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THE WINNING FORMULA
‘Jesus is the winner man, the winner man, the winner man…I am on the winning side,
on the winning side, on the winning side’… so resonates a melodious praise number
(usually sung by the youth), in the Church portals, every now & then.
As Christians with a call of serving Him of reaching the unreached (Matthew
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28:18-20), strengthening His flock (John 21:15) with the greenest of the green
grass -His Word- even while being constantly on the look-out to search & save the back-slidden lot
(James 5:19-20), have we ever considered
by applying what ‘formula’ can we bring a ‘ winning success’ to our Ministry?
Permit me to digress a little, in these the days of Corporate clichés’ where the aim is quite often in finding
‘the winning formula’ (other things remaining constant a team of a competent manager with well-motivated
sub-ordinates complementing each other is said to be a winning formula), as it would automatically lend itself
to success, is it not also worthwhile to ponder on the ‘winning formula’ Christ adopted in his earthly
mission with the results which is all there to see.
In our country, where Cricket has assumed ‘religion’ status (much like Soccer in Brazil), so much of care is
taken in appointing the right coach who would jell well with the captain & vice-versa, for it is
believed-rightly so- that in this chemistry would delicately hang the international cricketing success
of our cricket-mad country. So once in a while, BCCI goes about in finding this ‘winning formula’.
Fortuitously –it is said- that in BCCIs’ case after a conscious endeavor to unearth the magic formula fails,
the ‘winning formula’ just happens or falls into its lap, by some strange quirk of fate. Anyway
I do not intend to go deep into the veracity & nitty-gritty of this statement... at least not now… & instead focus
on what made Jesus’ ministry an irresistible & a winning one.
First & foremost, He lived a life pleasing unto God, was filled with His Spirit (Luke 4:1), formed a team of His own &
led them by the power of His example before passing on the baton to them. His disciples were always there with Him &
for Him…till they deserted Him temporarily at the time of crucifixion in fulfillment of the prophecy in
Zechariah 13:7– only to re-unite with Him & re-align themselves in line with His vision for this world so much so
that they eventually became men who would turn this world topsy-turvy (Acts 17:6) or should we say, this world,
which was upside down till then, right side up.
In essence, the first component of the winning formula of our Lord was a life of complete obedience to His Father,
right from the beginning (Luke 2:51-52) for when do we hear the Heavenly commendation -
‘THIS IS MY SON, WHOM I LOVE; WITH HIM I AM WELL PLEASED’- coming His way soon after his baptism in river
Jordan (Matthew 3:17).
Is it not ‘before’ he had performed a single miracle or preached a single sermon?
It is pertinent to recall here that no special privileges were conferred upon the Son of God, when he
donned the robe of flesh. From birth till baptism, it had been a life of complete submission to His
Father’s will, even if it meant suffering (Heb 2-17 &18) & eating bread by the sweat of his brow in
poverty & obscurity.
Obedience first…
Obedience would lead to a spirit-filled ministry, as naturally as an exposure to sun would produce the heating effect in any metal.
Spirit-filled ministry in turn would impact the people for good, just as the ministry of Jesus’
did bringing thousands of sheep outside (Samaritans for instance…John 4:39-42) & within God’s pen
fold - but had strayed astray- to repentance (e.g.…Zacchaeus the Tax Collector in Luke 19:9-10),
even while having a re-invigorating effect on those who already trusted God (the family of Bethany
sisters’ & Lazarus for instance).
In these days when the mantra ‘PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH’ is doled out as the recipe for sure success,
look at how Jesus’ approach to His Father’s mission stood in stark contrast to this.
We need to see at both the Messianic prophecy (Malachi 2:6 b) & its recorded fulfillment in Acts 1:1, at how Jesus went
about his God-given tasks.
Let’s carefully look at both these verses. If the first one says
‘He walked with me, in peace & uprightness & turned many from their lives of sin’, the second one
virtually sums it up more succinctly thus…‘In my former book Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to
do & teach’.
Look even at the sequencing of the words in both the verses. In what order, they have been framed.
He walked ‘first’ …in uprightness & then only turned many from sin. Similarly Doctor Luke, ever the stickler
to details…puts the word ‘DO’ before the word ‘TEACH’.
Simply put, Jesus did not merely practice what he preached, rather HE PREACHED WHAT HE PRACTICED.
Amazing isn’t it? The most significant part of the winning formula of our Lord! No wonder,
there was so much of conviction & authority in His WORDS that people stood dazed by their power.
(Matt 7:29/Luke4: 32).
Power of the Spirit…
Any effort by us to be preachers & teachers without first clinging to His presence by constant obedience
(John 15:5) is doomed to fail. ‘UNLEARNING’ is yet another Corporate buzzword, whereby we are
instructed to put to shelf all that we held dear to our hearts hitherto, as they have now become redundant.
So if power is lacking in our ministry, wouldn’t it be worthwhile to do a reality check,
as to whether ‘We are really feeling Christ’s presence & power more & more within us’ (2 Cor 13:5)
or we still clinging to that obsolete formula of trying to ‘Practice what you preach’ in hope,
it will bring fruit in our ministry. Unlearning here would require, we dump that outdated formula.
Forget practicing your sermon to capture public attention for who would first of all listen to a person
who is not anointed of the Lord, in whose sermons, power is conspicuous by its absence, which would be the case,
when he has never practiced the virtue he is trying to extol in his sermon.
Permit me to use a freak example. On the topic of Intercessory prayer on the international ‘Prayer day’,
lets imagine for a moment that on assigning the speaking responsibility in a church function we have a
to make a choice between 2 prospective speakers, who have never spoken in a church before
(other factors like grip over the language etc remaining constant). On one hand, lets assume
we have a devout member, the one who has fasted & prayed, many a time for others & experienced
the power of God in answered prayers & on the other we have a nominal church member who is a high
ranking government officer with the obvious potential to dole out a handsome financial contribution
(to the church when needed) but with no prayer life. The question, I would like to ask now is not whom,
we should plump for as that would lead to an incidental topic (are we God pleasers’ or people pleasers?),
which I hopefully would be dwelling upon shortly but
rather who would speak with conviction which would produce edification in the audience? The answer is obvious, isn’t it?
Companionship in Ministry & passing the baton…
PEOPLE! Yes, fallible people with a propensity to develop feet of clay. Yes, they were yet another significant
component of our Lord’s ‘winning formula’ both for His fellowship, as well as to carry on the torch of Gospel,
as it were, in His physical absence. Even as his powerful sermons challenged & changed the crowds,
He drew a lot of comfort from the physical companionship of his disciples whom he was training intensely
for more exacting tasks, ahead. Even in those defining moments of that agonizing night
in the Garden of Gethsamane, he longed for flesh & blood companionship of His disciples (Matt 26:37).
As His ambassadors in this I-pod age, are we fallaciously adopting ‘I will go it alone’ policy? Remember,
even with an in-dwelling Holy Spirit we have been designed for companionship, be it in life or in ministry
& we need to pass on our ‘baton’ of work to those we have discipled once our term in this world is over.
For instance Paul always had young Timothy by his side, whom he had groomed & to whom he entrusted the care
of the Church at Ephesus as his life was nearing the end. A husband & wife missionaries Aquilla &
Priscilla had each other’s company…so did many God servants closer to times like Mother Teresa who had
her wonderful team of sisters (whom she had trained) to support her & to whom she entrusted her life mission
of caring for the uncared once she left this earthly scene.
Personal example of a Servant Leader…
Then again, if you are a leader remember the true quality of your leadership would lie in serving others’
first (your team members to start with), as our good Lord exemplified by washing His disciples’ feet
(John 13:3-14). An act which besides immediately diffusing a leadership crisis in the upper-room 2
thousand years ago (Luke 22:24-30) - even as the disciples were jostling each other figuratively for the
best seat both in the upper room & in the coming Kingdom - has stood like a silent shining lamp in
the darkness for many a Christian leader, trying to toe His Master’s style of ministry.
His disciples too walking in the ways of their Master after being filled by the Spirit (Acts 2)
ushered in a spiritual revolution, which is still dynamically impacting people for good…besides
bringing meaning & purpose to their lives. A brief excerpt from the Biography* of D.Livingstone that
immortal missionary to Africa captures the essence of his ministry…on how he had modeled it on His master.
‘They (people to whom he ministered) had decided to go to Kolobeng, too, for they felt that they could not
live without their white friend, who healed their diseases, taught them to read, and told them of a
wonderful Saviour’.
* by Eugene Myers Harrison ‘The Biography of the Pathfinder’
In a nutshell, he did things pleasing unto God first like healing the diseases of the people in his
mission field to start with before sharing the Gospel with them (people of the Dark Continent)
with the results which history approves of…even today.
To sum-up Jesus, his dedicated disciples’ & their ilk shall always be ‘a winner man’.
Reason? They not only show the way, they not only aim to lead the way but most importantly they go that way…first.
The point is…are we using this time-tested ‘winning formula’ ourselves in our ministries.
Yours in His service,
(Suresh Manoharan)
Messages to follow in the coming fortnights
- Streams in the Desert
- Our faithful God
- Fingerpointing act of a different kind
- Rising above " SEE" Level
- Are we God pleasers or Man pleasers?
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