Christians find their true service to God through ‘costly discipleship’

My View

In the 1980s, consultants were plentiful as churches adopted business tactics to attract members. I attended a conference led by the Rev. Ken Callahan, an executive pastor at Lovers Lane UMC, Dallas. One thing he said has always stuck with me:
“God is in the world. If the church is in the world, God is in the church. If the church is not in the world, God is still in the world.”
Church folks are still interested in figuring out ways to get people into church. While advertising, entertaining “contemporary” worship services and other tactics may have their place, ultimately faith is not a product to be sold.
Yes, the church is an institution and requires all the maintenance that other institutions require. But if the church is to represent God, more is called for.
The unique thing that Jesus teaches us is that faith is incarnational. We embody the Gospel. We embody Christ. Crosses to bear are not afflictions but burdens we choose to take on for the sake of others and the Gospel.
There is a price to pay for following Jesus. The church is in the world to support those who carry on the work of Christ.
We are all proud of the work done through Methodist Healthcare Ministries, using profits from Methodist Healthcare System. Wesley Nurses are visiting in the homes of the isolated elderly and in poor neighborhoods. Clinics provide care to those who would otherwise have no access to decent healthcare. This money is used to carry on Christ’s work on behalf of marginalized people in our area.
Too often, however, the church allows money spent on itself to be called “ministry.” Institutional maintenance is not part of that mission. We build larger and more elaborate places for people to come or develop new programs, sometimes spending money that could support mission in the world of despair and suffering.
Much of what passes as “church growth” strategy seems to be fear-based: We are afraid our churches will get smaller, even die.
A prayer from The Book of Worship fits us: “Almighty God, whose most dear son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace, through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer called this contrast the difference between “costly discipleship” and “cheap grace.”
At the center of Methodist theology is the concept of “prevenient grace.” It is God at work in hidden places and people, beyond the reach of our intentions and processes. God is in the world and in the collective unconscious of those who do not identify themselves as Christians as well as in those who do.
Another Wesleyan concept is that of “synergy.” That is finding where God is at work and adding our energy, resources and talents to the task.
Jesus once said, “The one who would save his life will lose it, but the one who would lose his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will find it.”