Alternate to Equipping and Empowering
The previous post might be summarized in this way:
Equipping and empowering is an insufficient set of priorities for clergy leaders to uphold because they mistake the work of the Holy Spirit with the work of the clergy person. As revolutionary as it sounds, prioritizing equipping and empowering often retains the status quo and limits the radical work of God.
The post ends by asking, “If church leaders no longer prioritize equipping and empowering, what alternate priority would be aligned with the Gospel of Christ?” This post argues for one possible set of new priorities.
When Jesus stepped in the temple, he was handed a scroll of Isaiah. From there he began to locate the section we call chapter 61 and read the following:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
Jesus could have read any part of Isaiah such as the suffering servant texts or the coming of the messiah. Instead he read about the year of the Lord’s favor and what happens in that time. This section of Isaiah summarizes what he thinks his priorities are. So much so that after he read this section, the Gospel of Luke describes Jesus saying, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
“Clergy that prioritize liberation always have Good News to share because being set free from that which holds us captive is Good News.”
To put it another way: to be in ministry in the name of Jesus Christ, is to place Christ as the standard of what ministry that fulfills looks like. The work of equipping and empowering is not present in this standard. Rather we see it is the priorities of listening and liberation.
The Spirit of the Lord anoints Jesus to bring Good News to the poor. But what is Good News to the poor? How does one know what Good News is to the poor? The only way to know what Good News is to the poor is to listen to the needs of others and proclaim to them the news that is Good.
For instance, Good News to the economically poor might be employment. It might be a social service. It might be the affirmation that no one is defined by their production but by the Good News that God loves them. Good News to the poor is one that requires first and foremost that ministers in the name of Christ must prioritize listening. There are numerous books that provide insight into what happens when the ministers of Christ do not prioritize listening: When Helping Hurts (Corbett and Fikkert), Toxic Charity (Lutpon), Walking with the Poor (Myers), The Irresistible Revolution (Claiborne), etc. Pastors who prioritize listening may come to discover that what we thought would be helpful, is in fact unhelpful.
One of the most commonly cited examples of what happens when we prioritize empowering and equipping before we listen is the “Roundabout PlayPump”. The desire to equip people with water by using the power of kids who naturally play on a roundabout makes sense on paper. However, had we prioritized listening we might have been more able to avoid this dud of a solution.
Listening also requires that the clergy person listen not just to humans but listen to God. Prioritizing listening also would mean that congregations would expect clergy to listen to God. Clergy do not have to feel terrible if they are not “doing” but just had the goal to “be” in the presence of God. Being in the presence, listening to God’s Spirit, does require work because of the amount of noise in the world. As I have aged my physical hearing is failing in a very specific way. I can still hear things, however I really struggle to hear when there are competing noises. I can hear you talking to me, but put me in a Cheesecake Factory with people asking dozens of questions about the thousands of menu items and I have to strain to understand the person sitting next to me. The church is often like a Cheesecake Factory with expectations, ministries, needs, and desires. Those who prioritize listening might need to make structural changes to the church so that God and people can be heard and understood. Perhaps this is in part why Jesus drives noisy money changers out of the temple - structural change helps one to listen.
In addition to prioritizing listening, Jesus also paired that with liberation. Reconsider the verse:
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
We might be too plain in our reading here but the release of captives is not just for those in prison. The recovery of sight is not just for those of us who are physically blind. Letting the oppressed go free is not just for the ones who are under the thumb of an outsized oppressor. We are held captive to our own pride. We are blind to our ignorance. We are oppressed by systems of extraction.
The human condition is one that needs liberation. We need liberation from fear, violent systems, toxic relationships, acquiring power, garnering fame, personal pride, envy, anger, gluttony, addiction, avarice, shame, guilt, resentment, greed, etc. Being held captive is what we might call the condition of sin. Humans of all ages and stages are in this condition and this condition holds us captive.
We ALL are held hostage to sin. We all need liberation. And this is what a church leaders are able to assist with. The church leader can work in ways to remove the fear to act. They can work to encourage someone to release their anger. They can set up systems to let people make donations to be free from the way we worship mammon. They can remove organizational “red tape”. They can remove the burden of expectations and the demands of the law. They can remind people that they are children of God and not children of this world. They can break away from the many tyrannical powers of our lives (such as perfectionism, metrics, purpose, etc.).
Church leaders can share Good News of the forgiveness that is already given by God. They can be fools for Christ (1 Corinthians 4:10), to show that one can be in the world but not of it (John 17:14-16).
Clergy that prioritize liberation always have Good News to share because being set free from that which holds us captive is Good News. These clergy are the ones who are joyful and unafraid to what the Spirit might do in the lives of people and the body of the Church. They let go of trying to coheres people into what their desires are. These leaders are able to delight in failure because they are no longer held hostage to a fear of failure. Those leaders who prioritize liberation also no are not held captive to death and can boldly live life knowing that death has lost its sting (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).
When church leaders prioritize listening and liberation a different set of practices and ministries begin to take precedent. Clergy that prioritize equipping and empowering are often interested in ministry of addition. There is more training. More programs. More tools. More is always better. However, clergy that prioritize listening and liberating are interested in ministry of subtraction. Remove the demand/law. Remove the conditions. Remove the predetermined outcomes of success.
As argued in the first post, we can empower and equip people all day long, but as long as they are held captive to the conditions of being human there will be limited Good News. The way to liberation is by way of honoring the other and trusting that God has equipped and empowered them already - clergy need to listen to what the Spirit is asking and help set captives free.
How might ministry be different if clergy prioritize listening and liberating over equipping and empowering?
