by Stuart Estes
Last month, I said the old saying was, “Hindsight is 20-20,” and I told you about some things God had been working out in my head and heart over the past few months. This month, the old saying goes like this: “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
While you may be able to hammer in a screw, the more appropriate method for doing that would be to use a screwdriver. That is also something God has been teaching me about the work at The Hedge.
In the world of ministry, there are basically two different designations for an organization — “church” and “parachurch.”
The church is the bride of Christ, the body of Jesus and the temple of God. The church has Christ as its cornerstone, the apostles were its first building blocks and, according to Jesus, “the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). Every person who has ever trusted in Christ should also be an active and dedicated member of a local body.
We all know there are other organizations out there that advance the gospel which are not exactly churches. They don’t have members who commit themselves to God and to one another in covenant bond. They don’t administer the ordinances — baptism and the Lord’s supper. They aren’t the bride, the body or the temple of God.
But that does not mean they aren’t composed of His people or can’t contribute in very valuable ways to God’s mission to redeem people from every tribe, tongue and nation. In fact, they are uniquely positioned to come alongside the church — they are parachurch ministries.
The Hedge is a parachurch ministry, and I want to be the first to point that out if you’ve never heard it. I also want to confess that I had lost sight of that reality over the past year.
I had started to treat the work at The Hedge like “church” work — we had a worship service every Tuesday night, I was teaching some theologically deep things at those services and there were even a few altar calls. These things are not bad in and of themselves, of course, but they are indicative of ways that I kept pushing us into church territory when we should clearly be operating more like a parachurch ministry. I realize now I had started to use a hammer on a screw.
So, going forward, it’s my goal to start leading a parachurch ministry, which will have three primary effects:
• We will be relentless about our purpose. The Hedge exists to develop high-impact Christ followers with eternal and global perspectives and priorities. We aren’t making a church or a thing that looks like a church. We are developing Christ-followers one person at a time.
• We will be relentless about our audience. Those high-impact Christ followers will come from the body of University of Arkansas students. This is not the place for young professionals or college-aged young adults. It’s not that they aren’t important — they just aren’t our audience.
• We will be relentless about evangelism, discipling and mobilizing. These three are the key to developing high-impact Christ followers, and every effort should feed into these. If it does not, it must change or no longer remain a part of ministry programming.
I hope God will take these things and make this parachurch ministry more effective. The Hedge is not a church, but if we can use the appropriate tools and, more importantly, keep sight of our fit within the kingdom, I trust He will help us do just that.
That’s what I see when I look back on the last month at The Hedge.
Will you join us in praying for wisdom for upcoming back-to-school events, the new freshmen friends in the fall and for laborers in the harvest?
