SHADOWS

PART II – SERVING IN THE SHADOWS

CHAPTER NINE
________________________________________

ON THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF THE SHADOWS



Kingdom Principle #1 for ministering in the Shadows necessitates that a person becomes a true servant who is willing to serve at the lowest level. Serving in the Shadows means to serve with character, competence, commitment, and pride in the absence of accolades and recognition. In the 13th chapter of the Gospel According to the Apostle John, Jesus exemplifies this point by establishing a model of loving humility for his disciples to practice when after the Lord’s Supper he placed a towel around his waist, prepared a basin of water and began to wash his disciples’ feet. This act was so unlikely for Peter that he initially told Jesus that he would not let him as master and teacher to lower himself to such a standard. Jesus explained to Peter and his disciples that they would understand this “ministry of the towel” in time and that it was so necessary that if this act of loving humility was refused, then his disciples could not continue to share in his kingdom building. The implication also in Jesus words is that true Christian Character as the Right Manner must be demonstrated in acts of care and compassion. Peter of course understanding the implications, replied with a sense of embarrassment and loyalty and asked Jesus then to wash his hands and his head. Jesus makes an extraordinary statement to Peter in particular and his disciples that once a person is bathed and clean he/she does not have to bathed all over again because he/she got his/her feet dirty as he/she travels along the dusty paths of ministry and that they are clean by the Word. This Kingdom principle reminds believers that the cleansing that Christ and the Holy Spirit do at salvation never needs to be repeated because atonement is complete at that point. But it does remind us that although you are saved there will be times in your life when you will make mistakes, errors in judgment, and sin, that is, you will get your “feet dirty” every now and then, but you don’t lose your salvation. Over the years as a Pastor and Teacher, I’ve had parishioners who meaningly requested to be re-baptized because they either felt they had “backslid” in the faith through lifestyle errors or had not fully or really believed as a child. I gently would share with them that their remedy was not getting wet in the water again, but to go to God in confession and repentance. There issue was not a matter of the water but a matter of the heart. So, I directed them to the Apostle John’s First Letter to his congregations,

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (See 1 John 1:8,9).

Thus, it is the “ministry of the towel” that Jesus the Christ calls his servant-leaders to embrace and to habitually practice as a model for loving humility to members of the household of faith in particular, and all others in general that they might see the love and power of Christ in us as we continue to help build the Kingdom.

Kingdom Principle #2 for serving in the Shadows is that it involves a willingness to serve not necessarily where one desires to serve, but to the contrary, serve where one is needed. This principle is vividly necessary when seeking entre’ to minister in jails and prisons. Having served as a Clinical Chaplain, I know the importance of volunteers understanding the need to convince the chaplain that they desire to assist him/her in his/her ministry. Two significant things have occurred. One, you have acknowledged the chaplain’s role as the key player in correctional ministry and given him/her the much needed acknowledgment of his/her value to the Christian ministry; and two, you have convinced him/her that you desire to assist him/her where needed and not motivated by ego satisfaction or any other clandestine modus operandi. Volunteers lessen their ministry’s chances of providing ministry to prisoners if they approach the chaplain with a readymade program or services. The best approach is making sure one asks the chaplain where in his/her religious programming does he/she need assistance. For example, volunteers may desire to bring their church ministry into the facility to conduct worship services in the large chapel with many prisoners in attendance, but the religious programming may have a number of churches providing those services already and even more on a waiting list. Thus, the chaplain can simply and justifiably say no to the request to minister. But the chaplain may need trained volunteers to provide one-on-one counseling and witnessing to prisoners in the locked-down units, as I did when I managed the ministry for Camp J, which was the Disciplinary Unit at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, LA where prisoners from all over the state were housed and were on lock-down for 23 hours a day in their individual cells. Yet bibles and religious materials, bible studies, counseling, and even water baptisms were a part of the religious programming. Thus, the approach to ministering in prisons should always first determine what are the religious programming needs of the facility. Volunteers must not go seeking to serve with their own readymade ministry agenda, instead, should prepare to serve where needed in the Shadows of the “jailhouse.” The other side of this kingdom principle is if you cannot serve where you are needed, then you are not needed to serve.