I would hazard a guess that this entry in MUFHH was one that came from a sermon of Chambers he preached after someone died who was considered important to the faith. He brings up a good point, and shows one more reason for not investing too heavily in “personality ministries”. I am overly suspicious of ministries which are characterized by the “person” who came up with the “model” or “method” or whatever. So, when I hear someone ask, “Have you heard so-and-so? Their church is getting huge, and I love their preaching, and…” Very shortly thereafter, I tune it out. That is ecclesiology based on personality.
Now, why I say I am overly suspicious is because I admit that my Master uses people to do great things. So, to be critical of a ministry just because my Master is clearly using a person lacks sense, or at least a level of devotion to my Master. So, why do I have this prejudice? I have to delve back into my ministry history to explain it. Throughout my education, it seemed I followed this guy around who became a famous preacher/church leader. I didn’t mean to follow him, I simply saw marks of his having been there all over the place. I was annoyed that he was famous, clearly had shown skills and abilities early on, and that I found him everywhere I went to school. OK, perhaps I was jealous.
And after I reached a ministry position after school, I kept being pushed to follow this fairly local guy who was focused on marginal, meaningless, minutia from Scripture in order to build “theological” positions. He turned out to be really dangerous, and I still do not like this guy to this day. So, on the one hand, jealousy fueled this prejudice, but on the other hand, so has truly bogus church leaders. The result is a prejudice that I readily admit, which has served me well in guarding me from following people rather than my Master. That is probably my biggest complaint when I hear people bring up some personality-based ministry. It seems that people quickly take up the perspective of the person instead of checking that perspective against Scripture for themselves.
I have heard some very fine preaching. I have heard wonderful sermons, in person, on TV, video, audio recordings, and radio. But I have never heard a preacher with whom I completely agreed, never. I would venture to say, that I never met anyone who completely agreed with me either. So, the common point in this is me and my view of my Master. So, my personality has formed the focus of my own ministry? Nope, but my relationship with my Master has. And I believe that every believer needs to have the same central focus. Perhaps I guard mine overly, or perhaps I am right on target. Either way, the focus remains on my relationship with my Master rather than someone else’s relationship with their master.
As Chambers puts it, I should not recognize that I stand alone before my Master and become lonely. As he points out, Paul saw himself as never alone, even when abandoned by his ministry fellows. As long I as I stand before my Master I am not alone, and I am on the right track in what I do. If I stand before someone I hope is standing before the One I call Master, I am in the wrong position. So, do I abandon others around me who serve? I hope that sounded ridiculous. Of course I don’t abandon other fellow servants of my Master. I just don’t rely on them for my marching orders, I seek the face of my Master for marching orders. I join my fellows before the throne, we worship together, minister together, find opportunities arranged by our Master together, but do not supplant the position reserved for our Master.
I look at it this way, one important quality of legitimate human authority is that the one in authority sees themselves as also under authority. So, why would I place such a person between me and my Master? I can accept their authority and comply with it without allowing them to screen my Master’s voice and presence. So, yes, I accept and follow authority. But I also test authority for legitimacy and correspondence to the authority of my Master. Perhaps my problem is that I test with an assumed result of “not in compliance”, they are guilty until proven innocent. Well, it may be a problem, but is one with which I will continue to live. Perhaps I need it more than others to guard against my own special weaknesses.
This is why the Lord holds teachers in higher accountability and judgement. It's a tough place to be and you have to be careful not to share opinions on interpretation as fact. I think that's why I respect Beth Moore for her thorough study in Hebrew and Greek, before writing and teaching a concept. As long as any leader/teacher recognizes their responsibility and consequences for their teachings; the heart of their teaching; and encouraging those listening to check what they've heard, they'll be good. We've been told in His Word to study and prove any teaching the unfortunate thing is that not all believers do. I am grateful for your reminder, love you!
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