The Lausanne Global Conversation is on the World Wide Open Network
Author: Leslie Keeney
Date: 14.09.2010
Category: Poverty and Wealth, Prosperity Gospel
I recently had the opportunity to join other writers from the Lausanne Bloggers Network in a phone interview with Ajith Fernando (yeah technology!). Fernando will be one of the plenary speakers at the conference in Capetown and works in Sri Lanka with the urban poor. Since I was unfamiliar with Fernando’s work before the interview, my only preparation was to read an article he wrote for Christianity Today called “To Serve is to Suffer.” What I found was a brilliant pastor who shares my concern that the Western church’s infatuation with efficiency and productivity is at odds with the biblical portrait of what Fernando calls the “theology of suffering.” In the article, Fernando writes that Christians working in Eastern cultures experience frustration and discouragement while waiting 10-15 years before they see any conversions. In contrast, Western churches assume that frustration or suffering is a sign that one should leave to find more “fulfilling” ministry somewhere else. Fernando asserts that by not training workers to expect hardship, the Western church may gradually lose both its workforce and its vision.
Fernando is a native of Sri Lanka and has worked with Youth for Christ in that country for over 30 years. He has written several books on the realities of a life devoted to ministry and speaks brilliantly on a variety of topics concerning the challenges of the church in both the East and West. Fernando is one of those uncommon people who can speak from experience in both cultures. During our phone interview, he emphasized that one of his biggest concerns is the tendency of Western Christians to see frustration in ministry as a sign that God wants them to pull up their stakes and leave. Unfortunately, people often end up leaving ministry not because their ministry wasn’t fulfilling, but because they did not expect to have to suffer. Fernando knows from personal experience that a person can be really, really frustrated—and even experience physical suffering—but still be exactly where God wants them to be. Fulfillment, says Fernando, is the key. Ministry can be annoying, sleep-depriving, and even life-threatening, but if it is still fulfilling, then it is still their ministry.
What I found truly paradigm-shifting was Fernando’s insight into the differences between East and West. What is it about the Western church that makes it so susceptible to the idea that suffering is a sign that we should give up and go home? Fernando suggests that because the East is far less defined by—and dependent upon——technology, that it is more open to the possibility that God can work in the world through prayer and providence. In addition, says Fernando, the East’s “catalogue of essentials” is much smaller, making people more likely to accept suffering as part of life. This is an important concept, so let me say it again. Having a much shorter list of what is necessary to survive makes the East more inclined to view suffering not as a sign of God’s disfavor, but as the price of effective ministry. Here is just one more reason for Western Christians to question the assumption that more is better.
I readily admit that I have a tendency to view the Western church’s appropriation of corporate values as a universally bad thing. I don’t attend any of what the evangelical world calls “leadership conferences” or subscribe to the principles of the church growth movement because I am uncomfortable with the idea of imposing the grid of the corporate worldview over the untamable and unpredictable force of God’s redemptive work. Fernando, however, has a much more balanced and sympathetic view of the Western church, which has caused me to repent (just a little) of my previous assumptions. He observes that every church reflects its own culture. In a highly productive culture, the church will naturally reflect the idea that it should be productive. He also credits Western management principles for giving him needed insight into certain aspects of his own ministry. But he cautions against making Western management principles superior to the principles of Scripture. “The church is a sociological entity,” says Fernando, “and if it uses the principles that work within the larger culture, it will succeed as a sociological entity, but it then becomes defined by its numbers, by the idea that it needs to be branded and franchised.”
Along with many others who find themselves caught between the Western assumption that the most one can aspire to is a “successful” life and a still developing vision of what it means to live as members of God’s community, I question whether adopting the principles of corporate America should have any place at all in the church. It is a short hop from the assumption that a ministry should be dropped if it is not “productive” to the idea that suffering is a sign that we should pack up our tent and go somewhere else. I am beholden to Fernando for his firm belief that smooth sailing is not proof of God’s blessing and that fulfillment can be found in spite of suffering. In his article “To Serve is to Suffer,” Fernando asks the question “will loss of a theology of suffering lead the Western church to become ineffective?” While I think the answer could be “yes,” I also find encouragement in the fact that people are beginning to ask the question.
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United States
This is a very thought provoking article. I completely agree with everything mentioned concerning why the western church gives up when things get tough. Western society is definitely driven by the desire to have the latest technologies that make our lives easier. We don’t like to give those things up! We do not like to take jobs that do not pay enough for us to buy these technologies either. Therefore, we “have to have” the jobs that pay high salaries (which is not helping our economy, but that is a topic for another discussion). So it is no surprise that many leave ministerial positions when they must give up the comfortable life that they feel they are entitled to. I also think the image of the modern day pastor is not helping either. I will admit that when I started working on my Masters of Divinity, I had a very “rose colored” picture of the minister’s life. The minister was a respected member of society who was invited to people’s houses for Sunday lunch and was only required to preach, be friendly and every now and then deal with the un-pleasantries of life. He or she was never required to truly step out of his or her comfort zone. Now that my time in seminary is drawing to a close and I have a better understanding of what ministry is all about. I am realizing that if one’s ministry is growing and truly striving to fulfill the Great Commandment, then it will require the minister to step out of the comfortable lifestyle and will require work. I definitely believe that this should be addressed with all who plan to enter into the ministry.
22.11.2011
United States
Thank you for posting this. I appreciate you probing the question, and believe that we in the West do need a reintroduction to the historic Christian theology of suffering. At this moment, I’m reading a last chapter in an Intro. to Mission textbook and a quote from Terry Read’s article "Needed: A Theology of Suffering (2000)," caught my eye. "One of the realities of our world today is that in areas where material resources are abundant, the church is growing little if at all while in areas where resources are few, where there is conflict and persecution, and where trained pastors are in short supply, the church is growing rapidly. Is there a relationship between affluence and spiritual vitality? Robert Coleman wonders, "Can it be that in our preoccupation with the good life, we have missed the church-growth principle of suffering woven all through the New Testament?" These are good questions to consider. By the way, I noticed your blog expressed mild resistance to the church growth movement. As a Bible College student, currently enrolled in a mandatory Church Growth course, I relate to your concern. In defiance to the trust upon the church by growth and marketing "technicians," for my final presentation in the class I have upon reading Robert Coleman’s words decided to prepare a presentation on the largely ignored Church-Growth Principle of Suffering! (So far as I know, this one is not marketed in the US.) If you wouldn’t mind praying for me along the lines of Ephesians 6:19-20, I’d sure appreciate it!
01.10.2010
United States
@ jimmyh:
Terry Read’s article "Needed: A Theology of Suffering (2000)," please give me the name of the book.
Abhijit
20.10.2010
United States
@ jimmyh:
Please give me the complete bibliography of the book that you are reading and found an article Terry Read’s article "Needed: A Theology of Suffering (2000),"
I am a student at Fuller seminary. My email id is:abhijitnayak@fuller.edu
Downloadable Attachments
20.10.2010
United States
@ abhijitnayak:
abhijtnayak, please accept my appologies for the delay in replying to your post. yahoo alerted me today of the comment from friar58, but not of yours. I saw you had asked about the book I was citing. It is the assigned text book for the intro to missions course at Heritage Bible College, Discovering Missions,” by: Charles R. Gailey and Howard Culbertson, Beacon Hill Press, Kansas City, 2007.
I noticed you are at Fuller Seminary. One of my instructors received his doctorate in church growth from Fuller.
Thanks for posting the pdf attrocities in Orissa. I downloaded and will take a look at soon. Like you, I an pursing a degree in cross cultural communication/christian mission, only i am currently on the undergrad level.
May God’s face shine on you, that the nations may know His Name my friend.
21.04.2011
United States
Great post! I live in the southern US and two nights ago I heard of four young girls (ages 4-13); they were all sisters, and they were all abandoned by their mother in a department store. They sat on the curb outside the store, they cried, helpless. As I heard the story I wondered where the church was in this scenario. Where was the church for the mother who felt at the end of her rope. Where was the church for the girls. The cynical side of me thought, they were probably in the store next door buying a new LCD TV. A theology of suffering would be helpful for the church in general and the community they minister to. (* I do realize this is very cynical, I hope I’m mostly wrong).
21.04.2011
United States
Leslie, thank you for this reflection on the interview. I share similar struggles with your uneasiness with the Western’ church’s focus on efficiency and productivity. When we started our house church community 10 years ago, we called it "Ordinary Community" to be somewhat intentional about it being a spiritual community and not a business model. I too, appreciate Fernando’s perspective that every church reflects its own culture, and that is normal so long as it is not a relationship leaning towards idolatry. I fully appreciate the Lausanne Congress for its space to allow the Western and Eastern Church to speak into one another in hopes that out of it we find a more full perspective of the Kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven. Thanks again.
18.10.2010
Kenya
Excellent questions, many thanks ... Does this approach bring into question the need to attach ’social action’ to mission projects (as prescribed by Lausanne in 1974)? Or is the suffering to be only for the missionary???
17.09.2010
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