Michael Olajide ECWA Seminary Fellowship 30/06/2013

SHAPING A CHRISTOCENTRIC AND RESPONSIVE MINISTRY

Text: “He appointed twelve--designating them apostles--that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach” (Mar 3:14 NIV).Subtext: Mark 9: 2, 14-29Introduction

The greatest need in the training of leaders today is to provide guidelines to help them live as biblical men and women.

the church is “dissatisfied because they realize that the theological training is too remote from life, and irrelevant to the concerns and issues of society. They are dissatisfied because they are aware that the training, by and large, has not produced the kind of ministers who are competent and dynamic in equipping God’s people for his saving work in the world”1 Robert Ferris has also rightly observed that “Seminaries are ‘directionless,’ faculties are ‘competitive,’ curricular are ‘unrelated to life,’ and graduates are ‘ill prepared for ministry.’ To be sure, occasional voices are raised in defense of the received programs of ministry preparation, but they are often drowned by the dissatisfied and the restless.”2And the saying goes that “Christianity in Africa is a kilometre wide but a centimetre deep.” This reveals the gulf between profession and practice of faith among African Christians and by implication shows the low impact of theological education on church leaders.

“Take your Bible and your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” Karl Barth

Hindrances Tradition: We’ve not done it that way Specialisation: It’s not my job Fragmentation: I’m a NT teacher Abdication: Somebody else does that Preparation: I don’t know how Orientation: “separation from the world” Limitation: “our structure does not allow that…” Livelihood: many are pastoring because they want be fed.

Christocentric Aspect of Christian Ministry “We have to begin with a double refusal. We refuse to become either so

absorbed in the Word, that we escape into it and fail to let it confront the world, or so absorbed in the world, that we conform to it and fail to subject it to the judgment of the Word. ” John Stott.

“In place of this double refusal we are called to double listening, listening both to the Word and to the world.” John Stott

How, then, can we be both conservative and radical simultaneously, conservative in guarding God’s revelation and radical in our thoroughgoing application of it? How can we develop a Christian mind which is both shaped by the truths of historical, biblical Christianity, and acquainted with the realities of the contemporary world? ” John Stott.

Spiritual Formation/Transformation, self-definition (Phil 3:10, 2Cor. 5:17). Character. The greatest crisis facing Christian leadership today concerns

lifestyle. Education plus ordination without character is equal to abortion.

1 The Theological Education Fund, Learning Context: The Search for Innovative Patterns in Theological Education (London: New Life Press, 1973), 141.

2 Robert W. Ferris, Renewal in Theological Education: Strategies for Change (Wheaton II: The Billy Graham Center, 1990), 7.

Michael Olajide ECWA Seminary Fellowship 30/06/2013

Christian Home (1Tim 3:4-5). Theological education: William R. Harper remarked concerning the seminary:

“The seminary is not a place in which students are to learn certain views, or to receive and adopt certain opinions. It is rather a place in which they shall be taught to think.”

The nature of Christian ministry. Christian ministry entails taking on weakness for the sake of others. We are children of the King and servants of the people.

Responsive Aspect of Christian Ministry Liberation (Bible-based!)

o Polygamous relationso Single-parent homeso Absent fatherso Sexual abuseo Youth and childreno Spiritual direction/decisiono Reality of mystical powers/libertyo Gender discrimination

Environment Islam/Terrorism/ Religious Crises Politics/leadership and transformation Poverty/ hunger/ empowerment Healing/diseases Security Ethnic conflict Tribal language/dialect

ConclusionL. C. Wanak has rightly observed that “our theology and teaching had

not adequately entered the lives of people, their worldviews, their fears, the oppressive elements in their lives and their poverty. Ours was a proclamation-oriented school that had little to do with socio-cultural concerns.”3 Christian ministry must answer questions that people are asking and stop beating a dead horse and stop wasting effort in answering questions no one is asking.

3 L. C. Wanak, “Theological Education and the Role of Teachers in the 21st Century: A look at the Asia Pacific Region” Journal of Asian Mission 2.1 (January 2000): 11.