Today I enjoyed working at home: listened to a webinar for Siretona business, set up a cookbook project as a remote wedding shower for my sister, did some cleaning to serve my household, and replaced our mismatched Corelle dishes with the pottery my brother made for our wedding. I used another wedding gift, our slow cooker, to make one of my favourite recipes: Boston Baked Beans (recipe below). The sauce was so deliciously compelling, that I ate too much of it before Kevin got home!
Over supper we discussed and critiqued the webinar I had heard. It was the second in a three-part series on ministry entrepreneurship. In the first webinar, I was concerned when the presenter said that Christians don’t need more Bible study, we just need to put what we know into practice. True, we need to practice what we profess, but saying we don’t need more Bible study is like saying we can train for and run a marathon without eating! It’s not either/or, it’s both/and.
A bit skeptical, I approached the second webinar and was even more concerned with the presenter’s officious and pedantic style. He dismisses “aggregates” (organizers and leaders of groups) as roadblocks to ministers who must “posture to persuade the gatekeepers” to let them in. Then he says “the secret is to become your own aggregator.” Several times he does this: dismisses a category or term in one area only to re-appropriate it for his purposes later. He also implies that a “ministry entrepreneur” must “become a powerhouse” in order to build a niche following or aggregate (aka “Ministry Family”) in order to found a sustainable ministry. Though meaningful ministry is the goal, it is not located in the context of the church—in fact, it seems to happen in spite of or even against the church. Though he talks about building relationships and giving ministry, the whole model comes across as dehumanizing, blatantly individualistic, and self-seeking. He defines ministry as sharing ME. Apparently, I am God’s gift to the world and all I need to do is unwrap the gift and open myself up.
We can proof text the Bible to support this model. The presenter uses Matthew 13, the parable of the pearl of great price, to show that we have He doesn’t use 2 Corinthians 4:7 (which would have been more obvious): “We have this treasure in jars of clay.” Perhaps he avoids this one because of context: the our treasure is not to become our own powerhouse, employ failsafe entrepreneurial strategies, but rather “to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” The surrounding chapters, 2 Corinthians 3-5, are all about suffering and being reconciled to God through Christ. Paul and his companions are very aware of calling people to follow Christ, not “galvanizing people” to themselves. We can couch our business models in religious term, but what are we doing? Justifying our own wisdom, rather than really grappling with and following the call of God. Of course, there’s no suggestion that in unwrapping and opening myself I might find a Pandora’s box of sin along with ministry gifts.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Notice who does the work: GOD does it through Christ. Even in verse 20, we are Christ’s ambassadors “as though God were making his appeal through us.” In every case we get eclipsed by the one we serve.
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Boston Baked Beans
(from Company's Coming - Slow Cooker Recipes, pg.22)
I doubled this recipe for our large slow cooker. In consideration of my husband, I omitted the onions and added a package of bacon. I cut the bacon into small pieces and pre-cooked it (as advised by Rachael Ray) and added it in the second step. In hindsight, I would use a thicker back bacon for a heartier effect.
2¼ cups (560 ml) Dried navy beans (or peas), 1 lb. (454g)
1½ cups (375 ml) Chopped onion
5 cups (1.25 l) Water
Cover. Cook on Low for 8 to 10 hours or on High for 4 to 5 hours.
½ cup (125 ml) Ketchup
1/3 cup (75 ml) Molasses (not blackstrap)
1/3 cup (75 ml) Brown sugar, packed
1 tsp. (5 ml) Dry mustard
1 tsp. (5 ml) Salt
1/4 tsp (1 ml) Pepper
Add remaining 6 ingredients. Stir well. Cover. Cook on High for about
30 minutes to blend flavours. Makes 6 cups (1.5 L).
Nutritional information: 1/2 cup (125 mL): 195 Calories; 0.6 g Total Fat; 380 mg Sodium; 9 g Protein; 40 g Carbohydrate;
good source of Dietary Fibre.
PHOTO: Pottery by Jeffrey Taylor of Newschool Arts
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