Getting Job-ed
Therefore, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?”… From that moment, many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?” John 6:60, 66-67 CSB
If I’m honest, I used to sometimes feel this way when reading Jesus’ dialogues- I wanted to say: “Hey man, you may want to tone it down a little; you want to be effective and want as many followers as you can! I mean, I know you offended the masses here, but now you’re turning to your Twelve disciples and saying that? You only have twelve! And one is getting ready to betray you so he doesn’t count in the numbers… Eleven is what you’ve got! You need to keep them happy…” This is not how Jesus sees effective ministry.
Jesus clearly wasn’t a numbers guy or a salesman: He is God. God commands our praise, love, loyalty, and devotion:
The one who loves a father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; the one who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it, and anyone who loses his life because of me will find it. Matthew 10:37-39 CSB
Ministry Efficacy
Productivity is engrained in the American industry. But this is not how Jesus sees things. Jesus sees ministry as glorifying God and making followers of Christ. So if we are doing those, we are being effective, even when we can’t see the product or result.
Look for instance at the first martyr, Stephen, in Acts 7. He gives a long, God-glorifying address and then is put to death? Was it effective? Was anyone converted? It’s not revealed in Scripture if anyone was converted from this, but who was involved in his martyrdom? Saul (later to renamed Paul) became the first missionary and author of more books in the New Testament than anyone else. Was a little seed planted in Paul’s mind? Possibly, why else would Scripture have made sure the reader is aware that Paul was involved in his martyrdom? Was Stephen’s ministry effective? Number-wise no. In God’s view? Absolutely.
Don’t get caught up in Numbers
It’s so easy to be caught up in numbers and lose sight of our true mission and goals. Jesus was not a salesman, He wanted true love and devotion. I feel the temptation of wanting to package and sell Jesus in a way that is more palatable, but then that wouldn’t be glorifying God for who He truly is. I don’t want to make flabby disciples who will just walk away from God when persecution or afflictions come (and they will come).
Not everyone will follow Christ. People being converted to Jesus is not necessarily a mind/knowledge issue, it’s a heart issue (Romans 1:18-28, really chew on the verbiage). The Bible does talk about bearing fruit (John 15), so I don’t want to say not seeing people come to Jesus is what we’re aiming for. But I fear that, in the realm of Christian ministry, there has been a mass compromising of truth to make the Gospel easier to swallow. We are not the ones that save people. We don’t ‘convince’ people or manipulate people into conversion- our job is to present truth and God does the work. He is the only One that can take out our heart of stone and give us the heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). Only He can make dead people come to life (Ephesians 2:1-8). We can’t sacrifice truth for numbers in order to have our concept of effectiveness when God doesn’t see that as effective (John 6:60, 66-67).
-Austin
