Doing Ministry by “Accident”

Mechanical Ministry vs. Incidental Ministry

Buff Scott, Jr.
Author - Reformer - Columnist
[With wife Rosita]

The Letter That Prompted This Feature

“Hello, Brother! Interesting that you should address this subject [organized religion]. We were just discussing it in our morning devotions. We were saying that believers cannot have simple, normal relationships with their neighbors and co-workers because the local church demands every minute of their spare time for their various organized projects and fellowships.

“Soul-winning is also organized as house-to-house visitation. These souls don’t know us personally, from any other salesman! Why should they let us into their homes? And are we sure we want to actually enter all those homes? On the other hand, the folks we encounter naturally, in the course of ordinary daily living, will know our testimony is genuine. Those who meet us by divine appointment will see our witness is natural and not rehearsed.

“How can our neighbors feel free to drop in and visit us when we are always at ‘church’? The same is true for the family whose father neglects them for the ‘work of the Lord.’ Their Christian testimony is evil spoken of because they neglect their duty to their family, neighbors, and friends while they fulfill the demands the church makes of them.”—Karen Godin.

Getting Down To Brass Tacks

This lady is so very correct. The Gospels chronicle about 132 contacts Jesus had with ordinary people. Six were in the temple, four in the synagogues, and 122 were out with people in the mainstream of life.

Yes, the “mainstream of life.” This is where the “world” is located. This translates into doing ministry and evangelism by “accident,” not so much on purpose—and not so much by an organized effort. The former comes from the heart out, the latter from the teeth out, for it is usually done under compulsion because of it’s being a “church activity.” After all, we want to please the ecclesiastical pulpiteer and appease the “chief priests and elders!”

The “world” is not located in our church structures. The Lord said to get out and go, but we have come in to stay. The world will never be influenced as long as believers remain pew-addicted. The greatest mistake made along the way was when we began to construct church idols. Since then, Christianity has deteriorated.

It has been said that somewhere around A. D. 300, demon hordes gathered in emergency meeting to discuss how to hinder the Gospel’s spread and to impede Christ’s kingdom. Satan presided and received proposals. “Let’s persecute these Christians,” one demon suggested. “It won’t help,” another replied. “The more we persecute them, the more they increase.”

Other suggestions followed—discouragement, false doctrine, internal strife. Each suggestion was discarded as being ineffective. Finally an enterprising demon spoke. “Let’s make the Christian movement popular and wealthy,” he said. “Entice these Christians to abandon the catacombs, houses and marketplaces. Encourage them to build fine church buildings. When they have all gone inside, lock the doors and their progress will fade into oblivion.”

This make-believe story is reality in its truest form. Edward Fudge, in commenting on this story, insightfully noted:

Jesus charged his followers to “go make disciples,” adding the promise, “I am with you always.” But somewhere along the line, we seem to have forgotten his words, or to have become confused. “Come to us,” we now say, from the safe security of our church buildings.

What has happened to turn things backwards? Has the institutional church obscured the spiritual kingdom? Has maintenance replaced mission? Has head knowledge become disconnected from heart passion? Has Christ's commission given way to church culture and comfort? Do our congregational budgets and church calendars provide any clues? Why is most of our money and time as church now spent in seeking and serving the saved?

Too Organized - Too Ritualistic - Too Mechanical
The activities, movements, and efforts of the first believers were unskilled, ordinary, unsophisticated, and informal—although serious and edifying. Our contemporary arrangement is perplexing, rehearsed, organized to the brim, ritualistic, formalistic, boring, and mechanical. As most everyone is elected to some church office, there is no one left to enhance the practical aspect of the program. So the officers go around in circles, involving themselves in paper work, organizing meetings, filling speaking engagements, and otherwise doing nothing to convert the world.

The world keeps hanging, if only by a thread, waiting for “Christians” to toss it the lifejacket of salvation. But no! Institutional religion is too busy keeping her churches and organizations afloat to bother with the Great Commission. Millions are waiting for someone to bring them the message of salvation, but she sits around creating more organizations to implement the ones that have already become dormant and stale.

Until the modern church becomes more interested in more people, she will remain out of the people business. For the “mechanical” has replaced the “incidental,” and the “organizational” has outdone the “accidental.” The modern church has adopted the idea that success cannot be achieved until her whole mechanism is institutionalized. By thus believing and doing, she has signed her own death certificate.

Going Where The Action Is!
Instead of trying to get the world into our church structures, let the Good News of the resurrection take believers out of our church structures and into the world. The “world” is next door, down the street, over the hill, at the supermarket and office, and on the bus and plane. Wherever people are, we will find the “world.” As it is not necessary to be specially trained and schooled to go next door to tell a neighbor about gardening, it is not required that one be specially instructed and educated to tell the same neighbor about the Man who came forth from the grave after three days.

Those common, uneducated saints who fled from Jerusalem in the face of persecution “went everywhere broadcasting the Word” (Acts 8:1-4). They had a simple but stirring story to tell, and they told it! If Jesus’ special envoys, the apostles, had insisted that they first attend a school of theology, the message would have stopped dead in its tracks—as it has in our present age. The early believers were already enrolled in the school of Jesus Christ, and the resurrection was their theology!

Our Focus
So, again, when we reflect upon how to share Jesus and the Good News with others, let us focus on the course of ordinary daily living. We can point more people in the direction of Jesus by “accident” than by pointing them to heaven by rote, ritual, or by following some institutional church’s agenda. And to God be the glory!

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