Book Review: The Mission Always Wins

 

Information about the book

The Mission Always Winds: Quit Appeasing Stakeholders by Tod Bolsinger.  Intervarsity Press. Downers Grove, Illinois. 2024

Summary

From Amazon: Every organization faces pivotal moments that can either blur their vision or strengthen their resolve. Through insightful storytelling, engaging illustrations, and practical exercises, Bolsinger helps you cut through the noise to hone in on what truly matters—your mission. The Mission Always Wins isn't just about theory; it's packed with real-life case studies and actionable advice, so you can foster alignment and purpose within your team. The Mission Always Wins is your go-to guide for learning to navigate the choppy waters of organizational change with precision and purpose.

Impressions

This is one of a series of four books in Bolsinger's Practicing Change Series.  In a world where we often strive for win-win situations, attempt to please everyone, and placate those who are invested in what we are doing, this book reminds us that the mission should always win. Every. Time.

Here are some quotes:

• At those times, the desire to find a win-win solution was not actually a solution to a real problem but a way that leaders unconsciously tried to lower the conflict of the moment.
• Every time, in every decision, the key question is: Does it further our mission?
• [A mission statement is] a clear purpose and reason for being that comes out of the core values and summaries the core ideology of the organization.  It captures what endures and the specific conditions the organization faces. It is not something that is change slightly, but it is also not something that is etched in stone.

I liked this book, and would recommend it.

Call to Worship (John 21)

Call to Worship (read responsively)

Leader:  O Lord, our God, sometimes we cast our nets in familiar waters, and we find only scarcity.

People:  Open our eyes to the abundance you have given to us.

Leader:  O Lord, our God, sometimes we feel ashamed, guilty, and alone.

People:  Remind us that you have showered forgiveness upon us, richly and generously.

Leader:  O Lord, our God, sometimes we are blind to your presence among us.

People:  Open our eyes, remind us of your love, inhabit our worship as we come together in the faith you have given to us.

Perspectives: TBR Stack

 This is the classic "To Be Read" (TBR) post from my bookshelf at work. I doubt I ever read most of these books.  I have read the John Meacham book about Abraham Lincoln, and I highly recommend it. 

Strong nets

Last week I preached at a small church near Charleston.  I used the revised common lectionary to plan the service. The gospel reading was John 21:1-19. I not going to read the whole passage, but just a few verses.

 

This is the last chapter of John.  Mary Magdalene has already been to the tomb, Jesus has spoken to her, telling her that he will be ascending to God. She has gone to the disciples and to announce that “she has seen the Lord.”

 

On the evening of the same day, the Disciples were locked in a house, afraid of what might happen, when Jesus appeared to them.  A week later, Jesus appeared again to the Disciples, this time including Thomas.

 

THEN we get to this last chapter of John.  As the chapter begins, Peter, John, and five other disciples, who had been sitting on the beach of the Sea of Tiberius, decide to go fishing.  The catch nothing. 

 

Hear these words from John 21:4-6

⁴ Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵ Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” ⁶ He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. 

 

Later, after they either swam to shore (peter) or rowed to shore (the rest of them), Jesus is cooking breakfast for them.  Hear verses 10-11

 

Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” ¹¹ So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them, and though there were so many, the net was not torn. 

 

Does this story sound like any other story you have heard as you read the Bible?  Think about Luke, chapter 5.  In that passage of Luke, Jesus tells Simon to cast his nets in deep water. Simon protests – he has caught nothing all night, and he is a fisherman – he knows how to fish – but he does what Jesus asks.  You know the rest of the story – they caught an abundance of fish, straining the nets and even the ability of the boats to float.  This is the call story for Simon, James, and John. Jesus tells them, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”  They follow Jesus and becomes fishers of people.

 

There is a lot that is interesting about these passages.  It’s interesting to me that the story reminds us of the call story of Simon, James, and John.  They are actually fishing in the same place.  Maybe that’s what Jesus wanted to do – remind them of their call.  They are sitting on a beach, and then they go back to what they used to do – fish.  Unsuccessfully.  Maybe Jesus is calling them again. 

 

But another point that is interesting to me is the description of the net changes. In Luke, the net is straining – and the boat almost capsizes. In John, after the resurrection, the net is not torn.  The net can hold an abundant number of fish.

 

There is a message in this part of the story for us, the Church.  When we see Jesus, when we are reminded of our call, we are able to BE the church. We don’t need to worry – our nets are strong enough and large enough to hold everyone. 

 

A Bible Study Plan, Part 5: Luke 18:18-27

               VI.            Our choices

 The Luke passage does not have the phrase that Mark included, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him…” (Mark 10:21a). Without that reminder in Luke, we might miss that Jesus is saying all that he says to the man out of love. As Wesley said, the Savior knew his heart. What is most important to us? Is it God? Or is it money? Security? Admiration? William Barclay writes, “The whole tendency of possession is to shackle our thoughts to this world….It is not a sin to have much wealth – but it is danger to the soul and a great responsibility.”  He goes on, “For those who walk the Christian way there may be things the world calls hard, but beyond them all and through them all, there is a peace which the world cannot give and cannot take away, and a joy that no one can take away.”  (Barclay 1953, 272). Jesus is calling the ruler and us to “store our treasurers in heaven.” 

 

We are told that the rich young man walked away from Jesus, grieving, but we are not told what happens after that.  We might assume he is unwilling to do what Jesus has asked him to do, and that that is why the man walks away.  Maybe we make that assumption because that is what we believe we would do.  This short-changes the possibilities. 

 

We are invited to allow God to do the impossible in our lives.  Will we let go of what we value and trust the most so that we can enter into a relationship with God?  Will we allow God to do the impossible and change the world through us?

 

Prayer: Creating, loving, sustaining God. Remind us that you look up us with love. Remind us that when we place our trust in something other than you, we miss your kingdom. Open our eyes, open our hearts to you when you remind us that through God, all things are possible.  Open our world to possibilities. Amen.

 

Perspectives: Public Art in Pittsburgh

 

A Bible Study Plan, Part 4: John 18:18-27

 V.                   The text and our world 

A.    Wesley’s view

Late in John Wesley’s life, he preached a sermon entitled “Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity.” To me it reads like a lament for how, even though we are equipped by God to do good work in the world, and have the ability to practice Christian discipline, still we are not effective as Christians.  He preached, “Many of your brethren, beloved of God, have not food to eat; they have not raiment to put on; they have not a place where to lay their head. And why are they thus distressed? Because you impiously, unjustly, and cruelly detain from them what your Master and theirs lodges in your hands on purpose to supply their wants?  (Wesley in Outler and Heitzenrater 1991, 553)

 

B.     Our world today

 

Q: How is our world today similar to the world described in the passage?

 

Q: What does our culture in the United States value?  Transactions. Success measured by accumulated wealth. Independence (pulling up by the bootstraps)

 

Q: How does this passage speak into our lives today?

 

C.     Current Situations

1.      According to Pew Research, “Economic inequality, whether measured through the gaps in income or wealth between richer and poorer households, continues to widen.” (Pew Research)  

Q: How does the passage speak to this situation in our society?

 

2.      According to Kids Count data, 20% of children in West Virginia live in poverty. According to the DHHR in WV, over 6000 children are currently in state custody – that could be adoptive homes, detention, hospitals, foster care, etc. 

Q: What light does our passage shed on this situation?

 

3.      According to Earthday.org, “The [garment] industry employs approximately 75 million factory workers worldwide, yet less than 2% earn a living wage. Garment workers endure unsafe conditions, wage theft, exhausting hours, minimal pay, and gender-based harassment… As the industry has changed, fashion brands have shifted their supply chain model from one based on trust and innovation to one based on mistrust and punishment, using punitive tactics to meet quotas. The modern fashion supply chain is designed for maximum efficiency and speed, driving huge profit margins for brands at the expense of workers. 

Q: What is our role in this?

 

Q: What wisdom from the Luke passage can we gain as we confront this?

A Bible Study Plan, Part 3: Luke 18:18-27

 

I.                   Background to the passage

 

A.    Who wrote it?  The authorship of the Gospel of Luke is anonymous.  According to Fred B. Craddock, we can “sketch a general portrait of the writer.”  The author was not an eyewitness to the story; he relied on other sources.  His writing style demonstrates that he is a person of education, familiar with the “narrative current in that culture.”  Traditionally, the author of the Gospel is Luke, a companion of Paul’s (Craddock 1988, 925).  We believe that Luke and Acts were written by the same person – a two-part volume.

 

B.     When was it written? The time of the writing is also under debate. It was written before or after A.D. 70. (Campbell and Pennington 2020, 120). If we estimate the work was completed between A.D. 60 and 90, then we can see that at least one and maybe more generations have passed since Christ’s ministry.  There is a need of an orderly account – Luke even talks about this in the prologue to the book.

C.     To whom was it written?  It is most likely that the first readers of the Gospel were gentile Christians, probably from a Greek background. (Craddock 1988, 926).   The Greco-Roman world that Luke encountered would have been controlled by the Romans, although still influenced by Greek culture. (Campbell and Pennington 2020. 22-51)

 

D.    Why was it written? Luke’s purposes were to provide an orderly and trustworthy account of the life of Jesus while at the same time sharing the “good news” of Christ, especially for the marginalized. 

Luke’s themes include:

 

1.      Luke helps readers understand that salvation is for all. “Although Jesus’s initiatives towards all persons regardless of their social standing are a common feature of all the Gospels, no other Gospel is so clear and emphatic on this point.” (Culpepper 1995, 21).   Imagine for a moment that the man was present when Jesus was telling the disciples, “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”  (Luke 18:17 – right before our passage). 

 

Q: How would a rich ruler react to the idea that he had to come to the kingdom as a child would come? Would this have been part of his motivation for his question?

 

“If children are paradigm-setters for God’s reign, what place will a member of the social elite have?” (Carol 2010, 701). His expectation would have been that he would be honored because of his status; Jesus turns that upside down and tells him that his status, based on wealth, is his prevents him from entering the kingdom.

 

2.      In Luke we see Jesus’s focus on the marginalized – women, the poor, and the outcast. Adam Hamilton, in his book Luke, writes that one of the overarching themes in the Gospel of Luke is that the author wants “to appeal to the same people he notes Jesus appealed to: the outsiders, the outcasts, and even the outlaws…. (Hamilton 2022, XVI).   

 

Q: Where do you see that in the passage?

 

3.      The Gospel focuses on questions relating to not only the inclusion of the Gentiles in the Kingdom of God, but also the continuing loyalty of God for the Jews. Luke works to ensure people God had not abandoned the Jews while welcoming the Gentiles.   We’re assuming that the man is a Jew, because he follows the commandments. 

 

Q: What would this passage have said to a Jewish listener?

 

Q: What would it have said to a Gentile listener?

Perspectives: The Mountains in August

 

A Bible Study Plan, Part 2: John 18:18-21

 B.    The Eighteenth Chapter 

        Let’s take a look at what comes before and after our passage in the 18^th chapter:

1.      The conversation with the rich young ruler follows:

a.       The Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge (Luke 18:1-8) – a widow persistently nags a judge – the judge grants her what she wants just so she will leave him alone.

b.      The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14) – a pharisee and a tax collector are in the temple to pray. The Pharisee is grateful he is not like “those other people,” and the tax collector asks God for mercy.

c.       Jesus interacting with children (Luke 18:15-17). – “let the children come to me – you must receive the kingdom as a child does.”

 

2.      Following the conversation with the rich ruler:

a.       Jesus tells of his death and resurrection (Luke 18:31-34),

b.      Jesus heals a blind beggar (Luke 18:35-43). Jesus is approaching Jericho, and a man yells at the Son of David to heal him. Jesus heals him, and says, “Your faith has made you well.”

 

Q: Do you see a common thread running through Chapter 18?

 

To various degrees, all of these passages describe a reversal of status.  “What may appear to be little more than a string of unrelated episodes in this narrative section is actually a series of scenes held together by the common theme of division between those who have faith and act faithfully, on the one hand, and those who are self-possessed and position themselves over against the active beneficence of God, on the other.” (Green 2003, 1888).

A Bible Study Plan - John 18:18-27

I. Introduction

Open with prayer.

In our time together today we’ll being taking a deep dive into the story of the “rich young ruler” as found in the book of Luke, chapter 18, verses 18-27. 

Q: Are you familiar with the story?

 

A.     (If the answer in the class is yes): What do you remember about it? (As answers are shared, write them on the whiteboard.  To prompt responses, ask questions such as: Who was Jesus talking to? What was Jesus asked? How did Jesus respond? What was the response? What else do you remember?

 

B.     (If the answer to the question is silence or no, then do this instead of the white board, tell the story…Skip this part if there have been responses to I.A.)  The story we’ll be discussing today is about a rich young man who comes to ask Jesus about what he needs to do to inherit eternal life.  After the two of them talk about following the law, Jesus tells him that he needs to do one thing more – sell all he owns and give the money to the poor; then come follow Jesus. The man is sad – he has many possessions.  Then Jesus tells him and those gathered around something surprising.

 II.                Reading the Scripture

Distribute Handout A to two people who agree to be readers – Man and Jesus. Distribute a Handout to everyone else with the passage in New Revised Standard.  Ask the readers to read the passage, along with the teacher as narrator. 

 

Q: Anything surprising about what you heard?

III.         A Closer Look at the Passage

III.             A closer look at the passage

 

A.    Comparison to other Gospel stories

This story we’re looking at today is in two other gospels – Matthew and Mark.

 

Use the whiteboard information that to indicate which parts are in Luke or Matthew or Mark, using the table below. Circle (or add and circle) those things which are unique to Luke; place an X on those items in other gospels.  Be sure to mention the ones in bold – the others are not as important to the rest of the lesson.

 

If the class wasn’t familiar with the story as the lesson started, share information comparing the three gospels.

 

Luke 18:18-27	Matthew 19:16-26	Mark 10:17-31
Calls the man a ruler	Calls him someone	Calls him a man
	The man asks which commandments he must follow
	Adds love your neighbor as yourself	Adds, you shall not defraud.
	The man asks what he lacks	Jesus looks at him and loves him.
“You lack one thing”	“If you wish to be perfect”	“You lack one thing”
The man does not leave, and Jesus directs the comment about the rich entering heaven to the man.	The man leaves, and Jesus tells his disciples how hard it will be for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.	The man leaves, and Jesus tells his disciples how hard it will be for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.

 

Q: Any thoughts anyone wants to share here?

 

For me, one of the most interesting parts about the comparison is that in Mark, Jesus looks at the man and loves him.  According to the notes on Mark in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible this is “the only person in the Gospel Jesus is said to love.” (Tolbert 2003. 1829)

 

I also find it interesting that the man doesn’t leave in Luke – he goes away and doesn’t hear what Jesus says to the disciples, including the point that with God all things are possible. In Luke, the man sticks around to hear that point of hope.

I also want to point out that nothing in the Bible tells us what happens to the man.  It is open ended.  We often hear “The man couldn’t do what Jesus asked – but that’s not in the Bible.  Keep that in mind as we continue.

 

Perspectives: Up

 We went to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's performance of Pixar music.  It was great.  This is an image of the lighting as the Intermission began.  The piece the symphony was playing was from Up - imagine the balloons lifting the house.  They transferred from the screen to the ceiling. 

Critical Tasks

 

What are the most critical tasks in understanding the Bible so that you can preach or teach with integrity?

For me, the most critical tasks in understanding the Bible in order to preach or teach it are:

1. Spend time often in Bible Study. I think this background task will build not only the skills to do Bible study but also the foundational knowledge to uphold and enrich our study for specific preaching and teaching.
2. Invite God into the process. Spend some time in prayer and read the passage that is the focus on the sermon or lesson devotionally, as we have done in class.  I think this not only brings God into our exploration of the passage, but also helps us to discern the message God wants us to share with our congregation or class.
3. Expand your reading. In working on the exegesis project for our class, I found my study was enriched by reading what came before and after my passage and what was in parallel Gospel stories. How does the passage connect to other passages in the Bible?
4. Research the passage itself. Learn about who the passage was written for, how others have interpreted it, for example.
5. Stop researching and write. It is so easy to get caught up in what we can read that others have written that we need to say when enough is enough.

Book Review: The Message of Jesus

 Information about the book

The Message of Jesus: Words that hanged the World by Adam Hamilton.  Abingdon Press. Nashville.  2024.

Summary

From Amazon: More than 3 billion people claim to follow Jesus. But aside from a few verses, how many actually know what he taught? In fact, much of what people think Jesus taught, he never said. 

In this six-week study, pastor and best-selling author Adam Hamilton explores six of the most important themes in Jesus's teachings, why they matter, and how they speak to us today. The book will explore Jesus’s preaching on the Kingdom of God, the Sermon on the Mount, the parables, the “I am” sayings in John, and more. Jesus's message is not only life-changing, but world-changing. Join Adam Hamilton in studying The Message of Jesus: Words That Changed the World. 

Other components for the study include a leader guide, teaching videos, and sermons and worship.

Impressions

The book is divided into six chapter which makes it easy to adapt to a Lenten study.  The structure flows from the kingdom of God, the beatitudes, parables, I AM statements, final words, and post-resurrection messages.

As usual, Hamilton's writing is engaging. I enjoyed reading it and encountered several "ah ha" moments.  I particularly enjoyed the chapter about the Kingdom of God.  He quotes Gordon Fee: "You cannot know anything about Jesus, anything, if you miss the kingdom of God... You are zero on Jesus if you don't understand this term.  I'm sorry to say it that strongly but this is the great failure of evangelical Christianity.  We have had Jesus without the kingdom of God, and therefore have literally one Jesus in."

A few more quotes from Hamilton:

• "When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we say, "Thy kingdom come, They will be done." And every time we say The or Thine, instead of my and mine, we are yielding our lives and our will to God. That is the essence of life in the Kingdom."
• "We are to love our neighbor, to love our enemies, and to love one another. This is the defining mark of the Christian life. It is not a feeling, but a way of living and being."
• "The challenge is that often the most vocal Christians seem also to be the least loving some of them seem more interested in using Jesus to further their causes, than in Jesus using them to further his causes."
• "I believe the death of Christ is less like a judicial transaction, and more like poetry.  It is a word from God about human brokenness and sin and the lengths to which God will go to heal and forgive us...."

I would recommend this book.