A Personal Reflection on Henri Nouwen’s Creative Ministry
Can we live life to the fullest in this demanding professional vocation? Ministers are often expected to be capable of solving every church member’s problem and eventually finds himself burnt-out and depressed. Undeniably, in ministry we are constantly being in the state of tension between professionalism and spirituality. We must acknowledge that both professionalism and spirituality are indispensable, however, professionalism will malfunction unless it is grounded on spirituality. Spirituality is the most fundamental ground of ministry (life). It enables us to live a unified (personal integrity) in the face of constrasting stimuli and very demanding pastoral activities. Henri Nouwen, emphasizes the importance of personal faith in the life of ministers, for he says, “a Christian minister will never be able to be a minister if not rooted in a real personal faith life that is the very core of pastoral ministry” (p.7). It is noteworthy when Nouwen talks about priest, minister or pastor in his Creative Ministry, he means to include every Christian, for he believes every Christian is a minister (p. 8) for he says, “no Christian is a Christian without being a minister” (p. 116)
Spirituality will never flourish without learning. And learning will not optimize without teaching. It is clear that teaching and learning do not pertain to classroom setting. Nouwen reminds us of the violent process of teaching and urges for redemptive process of teaching. First, learning should not be competitive but evocative. It is not a competition to gain better self-esteem, pride, sense of success, or sense of superiority. Instead, it should be a sharing of life and knowledge. Nouwen says, “teachers can never be true teachers, unless they are, to a certain degree friends” (p.18). And teachers cannot fully teach unless the students are willing to open up their life. Thus, true learning commences when there is genuine relationship.
Second, learning is not a unilateral process, but bilateral. Not one-way but two-way. Not the strong teaching the weak, neither it is the knowledgeable teaching the less-knowledgeable. Teaching and learning is life-engaging, life-imparting and life-impacting. Openness, humility and genuinity are of paramount importance in the process of teaching and learning.
Third, learning should not be alieanating but actualizing. Learning is not preparing or equipping for future success in fact it is a present reality of life-sharing, life-engaging, life-imparting and life-transforming. Learning is not a process preparing for the “real” future, in fact, the present is an actual reality in itself. It is not future-oriented so that the learners long for the present moment to pass quickly and reach a time when teachers are forgotten, books are closed, and friends defeated.
Redemptive teaching does face deep-seated human resistance. Borrowing Bernard Lonergan’s “scotosis” or blindspot, Nouwen points out that there are things that keep us blind (p. 22). First, the wrong supposition that views teachers as givers and students as mere receivers. Consequently, teachers continue to give whilst the students continue to expect that they should receive more and more. Teachers become like goldmine to students. Second, the view that believes one’s self-esteem or self-worthiness is decided by one’s academic achievements. And third, the fear of kenotic-encounter. It is such fear that rejects the painful reality of life. As ministers, we are to be aware of the scotosis in our learning and teaching. And also be aware of the violent process of teaching. We are to strive for the redemptive process of teaching, as we called to.
Besides teaching, preaching is another main task of a minister. Preaching does not merely about re-telling stories neither it is merely about telling what the good life is and how to attain. Preaching is to inspire a spark to be a blaze. It recognizes the harsh reality of life, probes into the human heart and proclaims the divine perspective. Insight shines on our life and understanding, challenges our paradigms and perspective. Insight opens up our life layer by layer.
A minister must keep on questing, digging and reflecting the message deeper. It is a call to quest. And be ready, as the piercing of truth is painful. It takes humility and openess for it to heal. The truth goes to the roots of life and it irritates as well as angers the hearers (p. 34). But good listeners will open themselves for the constructing message although it is painful, yet it heals aftewards.
Besides preparing for the message, the spirituality of the messengers are crucial. The messengers should be aware of the great dynamic of the congregations. It is quite common to hear worship leaders or preachers that get the congregations to feel high, to feel great. Feeling is not TV channel that we can tune as we like. How to be happy and feel great in worship when you have just lost someone you deeply love? Are we trying to cheat God by our emotional pretense? Another problem of the preachers is his or her theological preoccupation. We cannot expect everyone to have the same theology like us, everyone has his or her operative theology. Nouwen says,
“Perhaps the greatest temptation of preachers is to think that only they have a theology and to believe that the best thing to do is to convert all those who listen to their way of thinking. In this way, however, they have failed to realize that in a very real sense they haven’t loved their neighbors as themselves, since they have not taken the neighbors’ views and experiences as seriously as their own” (p. 39).
The goal of sharing insight is to provide a painful process of becoming human (p. 40). Dialogue or way of relating is a crucial path to becoming human. Sharing life-experiences and accepting our deficiencies, mistakes and desperation (p. 42). Our availability is the key to our “close-mindedness” which eliminates doubts, fears, anxieties and opens up love, hope, joy. When one covers his/her human weakness or fragility, one closes the essential part of his/her precious human reality.
A pastor’s personal identity is closely interconnected to her spirituality. Never affirm our identity according to our grades, academic degrees, the size of congregations, ministry experiences, and achievements. Our identity is very simple and basic, we are the servants of our Lord who is also a shepherd, and a friend to fellow human beings. As God has touched our life, hence we are to touch the heart of life of people we serve and cast off their low self-esteem and affirm their life. Self-affirmation and self-denial goes hand in hand. We are to lose our and deny our lives (Matt. 16:24-25; Gal. 2:20). Denying oneself is an urgent call (p. 55). Nouwen has rightly inquired, “how can we really be of help to others if we keep concentrating on ourselves? How is it that we are so preoccupied with our own lives, our own concerns, and our own interests that we can never really concentrate on the life and plight of another?” (p. 57). Just like we cannot sleep if we focus too much on how to sleep, so does we cannot be a friend to others if we are narcissistically self-centered. Nouwen highlights, “lose yourself so God can be creative in you” (p. 58). He is right when he says, “self affirmation and self-emptying are not opposites because we can never give away what we do not have. We are unable to give ourselves in love when we are not aware of ourselves” (p. 38).
Pastoral relationship has to move from contract to covenant. Contract expires but not covenant. Nouwen rightly points out,
“many ministers complain that nobody says ‘thanks’ to them, that hours spent with people don’t bring about any change in the people, that after many years of teaching, preaching, counselling, organizing, and celebrating, people are still apathetic, the church still authoritarian, and the society still corrupt. But if our gratification has to come from visible change, we have made God into a businessman and ourselves into sales managers” (p. 64).
And unless a minister know their role well, they will not be able to serve as it is blurred. Personal ego and ambition will get in the way. Our relationship with the Lord is the most definitive factor that designates our role. Discipline in contemplation on the life of those who we minister helps us listen and understand as we continue to reflect on “the question of sin and salvation, guilt and forgiveness, isolation and reconciliation, and finally, of life and death” (p. 70). Nouwen reminds, “pastoral care means more than pastoral worries. It means a careful and critical contemplation of the human condition” (p. 70).
Organizing is not a manipulation of structures. Organizing cannot be taken apart from the call to be the agents of change. Be aware of the danger of concretism, power and pride (pp.76-81). In transforming the world, we need the perspective of hope, creative receptivity and shared responsibility (pp. 84-91). Nouwen concludes, “we are only Christian when we refuse to allow ourselves or anyone else to settle into a comfortable rest. We must remain dissatisfied with the status quo. And we believe that we have an essential role to play in the realization of the new world to come - even if we cannot say how that world will come about” (p. 93).
Life does not flourish without celebrating. The purpose of sabbath is the celebrating of life. And so does the Holy Communion. Nouwen delineates,
“celebration is only possible trhough the deep realization that life and death are never found completely separate. Celebration can only really come about where fear and love, joy and sorrow, tears and smiles can exist together. Celebration is the acceptance of life in a constantly increasing awareness of its preciousness. And life is precious not only because it can be seen, touched, and tasted, but also because it will be gone one day. When we celebrate a wedding, we celebrate a union as well as a departure; when we celebrate death, we celebrate lost friendship as well as gained liberty” (p. 97).
Three aspects come together in celebrating which is the present reality, the remembering (past) and the expecting (future). Nouwen explicates,
“if the past had the last word, we would imprison ourselves more and more the older we became. If the present were the ultimate moment of satifaction, we would cling to it with a hedonistic eagerness, trying to squeze the last drop of life out of it. But the present holds promises and reaches out to the horizons of life, and this makes it possible for us to embrace our future as well as our past in the moment of celebration” (p. 101).
In the culture of working, hurrying and worrying, true celebration of life is getting rare. It is time to call for the counter-culture toward life-affirming, life-sharing, life-imparting, life-impacting, life transforming, and life celebrating. Let us be celebrant of life. Lechayim - to life!
Finally, allow me to quote Nouwen’s words as conclusion,
“Teaching becomes ministry when teachers move beyond the transference of knowledge and are willing to offer their own life-experience to their students so that paralyzing anxiety can be removed, new liberating insight can come about, and real learning can take place. Preaching becomes ministry when preachers move beyond the ‘telling of story’ and make their own deepest selves available to their listeners so that they will be able to receive the Word of God. Individual care becomes ministry when those who want to be of help move beyond the careful balance of give and take with a willingness to risk their own lives and remain faithful to their suffering brothers and sisters, even when this endangers their own name and fame. Organizing becomes ministry when organizers move beyond their desire for concrete results and look at the world with the unwavering hope for a total renewal. Celebrating becomes ministry when celebrants move beyond the limits of protective rituals to an obedient acceptance of life as a gift” (p. 116).
Nouwen, Henri. 2003. Creative Ministry. USA: Doubleday.
LYX
