I knew you could!” Her problem was that she doubted that she could do it without me holding on to her. I told her, “Keep going. Don’t look around and get scared. You can do it.” That is more like how I picture this episode between Jesus and Peter.

What was the lesson the disciples learned? They learned that Jesus really was the Son of God. Matthew 14:32-33 – “And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’” Mark’s gospel says they were totally amazed. This is God. He can do anything he wants any way he wants.

When we think there is no other option, God comes through and messes up our sensible world. We can put our faith in him because there is nothing too hard for him. When we’re in the midst of a storm, he’ll find a way through it. It’s okay to get out of the boat.

What do you think Peter learned? You can trust in Jesus even when he invites you to do the impossible. Peter was brash and impulsive. Often spoke and acted without first thinking about it. But at least he stepped out. Even when he began to sink, he knew who to call on. Jesus didn’t call him out that far just to let him drown. And you have to know that Peter never forgot that and learned some big lessons. If Jesus is there, it’s a safe place no matter what it looks like.

What about you? What is your boat? Is God asking you to do something? Have you stepped out yet in faith? Until you do, you will be straining at the oars of your life and getting nowhere.

Are you straining at the oars of your life? Is God calling you out into the unknown? Is he asking you to do something, but you haven’t stepped out yet because…you fill in the blank. Your boat is not safe. It’s only safe where Jesus is.

Article to be Submitted to Rev! Magazine

I'm submitting the following article to Rev! magazine. Hopefully they publish it.

What Are You Aiming For?
Making Sense of Vision, Core Values, and Ministry

I did something different at a staff meeting not long ago. Instead of the usual meeting in the Team Room, we got out of the church and went bowling. Among the many great truths of life, one of them is that no matter who you are, whether you’ve done it before or not…everyone always has a great time bowling. There was a reason behind this outing. First, we just love to have fun together. Second, I wanted to illustrate the vision, core values, and ministries of our church in a practical way. After a couple of games and a hot dog, we sat down and talked about it.
What we do in church and how we structure it is a lot like bowling. There is a clearly defined vision—I want to knock down all the pins. There are guiding core values to help you accomplish that vision—don’t look at the pins, look at the arrows on the lane. And there is a vehicle (ministry) to get it done—a carefully selected bowling ball. I would imagine that most of us know all about the necessity of a clearly defined vision. What is it that God wants you to accomplish? Why are you doing what you’re doing? But many are not able to articulate that vision in an understandable way to a person on the street.
At our church the vision is quick and simple—Enjoying Life, Loving People. John 10:10 says that the whole point of Jesus coming to earth was to “give life in all its fullness.” That’s a life we can enjoy. According to John 3:16, his motivation for coming was his amazing love for us. We apply that practically to our own lives as we grow and discover this enjoyable life, and as Christ’s love overflows through us in service toward others. Therefore, our goal is to help people become growing, serving disciples of Christ. If we could effectively do that we feel like we would be bowling strikes.
But how do you get this done? It takes a lot of know-how and serious practice to be able to throw strikes on a regular basis. What sets the pros apart from the amateurs like me? For the longest time I would grab a ball that fit my fingers and lob it down the lane hoping to hit some pins. I got fairly good at it, but I was never consistent until I learned a little secret. Don’t look at the pins; look at the arrows on the lane. To me this defies logic. If I want to hit the pins, I should probably look at them. Right? Nevertheless, if you hit the arrows just right, you’ll get a strike every time. The reason is that it’s easier to hit an intermediate target.
We have a vision and we go for it. We know what we want to accomplish so let’s throw everything we have at it. But what happens is that we end up throwing a lot of gutter balls and wind up with a low score. I don’t know about you, but I hate gutter balls. It’s as if I wasted an entire frame and the energy it took to walk up there. I would rather spend my time and resources doing something that is more likely to get results. Core values are the intermediate target we strive to accomplish in a person’s life. They are the little arrows on the lane that help us reach our goal. If we pay attention to them, they will get us from A to B—from our point of conversion to our goal of Heaven.
We have three core values at our church. The first one is Building Relationships with God and others. The second is Transforming Lives to be more like Jesus. The third one is Pursuing Ministry. If you are not serving, you are not growing. Everything we do, every ministry we design, has to fit into at least one of those core values. If our people could develop these values into their lives, they will become the kind of growing, serving disciple that will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:11) If what we do does not help us accomplish our vision, it’s a gutter ball—and I hate gutter balls! If we do something that does not reflect our core values, it is a waste of precious time and resources. I want to know that when I send a ball down the lane I’ve given it the best chance possible of doing what its intended purpose is.
That’s some pretty good sounding stuff! You and I both have gone to conferences and heard some pretty good sounding stuff that seems to be working well for whoever is teaching it. We get it; we understand it. Then we come back to our churches very excited about it and teach it to our staffs and volunteers. Soon, our understanding leads to frustration because we don’t see it actually happening in our church. It’s as if we’ve read the rule book for the game of bowling. We know the mechanics. We know how to do it. But the next step, implementation, is up to us. We have to pick out just the right ball. Now, I’ve seen all sorts of things (including people) thrown down a bowling lane when I was a youth pastor, but it never ended well. If you don’t want to get thrown out of the establishment, you use a ball. Not just any ball mind you, but one that you have carefully selected after trying out dozens of other balls. Once you found the ball that fits your hand and fingers, one that is just the right weight, it becomes your ball.
Your ball is ministry. The tool you use to aim at your core values and accomplish your vision. Ministry is where the ball meets the lane. They are designed according to your specific core values. For us, we want to design ministries that promote relationship building, develop deeper disciples, and provide opportunities for service, or any combination of the three. It seems like I had always promoted certain ministries just because we were supposed to have those ministries. Not necessarily because they were helping to accomplish our goal. So we had to get rid of a few sacred cows. But with God’s help, we were able to teach these principles to our congregation in such a way that the people were very supportive and understanding.
Bowling is all about finding your groove. It may take some adjustments along they way to find your sweet spot. But through practice and consistency, you’ll find yourself throwing less gutter balls and receiving more high fives from your teammates.