Courage

In the wake of the comments made by Mark Driscoll I am thinking about "courage" and what it really is. It's not about the amount of Testosterone is it? It's not about strength or gifts and abilities, is it? On Wikipedia "courage is,(also bravery, boldness, fearlessness, mettle, fortitude, or intrepidity) is the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation." Some pastors face physical, moral and spiritual challenges which threaten to destro them and their families. Everybody involved i ministry faces challenges but each one can imagine that their challenge is greater, more intense and dangerous than all others. When Mark Driscoll challenges British pastors with the charge of cowardise I imagine he is referring to morality. I imagine he is thinking of the pastor who backs off from declaring man to be caught in the trap of sin. I can imagine that some think, because of their ministry context were there are more than average single parent families, more unemployed than the normal and where there are gangs vying for the upper hand, they have a tougher job than those who are surrounded by wealthly, confident people whose biggest decision is whether or not to go to France of the USA for the holidays. In my 25 years of ministry I have served in both rural and urban contexts and found them both to be demanding. I have always been faced with a few people who think they can bully their way through life. What really concerns me about the testosterone type of ministry is that it seems like they think bullying their way through life is what honours God. I have no doubt that the lack of male role models is really affecting the church today but that is true in our schhools also-in another life I was a school teacher. In one of my posts I was one of only three male teachers. In my second year I was the only male teacher and even had my own staff room. If I had remained a teacher I would have been a Head teacher long before now. I have no doubt that the feminisatiion of our society has begun to go too far but I do not think going in totally the other direction will be any better. When I think of difficult times when I do believe courage was needed, I think of times when a seniour member of the church leadership set himself against me. When that person tried to bully me, and everyone else for that matter, to do what he wanted. It took a certian level of courage to stand up to this man and refuse to descend with him into the way of the world by hitting him as hard as he hit me. I have spoken to colleagues whose advice at the time was to sit my elders down and tell them what I thought about their lack of backbone in refusing to stand up to the bully. The really couragous thing was to do what was right because it was right. The pulpit was an easy way to hit back but that is not a good principle. the courageous thing to do was to apologise to those who warrented an apology but not to those who were part of the problem. When I think of the courage of jesus standing before Pilate I think of the silent one, i think of the moral courage which stood his ground but did not hit back. Niorthern ireland has had leaders who certainlyn portrayed a certain kind of courgae by insulting people and makiking fun of them. They are the people who have little or no room for compromise. When the self-styled Dr Ian Paisley now considered to be a great statesman)was leader of the Democratic Unionist Party he not only oppossed any acomodation but he lambasted any sign of weakness. That meant that one unionist leader after another starting with Terrence O'Neil in 1969 right through to David Trimble were called traitors and compromises and the call was "Never, never, nevber" to any move towards change. His more statesmanlike shift has now made him into a great moral leader who broght the province back from the brink of war to democracy. It was this kind of reactionary courage that brought us to the use of bomb and bullet. I do not think it takes courage for a speaker to stand before a congregation and let them have the truth, the whole truth and nothing biut the truth-any speaker who has had experience learns how to manipuklate a congregatio9n and how to insult and cajol the people. There are many teachers who just love to hold their people above the pit of hell. Whenever I am preaching to a large crowd I am energised so it doesn't reqire any courage to speak my mind. Courage is not needed when the speaker is distanced from his audience-either by 6,000 miles or the pulpit. It is entirely another thing when standing eyeball to eyeball with those who are being addressed. There are some ministers who will taiklor their message to suit the congregation. There is not a thing, necessarily, wrong with this and today we call that contextualisatuion but when they do so out of a desire for a quiet life that is another matter. as a minister or pastor (whatever term you want to use)it is my duty to teach people what they need to learn. It is my responsibility to try to place before them the whole counsel of God-in Northern Ireland there are some who get little further than the equivalent to the "Four Spiritual laws" but there are 66 books in the Bible. Courage is when I do what God tells me, when I refuse to be set off course by what men think. It is as true that there is a cause for concern when all men speak well of you as it is to say that we should not go out of our way to insult men. When speaking to heroes the quality that coes through to obervors is their complete lack of recognition that they have shown courage. It is also true that courage comes in different expressions- - emotional courage which faces the truth - physical courage which takes no concern for self-safety - intellectual courage which accepts the truth wherever it is found - spiritual courage which follows in the steps of Christ and finds strength in the whole armour of God - moral courage which does what is right just because it is right regardless of the consequences There are decisioons I have made because I thought they were wrong but sometimes I changed my mind later on but courage was unaffected. I have refused to do some things becuase they appeared to be wrong or to send out the wrong messages. I have erefused baptism, marriage but not because I wanted to offend them and have tried to remain on good terms- "be at peace with all men", "whenever possible" Posted by Dr. Jack Drennan at 14:19 skip to main | skip to sidebar Acts29 Crumlin Road Presbyterian This is the blog of Crumlin Road Presbyterian Church. We are a group of ordinary Christians seeking to grow in Christ. You will find announcements of events and discussions on contemporary issues. Monday, 16 January 2012 Courage?? “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” -Galatians 5:16 Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica Powered by BibleGateway.com 0 comments: Post a Comment Links to this post Create a Link Home Followers My Blog List Internet TV Jack Drennan Blog Archive January (2) December (1) November (2) June (1) August (2) May (2) March (1) February (4) January (2) November (3) October (2) August (1) May (1) March (3) January (1) November (1) September (1) August (1) July (4) March (1) November (2) September (5) Rev Dr. Jack Drennan Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom Presbyterian Minister in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the biggest denomination in Northern Ireland View my complete profile cluster world We welcome light from any quarter We encourage discussion and participation that will aid our understanding of the bible and how scriptural teaching is to be applied in our own culture Books •Listening to the heartbeat of God by Philip Newel Writing History Acts 29 is a way to describe the unwritten chapter that is being written by the contemporary church. The question I have to ask is why do we not experience the signs and wonders of those early Christian days? PreviewPreview