Dueling Ministry Styles?

This morning I was rereading some of Matthew, chapter 11 and came across these two verses - Matthew 11:18-19 NIV:

[18] "For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ [19] The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”

This was Jesus' commentary on that present generation, and how they rejected both John and Jesus. What I find interesting here is not only the social rejection of the two different paths, but also the rejection of them within the religious community. I think we can see a similar model in action today as well. Suffice it to say that any legitimate move of God and the people who embrace it are often rejected by both society and much of the rest of the church. Society does not like conviction, and the moves of God bring exactly that. The religious community doesn't like competition.

John was a voice calling for repentance, a turning back to God, a restoring of faith and focus, and because he lived a lifestyle of radical obedience, they said that he had a demon. The religious community were the ones that leveled that charge, for he was making them look bad. The people were very responsive to his call and he baptized thousands. The religious community couldn't stand the competition, so they claimed he was doing the works of, and by the power of a demon. They didn't look at his message and compare it to previous prophetic messages and voices to see if it was legitimate, but cast it all aside with their proclamation of demonic influence.

So often we see churches doing the exact same thing with churches or groups who are pursuing the Lord in radical or extravagant news ways. Every pastor that I know that is pastoring a move of God is regularly being attacked by the status-quo church. They were called cults, heretical, demonic and the goal is not to test the word being spoken by these pastors, but rather to reject them and their teaching wholesale. They are in competition and you can't have your good people leaving to join some other more active church!

In my lifetime, alone, there have been legitimate moves of God in the church in North America that have been pooh-poohed or ignored by the majority of the rest of the church, movements and outpourings like John Wimber and Vineyard conferences, John Arnott and Toronto blessing, the Brownsville outpouring, Bill Johnson and Bethel Church in Redding, CA, the Jesus People movements, and the charismatic renewal in the Catholic church, etc. Each of these had significant affects on the church in general, and yet they were proclaimed to be false, demonically inspired, founded on heresy, clearly not from God.

Similarly, Jesus was rejected for being too soft on sinners, too loving towards the lost, not judgmental enough. This is often the case for churches that espouse mercy, compassion and grace. The hard-line purists will a attack any group that is not echoing their call for perfect righteousness in one's actions, a works based mentality. Jesus was called a drunkard, a winebibber, someone who drank wine, and He hung out with worldly people (sinners). There are church groups that would say He couldn't be a Christian because of those activities, as silly as that sounds.

I guess the point is that both of these ministry styles and their focus was legitimate and from the Lord. Jesus didn't attack John's ministry, in fact he held it up and even submitted himself to his ministry. In like manner, John pointed towards Jesus and sent some of his followers to Jesus. We are called to unity in the Body of Christ, but it seems like all we do is fight and call each other names and sow division. We must learn to bless those ministries that are different, that have a different plan and path. We must learn to build up the Body, rather than fragment it. We must be willing to believe that everyone is called and many will be called to a different style of worship and interaction with the Lord. Must at the same time know what we believe and why, and we must guard that truth. However rather than casting someone wholly aside for one area of disagreements, let us hold onto that which is good and right, and identify that which is not and why. Let us love those whose ministry is different and welcome them as brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ!