Reflection on Jesus Christ’s philosophy of ministry, no matter how brief, seems to reveal a discernable pattern. Jesus sought first to create a safe place where marginalised people people felt secure. Security breeds a sense of belonging. More often than not the people that spent time with Jesus slowly began to believe his remarkable claims. Those who progressed from belonging to belief increasingly began to act in accordance with their sense of identity and beliefs.
This philosophy of ministry remains attractive. As the saying goes ‘people don’t care about how much you know, until they know how much you care’. Sadly, I suspect that for many their church experience reflects quite a different philosophy. (Church here being defined as an extension of Christ’s ministry to usher in the Kingdom of God).
Allow me to caricaturise my suspicions… Behave! Believe! (like me) then on those grounds you may belong… Just as long as you keep behaving and believing.
Encouragingly and increasingly, Christian ministries are once again embracing the philosophy of Jesus. The following article by John Burke illustrates this well.
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