Radical Suffering

Under biblical doctrine, suffering is an essential part of Christian discipleship, but especially for those called to be church leaders. Jesus said, in John 4:34, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work. If we are doing God's will, we are happy and fulfilled. But for Jesus (as well as born-again Christians) doing God's will INCLUDES the Cross.

In an letter from Sri Lankan pastor and evangelist Ajith Fernano, we come across an interesting truth:

"Young Christian workers who come back to Sri Lanka after studying in the West struggle with this (suffering). They are highly qualified, but our poor nation cannot afford to give them the recognition they think their qualifications deserve. They cannot use their gifts to the fullest because we cannot afford pure specialists.

"They struggle with frustration. Some end up leaving the country after a few years. Some start their own organizations so as to fulfill their "vision." Others become consultants, giving expert training and advice in their specialized field (apologetics, theology etc.). Others pay the price of identifying with our people and ultimately have a deep impact on the nation.

"I try to tell these students that their frustration could be the means to developing penetrating insight. I explain that people like John Calvin and Martin Luther (made the Protestant church possible) had a dizzying variety of responsibilities (Calvin a catholic priest before reform, Luther a monk), so that they could only use their gifts in the fog of fatigue. Yet the fruits of their labors as leaders and writers still bless the church today."

Okay, so if you read through all that, great, if you didn't, that's fine too because we are going to talk about it. Here's the issue:

Christian leaders/workers get all their degrees and training, but when it gets hard, they sometimes flake out and no fruit results in it. If John Calvin and Martin Luther didn't suffer, the Protestant church (baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Calvinist etc.) would most likely not exist.

In the new testament, the apostle Paul emphasizes the need to "endure frustration patiently as we live in a fallen world awaiting the redemption." Paul said that we groan because of this frustration (Romans 8:18-27). I believe we fail to include this frustration in our understanding of pastoral fulfillment.

A church that has a wrong understanding of fulfillment for its workers will become infected. This may be one reason why the church contains so much shallowness. We have measured the success by the standards of the world and fail to challenge the world with the RADICALLY different BIBLICAL way towards fulfillment.

With all the new gadgets out to make life easier and more convenient, and the focus on efficiency and measurable results has really made frustration for this generation even harder to endure. Now, things once considered luxuries, became not only a need or necessity, but became rights! In today's society, even the Christian idea of commitment has been negated.

We call our churches and Christian organizations "families," but families are very inefficient organizations. In a healthy family, everyone stops when a member has big needs. We are often not willing to extend this commitment to our Christian "family."

The BIBLICAL model of community life is Jesus' command to love one another as he loved us-that is, for members to die for other members (John 15:12-13).

When God calls us to serve him, He calls us to come and DIE for the people we serve. We don't discard people when they have problems. We serve them and help them come out of their problems. We don't tell people to find another place of service when they REBEL against us. We labor with them until we either come to agreement or agree to disagree.

At least, that's what we should do.