It is sometimes difficult to know how to follow Jesus. It is sometimes difficult to encounter a situation, look to Scripture, and know how to live in a distinctly Christian way. Often it seems there are two options before us that appear to stand opposite one another. Do we respond by expressing truth or by expressing love? Should we speak straight or speak with tenderness? Should we display courage or meekness? Or should we perhaps pursue some kind of a mushy middle?
Gary Millar has thought a lot about questions like these and answers them in his new book Both/And Ministry. He concludes that living a Christian life often involves embracing two practices that may seem (but are not actually) paradigmatic. In other words, instead of choosing one option, God means for us to embrace both. “This book aims to help you avoid the danger of settling for less than what God offers. It’s written to help you spot where you have made bad choices, excused yourself and opted out of an authentically gospel-shaped life. It’s an encouragement to pursue the beautiful, Christ-like, Spirit-empowered life of repentance and faith that God has called you to—a life that isn’t complicated but is hard. A life that is marked by contrasts and paradoxes that reflect the glorious richness of our God and Saviour.”
Millar begins by showing some examples of both/and theology. Thus God is both immanent and transcendent, sitting above all things in this world yet being intricately involved in them. The Son is both God and man, the eternal God who took on human flesh. The salvation Christ offers is both a matter of divine election and human responsibility and we cannot understand it without accounting for both. We live our Christian lives as citizens of a Kingdom that is both now and not yet. Hence we are accustomed to these both/ands.
Having established that God and his works involve both/and, Millar shows how the Christian life does as well. Our identity, for example, depends upon knowing that we are both righteous and sinful, that we are both mortal and immortal, and that we are both complete in Christ even as we are also works in progress.
This is true also in our relationships, in our various forms of ministry, and in our leadership. In our relationships, we must speak and listen, we must point out sin in others and own it in ourselves. In ministry, we must depend upon God even while we exert the greatest effort and must use the gifts God has given us even while we remain open to any avenue of service. In leadership, we must be godly and effective rather than choose between them and we must be both servants and leaders rather than only one or the other. In so many ways and so many situations God calls us not to either/or but to both/and.
It would, of course, be easier to live by the either/or approach to life. We would choose the attitudes that come most naturally and pursue those at the neglect of the other. But that would be an incomplete and immature way to live. It is only by acknowledging and embracing the both/and that we emulate Jesus and most become full-formed followers of him. Hence, I commend the book to you and trust it will help you better understand how to live a life that’s fully pleasing to our God.
