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Join the Youthworks Ministry Support Team as they discuss how to have an effective youth and children’s ministry in every church in conversation with local ministry workers as well as national and international voices.
Get in touch - effectiveministrypodcast@youthworks.net
This is part of our House Conference 2025
lead up series exploring the conference
theme, the cost and joy of sacrifice
across these three episodes, you'll
hear two conference papers and a group
reflection meant to help you move from
theological reflection to practical
ideas for discipling and ministering to
young people and children in your church.
Also, make sure you go back and
listen to our taster episode, episode
87, the cost and joy of Sacrifice.
House Taster 2025 for an accessible
introduction to sacrificial discipleship
in youth and children's ministry.
It's a great springboard before diving
into these deeper conversations, I.
. Welcome back to the Effective
Ministry Podcast, the podcast that
helps you have an effective youth and
children's ministry in your church.
My name is Al James.
I'm a youth ministry and high school SRE
advisor with YouthWorks in Sydney, and
today's episode is part of a special two
episode release ahead of house conference.
This year's conference theme is
the cost and joy of sacrifice.
And we're sharing two conference papers in
audio form to help you engage more deeply
with the content before we gather together
on the 26th to the 28th of August.
Very much looking forward to that.
These two papers really
compliment each other.
Dr.
Viv Chung's is a biblical studies
paper, digging deeply into the
language of sacrifice in the Bible,
old Testament and New Testament.
At times engaging closely with
the Greek and Hebrew text.
It's rich and rewarding, and the
payoff is strong and it'll give you
a really strong biblical foundation.
, Reverend Dr.
Graham Stanton's paper is a more
theological paper with a pastoral
edge, and it really explores the
beauty of sacrifice as an ideal for
Christian living, as well as exploring
some of the dangers in how we.
Think and speak about sacrifice and some
of the pitfalls that we might end up in.
At house, we wanna move from theological
and theoretical principles to the
practice of ministry, especially
ministry with young people and children.
And so as you listen, be thinking not
just about what these papers say, but
how their insights might shape the
way you disciple the next generation.
We really hope these episodes will
encourage you to reflect on God's word.
Think deeply about what it means to
follow Jesus and come ready for rich
conversations at House Conference.
In this episode, we'll hear the beauty and
ugliness of sacrifice by the reverend Dr.
Graham Stanton.
Graham explores both the good in
sacrifice as an ideal for Christian
living and the dangers we need to be
aware of when using this language.
His reflections are deeply theological,
but also have a strong pastoral edge,
helping us to think carefully about how we
encourage and model sacrifice in ministry.
Especially among young people and
children, and as a reminder that how
we talk about sacrifice matters because
it shapes how the next generation
sees and lives out the gospel.
One of my favorite parts of this
paper is where the Reverend, Dr.
Graham Stanton gently, yet boldly
challenges the name of this conference,
the cost and Joy of Sacrifice, but
you're gonna have to listen to the paper
to find out exactly why he does that.
Tim Beilharz: The beauty and ugliness
of sacrifice by the Reverend Dr.
Graham Stanton.
Introduction quote, persecution
is part and parcel of the faith.
Children as part of God's fold need
to be theologically grounded in
understanding the cost of following Jesus.
End quote.
How do you think that would fly
as the marketing copy for a new
children's ministry curriculum or
this as the promotional blurb for a
children's ministry training seminar?
Quote, the church will need to prepare
Christian children for persecution
from a tender age and provide
contextual discipleship models that
will equip children for persecution.
End quote.
Of course I'm being misleading.
The instruction to prepare children
for persecution is more specifically
located the full quote reads, quote, the
church in Nigeria will need to prepare
Christian children for persecution.
Nathan.
In a case study entitled The Cost for
Children Witnessing to Christ in Nigeria
writes about persecution of Christians
in northern Nigeria as both insidious.
The discrimination against an oppression
of Christians undermining dignity,
development and religious freedom,
and elevated quote, taking pride
in the killing and the destruction
of believers and their property.
End quote.
Children in Northern
Nigeria suffer under both.
Most often children suffer insidious
persecution in the form of forced
labor, kidnapping, and forced marriages.
Denied access to education, educational
discrimination, and violence.
No wonder is imperative for the Church
of Nigeria to prepare Christian children
for persecution from a tender age.
What then for the church in Australia,
where does teaching persecution as
the cost of discipleship fit within
our children's ministry curriculum?
What degree of suffering for Christ
will we tolerate before deciding to take
a less challenging path through life?
Sacrifice has been described as quote.
One of the most inescapable, impenetrable,
and off-putting themes in Christian
thought end quote Chung highlights the
incapability of sacrifice for Christian
theology, where believers are to offer
themselves to God as worship, expressing,
giving themselves to others in imitation
of Christ's death and resurrection
interpreted through the language of
the Old Testament sacrificial system.
Jesus called to discipleship
is unequivocable.
Whoever wants to be my disciple must
deny themselves and take up their
cross And follow me, mark 8 34,
Paul's preaching to strengthen and
encourage the churches in Lira, Iconium,
and Derby is summed up in one line.
We must go through many hardships
to enter the Kingdom of God.
Acts 1422 Yet for many sacrifice is
troubling and at least off-putting.
If not grounds for outright rejection.
Feminist theologians in particular have
highlighted the oppression experience
by women and other marginalized
groups who have been told to live
lives of self-sacrifice often at
the expense of their wellbeing.
A call to sacrifice can be a tool
used by the powerful to manipulate
compliance from the powerless.
Becoming spiritual abuse when
grounded in a call to imitate Christ.
Psychological critiques of self-sacrifice
include the promotion of burnout,
resentment, lack of boundaries, and
unhealthy relationships, all of which are
common concerns amongst ministry leaders,
including those in children's and youth
ministry where some suffer under the
call to sacrificial life and ministry.
Others relish in it in ways that are
no less problematic acts of suicide.
Terrorism are at one extreme of a
spectrum that includes Christians who
seek persecution as a means of validating
their life of comfortable faith.
We are being persecuted too, or Christians
who justify obnoxious behavior by
claiming they're suffering for the gospel.
When in reality they're
suffering for being insufferable.
This paper seeks to penetrate the
complex experience of sacrifice
in Christian life and ministry.
The final section of the paper will
offer some thoughts for how we might
teach sacrifice in children's and
youth ministry, and how to live
lives of sacrifice as children's
and youth ministry leaders.
The journey towards a faithful.
And life-giving practice of
sacrifice will begin by recognizing
the beauty of sacrifice and owning
up to its potential ugliness.
Drawing on Lauren winner's notion
of characteristic damage in relation
to Christian spiritual practice.
Theological resources to find a wise
response to the lived experience
of sacrifice will be found in
biblical teaching on Marty them.
Reflections on sacrifice from feminist
theologian Esther Macintosh, and teaching
from Protestant reformer Martin Luther.
From there, I will outline an approach
to sacrifice that will humbly yet boldly
challenge the title for this conference.
Rather than finding joy in sacrifice,
I argue that joy is only properly
located in the greater good for
which lesser goods are abandoned.
That is, there is joy in
the result of sacrifice.
But not in sacrifice itself.
One.
The beauty of sacrifice for many
believers, stories of sacrificial
life and ministry are inspiring.
Jim Elliot's often repeated
quote, has encouraged many to
imitate his life of missionary
service that ended in martyrdom.
He is no fool who gives what he cannot
keep to gain that which he cannot lose.
In the world of children's and youth
ministry, we applaud those leaders
who have faithfully given up their
Friday nights to share life with
teenagers, those who spend hours of
volunteer time to prepare the props
for the Holiday Kids Club program.
There is beauty in these examples of
sacrifice because they demonstrate the
surpassing value of allegiance to Jesus.
Jim Elliot, along with the
persevering, dedicated children's
and youth ministry leaders.
Have borrowing the words of
Psalm 137 exalted Jesus above
their highest joy, there is joy.
In a free Friday night, there is a higher
joy in serving Jesus at Youth Group.
There is a joy in spending
University holidays in Bali.
There is higher joy in
serving Jesus at Kids Club.
There is joy in a life of
security and comfort at home.
There is greater joy in seeking to share
Jesus in cross-cultural mission, even when
such mission puts your own life at risk.
Pursuing a life of service to Jesus as
highest joy is a needed antidote to the
demands of our pleasure pain worldview.
Alongside the predominant worldview
distinctions of guilt, innocence,
shame, honor and fear power.
David Williams has characterized Western
culture as sliding into the pursuit
of pleasure and the avoidance of pain,
quote, in a pain pleasure worldview.
You make decisions based on what feels
good to you and what makes you happy.
End quote, A pain pleasure worldview is
clearly on show in prosperity theology,
or in the invitation to experience
a God who enters into our day-to-day
struggles and makes life better for us.
Lack of tenacity amongst leaders is
often reported to me as one of the
obstacles to long-term youth ministry.
Youth ministers speak the difficulty
of working with leaders who are
too fragile to receive constructive
feedback in their ministry practice.
Recruitment of leaders is hampered
by the supposedly burdensome
expectation of regular attendance
at youth group during the school
terms, and a monthly leaders meeting.
Church leaders speak of the challenge
of holding onto youth ministry staff
who make frequent claims of being
overworked or who interpret standard
workplace practices of line management,
punctuality and reporting as bullying.
No doubt there are church leaders
who are bullies, youth ministers who
are overworked and volunteer leaders
who are mistreated and unappreciated.
There is an ugliness to
sacrifice that I'll discuss in
the next section of the paper.
Yet there remains truth in
what Melbourne Youth Ministry
veteran, Kirk McKenzie has said.
The key to longevity in ministry
is to get used to leadership
not being fun all the time.
There is beauty in sacrifice, not only
because it demonstrates the value we place
on serving Jesus above other sources of
joy, but because sacrifice embodies the
sacrificial life that Jesus himself lived
Christian life, affirms the truth, beauty
and goodness of Jesus through imitation.
We live like Christ, not as an
attempt at salvation by works.
But because we recognize in him the
expression of the good life for which we
have been saved, sacrifice is not only
done for the sake of Christian faith,
but sacrifice itself is Christian faith.
As we follow God's examples, therefore,
as dearly loved children and walk in
the way of love, just as Christ loved
us and gave Himself up for us as a
fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Ephesians five verse one.
Sacrifice is rightly an expression
of Christian identity, not just a
consequence of pursuing Christian
identity in a hostile world.
In his work, connecting
Christian identity and Marty Dom.
Yeah, Michael Jensen recognizes that
quote, Christian Martyrdom is merely
the working out in a particular
circumstance of the identity in which
individual Christians participate.
Martyrdom in Christianity was
something obviously very close
to the self-identification of
Christians in a way that was without
precedent or parallel because of the
nature of the death of the savior.
End quote.
Therefore to fail to teach children and
young people about sacrifice is to fail,
to build them in Christian identity.
To fail to live sacrificial lives as
children's and youth ministry leaders
is not only to miss the opportunities
for Christian service because we are
misspending our time in other less
worldly pleasures, but to miss out
on the fullness of life in Christ
two.
The ugliness of sacrifice.
Yet despite the beauty of lives that
faithfully imitate Christ, there is
a moral ambiguity in self-sacrifice.
The call to Christ-like sacrifice would
be an appropriate challenge to a young
adult immersed in the cultural pursuit
of pleasure, or it could be an act of
spiritual abuse from an overbearing
pastor on a vulnerable volunteer.
It may be commendable for a
children's ministry leader to give
hours of work above and beyond their
employment contract, while at the
same time be perpetuating a church.
Council's shameful practice of taking
advantage of part-time employees.
What distinguishes a sacrificial spirit
of commitment to ministry above personal
comfort from the anxious over-functioning
and compulsive work that leads to burnout.
With damaging consequences for
the minister, their ministry, and
their family and relationships.
When does exhorting a Christian woman
to persevere under unjust suffering,
move from being an invitation to the
good life of faithful imitation of
Christ and become the off to deadly
expectation that she remains in an
abusive relationship in her seminal
work on feminist theology from 1975,
elizabeth Schuler Fiorenza critiqued
Christian ethics for intensifying the
internalization of self-sacrifice as
one of the, quote, the feminine passive
attitudes, which impede the development
of self-assertion and autonomy by women.
End quote, the Church of England 2006
statement, responding to domestic
abuse notes that quote, the example
of Christ's sacrificial self-giving.
Has encouraged compliant and
passive responses by women.
End quote.
This is not to suggest that Christ's
sacrificial self-giving ought to be
used in this way, but for us to speak
responsibly about sacrifice, we must
acknowledge that this has occurred.
As expressed in the 10 commitments for
prevention and response to domestic and
family violence in the Anglican Church
of Australia quotes, we acknowledge
that the words of holy scripture can be
misunderstood and has been distorted to
justify domestic and family violence.
End quote, 2.12
types of characteristic damage.
The challenge is not only
that sacrifice can be abused.
But that the abuse of sacrifice
is a damaged characteristic
of sacrifice itself.
That is, it is inescapable that the call
to self, self-sacrifice in Christian
discipleship carries within it the
opportunity for the abuse of power,
the notion of characteristic damage.
Comes from Lauren winner's book,
the Dangers of Christian Practice.
Characteristic Damage is when quote,
things become deformed by sin in ways that
are proper to the thing being deformed.
And when those deformation have
consequences, you cannot separate
the consequence from the deformed
thing itself because it belongs
to the thing potentially to
have those very consequences.
End quote.
Winner examines the prayer journals of
slave owning women in the American South.
This is not the off benign
social structure referred
to in the New Testament,
but the brutal system of forced labor have
captured African men, women, and children.
Elizabeth Foot, Washington, praise
that God would quote, influence
the hearts of my servants and cause
them to treat me with respect.
End quote, KEZI Brevard
and Lucille McCorkle.
Pray things like Lord give me
better feelings towards them.
My slaves.
As a mistress, I so need patient
forbearance, meekness, mercy.
End quote, by studying these often
uncomfortable prayers winner notes
that we soon discover that Christian
prayers are not always in tune with
the great Christian virtues end
quote, and are not always directed
towards promoting peace concord and
the flourishing of all creation.
The problem is not just that these
women are asking for things that are
contrary to God's will, a greater
degree of control over the human beings.
They treat as their property, but that by
bringing these ungodly concerns to prayer,
they're confirmed in their mistaken belief
that these things are honoring to God.
These prayers are not just
misguided, they are deforming winner
recognizes in this, that quote.
Petitionary Prayer carries within itself
the possibility of its own deformation.
End quote.
Following winner's analysis,
I'm arguing that the practice
of self-sacrifice in Christian
discipleship carries within itself the
possibility of its own deformation.
There are two types of
characteristic damage of sacrifice.
The first when issued by
those who are powerful.
Is that the call to sacrifice
can be used as a tool of control
over those who are vulnerable.
The second when received by those
without power, the call to sacrifice
is received as a message that
entrenches their powerlessness.
The language of sacrifice serves to
legitimize the power of the dominant
class and encourages the subordinate
class to sacrifice themselves to that
power out of duty to their religion.
My aim in naming the misuse of power
and entrenchment of powerlessness as the
twin types of damaged characteristic of
sacrifice is not to reject sacrifices.
A central and beautiful aspect of
Christian discipleship concluding
her discussion of prayer.
Winner does not argue that
the church should abandon the
practice of petitionary prayer.
Okay, but rather quote that we
should engage in prayer, knowing
its potential for distortion, and do
it in such a way that our knowledge
informs our practice end quote.
Likewise, we should continue to repeat
and live by Jesus' call to a life of
sacrifice, but must do so knowing its
potential to be used to justify misuse
of power, characteristic damage type one.
And to perpetuate
powerlessness and oppression,
characteristic damage type two.
Therefore, it is incumbent on
Christians to find ways to practice
and talk about self-sacrifice in ways
that are informed by that knowledge.
Three.
Theological resources in order to find a
way forward In talking about sacrifice in
ways that acknowledge its characteristic
damage, I'm turning to three.
Connected those seemingly disparate
sources, the biblical concept of
martyrdom, feminist theologian,
Esther Macintosh, and 16th
century reformer, Martin Luther
3.1
martyrdom.
Martyrdom is a specific
expression of self-sacrifice.
If sacrifice is generally defined
as giving up lesser though desirable
goods for the sake of a greater good,
martyrdom is giving up one's life for
the sake of a belief or principle.
Martyrdom is both more extreme
and more specific than sacrifice.
In general, the spirit of the
martyrs is clearly displayed
in Revelation 12, 11 to 12.
The centerpiece of the chapter,
which is arguably the centerpiece
of the book as a whole.
These verses record the words of our
loud voice in heaven, which announces
three things about the defeat of
the dragon, the symbol of satanic
oppression to Christ and his church.
The fact of that defeat,
verse 10, the means of defeat,
verse 11, and its results.
Verse 12, the dragon is overthrown.
Verse 10 B, but is not without power.
He can no longer accuse God's people
in the heavenly realms, as in job one,
but he can bring woe to the earth.
Verse 12 B.
This then is the context for
Christian faith and faithfulness
living for Jesus amongst spiritual
material and physical hostility.
Yet the church is not without hope
because the dragon is defeated.
The salvation and the power and
the kingdom of our God and the
authority of his Messiah have come.
Verse 10 A.
The means of defeat.
In verse 11, come in three parts.
The church triumphs over spiritual
oppression by the work of Christ,
by the blood of the lamb, by their
confession of faith, by the word
of their testimony, and by their
faithfulness in the face of death.
They did not love their lives
so much as to shrink from death.
That is the objective work of Christ
must be subjectively appropriated
through persevering faith.
The church triumphs over opposition
by taking hold of Jesus' victory with
faith that aligns what is on their
lips with what is in their hearts.
See Romans 10 verse nine.
Note first that martyrdom
is not salvific in itself.
The church's triumph is grounded in
the work of Christ taken hold of by
faith that the church holds to its
faith until death is an indicator of
the quality of their conviction and the
supreme value placed on that conviction.
But the power of God for salvation remains
in the good news of the blood of the
lamb, not in the church's confession.
Second.
Martyrdom is undertaken
for the sake of witness.
This is the etymology of the word
martyrdom, shares the same root as
the word used here for testimony.
Verse 11, the word of their testimony.
Jesus is named in Revelation one,
five, as the faithful witness.
The same word used for
Steven in Acts 2219.
They're translated as martyr in the NIV.
Martyrdom is therefore not about death.
But about witness.
Martyrs are not those who seek
death, but those who value
witness above their own life.
Paul's ministry in I Iconium demonstrates
the supremacy of witness over sacrifice.
Acts 14, one to seven, despite
opposition from members of the synagogue.
Verse two.
Paul continues speaking
boldly for the Lord.
Verse three.
Clearly Paul values preaching Christ
above the desire to be liked or
spoken well of by everyone later.
However, when the opposition turns
violent, verse five, and the plot
to mistreat them and stone them
becomes known, Paul runs away.
If there was joy in sacrifice as
sacrifice, if martyrdom was commendable
in itself, to flee from miconium would be
an act of disobedience and faithlessness.
Paul is not averse to suffering,
as is evident from his message
of encouragement from Acts 1422.
We must go through many hardships
to enter the kingdom of God.
Paul chooses to return to Lytro and
Iconium 14 verse 21, despite the danger
that he experienced in both places.
But his reason for doing so is clear.
He goes for the purpose of quote,
strengthening the disciples and
encouraging them to remain true to
the faith end quote, not for the
purpose of suffering or being martyred.
Paul's greatest love is not sacrifice.
It is preaching Christ because the
essence of sacrifice is not suffering,
but in the good for which we suffer.
3.2
self love.
My second theological source is
Esther Macintosh's, exploration of the
Feminist Critique of Self-Sacrifice.
Macintosh rejects the radical
proposals that seek to remove
sacrifice from Christian understanding.
Quote, since the cross is central to
Christianity, Macintosh argues feminist
theologians need to deal with it
constructively or abandon Christianity.
End quote.
Her constructive proposal is to
make sense of the liberating message
of Christ's self-sacrifice on the
cross through, quote, an appropriate
understanding of self-love.
End quote, Macintosh argues that the
members of the Christian community owe
the ethical obligation to one another to
promote our mutual fulfillment as persons.
This is the essence of love.
If love refers to a concern for the
wellbeing of other persons, love implies
a concern for the flourishing of others.
Since flourishing is bound up with
loving relationships, it also implies
the development of virtuous dispositions.
End quote,
from this foundation, Macintosh
critiques, versions of self-sacrifice
that do not promote virtue in
others or in the self quote.
Love.
For the other does not mean
fulfilling all their desires and
sacrificing the self in the process.
Self-sacrifice would not promote
virtuous dispositions in other persons.
On the contrary, it would encourage
dominating and demanding behavior.
Love for other persons, therefore requires
that we stand up for the self and for
relationships that engender mutual respect
and reciprocal love, where no person
is encouraged to be overly sacrificial.
Nevertheless, I'm not denying that
sacrifices are sometimes necessary.
I'm asserting that in a loving
relationship, sacrifices are only
expected temporarily of one person.
Where other related persons are
willing to be sacrificial temporarily
to maintaining an adequate balance
here necessitates proper self-love.
Proper self-love for victims of abuse
will mean reclaiming a sense of self.
In this way, self-love benefits
both the self and the abuser.
Since neither party continues
in the destructive relationship.
Oppressors cannot engage in
relationships of persons as persons
while they continue to abuse and
neither can those being abused.
Equality is negated in both cases
and so is human flourishing.
End quote, that is love for self and
others is concerned with promoting love
as the primary Christian virtue while
overly sacrificial self-sacrifice.
Is promoting, dominating and demanding
behavior in others or diminishing
the personhood of the self.
The choice of self-sacrifice
is no longer an act of love.
Sacrifice must be sacrificed for love.
Thus, there are more complex
choices to be made other than to
sacrifice or not to sacrifice.
Pursuing love requires that we
know when to prefer oneself.
When to prefer others, when to
offer a proof and how to accept one.
To know when and how to offer
friendship and when an act
of love or withhold it end.
Quote wise, teaching on sacrifice
will include instruction on
how to navigate these choices.
3.3
Luther's three cases.
Deciding when to endure
suffering under injustice.
And when to stand up and call Injustice to
account is part of Luther's instruction.
In his 1519 sermon to kinds of
Righteousnesses Luther's sermon
is essentially about sacrifice.
Preaching on this text.
Let this mind be in You, which
was also in Christ Jesus.
Philippians two, five Luther is exhorting
his congregation to the Christ-like
righteousness that sacrifices those things
that would give them equality with God.
In order to serve others.
Christians are not to use their own
righteousness, wisdom, or power to
assert themselves over or be angered
by those who are unrighteousness
foolish or less powerful.
Instead, imitating the sacrificial
humility of Christ, they ought
to seek the good of the neighbor.
Rather than condemn, disparage, judge,
and punish others' sin, the righteous are
to vindicate and pardon the unrighteous.
Considering others'
interests above one's own.
Philippians two, four means that
one quote ought to be distressed,
that the condition of its neighbor
is not better than its own.
It ought to wish that its neighbor's
condition were better than its own,
however.
Beyond preaching a sermon that commends
self sacrifice, Luther raises the same
kind of question that is before us.
Quote, is it not permissible
to chase an evil man?
Is it not proper to punish sin?
Who is not obliged to defend
righteousness, to do otherwise
would give occasion for lawlessness?
Essentially, the question is.
What do you do when others are sinning?
Is it permissible to use your
power to call them to repent?
That is, is it always right to promote
your neighbor's condition above your own?
Is it always right to serve others'
interests By sacrificing one's
own in relation to our current
conversation, we might ask.
What does Luther think of Esther
Macintosh's suggestion that there
are circumstances in which sacrifice
ought rightly give way to self love.
There are, according to Luther,
three classes of people in responding
to the sinful actions of others.
The first class of person is the
one who seeks vengeance and judgment
on the sinning brother or sister
from the governing authorities.
This Luther does not commend.
It may be permissible to take others to
court, but it is not helpful to do so.
Citing one Corinthians six 12.
This class is essentially pursuing,
quote, a passion for one's own advantage.
End quote.
The second class endures
suffering for the sake of Christ.
This Luther says is in accordance
with the instruction of Matthew
five, verse 40, to not resist evil.
These are they who quote.
Grieve more over the sin of
their offenders than over the
loss or offense to themselves.
This is the gospel and the
example of Christ End quote.
In relation to our question,
Luther's advice is to heed
the call to self sacrifice.
Note, however, that his advice
aligns with that of Macintosh.
In as much as the decision to endure
suffering is made on the basis of love.
For the other quote, they do this.
That they may recall those offenders
from their sin rather than avenge the
wrongs they themselves have suffered.
End quote, though not by direct
confrontation, but by quote, praying
for their persecutor, blessing those
who curse, doing good to evil, doers
prepared to pay the penalty and
make satisfaction for their very
enemies that they may be saved.
The third class calls
the others to account.
Not in order to seek vengeance as
in the first class of response,
but to promote the righteousness
and wellbeing of the other.
Quote.
They are the ones who demand back their
own property or seek punishment to be
meted out, not because they seek their
own advantage, but through the punishment
and restoration of their own things.
They seek the betterment of the
one who was stolen or offended.
End quote.
This equates to the response
commended by Macintosh, that, in
place of self-sacrificial endurance,
it may be appropriate to take a
stand against oppression and abuse.
In order to call others to account.
There is a higher good
that is being pursued.
More valuable than the personal
virtue of sacrifice is the
promotion of virtue in the other.
The question remains however, of how
to distinguish between a choice to
stand up to oppression, out of desire
to promote virtue in the oppressor,
and standing up to oppression out
of a desire to assert our own power.
In Luther's terms, how do we know
whether we are pursuing the third
response, seeking the betterment
of others, or the first seeking
revenge and our own advantage?
Luther's advice is to spend
ample time in the second.
Quote, but no one ought to attempt
the third class unless he's
mature and highly experienced.
In the second class just mentioned
lest he mistake Roth for zeal and
be convicted of doing from anger and
impatience, that which he believes
he's doing from love and justice.
End quote.
That is though there is the possibility
of using one's power to correct others,
the more frequent course of action for a
Christian is the way of self sacrifice.
There is an unstated assumption in
Luther's advice here that the people
he is addressing are most likely to
prefer option three over option two.
They are the powerful who are liable
to the first characteristic damage of
sacrifice rather than the powerless
who are liable to the second.
Those who are powerful and liable
to require sacrifice of others
or who attempt to use their
power over others in the guise of
sacrifice can justify their choices.
As instance of Luther's third class,
those who lack power and are liable
to pursue sacrifice to the extent
to which it leaves them damaged,
are likely to heed the warning of
taking on case three to hastily.
And end up extending the loss or offense
to themselves by remaining in class two.
The way forward I suggest lies in
identifying two additional subcategories
of person to supplement Luther's analysis.
There is a kind of person who
underestimates how long they need to
experience the second class before
they're mature enough to pursue the
third without mistaking Roth anger and
impatience for zeal and love of justice.
And conversely, there is a kind of
person who overestimates the same.
Identifying which subcategory you or
the person you are instructing is in is
critical for avoiding either of the types
of damage characteristic to sacrifice.
Four.
There is no joy in sacrifice as sacrifice,
just as martyrdom is not a death wish.
Neither is sacrifice
valuable simply as sacrifice.
There is a beauty in sacrifice, not
because there is virtue in suffering,
but because of the way that sacrifice
demonstrates the strength of one's
belief in the goodness of the thing for
which a sacrifice has been made , there
is therefore no joy in sacrifice.
There is joy in the greater good
that is obtained as a result of
the sacrifice of lesser goods.
Paul does glory in suffering.
Not for suffering's sake, but
because of what suffering produces.
Perseverance, character, and hope.
Romans five, verses three to four.
Peter calls the church to rejoice, not
in the grief caused by trials, but in the
salvation that is ready to be revealed.
One Peter one, five to six.
James urges his readers to
consider it pure joy whenever
you face trials of many kinds.
Yeah.
Not because there is salvation in trials
as trials, but because the testing
of your faith produces perseverance
and persevering in perseverance
produces maturity and completeness.
James one, two to four, redirecting
joy away from the act or experience
of sacrifice itself with its focus
on suffering and deprivation.
It makes it clear that sacrifice itself
ought never be instructed of others.
Our primary instruction must be
to pursue what is good, pursue
love, truth, testimony to Christ.
Sacrifice must be secondary when
pursuing these better things may involve
ensuing other good or desirable things.
That one has made sacrifices is
therefore not a valid marker of
the righteousness of your cause.
When Christian leaders attempt to
influence others by declaring, see how
much I have suffered, all they're doing is
enlisting the strength of their conviction
as the reasoning for their conclusions.
Extreme suffering for your cause may
be a sign of your abiding faith in
all that is good, true, and beautiful.
But it may instead be a sign
of your pigheaded misdirected,
self-aggrandizing zeal.
There is little value in declaring
the extent of your suffering
without demonstrating the value of
a thing that you have suffered for.
Christian sacrifice must therefore
be sacrificed for truth and love.
This requires Christian teachers
to be alert to what sacrifice is
doing in us and in those we serve.
Paul's chain of glory is what we hope for.
Suffering produces perseverance.
Perseverance, character and character.
Hope and hope does not put us to shame.
Romans five, three to five a Yet For
others, suffering produces avoidance,
avoidance, numbness and numbness.
Despair or suffering could
produce bitterness, bitterness,
cynicism, and cynicism.
Isolation.
Or the chain could be one of
suffering, fear, anxiety, paralysis.
Conversely, suffering
can also engender pride.
Pride can produce delusions of
grandiosity, and grandiosity
can produce spiritual abuse.
, Therefore, the message of sacrifice must
always be tailored to speak pastorally
to the ones who is doing the sacrificing.
To the power who are prone to
glory and suffering, or be self
deceived into thinking that they're
pursuing others' goods when they're
merely pursuing their own agenda.
The message of sacrifice must be
immersed in the command to love others.
For the powerless, it is likely that
sacrifice has been a familiar experience.
Rather than being called to more
sacrifice, they may need reminding of
the divine invitation to self-love and be
empowered to call the powerful to account
five sacrifice in children's
and youth ministry.
How then shall we speak of sacrifice
in children's and youth ministry,
and how should we engage in sacrifice
as children's and youth ministers?
I conclude with some initial suggestions.
That I entrusted we'll expand
on in our time together.
5.1.
Teach children delayed gratification.
The Stanford marshmallow experiment
conducted in 1972 gave 4-year-old
children a bowl of marshmallows and
a choice if they refrain from eating
any of the marshmallows until the
researcher returned to the room.
They could eat the marshmallows
and they would be given more.
Alternatively, they could ring a bell
at any time to call the researcher back
into the room, at which time they would
be then allowed to eat the marshmallows
before them, but would not be given more.
Tracking the children through to
their teenage years revealed that
the children who waited longer for
their researchers to return, quote.
Developed into more cognitively and
socially competent adolescents achieving
higher scholastic performance and coping
better with frustration and stress.
End quote.
Despite this research, the value of
delayed gratification is undermined
in contemporary culture that is
geared towards instant gratification
and entitlement helicopter
parenting that meets a child's.
Every need is unlikely to prepare
children to accept Jesus'.
Call to discipleship as sacrifice.
Helping children sacrifice marshmallows
now for more marshmallows in the future,
and other lessons in micro sacrifice are
important aspects of children's formation.
Christian parents and children's
ministry leaders do well to encourage 5.2
face up to childhood and youth suffering.
The church in Australia should be very
grateful that we are not subject to
the kind of insidious persecution,
endemic to northern Nigeria.
However, there is no shortage of
challenges facing Australian children
and young people that Christian
discipleship can speak into.
Facing hardships can begin in early
childhood when a child experiences
sadness, when instead of jumping
in with, let's make that better,
we pause to say, that must be hard.
Tell me more about how you're feeling.
Among teenagers, the Your Story research
highlighted the significance of faith
challenges in narratives of faith of
young people who currently identify as
Christians or did so at some point in the
past, 73% of their stories report some
kind of faith challenge, and 45% of those
were of moderate or major significance.
Youth ministry leaders need to help
young people process the presence of
challenge in the Christian life and
highlight the greater good that is
worth enduring challenges for 5.3.
Teach young people critical reflection.
So much of the way that young people
will respond to calls to self-sacrifice
will depend on their own awareness of
their social power, their tendency to put
up with or to rebel against suffering,
and their awareness of the virtues or
vice that are being formed in them.
As a result of that sacrifice,
some of these things will be
apparent to parents, youth
leaders, and other invested adults.
But much of it can only be discerned
by the young people themselves.
Equipping young people with the
tools of personal and theological
reflection will equip them to take
greater responsibility for their own
discipleship and aid them in avoiding
the characteristic damage of sacrifice.
5.4.
It's okay to say no.
Children's and youth ministry
leaders, especially those who
are under 25 years of age.
Are likely to hold less power than other
ministry leaders and key church power
brokers, and are therefore more likely
to become victims of excessive calls
to sacrifice than other church staff.
It is not uncommon for such leaders
to be taken advantage of by churches
who, whether consciously or not
malevolently or not place on them,
a high expectation of sacrifice.
It is not un-Christian to expect
appropriate remuneration for your service.
It is inappropriate for churches
to require you to sacrifice your
own time to do compulsory volunteer
hours on top of your paid work.
Children's and youth ministry
leaders ought to consider whether
they're willing or grumbling.
Acceptance of inadequate or
exploitative conditions are
enabling leaders and congregations.
To persist in ungodly patterns of
un generosity and underinvestment in
vital ministry among young people.
No is a complete sentence.
5.5.
Get good supervision.
Just as young people need support
in the kind of self-reflection
that will identify whether and how
they're victim to one of the types of
characteristic damage of sacrifice.
So to children's and youth
ministry leaders must be alert to
what is going on in them as they
respond to calls to sacrifice.
Good supervision will offer you a space
to be able to consider the intersection
between your soul role and context.
And pay attention to the invisible
others who are impacted by your choices.
Six.
The Center of Christian Discipleship.
There is beauty in sacrifice.
A believer, young or old, who is willing
to forego good and desirable things
for the sake of holding onto the truth.
Goodness, and beauty of
Jesus is captivating.
The strength of their faith
shines against the backdrop of
the cost of their sacrifice and
their endurance through challenge
reflects the glory of their savior.
There can also be ugliness when calls
to self-sacrifice leave the powerless,
diminished, and abused, or when claims
to sacrifice are a thin veil for
self-interests, the life of sacrifice
is close to the center of Jesus'.
Call to discipleship.
Take up your cross.
Lose your life, give all you have to
the poor, leave home, or brothers or
sisters, or mother or father or children,
or fields and endure persecution.
The cost of sacrifice is close to the
center, but at the center is the joy of
following Jesus to find life, to receive a
hundred times as much in this present age.
Homes, brothers, sisters, mothers,
children, and fields, and in
the age to come eternal life.