Issues
Facing Missions Today 20: ‘Power’ as Service in Paul’s Apostolic Role
Pressing still further the critique of an
understanding of ministry as leadership, explored earlier, I
intend to illustrate Paul’s own rejection of the notion of power located in skills
and offices. He instead favours a notion of functional power as itself service.
To do so, I will venture three theses: (1) Paul is self-denigrating in regard
to his status of an apostle; (2) Paul locates power in his ministry in the work
of Jesus and the Holy Spirit; and (3) Paul’s understanding of his ministry is
cruciform (cross-centred). These theses seem to me to undermine thinking of ministry as 'leadership'.
Paul’s
Self-Denigration of His Status as an Apostle
In perhaps Paul’s earliest letter, Paul
finds himself in the awkward position of having to defend his authority as an
apostle to a church that he had himself established. The Galatian church had, to some extent, been
persuaded by teachers of a works righteousness theology that placed Jewish legal
requirements upon Gentile believers, requirements to be circumcised and follow
the calendar for Jewish holy days (Gal. 4.10; 6.12-13). Paul sees this as a threat to the Gospel, ‘for
if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing’ (Gal.
2.20).
Beyond the theological error per se, Paul sees in this situation that
status and office can be problematic for the Gospel. He insists that his Gospel is derived from
Jesus, not from Jerusalem authorities (Gal. 1.10-2.14). He also insists that his authority as an
apostle—and even the authority of angels!—lies not in any status associated
with office but in a service of the Gospel.
Thus, if anyone comes with a different Gospel—even an angel—let him be
accursed (Gal. 1.6-9). Being an apostle
means to be a servant of Christ (v.
10), and what one serves others is the Gospel.
Thus apostolic authority lies not in the appointment to an office (as
Judas found out!) but in a service for Christ of the Gospel.
On one occasion in Paul’s dealing with a
status-minded congregation, the Corinthians, he threatens them outright:
1 Corinthians 4:19-21 19 But I will come to you soon, if
the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but
their power. 20 For the
kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power. 21 What would you prefer? Am I to
come to you with a stick, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?
Paul’s threat of the use of power is
precisely used to undermine the very idea in favour of love and a spirit of
gentleness as the grounds for ministry.
His asking whether they would like a stick does not mean that he will do
so but that this is the understanding that the Corinthians have of
authority. Over against this, Paul sets
a radically different concept of Christian ministry.
Later in the same epistle, Paul speaks
of his ‘rights’ as an apostle. On
several occasions in this epistle, Paul undermines an ethic of ‘rights’ by
appealing to a Christian way that prioritizes Christian fellowship and mutual
service. If there is any right, it is
the right to serve others. Freedom is
not for self-gain but for service: Christian freedom is freedom to serve. Thus, Paul entertains the notion of the
rights of office for apostles in 1 Corinthians 9 only to deny them for
himself. He says that he has certain rights
because he is ‘free’ (suggesting rights that come with being a Christian), is
an apostle (suggesting rights of status), has seen Jesus (suggesting rights
based on credentials), and has established the church in Corinth (suggesting
rights of foundational leadership) (1 Cor. 9.1). He states that, on these grounds, an apostle
has the right to be paid for his ministry and to have expenses paid (so it
seems) for travelling with a wife (1 Cor. 9.4-5).
Yet Paul refuses to advance his
relationship with this church on these grounds.
His basis for ministry is mission-focussed. He does not wish to place any obstacle in the
way of the Gospel of Christ (1 Cor. 9.12).
He understands his ministry as an obligation, not a right (1 Cor.
9.16). This means that he is under authority to his calling,
not that he has authority because of
his calling to apostleship. He refuses
to make full use of his rights in the Gospel as an apostle (1 Cor. 9.18). He has chosen slavery to serve others rather
than freedom to exercise his rights among others (1 Cor. 9.19).
Paul’s
Location of Power in the Work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit
On another occasion when addressing the
Corinthians, Paul threatens to come to deal with their errors in the power of
Jesus Christ. He says,
2 Corinthians 13:2-4 2 I warned those who sinned
previously and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when
present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not be lenient-- 3 since you desire proof that
Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful
in you. 4 For he was
crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we are weak in him,
but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.
Paul says this over against certain ‘superapostles’
that the Corinthians have received on the very basis of their claims to
personal authority. They exalted
themselves over others, wielded power, and received financial support from the
congregation they had come to lead. Paul says of them,
2 Corinthians 11:20 For you put up with it when someone makes
slaves of you, or preys upon you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs,
or gives you a slap in the face.
Paul finds ministry on the grounds of
personal or credentialed authority to operate over against divine empowerment
for ministry. He undermines any
rhetorical skills he might have, for these undermine the power of the Gospel
when people are persuaded to follow Christ by words instead of the message (2
Cor. 11.6). In an earlier letter, Paul
contrasted his entry into Thessalonica and his public speech to that of the
Greek orators, who sought fame and gain and prided themselves in their
rhetorical skills of persuasion.
Instead, Paul says,
1 Thessalonians 2:5-9 5 As you know and as God is our
witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; 6 nor did we seek praise from
mortals, whether from you or from others,
7 though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ.
But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own
children. 8 So deeply do we
care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of
God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us. 9 You remember our labor and toil,
brothers and sisters; we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any
of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
Similarly,
he says to the Corinthians,
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I
did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or
wisdom. 2 For I decided to
know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I came to you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling. 4
My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with
a demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on
the power of God.
Paul’s accomplishments in ministry are
rather understood as the accomplishments of Christ in him and as works done by
the power of the Spirit of God, as he says to the Roman Christians:
Romans 15:18-19 18 For I will not venture to speak
of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to win obedience
from the Gentiles, by word and deed, 19
by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that
from Jerusalem and as far around as Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the good
news of Christ.
The location of power in ministry, for Paul, lies
not in status or even in skill but in the power of Jesus Christ and the Holy
Spirit working in and through him. He
refuses personal authority that would give him rights in ministry, a credentialed
authority that would make his ministry dependent on leadership skills, such as
oratory, or a status authority, which could be construed to give him authority
over the message, the Gospel, instead of place him under the authority of the
Gospel. He pokes fun at the
superapostles that came to Corinth with their notions of human authority. Instead, he sees the authority of a minister
to be the authority of Jesus and the Holy Spirit working through the vessel of
the minister.
Paul's Understanding of his Ministry as Cruciform
Paul has learned ministry from Jesus Christ, who
chose the way of the cross instead of calling myriads of angels to rescue him
from the power of Jewish authorities and the might of Rome. Jesus took up the role of the servant, about
whom Isaiah said, ‘He will not cry or
lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3 a bruised reed he will not
break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring
forth justice. (Is. 42.1-4; cf. Mt. 12.17-21). Thus, when Paul makes his appeal to the
Corinthians who fancied traditional power tactics from leaders, he instead
appeals to them ‘by the meekness and gentleness of Christ’ (2 Cor. 10.1). In his earlier letter to this church, he states,
‘I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ,
and him crucified’ (1 Cor. 2.2). To the Galatian church he says that he has
been crucified with Christ (Gal. 2.19) and, ‘May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world’ (Gal. 6.14).
Such a perspective on ministry
derives from Jesus’ own teaching in the famous passage where Jesus sets his
service on the cross as an example to the disciples. He says,
Mark 10:42-45 42 So
Jesus called them and said to them, "You know that among the Gentiles
those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great
ones are tyrants over them. 43
But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must
be your servant, 44 and
whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For the Son of Man came not to
be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."
Conclusion
If we understand ministry as located in credentials
acquired through the acquisition of certain skills, as the expression of
certain rights due to status, or as the authority located in some office, we
will find Paul pushing hard against us.
He certainly had theological training and, despite his self-denigration,
very likely training in rhetoric (as any educated person would have been at the
time). He certainly had certain rights
due to his status as an apostle. He certainly
had an authority in his apostolic office.
Yet he constantly and consistently stepped down from ministering out of skills,
power, rights, and authority. He was self-deprecatory
regarding his own status. He located the
power of ministry in the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit in and through
him. He saw the pattern of ministry for
himself and others as based on the cross of Jesus Christ, not the heavenly authority
of the ascended Lord. Indeed, the
heavenly Lord exercises his authority through
the weakness and suffering of his ministers that the power of the Gospel
might be seen over against all other powers.
Application
This study requires an application to press the
point still further. It would be too
easy a thing to point out the all too frequent abuse of authority by ministers,
boards, presidents of institutions, deans of faculties, and so forth. It would be easy to present examples of the
use of Church funds for high living by certain ministers—expensive houses,
expensive hotels while travelling, expensive resorts for board or faculty
meetings. It would be very easy to
describe the credentialing after acquiring skills and degrees of persons for ministry
that gives authority to persons who are not personally walking closely with the
Lord. All too often, the founding leader
of churches or organizations holds onto personal power in his little fiefdom
and demands absolute loyalty and obedience from his staff. How easy it would be to cite examples of the
cleric or bishop who opposes the very Gospel he or she was commissioned to
serve because he or she claims personal authority over the message itself.
My application will be a bit more subtle,
perhaps. If power is located in service,
as I argue from Paul’s writings, then bodies that function with power should
understand that power as a pastoral
service. Service itself is service of the Gospel, service rendered to Jesus Christ, and service
done in the power of the Holy Spirit. Christian service is not the exercise of
power to do something good but the abandonment of power in order to serve, as
Christ did on the cross. We do not take
off our robes to put on robes of purple that we might do good for others out of
our powerful posts; we take off our robes to put on a towel to wash the feet of
others.
My example, then, would be of a body (or an
administrative official) set up to oversee personnel in a church, organization,
or institution. That body has tremendous
authority—they can even fire an employee.
The system of oversight might require certain annual reporting. It might be a body voted into office by peers
or appointed by a person in a position of authority. If the body sees itself primarily as a
judicial body, judging the performance of staff, it will see itself as
entrusted with authority over the employment and performance of others. It will express its authority through power
over employees. If, however, the appointed
oversight body sees its authority as service, it will take a more pastoral role
in the lives of those it seeks to lead.
It will see its responsibility
as mentoring persons. It will lead by
example. It will not overstep itself in
placing burdensome requirements on others.
It will admonish more than reprimand, and it will only reprimand when
admonishment fails. Where problems of
performance are noted it will help the person to meet the standards if at all
possible rather than reprimand the person, leave the person feeling that he or
she is under constant scrutiny, and even fire the person. If helping the person succeed is not
possible, it will help the person to find his or her better place to serve
rather than simply fire the person from the job and leave him or her unemployed. If a person sins, those who have received the
Spirit will gently restore the person, being wary that they, too, may be
tempted to sin (Gal. 6.1).
In sum, if we understand leadership as gaining skills, status, and authority to use power well, we will misunderstand Christian ministry. Paul’s writings demonstrate an understanding of power as service. Skills may be good to gain, but they may also press the power of the Spirit into the shadows. In the world in which we live, status happens; but Paul would have us minister out of service rendered to Christ and for others, not status. Authority can be wielded in halls of power, but, for Christians, it should be pastoral, an admonishing and enabling through the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
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