Start It Up, Then Ask Permission. What We Can Learn from Mother Teresa and Francis of Assisi
The Catholic Church is quite approachable when it comes to organizing new mission enterprises.
The Catholic Church is famously centralized in Rome, yet is surprisingly open-minded toward members who start their own ministries. For example, when Francis of Assisi heard the Lord say, “Repair my church.” he came upon a church that had fallen into ruins and began rebuilding its walls. He later realized that God was telling him to repair the spiritual church, not its buildings. Francis persuaded 11 men to join him. Their simple vow: “To follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to walk in His footsteps.” Then he went to Rome where, by a kind of miracle, the pope agreed to meet with them. The pope recognized “The Franciscans” after they had been active for some years. The order numbered 5000 by the time of Francis’ death.
The Catholic Church authorizes two kinds of organizations, one for regular worship, administrated by priests and bishops, the other for extraordinary mission enterprises conceived by freethinking lay men and women for some good purpose. Ralph D. Winter called the reciprocity between them “the enviable Catholic synthesis.” A respectful relationship between the administration of the parish and the administration of mission enterprises has been fairly well achieved in the Catholic Church. This is in some contrast to the hurt felt by Protestant leaders when church members start or join mission efforts that did not originate in the boardroom of the church. It is a puzzle to me why our Reformed tradition appreciates the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, yet retains a sense of injury when ordinary church members start new organizations for the purpose of some good deed. We could learn from the Catholic model, since it is nearer to two administrations of the gospel recognized by Paul and Peter in Galatians 2, as we wrote about here. Paul and Peter sealed it with a handshake.
Catholics approve of the fact that untrained people start many good missionary enterprises. Francis never was ordained as a priest. Nor was Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits. Many famous Jesuit missionaries brought Christianity to “the regions beyond.” Francis Xavier sailed for Japan, Matteo Ricci went to China, and Eusebio Kino founded the first Catholic churches where I live in Arizona. The largest of all Catholic missions, Opus Dei, is organized completely by lay men and women. Opus Dei runs just fine without clergy.
The most interesting thing about the Catholic orders is that their founders started them and then asked permission. For example, Mother Teresa established the Missionaries of Charity in 1948. Two years later, in 1950, she received permission to do what she was already doing. That is the correct order; first get started, then ask permission to do what you have already begun to do. In 1968 the Catholic church in Rome asked Mother Teresa to establish a home for the poor there. Mother Teresa staffed it primarily with nuns recruited from Calcutta.
The Catholic Church, then, is actually quite de-centralized. Untrained members are free to start new mission enterprises. Missionary orders are the expression of entrepreneurs who set their ideas in motion and then asked permission to carry on with their work. How does the reader feel about that?
“founders started them and then asked permission.” A working formula for much of life.
Great article tocayo (same named friend in el español). You mention many of my historical heroes Bob… Assisi, Xavier, Loyola, Ricci and Mother Teresa. As much as I loved the article, there is also the need to point out the ‘dark side’ of the enviable de-centralization of the Catholic Church to permit mission enterprises. As one who has worked day-in and day-out in predominant Catholic regions of Latin America since 1990 mobilizing evangelicals to unreached areas of the world to include the regions of Assisi, Xavier, Loyola, Ricci and Mother Teresa, there is also the sad fact that these lay movements have created boatloads of syncretism over the centuries so much so that even Roman Catholic doctrine is unrecognizable. Included in this has been the unsavory fact of sanctioned RC theologies eg. Theologies of Libertation or Ad Extirpanda that have not only done harm to the Gospel presentation, but also to physically destroy advancement of the Gospel of the Kingdom. I have applauded the reform movements of the RC Church and have worked side-by-side in some instances, but the ‘untrained members starting new mission enterprises’ have many times set up spiritual strongholds that have contributed to darkness all over the world, to include the Opus Dei movement as personally witnessed in my adopted Colombian homeland where it has been as sinister and dark a tool as anything known to man, contributing to murderous, wicked criminals operating secretly through mafia networks and cells to not only justify criminal behavior, but also organize it with some measure of ‘Catholic sanctioning’ to their aberrant activities. Just some additional things to think about in light of the article. For His glory and always a friend, Roberto
I concede the point; boat loads of syncretism have swamped the Catholic church in South America. The priests suppressed the reading of the Bible. Hopefully it is a new day today.
Good work. Rob Collins says hello
Regarding centralisation and the person of the pope, in particular: most Catholic Christians throughout the ages had very little awareness of who the pope was at a given time, much less what he thought or said or wrote about this or that issue. The concept of the pope as a global figure who traveled around the world and was involved in the government of regional Churches (dioceses) outside of Italy is a novelty that really only goes back to the days of John Paul II, who was pope from 1978–2005.
Good post!
Thanks Bob, this is excellent and very interesting. It is something I will contemplate though I am already pretty much in agreement with what you have to say.
Mark Kreitzer
From time to time, I have started some ministry activities when I felt that leadership was not addressing them. I’m not sure if this is the preferred method of doing God’s work but things I thought needed to be done were accomplished. Can you cite some biblical examples to substantiate your thesis when it comes to missionary endeavors?
Thank you for reading, Lew, and for asking a good question.
Mission initiatives in the Bible.
1. In Luke 3 John the Baptist and his disciples initiated a mission at the banks of the Jordan river. The leaders of the temple came down to pay their respects . . . This is a textbook example of religious administrators expressing their unhappiness with a ministry that they did not initiate. “What is going on here, John? Show us your credentials.” Don’t suppose this only happened a long time ago.
2. In Matthew 4 Jesus our Lord began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” He called two fishermen, Simon and Andrew, saying, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” The priests and the administrators (scribes) came to pay their respects . . . This is another textbook illustration of a mission initiative that got started despite the disapproval of the religious administrators.
3. In Acts 9 the Jewish priests DID initiate a mission, but it was not one to be proud of. The priests deputized Saul to go to Damascus and arrest the believing Jews and restore the peace, purity, and unity of the Jewish faith. The disturbance that began with John the Baptist’s mission and expanded with Jesus Christ’s mission was not authorized and more extreme measures would need to be administered.
4. Saul became a Christian, “the least of the saints because I persecuted the church,” and initiated his entire mission without permission by the Jewish religious administrators in Jerusalem. It was God, of course, who was initiating John the Baptist’s mission, Jesus Christ’s mission, and Paul’s mission.
5. In Acts 10 the servants of Cornelius asked Peter to come with them to Cornelius’ house, and Peter did so. This is the longest story in the book of Acts and brought about the conversion of Cornelius’ entire household. However, in Acts 11:3 Peter returns to Jerusalem, only to be accused by the believing Jews, “You ate with the akrobustia!” That is a word the Jews “made up” to make fun of the Gentiles. It is a word of very serious contempt, and it is an indication of how unwilling the Jews were to be respectful to Gentiles. Peter told them that God has brought the Gentiles to faith, so we Jews must realize our error and accept what God is doing. This is another example of the Holy Spirit telling untrained people, such as Peter, to start a mission despite its unpopularity.
6. Paul wrote to the Romans and the Galatians to assure those Gentile Christians that they were saved by faith “the same as Abraham.” Paul wrote because Jewish doctrinal deputies had arrived from Jerusalem to urge the new believers in Rome and Galatia to “start doing this and stop doing that.” Paul said that “in every town” the Jewish officials, and sometimes even Jewish believers, made trouble for Paul (and for Prisca and Aquila). So, all the main protagonists of the New Testament: John the Baptist, Jesus Christ our Lord, Paul and Peter carried out their mission despite opposition from religious officials. Had John the Baptist asked permission before he and his disciples began baptizing people and preaching the kingdom of God, where would our world be today?
What an interesting observation, Bob.
The local church would benefit from that same initiative and attitude among the laity, not necessarily expecting eldership to instigate or to fund new outreach.