Below are the first notes in our Ministerial Ethics Course Syllabus. Please read them carefully and print them if possible for further study. Questions may be submitted by commenting at the end of the post and will be answered in the comment section.
The issue of authority and submission has been a stumbling stone for the Church from the beginning. Failure to understand the authority given to us by God resulted in the exploitation and loss of that authority. Failure to honor and willingly submit to God’s authority resulted in sin and devastation. Submission to ungodly authority – to demonic influence – resulted in pain and suffering. Ministries throughout history have been destroyed by the abuse of authority or prideful rebellion.
If we are to minister with Christ, we will need to understand His authority. If we are to share in our Father’s business (John 5) as Jesus did, we must allow our Father to lead as Jesus did. We must learn how to exercise the authority given to us in the way God intended so that the ministry will not be hindered. There have been unnecessary wounds inflicted on the Church simply because the five-fold ministry gifts exercised too much or not enough authority over them.
Christ compared His relationship to the Church to the relationship of a husband and wife through the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5. When the wife is cherished, nurtured and loved, she respects and honors her husband. Christ did not tell the Church to willingly submit to a heartless, self-motivated, self-gratifying, self-promoting dictator. Because He first loved us, we can freely love and honor Him. Because He gave so much to purchase our freedom, we gladly use our freedom to serve Him. This is the nature of leadership. It is leading and submitting out of love for one another.
The fear of submission often manifests as pride, rebellion, and opposition among God’s people. The Feminists would remove the term “submission” from every marriage vow and teaching. Perhaps this is because the term has been greatly abused over time. We understand submission to be the relinquishment of all authority, personal desire or thought. We think it is equated with slavery. Our concept of submission may be of a master with his dog – the dog simply does as it’s told and licks the master's hand. This perspective may be why the local church has declined in recent history. For the Church to be what she was created to be, submission must be redefined.
Course Questions:
What does submission mean to you?
Do you struggle with submission to authority?
Do you sincerely love those you lead in ministry?
(Please feel free to post your answers in the comment section.)
Katrina Ritchey, HCI Trip Intern
Bringing God's love to a feeding program in Guatemala!
6 comments:
What does submission mean to you?
Submission means that you do what someone says to you even though it might disagree with them or might not want to. Submission comes after trust has been built into the relationship. Submission is not about manipulation, but about trust. Someone you trust says you should do something, etc and you do it because you trust them and know they have the best in mind for you and that's why they told you something. You can't submit to someone unless you trust them. Submission is not something you do because of a "feeling" for or against. It is a result of a proven relationship of trust on both parties.
Do you struggle with submission to authority?
Sometimes. It depends on who I am having to or needing to submit to.
Do you sincerely love those you lead in ministry?
Yes. I can only lead people I love and care about. I would not have stepped into a position to lead if I didn't love them. There would be no drive to learn more so that I could teach them more in my ministry. Sometimes, however, I might meet someone I didn't love at the time they stepped into my ministry and through being the leader and teaching I learned how to love them. So, yes I do love them. I have a hunger to reach them and see their lives change and/or improve for the better, which is part of loving them.
What does submission mean to you?
It means to sumbit under another's authority over me. It means my conduct and attitude is different with those over me. Humbling.
Do you struggle with submission to authority?
Sometimes I do... when I am "respected and not lorded over" I don't struggle and I willing submit.
Do you sincerely love those you lead in ministry?
Yes with my whole heart and my whole being. I "try" to see them as Jesus sees them with the potential they have in them and where they are going. This I can only do with God's help.
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