Re-Envisioning Vocational Christian Ministry in the Church in Malaysia in Light of Change (Part 3)

8 March 202210 March 2022Soon-Hock Lim Leave a comment

by Lim Soon Hock, Empowering Churches

This paper was written in November 2020 when the government of Malaysia imposed restrictive curbs, SOPs, and lockdowns to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19). This significantly affected the activities of the church.

Click here for Part 2, and here for Part 1

A REVIEW OF THE ROLE OF THE VOCATIONAL MINISTER IN THE MALAYSIAN CHURCH IN LIGHT OF A CHALLENGING CHANGE

As we review the role of the vocational minister in the Malaysian church, the first point to note is that change in and around the church does not alter the minister’s ministry functions. However, change may alter his emphasises from among his varied functions and how he carries out his functions.

An example is from the changing size of a church. Gary L. McIntosh posits that churches have different needs depending on size. A small church is not just a miniature version of a large church but an entirely different entity.¹ Hence, as a church grows from small to medium-size to large the dynamics of the church also changes. This does not only affect the church’s structure, orientation and strategies but also the pastor’s role.²

Change in or outside the church always demands a response if it is to be positively addressed. On one hand it should be met with a response of consistency concerning the purpose and values of the church. On the other hand, it should be met with a recalibration of the priorities and methodology of doing church and ministry.

The Minister’s Leadership Function

In a crisis brought about by change, among the three functions of leading, feeding and caring, the minister must prioritise his leadership function. He needs to study the change, the effects of the change and how to address the change. He doesn’t do this alone but with his leadership team. Nonetheless, it is incumbent upon the minister to take the lead. Leadership is a key function of the vocational minister. He cannot surrender that role to anyone.

The Use of Technology³ and Online Platform

The biggest visible change in the Malaysian church as a response to the effects of the pandemic has been the adoption of the online platform as a substitute or as a complement to limited onsite meetings. When the Movement Control Order was first enforced in Malaysia on 18 March 2020 churches all across the country were caught totally unprepared (except a few churches that already had an online presence). Churches responded with varying degrees of rapidity, expansiveness and intensity in their adoption of the online platform.

Some churches immediately started to learn and use the available technology to livestream their worship services. Most churches were slow to adopt the new technology. Some were quick to make use of existing digital communication tools for small group meetings and to provide daily or weekly devotional content for their members. Others felt challenged by the new technology or were stretched by their limited resources. Some churches made significant financial investment to upgrade their equipment for quality virtual broadcast. Many simply hoped and prayed that all this would quickly pass and the church would be able go back to do church and ministry like the time pre-Covid-19.

These varying degrees of responses from churches in Malaysia underscore the importance of the leadership function of the minister. In other words, the minister’s leadership determines how his church responds to change.⁴ Moreover, a church’s response to external changes demands internal changes. Managing congregational changes requires wise, Scripture-guided and clear leadership from the minister.

The Unchanging Purpose of God and His Church

More importantly, the minister’s leadership is needed to direct the church in a “long obedience in the same direction.”⁵ Priorities and methods may change, but the purpose and values of the church do not change. The minister must constantly and continually lead the church towards the purpose of God as revealed in Scripture. Foremost, in terms of the mission of the church, is to make disciples of the nations (the Great Commission, Mt 28:18-20).

Hirsch and Ferguson contend that,

“…Jesus gets the privilege of decisively defining the movement that claims his name; nonetheless, leaders in his church need to take this task of defining the parameters of how people think about the church with utmost seriousness. Allowing Jesus to guide us, it is part of the leadership task to somehow manage how the rest of the organisation as a whole sees itself and its function in the world. In other words, it’s the leaders’ job to define ecclesia for the people and organization they lead.

This puts a huge theological responsibility on leadership to ensure they have a vision of the church that is consistent with the church Jesus built. We cannot shirk this, especially in moments of crisis that require accurate recalibration.”⁶

What is the recalibration that is needed to fulfil the Great Commission in this new season where mass gatherings are curtailed? The answer must be in small groups. The ministry of small groups is not new, but in this new season it needs to be emphasised and reconstructed. The minister needs to lead the charge in reconstructing the small group ministry of the church. For example, the small group needs to become even smaller. 12 may no longer work. 20 is certainly unworkable. Six might be ideal. Also, the general thrust of the small groups in coming together for Bible study and fellowship is not significantly focussed enough if the church is to fulfil the purpose of the Great Commission. The thrust of the small groups has to be disciple-making and life-on-life discipling.⁷ In this regards the minister needs to provide the leadership model of discipling in small groups in his church.⁸

The Minister as Trainer

The minister obviously cannot carry out discipling by himself. He needs to multiply himself. In other words, he needs to empower others to do the same (2 Tim 2:2). He has to see himself as one of God’s gifts to the church whose function is to equip the saints for the work of ministry (Eph 4:11-13). And the area which he is to equip his church is naturally in the area of his giftedness or expertise, which is to shepherd or disciple others.⁹ Hence, the pastor reproduces according to his own kind.¹⁰

Colin Marshall and Tony Payne call for ministry mind-shifts. Their list of 10 ministry mind-shift items includes: from running programmes to building people, from running events to training people, from relying on training institutions to establishing local training, from engaging in management to engaging in ministry and from seeking church growth to desiring gospel growth.¹¹

They propose a mental image of the pastor as trainer who functions as a preacher and trainer, instead of a clergyman who is a preacher and service-provider or a CEO who is a preacher and manager.¹² Their comparative chart of the three images of the pastor is helpful.¹³

The same sentiment is shared by William Willimon. In A Reader for Ordained Ministry he discusses a number of images of the 21^st Century pastor that includes the more far flung images of media mogul and political negotiator and the more commonly held images of preacher and servant. He asserts that it is the nature of the Christian ministry to be multifaceted and multidimensional. He insists that the “gospel does not change, but the context in which the gospel is preached and is enacted do change. A predominate pastoral image might have been fruitful in one age may not be so in the next.”¹⁴ Nonetheless, because the Christian ministry is significantly countercultural, Willimon says he finds “much to be commended in the image of the pastor as a missionary, or more accurately, a lead missionary or equipper of the missionaries.”¹⁵ The last point is key to the minister’s function in the present and challenging season of change. The minister’s function is not only to lead his church to fulfil the unchanging commission of disciple-making, but also to train and empower his church for this same purpose.

The church member, who has been thus trained, may not be called nor able to preach in a large meeting, but he can carry out a disciple-making ministry with a small group of people. During this season where large gatherings are curtailed this makes for a significant ministry strategy. A next step might be for the vocational minister to further train and release able men and women to start new churches in their neighbourhood and places of work; in fact anywhere, where they can engage non-believers and disciple believers. It is time for a mental shift, to stop thinking of church in terms of church gatherings, but to be the church everywhere. This is in total alignment with the NT concept of the church, which is simply a people gathered, centred around Christ and in mission for the Kingdom.¹⁶

CONCLUSION

The Malaysian church may not be aware, or may not want to admit, that its subservience to its institutionalised nature has made it quite impotent. The needs of the members, the programmes of the church, and keeping the church establishment intact are more important than the mission of the church. That being the case, in a season when the church is hit hard with an external and challenging change the prevailing mindset of the church cannot effectively respond to the change. Neither can it keep its focus on its mission.

It is the role of the vocational minister to provide leadership for the church to respond to the change. No doubt, the minister’s function is also to feed and care for the sheep whom the Lord has entrusted to him, but in a season of change he needs to step-up in his leadership function to lead the church to fulfil the unchanging purpose that God has for His church, namely, to make disciples of the nations.

The vocational minister can do this best by multiplying himself through training his members to be disciple-makers. In the present challenge when the church gathered needs to go small, the move to disciple-making in small groups is ideal. Perhaps, these empowered disciples can even start small churches where the Lord has put them. It is not difficult to envision a movement of organic churches¹⁷ mushrooming all over a city, a nation and in the nations of the world. This is perhaps the answer to lockdowns due to a pandemic or in times of persecution. And it might very well lead to a movement that Keller, Hirsch and Ferguson speak about in their books.

Re-Envisioning Vocational Christian Ministry in the Church in Malaysia in Light of Change (Part 2)

6 March 20228 March 2022Soon-Hock Lim 1 Comment

by Lim Soon Hock, Empowering Churches

Click here for Part 1

A DESCRIPTION OF THE VOCATIONAL MINISTER IN THE MALAYSIAN CHURCH

Hovorun’s point about self-awareness is also applicable for the vocational minister. The vocational minister needs to be aware of his person, role and functions as a minister in the church. Self-awareness allows for self-evaluation and self-correction.

In the Malaysian church the general perception is that the role of the vocational minister is to carry out pastoral functions and to meet the pastoral needs of the members of the church. A simple example is the expectation of members for the main pastor to visit them in hospital and pray for them. It is not enough that another pastor or a lay-leader visits and prays for them—it must be the main pastor. The unfortunate result arising from the institutionalism of the church is the perception and expectation that the work of the pastor is to keep the church serviced.

The minister by nature of his role has many functions. Seward Hiltner in Ferment in the Ministry lists at least nine important functions: preaching, administering, teaching, shepherding, evangelising, celebrating, reconciling, theologising and discipline.¹⁸ With so many and varied ministerial functions what should be the overarching function of the minister if he were to make sense and prioritise his varied functions?

The New Testament Image of the Vocational Minister

The NT word for the pastor is poimēn which means shepherd.¹⁹ The term is mostly applied to Jesus (Jn 10:11, 14, 16, Heb 13:20, 1 Pet 2:25, Rev 7:17) and once to describe one of the four kinds of men that the Lord gifts to the church (Eph 4:11). Cognates of poimēn in the NT include poimainō,²⁰ poimnē,²¹ and poimnion.²² They are used literally for vocational shepherds and their work of tending their sheep, and also figuratively of Jesus and church leaders and their work of ministry among the people under their care. The use of poimēn and its cognates makes the shepherd imagery an apt description for the minister.

The shepherd imagery, with cues from Psalm 23:1-4, sums up the primary role of the minister as leading, feeding and caring for the people in the church. Leading includes leading the people to the Lord, to grow in their relationship with Jesus and to learn faith and dependence on Him (Gal 4:19). It also means leading the church collectively towards the purpose of God (Acts 13:1-3, 15:1-35). Feeding includes teaching the people the Word of God; its truth and application in their lives. It also involves training them to be effective disciples and workers in the Kingdom of God (Eph 4:11-13, 2 Tim 2:2). Caring includes spiritual nurturing, binding up the wounds of the soul through counselling and prayer (Js 5:13-16) and protecting the flock from false teaching (Acts 20:28-35).

The Role of the Vocational Minister in the Malaysian Church

As we return to the description of the vocational minister in the Malaysian church, it is clear that among the three functions of leading, feeding and caring, the caring function is the one most expected of the minister. The least expected is the leading function, and especially in relation to directing the church towards God’s purpose for the church. I will pick up on this point in the subsequent section of the paper. The feeding function lies between the above two functions in terms of what is expected of the minister.

The church in general may recognise the importance of the minister’s role in feeding the flock with the Word of God but in reality they do not place the minister’s teaching function as important as caring for their needs. I have observed that many churches do not adequately provide the minister with time and resources to empower him to be an apt teacher of the Word. Neither do they make the minister’s teaching function his primary role in the church.

Chow Lien Hwa’s article in the SEA Journal of Theology calls for a minister to be a theologian in his church. It is important because, as Chow says, the minister-theologian has the ability to contextualise theology for his area.²³ Sunny Tan Boon Sang echoes the sentiment in a review of Chow’s article, “A resident pastor-theologian would be one who could devote himself/herself to the ongoing task of facilitating and supervising the work of theology in a local church.”²⁴ This reminder is even more critical in the context of change because the ability of the minister to determine and lead a right response to the challenge of change requires sound understanding and teaching from Scripture (2 Tim 2:15).

Go to Part 3

Re-Envisioning Vocational Christian Ministry in the Church in Malaysia in Light of Change (Part 1)

4 March 202210 March 2022Soon-Hock Lim 1 Comment

by Lim Soon Hock, Empowering Churches

INTRODUCTION

The Covid-19 pandemic and the SOP set in place in Malaysia to control it have affected the church and its ministries.²⁵ One of which is the curb on large group meetings. The traditional church thrives on large meetings. This is true of ministries within the church like the worship service and also those outside the church like its community services. This global pandemic has caused, or rather, forced, the church to rethink about how it should do ministry. In fact, in view of the changes that are taking place in and around the church, it also needs to rethink its ecclesiology,²⁶ and the vocational minister needs to rethink his²⁷ role.

The primary purpose of this paper is a re-envisioning of the role of the vocational minister in light of the aforementioned mega change that is affecting the church and its ministries. The vocational minister refers to the main pastor of the church. Nonetheless, in most instances, the discussion is applicable to other pastors in a multi-staff church, as well as to bi-vocational and church leaders who see Christian ministry as their primary vocation. The minister’s role, however, cannot be separated from the church and its ministry. Inevitably we have to also discuss issues pertaining to the nature of the church and notions of its ministry.

This paper is an engagement in practical theology, in that it is about the theology of ministry. Hence, the discussion uses and interfaces with the four commonly accepted ways of doing theology: Scripture, reason, tradition and experience.²⁸ A final point to note about the paper is that while the discussion may be applicable to churches world-wide because of the global effects of Covid-19, the context of this paper is limited to the church in Malaysia.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE MALAYSIAN CHURCH

The best way to describe the Malaysian church regardless of its denomination, language group and size is to tag it with the label “institutionalised.” At first glance this may appear appropriate since religion is one of the five major institutions of society.²⁹

For our purpose an institution is defined as an establishment with a firmly set purpose, structures and code of practice.³⁰ Timothy Keller in Center Church argues that organisations should have both institutional characteristics and movement dynamics.³¹ He quotes Hugh Helco, “To live in a culture that turns its back on institutions is equivalent to trying to live in a physical body without a skeleton or hoping to use a language but not its grammar.”³² In other words, as Keller observes, institutions bring order to life.³³

Institutions are important and necessary, but they also have several negative characteristics. They include, the process of decision making that is procedural and slow, innovation is from top down and implementation is done in departmental silos. An institution may be stable but they are slow to change, their emphasis is on traditions, the past and customs, and future trends are dreaded and denied.³⁴

Alan Hirsch and Dave Ferguson concur when they say,

“…their [institutional structures] intent is almost always good. Even so, concretized institutionalization does tend to block some of the most powerful aspects of ecclesia as Jesus intended it: a potent social force and gospel phenomenon that sweeps through populations. Any reading of history, Christian or otherwise, shows that institutional religion can become repressive, stifling creative expressions.

One of the most fundamental reboots we need to do in our day is to rediscover ourselves as the same potent, transforming people movement that started with Jesus and went on to change the world. The institutional forms have gotten us where we are now and can’t take us farther. We need to become a people-movement again.”³⁵

Very often with institutionalisation comes institutionalism, and very soon the church is beset with traditionalism and conservatism. As a result it is not be able to respond quickly and innovatively when confronted with change. In fact, it may not want to for fear of betraying its long-held beliefs, values and practices.

If this description of the Malaysian church is correct, then the church needs to do some self-evaluation. However, self-evaluation can only take place if there is self-awareness. The concept of the church’s self-awareness is discussed at length in Cyril Hovorun’s Meta-Ecclesiology. He argues that at different epochs of history the Church encountered challenging situations. They may be spiritual, intellectual, social or political in nature or the result of other historical circumstances. The challenges of these situations necessitated a response from the Church concerning its self-perception.³⁶

Hovorun’s thesis is helpful for the Malaysian church. The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a huge challenge to the church—which might even be termed a crisis. How is the church responding? Will its response enable the church to thrive and advance the cause of the Kingdom of God? This is dependent on the level of the church’s self-awareness. The fundamental question that needs to be asked is: Can the Malaysian church see itself beyond its institutionalised nature?

The New Testament Concept of the Church

The New Testament (NT) concept of the church was not that of an institutionalised church. The institutionalised church is a product of the evolving concept of the church over time as it became more organised, more structured, more rigid, and hence more institutionalised.

The writers of the NT used ekklēsia to term the Christian community. In antiquity the term was used for an assembly, as in a regularly summoned political body.³⁷ The people who make up the church then, are those who have been called out to gather as the people of God who hold in common a confession of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour (Mt 16:16, 18, Acts 2:47, 1 Tim 3:15-16).

The foremost characteristic of the church would be the centrality of Christ. Secondly, it’s about a people coming together for the same cause.³⁸ The church may come together for many Christ-centred purposes (Acts 2:42-4), but its ultimate cause is to be empowered and sent out by the Holy Spirit on a mission (Acts 1:8; 13:2-3) centred around Christ’s work of redemption (1 Cor 11:23-26) leading to God being glorified (Eph 3:21). This cause, or the primary work of the church and of every individual Christian, is most succinctly captured in Matthew 28:18-20, otherwise known as the Great Commission.

This NT concept of the church has direct implications on how the Malaysian church ought to perceive itself and its primary mission, and also how the vocational minister ought to perceive himself and his primary function.

Go to Part 2

Bringing Change Without Being Shown the Door!

20 June 201816 November 2019Soon-Hock Lim Leave a comment

Recently I watched Thom Rainer’s webcast (CEO of Lifeway & a church consultant) on the reasons pastors get moved out (or made to move out) from the church they had been serving. One of the big reasons was because the pastor had led change too rapidly. Another reason, although not among Rainer’s big four, is because the pastor had led change too slowly.

It is not surprising that when too much change is made too quickly there will be resistance. If these are leaders or influential members the pastor can expect a pushback. It may even cost him his job. Change is a necessity. All churches must continually make changes if they are to progress (read my blog “Change or Plateau”, 9 Jan 2018), but pastors need to be wise on how fast and how much change to introduce without incurring pushback; and instead, get a buy-in.

I like what Rainer said about a leader: He is someone who is leading sufficiently out front, but not so far out that he is mistaken to be the enemy and gets shot in the rear!

On the other hand, if a pastor doesn’t make any changes, or ever so painfully slowly, it will, inevitably hinder the development and growth of the church. The church may even fall into decline. Members who want to see the church go on an upward advance will leave and look for another church that they can channel their passion. For others in the church, a mix of lethargy and dissatisfaction will set in. In the United States, the pastor may be asked to leave because of his poor leadership. In Malaysia, from my observation, I don’t think this often happens.

Bringing change, especially in the context of a church, is one of those things which is not going to please everyone. Whether too fast or too slow it will have its detractors. Is there such a thing as the right pace? Yes, but it is not a one-size-fits-all. For one church, a certain kind of change may be too fast, while for another church it may be too slow. Too fast, too slow or just right depends on a number of factors:

How much is the church used to change?
What is the magnitude of the change on the “Change Richter-scale” for the church?
How much credibility does the pastor have with the church to initiate change?
How much is the leadership team with the pastor and with this particular change?

On top of the above the pastor still needs to bring change wisely so that the change will not cause a fallout in the church but will bring about the desired results. In order to do this the pastor must be able to:

Get a buy-in from the whole leadership team and other influential people.
Communicate to the church early and frequently on the why, what, where, who, when & how.
Listen to feedback from other leaders and church members.
Cultivate a culture of change in the church.

I learnt all this from the school of hard-knocks. I have pastored two churches, and in both churches I introduced changes. In one I successfully brought about changes that enabled the church to move forward. In the other I wasn’t so successful, and was shown the door. The former was ready for change; the latter was not. If I had known then what I know now maybe things might have been a little different in the latter church. 🙂