From Ministry to Mission

Depending on the circles that you run in, you probably hear or say the word ministry fairly often. But what does it mean? Look up the word...go ahead, go look it up. Dictionary.com is a great place to go...just open a new window in your internet browser and look it up. I'll wait...

Almost every definition speaks of professionalism, the formal office of clergy. But that isn't how we use it. We use it with the definition of service. I hear fellow pastors talking about "my ministry." I hear people talking about serving as a nursery worker, Sunday school teacher, or usher as their "ministry." Ministry in itself is great. It is great to follow the call of God to serve those around us. But it becomes a problem when "ministry" is what defines the church. For a long time ministry has been the running of programs at a church for the benefit of its members and with the attempt to reach outsiders. So we put on programs. We have have children's "ministry" and youth "ministry" and senior adult "ministry." The music "ministry" puts on Easter and Christmas programs.

Is this really the ministry that God has called the church to? It that it? Pay your dues in the nursery and you are doing your part in the body of Christ? Greet people at the door on Sunday mornings with a crisp bulletin and a forced smile and you are fulling the call of God on your life? The problem stems from our wrong view of the church. Even those of us who proudly proclaim that the church is people not a building have a tendency to fall into the trap of thinking that what we do on a Sunday morning for an hour is church. We begin to believe that singing songs, hearing a sermon and maybe even serving in a "ministry" is doing church. Until we change our vocabulary, we may never climb out of this trap.

God has given us one ministry. It is much more general and a lot less specific than we might hope. 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 says,

"All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ..."

Our ministry is Missio Dei, the sending of God. Our ministry is mission. Our mission is the Gospel. Until we show people the Gospel, that God has done what it takes to reconcile them to Himself, until we model for people the Gospel, until we teach people how to apply the Gospel to every aspect of their lives, we aren't being the church. The church is the the collective group of sent ones of God. How can we be called the "sent ones" when we only "do church" in the four walls of a building designated for Holy things? We are called to be set apart in lifestyle not in location. We are called to be like yeast, infiltrating the world and slowly changing it from the inside out. We can't do that by empowering people to do ministry...we have to empower people to be on mission.


Ministry means once a week.
Mission means every moment of every day.

Ministry compartmentalizes life.
Mission encompasses life.

Ministry tells you to serve.
Mission fills you with passion to serve.

Ministry speaks the Gospel.
Mission is the Gospel.

If people begin to understand the Gospel...that a Holy God has made a way for sinful people to know Him, experience Him and enjoy Him forever...and that we are called to live this out, tell others about it, and let that fact transform the way we exist...ministry will happen. People will begin to serve out of love and not obligation. People will serve because it is the natural reaction to a Gospel-transformed life. Ministry isn't bad...it's just not enough. It isn't the call God has on our lives...it is the overflow of missional living.

I pray that God would make us missional. That is would be a lifestyle and not just a catch phrase. I pray that our churches would be transformed by the Gospel and in turn, we would serve.

December Update

Merry Christmas from The Oldhams

Rest and Refocus...

With the craziness of the past month and the Thanksgiving/Christmas season, we got a little behind in the area of updates. For those of you, who have been watching the mailbox or email inbox, waiting eagerly to see how things progressing, we’re sorry to keep you waiting. For those of you who read our blog (noahandheatheroldham.blogspot.com) we will try and keep you more up to date once December is through.

The past month and a half has proved to be a very demanding time. With the internship, the process of planting, school and the holidays, things can get pretty hectic pretty quick. But we were able to take a couple days after Thanksgiving and get away to a remote place in Southern Illinois to rest and refocus for the months and steps ahead. A couple of friends let us borrow their cabin and we had an amazing time of sleeping, studying, napping and spending time with each other. It was our first vacation since June of 2006 and it was much needed

Merry Christmas and other news...

We are so excited for Christmas! We love the opportunity to spend time with family and Christmas provides for that. But even more so, I love Christmas because of Advent. I feel like in America we have a tendency to take the focus off of Jesus…and many of you I’m sure would agree. But a couple years ago I read a book on the Jewishness of Jesus and the intertestamental period. This book really connected awakened my mind to the Incarnation. A lot of time we focus on “baby Jesus” because Christmas is His birthday. But we have to realize the amazing event that took place that night. Jesus, the eternal God, broke into human history by taking on flesh. This was the moment that all of history was leading up to. It was the beginning of the end. It was everything that a culture had waiting for but had little idea it was happening because it didn’t look like they expected. We pray that this Christmas the presents, the decorations, even your family would take a back seat to worshipping Jesus, the Messiah, the King, the atonement, the propitiation, the risen Lord. And I pray that this season would only spark the desire in your heart to look forward even more to his second advent…when He will come and redemption will be finalized…Hallelujah!

In other news…two years ago when Noah shared his heart to church plant with a couple, he expressed the desire to further his education so he could more properly lead and teach. Because of the generosity of that couple we are pleased to announce that Noah just completed his Masters of Arts in Religion degree. Though this is a huge milestone, its only half finished. In January I will begin the second half of the program towards the Master of Divinity degree. We want to say thank you to all of our supports. Through your generosity we have been allowed to walk in obedience to Christ. We are so grateful and thank God for people like you in our lives.

Vision Vision Vision...

During our weekend at the cabin I feel like God wanted to call me back to the vision for planting a church. Over the past several months I have been putting together the “who’s” and “what’s.” I have been creating systems and doctrine, core values and job descriptions, trying to find a location and trying to raise money. All of that is good and is very necessary to the planting of a new church here in St. Louis. But I feel like God challenged me to look back to two years ago when He first birthed this vision in my heart and ask myself the “why’s” again. So I want to share with you, maybe for the 5^th or 6^th time if we are close, why God has called me to plant a church.

1. The Church in America is Losing Ground.

Upon first hearing that, we can have the tendency to get defensive. I know that many if not most of you reading this go to churches that aren’t failing. I am not necessarily talking about individual local bodies; I am talking about the collective group of Christians that live in the United States. Christians aren’t living like Christians. The problem with America isn’t that 50% of marriages are ending in divorce, its that 51% of Christian marriages are ending in divorce. The problem isn’t JUST that babies are being aborted, its that Christian teenagers are having abortions. The problem isn’t that people are going hungry; it’s that Christians don’t want the government to expand welfare yet we don’t want to help the poor with our own checkbooks. Ten years ago, 85% of nonbelievers thought positively about Christians. Today, less than 50% think of Christians in a positive light. Sure, Jesus said the world would hate us, but because of our love and stand for truth, not because of our negligence and hypocrisy.

2. The Church is Becoming Irrelevant

The Church gathering should have two major roles. First it should be the collective body of believers getting together to worship the Lord, study His instructions, and be empowered to walk out into the world as missionaries in their own contexts. Secondly, it should be a place where nonbelievers can enquire about God, hear His instructions, be drawn in, convicted, and called to repentance by the Holy Spirit and be discipled in the faith. But more and more, people are avoiding the doors of our churches. Young adults, my generation hates church. Why?: “Irrelevant messages” and “lousy music.” Two of the main elements of every worship service are worship by song and teaching of Scripture. If people aren’t connecting here, does any of the rest of it matter?

3. The Church is Becoming Polarized.

Half of the Church is becoming soft. Sin is no longer preached and messages centered on Dr. Phil-esque psycho-babble about how we can better self-esteem. Biblical doctrine is being laid down and best-selling books are being picked up. Gay pastors are coming in and the Scriptures are being thrown out. That’s half the church.

The other half is hard on sinners and soft on saints. Pastors will get up in pulpits and preach against homosexuality while the congregation erupts into cheers and standing ovations. Obviously the wrong message is being preached. Maybe if the pastor would call out lust, gluttony, gossip, judgment and pride the people would begin to examine their own sin, repent and see that the Gospel is redemption not retaliation. Jesus came to save sinners not just point out the obvious fact that sinners are bound for Hell (which we all were at one point).

4. Our Society is Eroding

Every moral underpinning that once constrained our leaders has been cut away. Our culture-makers have no fear of the Lord and because we as a society no longer have a foundation of God’s ethics to stand upon, we are like a house built on sand. Things are progressively getting worse. And while it will be the job of some to deal with the consequences of all of this, it is the job of some to go to the source and effect change. We’ve experienced the death of a generation of Christian leaders. This should serve to remind us that a new generation of leaders should be trained up to lead, love, and speak truth.

5. God Saves Sinners

The Gospel. Missio Dei. God’s mission from the beginning is this. Everything that God is orchestrating, everything that God wills, allows and elects it for the purpose of the Gospel. God has called every Christian, as a member of the body of Christ to submit to the head of the body, Jesus Himself, and live a life full of the Gospel. We should be teaching the Gospel, preaching the Gospel, singing the Gospel, and demonstrating the Gospel. The world needs to see that the Gospel works…that God saves sinners. They will see that when they see us living it in word and in deed.