ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Praise the
Lord for completion of this book, transformed
of my doctoral dissertation.
First and foremost I offer my sincerest gratitude to all
my brothers and sisters, who has supported me throughout with
his/her patience and knowledge whilst allowing me the
room to work in my own way. I attribute the level of my degree to their
encouragement and effort and without them this book,
too, would not have been completed or written.
The title of
this book: “CHRISTIAN HOLISTIC MINISTRY: TRILOGY MISSION”
was the lucky title intuitively come to me during I am in regular meditation. I
have felt for long time that “some thing” have missing in my life, my definite
destination. My experienced tell me that some thing “wrong”
with all the “churches”
I have joined with. I am really looking for some thing different to fulfill my
“thirsty” and “hungry”. Now, through this great job, the joys come to me to
encourage with power of spirit.
In the various
ministers and churches I have been aided for many years in running the churches
organization by many ministers, a fine pastors and layman who kept me in line
with Bible and helped by Holy Spirit. The smooth running of my ministers as
church activist parallel with my business as business consultants and
accountant around Indonesia
There are lot
of people from my Congregation helped tutor me in the more esoteric methods
necessary to run churches business and keep goal achieved while the
environments are tend to corrupt against
the justice and righteousness in Biblical and law prevailing. Most of Christian
Business and Professional people felt that they treat unfair by the conditions
of business practicing. If just follow the rules, surely they will loss
opportunity to win the bid or get license and permits to do business. If follow
the “real business practices” always against “pure heart” as excerpt from
Biblical approach. In such condition, we tend to looking for new ways to
accommodate the real conditions and the pure heart allurement. These two points
of different coordinates push the door to inner conflict. In the efforts to get
way out of this conflict, this holistic ministry gives new angel to enter the
new paradigm in running the daily lives. This dissertation consciously
preparing myself to new approach to my daily lives, and hope others follow me.
In my daily
work, I have been blessed with a friendly and cheerful group of fellow
activists in churches and in secular job. My friends, as well as contra
information, has provided good arguments about their view of life. There are wide
opinion concerning the management of the earth, the development mission, the
great commandment, and the great commission. From this view, trilogy mission,
are the fertile ground for cultivate the Christian holistic ministry. Here in
earth we live, in world, can make and fell the heavenly atmosphere. This is our
choice; otherwise, the hell will take over, if we allow it.
Bible and Holy
Spirit, as well as essentially teaching me everything I know about relations
with God and human being, has often had to bear the brunt of my frustration and
rages against the world and recalcitrant behaviors with equanimity and
friendship. They also (eventually!) sourced me a quality thinking and calmness
which much of the work has been done on. I am also indebted to the many
countless contributors to the “Open Source'' community for providing the
numerous resources, tools, techniques and systems I have used to produce both
my results and this book. The entirety
of this book
has been complete using such technologies and I consider it to have been an
enormous benefit. Thanks chaps, keep up the good work.
Finally, I
thank my family for supporting me throughout all my retreat time,
moving my vast collections of “stuff''
across most of rational thinking and for providing a home for intuition in
which to complete my writing up.
Jakarta, August
2010
Mahli Sembiring
INTRODUCTION
Many misgivings, fears,
and suspicions revolving around the whole missionary movement and missionary
history. The violence done to the cultures, customs, and the consciousness of
the people, the callousness and narrow-mindedness found in that history.
That all the schools,
hospitals and programs run by mission organization had not reached a single
people with the gospel in many areas around the world. Yet, as for
missionaries, they still believed in Christianity and that it had something
valuable to say to a pagan world. What to do?
Later the churches planted
growth with confuse without guidance how to live in complex advancement of
various thought and style and culture of post modern societies. The
congregations member traps in cave of narrow theolog fear, self man interest
interpretation and nervous how to deal with monies, beauties of man/woman, and
position in big organization especially for business, international, and
politics. Their salts just go to their church and drive them high pressure
blood. Their light go to their church roof and drive them to arrogant and lose
feet in society whom Christ mission prioritize.
This book lead you
embarked upon a journey to rediscover Christianity stripped of its Western
cultural arrogance and unexamined suppositions. Only then offer the lost people
the naked gospel. God still fights injustice through his servants who
effectively and courageously confront evil when they see it.
Experienced practitioners address and help us link conceptual
thinking to practical application at the grassroots level as well as the small
elit societies. This book examines disaster mitigation from the practitioner’s
perspective. In it, relief and development experts provide in-depth analysis of
such issues as NGO work in repressive regimes, agricultural recovery, aid for
displaced children, resettlement of refugees and much more.
This book summarizes the best practices of partnership and
organizational capacity building conducted collaboratively by several Christian
holistic ministries around the world. Looks at the barriers erected by peoples
considered resistant to the gospel and the bridges God is using to carry the
gospel to them.
This book lead you to understand the nature of holistic mission,
we must see it in various contexts. Several actual projects are presented here
as case studies to reveal the nature and complexities of Christian holistic
ministry.
This book show how holism powerfully impacts anthropology,
leadership training, theology, and management, reveal ways to minister to the
urban poor to help them address their physical and spiritual needs, provides
concise information and concepts useful for designing, implementing and
evaluating Christian microenterprise development (MED) and microfinance
programs.
This book is designed to
serve three aims of human mission: Great Development or Earthly Management,
Great Commandment for Loving God Caring People, and Great Commission to
transform natural sin human to be Christ like.
God Father crate the human as man
to ruler over all
the world to do Great Development or Earthly management
according with Great Commandment. Jesus
Christ command the human as man of God to
ruler over the world with the power of spirit. Holy Spirit commission the human
as man of Christs and ruler all over Heaven together with Jesus Christ. That is The Christian Holistic Ministry:
Trilogy Mission.
CHRISTIAN HOLISTIC MINISTRY: TRILOGY MISSION
Christian
Holistic Ministry now is representing in one picture called TRILOGY MISSION as
follows: Great Development or
Earthly Management, Great Commandmenet for Loving God Caring People, and Great
Commission to transform natural sin human to be Christ
like.
God Father crate the human as man
to ruler over all
the world to do Great Development or Earthly management
according with Great Commandment. Jesus
Christ command the human as man of God to
ruler over the world with the power of spirit. Holy Spirit commission the human
as man of Christs and ruler all over Heaven together with Jesus Christ. That is The Christian Holistic Ministry:
Trilogy Mission.
It is not enough to take care of the spiritual wellbeing of an
individual without any regard for his or her personal relationships and
position in society and in the world. Holistic ministry is to talk about ministry oriented towards
the formation of God-fearing persons who see themselves as stewards of creation
and do not live for themselves but for others; persons who are willing to
fulfill their God-given vocation in the world and to receive and to give love;
persons who ‘hunger and thirst for justice’ and who are ‘peacemakers’. Holistic
ministry is a vision that sees all people at the table of life with “enough to
eat, decent work and wages, education for their children, adequate healthcare
and housing, and most of all, hope for the future.
The
whole gospel must be drawn from the whole Bible. So also have to ask how the
social, economic, and political dimensions of the Old Testament relate to
Christian ministry. The whole gospel is
fully expressed only when the Church, Christ’s body on earth, faithfully
fulfils the three roles Christ himself fulfilled on earth and for which he
empowers us through his Spirit. We are Christian called to do: (1) Great
Commandment to a priestly role in worship and in prayer and caring other
people; (2) Great Commission to a prophetic role in declaring God’s message and
gospel as his priorities to his world; and (3) Great Development to a servant
role for earthly management or development.
Love is an action word. People want to see action,
not hear so much mouth. You can’t tell somebody about the love of Jesus Christ
if you don’t have the love in your heart. The love is what draws people to
Christ. Without social ministry, evangelism can be perceived as just “so much
mouth.” Without sharing the gospel, social activism is stripped of the Holy
Spirit’s transforming power.
Churches that engage in holistic ministry make a
difference, both here-and-now in their communities and in the eternal kingdom
to come. While not
denying the personal nature of faith and the importance of the eternal, Jesus
showed in his ministry that life was meant to be valued and enjoyed now. In
many situations, however, before life can be really satisfying and enjoyable,
certain “improvements” in living conditions may be needed. These may be related
to the politic, military, environment, economics, education, health care,
housing and the provision of clean water and sanitation, and other needs of
human and earth.
A human being
is made up of Body, Mind or Soul and Spirit. He/she has various needs. God said
that what he made was good. Life here on earth is clearly meant to be enjoyed
and satisfying. Holistic ministry is based on the value of the individual as a
unique person, created in the image of God. We were created for relationship –
with God himself, and with one another. Great emphasis is placed on the
marriage relationship and family life. Holistic ministry will deal
realistically with these and the other relationships which make up a person’s
life on earth today giving Biblical guidelines for them to be healthy and
satisfying.
Holistic ministry deals
with these issues, bring a message of: (1) Repentance and forgiveness where
those minister to are responsible, both social and personal sins. (2) Healing
and hope where people are caught up in the consequences of the choices of
others, perhaps recent or social and cultural issues going back generations.
(3) Freedom for those entrapped by curses and other negative spiritual forces.
When men deny the sovereign rule of God they begin
to set up their own power. In the market place, this autonomous rule of man
apart from God seeks to enlist the assistance of civil government to establish
economic control for privileged elite.
That man was made in God's image,
and after his likeness; two words to express the same thing. God's image upon man consists, in his nature not that of his body, for
God has not a body, but that of his soul.
The soul is a spirit, an intelligent, immortal spirit, an active spirit, herein
resembling God, the Father of spirits, and the soul of the world. In his place and authority. Let us make
man in our image, and let him have dominion.
As he has the government of the
inferior creatures, he is as it were God's representative on earth. Yet his
government of himself by the freedom of his will, has in it more of God's
image, than his government of the creatures. Moreover, chiefly in his purity
and rectitude. God's image upon man consists in knowledge, righteousness, and
true holiness, and upright.
God made but one male and one
female, that all the nations of men might know themselves to be made of one
blood, descendants, from one common stock, and might thereby be induced to love
one another. God having made them capable of transmitting the nature they had
received said to them: be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
Here, he gave them: (1) a large inheritance; (2) replenish the earth; (3) in
which God has set man to be the servant of his providence; (4) in the
government of the inferior creatures; (5) and as it were the intelligence of this
orb; (6) to be likewise the collector of his praises in this lower world; and
lastly, (7) to be a probationer for a better state.
"Spirit" is that part of
man which "knows" and which allies him to the spiritual creation and
gives him God-consciousness. "Soul" in itself implies
self-consciousness life, as distinguished from plants, which have unconscious
life. In that, sense animals also have "soul", but the
"soul" of man has a vaster content than "soul" as applied
to beast life. It is the seat of emotions, desires, affections. The
"heart" is, in Scripture usage, nearly synonymous with
"soul." Because the natural man is, characteristically, the soulual
or physical man, "soul" is often used as synonymous with the
individual. The body, separable from spirit and soul, and susceptible to death,
is nevertheless an integral part of man, as the resurrection shows. It is the
seat of the senses (the means by which the spirit and soul have
world-consciousness) and of the fallen Adamic nature.
Man was made upright. His
understanding saw Divine things clearly and truly; there were no errors or
mistakes in his knowledge; his will consented at once, and in all things, to
the will of God. His affections were all regular, and he had no bad appetites
or passions. His thoughts were easily brought and fixed to the best subjects.
Thus holy, thus happy, were our first parents in having the image of God upon
them.
God's
wish that mankind, in the person of Adam ,
"take care of," "guard," or "watch over" the
garden. A caretaker maintains and protects his charge so that he can return it
to its owner in as good or better condition than when he received it. God gives
man dominion over all other life on the earth, and with this renewed authority
comes the implicit responsibility to tend and keep what was explicitly given to
Adam. In the post-Flood world, God gives mankind a second chance to use and
preserve the resources He had so abundantly provided.
Man
has creaturely life, but with the infusion of the spirit in man, he
is more—a living being with intelligence. Man was given the power to govern his
actions, not by instinct, but by memory, by conceptualization and thinking
spatially. A man can appreciate beauty, communicate verbally, or write. A human
being has feelings that are—in the expression of their subtly and power—far
above an animal in terms of love or hate, and above all of the emotions that
fall in between.
We can create and destroy. The power is in a man
to do these things. The power is in the spirit when combined with the brain,
but it has to be developed. God has given man’s powers to carry out the
responsibility that has been given into his hands: to have dominion. Man must
do the following: put what has been placed into his hands through a finishing
process, watch over it, guard it, protect it, and preserve its beauty.
Man
was not only to preserve, control, and direct it, but also to strive even to
ennoble the Garden of Eden through work. It begins to become clear that God
intends mankind to make more of his environment than he has been given. God has
given the powers to do that. We are to understand this not only physically, but
more importantly, spiritually. This is the essence of Great Development
mission.
God
has shown the fact that one works, the reason why one works, and the way one
works all have a great deal to do with one's spiritual development. It is
important to note the difference between "salvation" and
"development." We are saved by grace. But if there is going to be
development from where God begins whenever we first receive His Spirit, then it
requires something on our part to enable the fullness of development to take
place. That involves work: the essence of Great Commandment.
The Great Commission, as opposed to the so-called
cultural mandate, is addressed only to Christians, not to all men, and it is a
command to preach, baptize, and teach through peaceful persuasion; it is not a
command to exercise dominion. Christ's servants do not fight, precisely because
his kingdom is not of this world. His method of establishing His kingdom,
preaching, and teaching, is foolishness to the world.
Positive Confession leaders have a wrong view of
faith: Instead of trust in God as its object, it is a metaphysical force they
trust. They have a wrong view of God: He is not sufficient in Himself, but can
only do what He does by using this universal faith-force in obedience to
certain cosmic laws. They have a wrong view of man: He is a little god in God's
class who has the same powers as God and can use the same force of faith by
obedience to the same laws that God also must obey. They also have a wrong view
of redemption and the cross of Christ.
It reveals that at their very core, Word-Faith
teachings are corrupt. Their undeniable derivation is cultish, not Christian.
The sad truth is that the gospel proclaimed by the Word-Faith movement is not
the gospel of the New Testament. Word-Faith doctrine is a mongrel system, a
blend of mysticism, dualism, and gnosticism that borrows generously from the
teachings of the metaphysical cults.
The Christian has a positive attitude not because
he believes in the power of positive thinking, but because he is trusting in
God. The Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) that is promoted in today's New Age,
however, is based upon humanistic psychology's first article of faith:
"Human potential is infinite!" The real Christian is happy and
positive in all circumstances because he believes that God, who alone is
infinite, loves and cares for him. These two concepts -- Christian and PMA --
are mutually contradictory, in spite of the sincere people who believe they are
the same thing expressed in different language.
All the prosperity teachers use a particular fear
tactic to establish their rule for giving -- if you don't give, God will curse
you. Many also teach that if one wishes to use the prosperity gospel for
selfish ends -- to acquire personal wealth without giving -- it isn't going to
work. If, however, one uses the prosperity gospel with the intention of
acquiring wealth for unselfish purposes (i.e., giving to the prosperity
teacher, no doubt), God's promise is that He will shower abundant financial
blessings upon him.
There is not a single prosperity teacher who can
rightly divide the Word of Truth sufficiently to be qualified as a teacher in
the Church. They are renegades who present their own theories as absolute,
Biblical authority. They allegorize, theorize, and spiritualize the Word of
God; the only time they approach it from a literal standpoint is if it fits in
with something they just happen to be saying that's true. Bottom line, the fact
is that to deny the reality and to attempt to alter reality with one's positive
words and/or thoughts is witchcraft; it is not Biblical.
The Christian economist can say. He points to a sovereign God who
is the Creator. He points to a record of the creation in Genesis, chapter 1. He
points to man, who is made in the image of God. He points to God's assignment
to man in Genesis 1:28 to subdue the earth. He points to man 5 ability to name
the animals. All of these facts of the Genesis account provide the foundation
of Christian thought in general and Christian economics in particular.
God
is sovereign, man is responsible, and nature is orderly. The Christian
announces this in confidence. The humanistic economists deny the first
assertion, so they have found no logical, universally acceptable arguments to
affirm the second and third. They are intellectually defenseless.
The Great Commandment as well as the
proverbial Golden Rule calls for others the equal manner and respect we
want for ourselves. A man filled with the love of God, is not content with
blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless
the whole human race. As we reach out in love to those around us, we fulfill
the other half of the great commandment to “love thy neighbour as thyself.”
Love is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the pathway of discipleship.
It comforts, counsels, cures, and consoles. It leads us through valleys of
darkness and through the veil of death. In the end love leads us to the glory
and grandeur of eternal life.
True love lasts forever. It is eternally patient
and forgiving. It believes, hopes, and endures all things. That is the love our
Heavenly Father bears for us. We all yearn to experience love like this. Even
when we make mistakes, we hope others will love us in spite of our
shortcomings—even if we don’t deserve it. Oh, it is wonderful to know that our
Heavenly Father loves us—even with all our flaws! His love is such that even
should we give up on ourselves, He never will. We see ourselves in terms of
yesterday and today. Our Heavenly Father sees us in terms of forever. Although
we might settle for less, Heavenly Father won’t, for He sees us as the glorious
beings we are capable of becoming.
The
gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of transformation. It takes men and women of
the earth and refines into men and women for the eternities. The means of this
refinement is Christlike love. There is no pain it cannot soften, no bitterness
it cannot remove, no hatred it cannot alter. The most cherished and sacred
moments of lives are those filled with the spirit of love. The greater the
measure of love, the greater is joy. In the end, the development of such love
is the true measure of success in life.
Love
Lord means spend time with Him. Meditate on His words. Take His yoke upon you.
Seek to understand and obey, because “this is the love of God, that we keep his
commandments.” When we love the Lord, obedience ceases to be a burden.
Obedience becomes a delight. When we love the Lord, we seek less for things
that benefit us and turn our hearts toward things that will bless and uplift
others. As our love for the Lord deepens, our minds and hearts become purified.
He gave to them the grand key to happiness in this life and glory in the next.
Love is the greatest of all the commandments—all others hang upon it. It is our
focus as followers of the living Christ.
He
has given the Holy Ghost, who teaches, comforts, and inspires. He has given His
scriptures. It is grateful beyond description that He has given to each of a
heart capable of experiencing the pure love of Christ. The pray that hearts may
be filled with that love and that may reach out to Heavenly Father and to
others with new vision and new faith. To testify that as we do so, we will
discover a greater richness in life. In the sacred name of Jesus
Christ .
The commandment is to love God with
every faculty of ones being and personality. A second command is given in
relation to the first and that is to “love thy neighbor as thyself”. On these
two commands, Jesus explains every other principle in the law is based.
The first command in Christ’s answer
means we must give God a total love, a love which dominates our emotions, a
love which directs our thoughts, and a love which is the dynamic of our
actions. True religion starts with love which is a total commitment of life to
God. The second command requires us to direct complete love to our fellow man
as well.
Jesus instructs that heart, soul, and
mind must all work together to develop this great characteristic of love. Our
heart is our emotions and desires. Our heart is our emotional, feeling part and
it merges with our mind and spirit in showing true love for God. The love that
one has for God is at times an emotional love, it is a love that can cause one
to shout out loud in songs of praise, to shed tears in remembrance of the great
sacrifice of Christ and even cause one to drop to their knees in prayer at the
thought of the awesome nature of God. The soul with which we serve God is our
immortal, eternal, and spiritual being. Soul is often looked at as inner self
and free will as well. It is with the deepest parts of being soul that serve
God. The source of volition is often soul. It is our power of willing and
determining. Jesus is teaching that personal inner will and sense of purpose
and being is to love God completely.
Jesus also makes mention of loving God
with all of “mind”. These three categories in which love is supposed to be
expressed are distinctly different yet overlapping in nature. We cannot offer
God true love unless all three of these parts are involved. The “mind” that Jesus is referring to is intellect and understanding,
it is rational thinking and understanding that shows forth love for God along
with the feelings of a heart and determination of the soul.
To
love your neighbor as yourself means to love all people with your whole heart,
soul and mind. The love spoken of here is the same as the first commandment. It
is the love of the will, intention, and action. This is to be regarded as the
highest form of love as well. The second commandment means to take care of
someone else the same way you would take care of yourself. The Love God Wants (1) Love for
His Law, (2) Love that seeks first the kingdom, (3) Love for the lost, (4) Love
that hates sin, (5) A love that obeys.
Jesus
is demanding love which is synonymous with obedience, and to always love our
neighbor as ourselves. Not only does all the law and the prophets hang on these
two commands, our salvation hangs upon them as well. For us to enter into the
beautiful bliss of an eternal heavenly abode we must love! We must love with
our heart, soul and mind. God who is love has given all a perfect example of
what true love looks like. True love, serves others and obeys God. True love
for God is more than words, it consists of every faculty and ounce of one’s
being. This is the love that God wants, this is the love that God deserves, for
it is the “Great Command in the Law”.
Because
Christ has been given comprehensive, universal authority, the apostles are
commanded to go and make disciples of all the nations. Jesus after having won
the war is given all authority. He then delegates that authority to the church.
The church is to command all nations to kiss the Son, to submit to the King of
kings and Lord of lords. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under
His feet. The way to make disciples is to go, baptize and teach. That is
precisely what the apostles and evangelists did in that first generation of the
church.
God’s intended purpose for man before
the fall was to develop a world-wide godly culture, a culture that honored and
glorified God. All of man’s activities and pursuits were to be done God’s way
and for God. All the accumulated labors of mankind over time: music, art,
science, medicine, architecture, economics, infrastructures and so on would be
done obediently and would reflect man’s love of God and mankind. If Adam had
obeyed the covenant of works and his descendants had fulfilled the dominion
mandate the result would have been a world-wide, obedient, God-loving
civilization.
However, because of sin this plan could
only be accomplished through Jesus Christ, the second Adam. Christ’s
resurrection is the new beginning, the foundation of the regeneration of the
world. The total victory that Jesus accomplished on the cross is to be
progressively brought to bear on all nations. The key to the success of the
Great Commission is the power of the Holy Spirit. The Great Commission is
usually interpreted as a command for all believers to go witness to their
neighbors.
This
Great Commission is given, (1.) To the apostles primarily, the chief
ministers of state in Christ ’s Kingdom, the
architects that laid the foundation of the church. Now those that had followed Christ in the regeneration, were set on thrones. (2.)
It is given to their successors, the ministers of the gospel, whose business it
is to transmit the gospel from age to age, to the end of the world in time, as
it was theirs to transmit it from nation to nation, to the end of the world in
place, and no less necessary. Everyone acknowledges that believers have an
obligation to witness to their neighbors.
All Christians should explain the good
news of who Christ is and what He has accomplished to their friends and
acquaintances. The ordained gospels preachers are to publicly preach the word
and administer the sacraments. The fact that discipleship begins with baptism,
teaches us that the church is God’s primary institution for discipleship and
spiritual growth. Christ gave the power of public
teaching, baptizing, administrating the Lord’s supper, governing and
disciplining unto lawfully called and ordained church officers. If people are
to be baptized, preached unto, taught and disciplined they must become a member
of a local church.
Christ taught a dynamic, militant,
nation-changing, culture transforming doctrine. The church is to go into every
nation and preach the gospel. Churches are to be established with church
governors and a “whole counsel of God” preaching ministry. As more and more
people in society are saved, baptized and taught who then apply the word of God
to their personal lives, family lives, business activities, civil government,
education, economics and so on, society will become transformed.
Jesus wants you to finish what He
began. He came to the disciples, taught them, and worked with them.
He then died on the cross and rose from the dead. But, before He
ascended into heaven, He gave them, and us, the commission to convert the
world. You need to know that your efforts to honor Christ
by obeying His call to make disciples of all nations is something that you can
do. Do it where you are, with those whom you meet, with the those you
work with, with those you go to school with, etc. Be a witness for Jesus
in your lives and when necessary, talk about Him, too. When seek to accomplish
God's will, He will bless your efforts because you're seeking to obey Him.
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