July 2026 Editorial
The Work of God and The Challenge of Christian Ministry
The secular society we live in is one of distractions that make seeing the work of God more than difficult. We are bombarded with more information than we could ever imagine. Much of this information concerns problems for which the assumed solution is human ingenuity and reason. The shadow of modernism looms large. Endless recreation and entertainment pretend to offer us an escape, or at least will numb us enough to find relief from the problems confronting us
The distractions are pacifying. They keep us focused on the here and now, particularly as it pertains to our own little worlds within the wider world of life. We have become content to live within what Charles Taylor describes as an immanent framework that doesn’t take the transcendent into account.1 So with a divide between the immanent and transcendent, we can go about life without any awareness of God at work. What makes this lack of divine awareness even more terrifying is that it doesn’t make any noticeable difference in the lives of many people. There is a difference, but people just fail to see it and fail to notice the effects of a life without God, even though those effects are evident to those with eyes and ears to see and hear.
Living in a secular society presents challenges to Christian ministry. How do we help people see and hear the redemptive work of God in such a distracted society? How do we help churches keep their focus on the redemptive work of God when so many other voices compete for their attention? How do we form believers to live as followers of Jesus Christ in a society that is doing its best to disciple them for a goal (telos) other than the kingdom of God?
These are formidable challenges to Christian ministry. Such challenges are made even more challenging by the all-too-many stories of churches where abuse, financial improprieties, and other scandals have contributed to a church blight.
The challenges before us did not emerge overnight, so they’re not ones we’ll overcome overnight. In fact, the challenges are too great for us. We need God if we’re going to face these challenges. This is a point I am reminded of as I read through the Old Testament book of Joshua. There isn’t any way the Israelites leave Egypt and, after forty years, enter into the promised land without God. But as the Israelites leave and journey towards the promised land, they continually tell of what they see God doing.
The Bible itself is a written account of God’s redemptive work in history. Telling that story is essential if people are to see and hear God at work in their own lives. Darrell Guder points out that “Christian witness is not the interpretation of philosophy but the continuation of the event of God’s self-disclosure in human history.”2 God has always been at work in history for his redemptive good. Talking about God’s work, what God has done and continues to do is how we begin to face the challenges before us. We talk not about what we’re doing but about what God is doing. Inevitably, we will mention how God’s people participate in God’s work, but the focus must remain on how God is at work.
“In showing people the love of God, we must talk about this work in a way that centers God and connects it to his redemptive work throughout history.”
More specifically, God’s redemptive work is always an act of love. After being delivered from the oppressive hand of the Egyptians, Israel came to know the Lord as a God of steadfast love (hesed). The news of God’s work was good news in the life of Israel, which centered upon God’s love.3 So the refrain of Israel’s experience, echoed throughout the Old Testament, is that “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”4
So let me circle back to our secular society, where the church is too often seen as a problem rather than an asset. The challenges are great for Christian ministry, but they’re not insurmountable. First of all, followers of Jesus must take seriously the need to embody the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. This should be obvious, but it will not be enough for us to talk about how much God loves people unless we, the people of God who follow Jesus Christ, show that love with our hands and feet.
In showing people the love of God, we must talk about this work in a way that centers God and connects it to his redemptive work throughout history. This is a point that should be obvious, but it needs to be restated since the focus of Christian ministry has too often shifted to building brands and platforms.
As I stated above, the challenges we face did not emerge overnight, so they’re not ones we’ll overcome overnight. Furthermore, the seemingly ever-present temptation to seek a quick-fix solution is an attempt to trust in our own strength rather than to depend on God. One thing our secular society needs is to see a people who place their trust in God, embody the love of God in Christ, and talk of how that love is at work for redemptive good. That’s the calling of the church, and the task of Christian ministry is to lead the church to be that kind of people.
K. Rex Butts, D.Min, serves as the lead minister with the Southside Church of Christ in Milwaukee, WI, and is the author of Gospel Portraits: Reading Scripture as Participants in the Mission of God. Rex holds a Doctor of Ministry in Contextual Theology from Northern Seminary in Lisle, IL, and a Master of Divinity from Harding School of Theology in Memphis, TN. He is married to Laura, and they have three children together.
Charles Taylor, A Secular Age, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007, 143.
Darrell L. Guder, The Continuing Conversion of the Church, The Gospel and Our Culture Series, ed. Craig Van Gelder, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000, 29.
Ibid, 31.
Psalm 103:8 (cf. Ex 34:6; Num 14:18; Neh 9:17; Ps 86:15; 145:8; Nah 1:3; Joel 2:13, Jon 4:2). Scripture quotation is from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition Bible (NRSVUE), copyright © 1989, 2021 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.