Perspective: Failure to Communicate

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Failure to Communicate

See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Matthew 10:16 (NRSV)

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Don't brush off Spirit-inspired messages, but examine everything carefully and hang on to what is good.

1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 (CEB)

Ruin my life, the plans I have made

Ruin desires for my own selfish gain

Destroy the idols that have taken Your place

Till its You alone I live for

You alone I live for

From "Ruin Me" by Jeff Johnson

One Sunday, back in December of last year, I was rather perturbed with the pastor of my church.  A day or two later, while I was at another church, I saw something I didn't particularly want to see, and I realized that not all pastors are quite as supportive of their parishioners as my pastor has been.  Though I was still frustrated with her, I remembered all the times she had supported me over the past five and a half years, and I felt the need to send her an email to clear the air and thank her.

Not unlike the email I sent to my pastor, there is, in the Bible, a letter of thanks written by an elder in the early Church to a man who supported the elder's associates, when other people in the Church hadn't been quite so supportive.

In the Gospel, we read that Jesus once sent out seventy evangelists ahead of Him to the various towns He intended to personally visit.  Jesus instructed them to proclaim that the Kingdom of God has come near and to heal the sick as a sign of the fact.  He also told them to rely on the hospitality of the people in the town.¹  Years after Jesus ascended into Heaven, in the days of the early Church, there were traveling evangelists who carried on the tradition of Jesus and the seventy He sent out ahead of Him.  They would travel from town to town, preaching the Gospel, relying on the hospitality of the Christians living in each town.²  Christians had no choice but to stick together and rely on each other's hospitality, as they were considered to be a somewhat undesirable element in the Roman Empire.³

A man named Gaius, who provided food and lodging to a number of these traveling preachers, apparently went above and beyond the call of duty.⁴  One elder in the Church is so impressed by what his friends say about Gaius that he is compelled to write him a letter of encouragement and gratitude for his support.⁵

In the same letter, the elder laments that a church leader named Diotrephes has not been quite as supportive as Gaius.  Not only does he refuse to support the elder's associates, he threatens to excommunicate anyone who might want to support them.⁶  The elder describes Diotrephes as a man "who likes to put himself first."  Basically, he is suggesting that Diotrephes has come into church leadership with his own personal agenda.  In the days of the early Church, as in our own day, there were people who used the Church and the Gospel as the means to their own ends.

Of course, it is also worth noting that the way of life of the traveling evangelists also attracted people with an agenda.  There were many fraudulent preachers who posed as servants of God all the while living off the hospitality of others.⁷  It seems that people have always known that religion is good business.  In another letter to a different recipient, the same elder writes about such false teachers, going so far as to call them "deceivers" and "antichrists."⁸  He goes on to say that people should not even invite them into their houses, since offering them food and lodging would be tantamount to supporting their evil deeds.⁹

Wait a minute!  Isn't Diotrephes doing exactly what the elder instructs people to do regarding false teachers?  Does Diotrephes have his own personal agenda?  Or is it possible that he genuinely believes that the elder and his associates are false prophets and that he wants to protect his community from their influence?  Perhaps - to borrow a phrase from a classic movie – "what we've got here is failure to communicate."  It sounds like the elder and Diotrephes need to sit down with each other and lay all their cards on the table.

So how do we tell the difference between a true servant of God and a fake?

Jesus once told His followers to "be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."  In other words, we must be mindful of the fact that there are evil, self-serving people in the world without allowing this reality to change us.  We must be familiar with their ways without adapting to them.  We must not sink to their level but instead live according to the standard Christ set for us.  We must not give into cynicism by assuming that everybody operates out of selfish motives, and we must not give into paranoia by thinking that everybody is out to get us.

Because so many of the traveling evangelists in the early church turned out to be frauds, a good portion of an early church document known as the Didache details what should be expected of a traveling evangelist and offers rules of thumb for spotting a false teacher.¹⁰  In short, early Christians were encouraged to be hospitable while using common sense.¹¹  Likewise, we should give people the benefit of the doubt until they prove themselves to be unworthy of our trust.

I think that one hallmark of a trustworthy church leader is a posture of service.  I do not know if Jesus is the person who came up with the concept of servant leadership, but He certainly exemplified it in His life and in His teachings.  He was a leader who "came not to be served but to serve."¹²  He taught His disciples that whoever wants to achieve true greatness must become a servant to all,¹³ and He demonstrated this truth by washing His disciples' feet – a task generally reserved for the lowliest of servants.¹⁴

According to John C. Maxwell, "Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts.  It is about one life influencing another."  If we find ourselves in any place of influence, then we are leaders, whether we like it or not.  True leaders lead by example and not by intimidation or coercion.  True leaders lead not for their own benefit, but for the benefit of those they lead.  Christ taught us that we are only as great as our love for others, so may we learn to put our agendas aside so that we may serve God by serving each other.  May we learn to use whatever leadership we might have, not for our own gain but for the building up of others.


Notes:

1. Luke 10:1-9
2. Tony Jones.  The Teaching of the 12.  2009, Paraclete Press.  p. 107
3. N.T. Wright.  The Early Christian Letters for Everyone.  2011, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 184
4. Wright, p. 185
5. 3 John 1-8
6. 3 John 9-10
7. Jones, p. 108
8. 2 John 7
9. 2 John 10-11
10. To read what the Didache says regarding traveling evangelists, see chapters 11 and 12.  The full text of the Didache can be found here: http://www.paracletepress.com/didache.html.
11. Jones, p. 108
12. Matthew 20:28
13. Matthew 20:26
14. John 13:1-20

The photograph featured in this perspective is public domain.