Doing Justice and Loving Mercy: Compassion Ministries, Student Workbook, SW16

/ 1 0 5

D O I N G J U S T I C E A N D L O V I N G M E R C Y : C O M P A S S I O N M I N I S T R I E S

You’re Quenching the Spirit

Many godly and sincere ministers of the Gospel believe that management interferes with the leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit. This is not believed without cause or evidence; who cannot provide anecdotal evidence of some minister or ministry which lost perspective on the nature of their business by focusing overmuch on the need for planning and administration? Indeed, many have interfered with God’s leading because of a kind of strained and inflexible commitment to their plan, without cultivating a deep and spiritual sense of the Spirit’s leading and desire? Do you believe that planning inherently interferes with the filling and direction of the Holy Spirit? What kind of planning might not necessarily undermine the word and direction of the Spirit in regards to ministry management? In many churches today, business leaders and models of business success are taken without criticism as the answer for churches which desire to be fruitful. Business success and ministry fruitfulness are often seen as “kissing cousins,” essentially employing the same kinds of skills, attitudes, and directions. No attempt is made to critically evaluate whether or not business and the life of the Church connect or overlap; business is seen as the credible answer, blazing the way for progressive ministries. Look at the boards of many churches today; many assume without question that one of the staples for a “good board” are people who have proven success in business. The reason is such that: “Good business is good business, whether it is in industry, medicine, sports or the church.” In light of Jesus’ instruction in Luke 16.8 that the “sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light,” how much focus or understanding ought we to give to business as the model and trailblazer for the Church and its call to declare the Gospel to the world? Business Blazes the Way?

3

The Nature of the Beast

Some have convincingly argued that the very nature of the present world system is fueled by a passion for profit and greed, and that this passion for more is the fuel for the world’s planning system. On the basis of this argument, some have claimed that anyone who becomes involved with the “Saul’s armor” of business management