Without Love, Pt. 1

It's a staggering statement, really:

"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love."
1 Corinthians 13:1-7, from the Message

I think this passage is staggering for several reasons. First, I am hit over the head with this stark reality: love is not a prerequisite for ministerial success. It isn't... at least, when we understand ministerial success in the most commonly accepted terms: growth and decline.

Now, I wish that love was a prerequisite for a growing, successful ministry--it'd make more sense to me if it was. It'd make more sense to me if the only way a ministry could grow was if it was founded in and flowing out of Christ's love. It'd make more sense to me to use the "love gage" as the indicator of why the "mountains are moving" in your ministry. But in reality, the "love gage" isn't necessarily a reliable indicator... and usually, it's not even the first place that we look.

The (unfortunate) fact of the matter is this: you can be "successful," as it is most commonly understood in Christian ministry, without love. You can speak eloquently and powerfully, motivating and inspiring people in Christian living, without the aid of love. You can accomplish amazing things in church--and even label them with God's name--fueled only by a very human drive to succeed, and without any Divine Charity. Excellent and gripping music, inspiring sermons from the stage, perfectly administrated staff, organized and growing programs, swelling weekend attendance, bigger buildings, and most other church means and ends can all be accomplished without the love of Jesus. Even social action in the lives of "the least of these," a central teaching and commandment of Jesus, can be done without his love.

Loving and the achievement of ministry goals are not equivalent. The reality of ministerial success does not presuppose the reality of love. Right living, in and of itself, does not need or assume love. You can be successful in ministry, by the most commonly accepted definition of the term "success," without being loving.

(Sidenote: that's downright scary, isn't it? Even more frightening is this: sometimes it's very difficult to discern when a church, a ministry, a program, a musical worship set, a prayer, a strategy, or a philosophy is not operating out of Christ's love. And perhaps most frightening is this: even when one is able to discern someone or something that is not operating out of Christ's love, it's very difficult to awaken that someone or something to that fact. More on that later.)

Second, this passage is staggering for the completely opposite reason: Christ's love is not a guarantee of ministerial success. You can be connected to his love and flop at what you have planned. You can embody his love and fail and what you set out to do. It's possible that a loving church can be a declining church. In fact, in today's church culture, it's almost probable--people want to be a part of what is "successful," by most accounts... and if your church is loving but not successful, it's not surprising to see attendance decline as people leave your church for another. One famous evangelical speaker and author puts it this way: "People like to win." But note Jesus' words from John 5:41-44:

“I’m not interested in crowd approval. And do you know why? Because I know you and your crowds. I know that love, especially God’s love, is not on your working agenda. I came with the authority of my Father, and you either dismiss me or avoid me. If another came, acting self-important, you would welcome him with open arms. How do you expect to get anywhere with God when you spend all your time jockeying for position with each other, ranking your rivals and ignoring God? "

The cure for ministerial failure isn't always love; Christ's love may have been there all along. Crowds are fickle, especially the mega-churched types. Love isn't the foundation or shield for successful church endeavors. One does not love so that one can succeed in ministry. One does not love so that one can grow a ministry.

Now, perhaps a purist might say to all of this: "All of this can be resolved if we simply redefine what success in ministry really is." Sounds good, and even righteous... but it's a little naive. You see, it's not wholly wrong to say that something is successful because it is growing and thriving, nor is it wholly wrong to say that something is failing because it is shrinking and losing steam. Growth (or the lack thereof) can be validly used as both a goal and evaluator of ministry success, at least to some degree. There are such things as "measurable goals" in ministry that are not simply constrained to "loving." The use of the terms "success" and failure" can remain attached to many of their commonly understood meanings without fear of necessarily infringing on the need for love.

And that's just the point: the reality of Christ's love and the need for it stands independent of the presence of ministry success and/or failure. Ministerial success and/or failure is a faulty indicator of the reality of Christ's love in the life of the minister, pastor, or lay leader, and vice versa. We need to resist the temptation to come to any sort of reliable conclusion about the state of someone's soul by looking at the state of what they are doing in ministry. We need to stand against the desire to equate (and consequently, to conflate) the two. In turn, we also need to refrain from compartmentalizing the two as well. I mean, it's not as though Christ's love has nothing to do with a person's ministerial success, and it just might be the case that the absence of Christ's love has something to do with someone's failure in ministry. Nevertheless, we should avoid equating the two.

So in light of all of this, and so that this has not all been said in vain, we must ask ourselves: what do we do?

First: we must remember the "why" of God's love--we must keep Jesus' love and the need for it at the forefront of our hearts and minds, and superior to our desire to be "successful" in ministry. We are, and will forever be, in need of God's love. We need God's love for the salvation of our souls. We need God's love for the receiving and living of Jesus' life, energized by the Holy Spirit--theologically refered to as "regeneration," "sanctification," "redemption," "reconciliation," and a host of other "-tions." The effects of this God-life, in its true and eternally transforming nature, can never be manufactured by ministers... though we may portray ourselves as having the ability (and even the responsibility!) to dole it out. We need to intentionally devote ourselves to the spiritual practices and disciplines that remind us of these truths.

An important aspect of this first consideration is this: God is always primary, and we are always secondary. God first moved; now we can move. God first loved; now we can love (1 John 4:19). And not only that, but this: God continues to move; we simply respond (Gal. 5:25). God continues to love us; our love flows from this fountain. Remembering the "why" of God's love reminds us of our place in God's kingdom and kingdom advancement. We don't create something that wasn't already there; we simply live out the Someone Who now lives in us.

How do we "do" this first consideration--how to we remember the "why" of God's love? There are many ways, mostly involving the spiritual disciplines. Read. Contemplate. Meditate. Be silent. Listen. Retreat. Let the Spirit of God burn the Word of God on your heart and impart the life of Jesus to you. And don't simply do these disciplines and practices alone; do them with fellow Jesus-followers (Col. 3:16; 1 Thes. 5:11; Heb. 3:13-14; 10:24-25; 1 Pet. 1:22-23). It is as we do these things, and the things that flow out of them, that we experience true fellowship--koinonia--with one another (Acts 2:42).

As we cultivate this interior life--this way of being that is founded on and flows out of God's love for us--we will become more clearly aware of his mission and his means for accomplishing it.

That bears repeating: as we cultivate this interior life of love, we will become more clearly aware of God mission AND his means for accomplishing it. We don't just discover God's mission and then execute our own cleverly planned means for accomplishing it. We journey with the Spirit to discover both the mission and the means.

Which leads me to part 2.