In November 2010, I contacted my
grandfather, Roy Carter, for a Bible college assignment and asked him about the impact of ethics on his
ministry, particularly during his time as an airport chaplain. What follows is a summary of his thoughts (I wish I had the actual written responses). I am deeply thankful for the wisdom and faith of this godly man, and challenged again in my own life and ministry. In honour and memory of Roy Carter: absent from the body, present with the Lord - April 14, 2015.
One of the biggest ethical issues he
dealt with was determining his role in people’s lives; suspending judgment in
favor of leading them to a personal acknowledgment of their wrong and
ultimately acceptance of Christ. This was difficult, particularly in situations
where he was confronted by brazen confessions of abusive behavior by men who
attempted to justify their actions, blaming their wives or parents for their
own wickedness. Acceptance of this role was often difficult, as the natural
response to these kinds of people was to want to “grab them by the collar and
smack their heads into the wall”; he had to refrain from this kind of reaction
(perfectly justifiable by worldly codes) in favour of Biblical ethics. As a
chaplain, he did not see it as within his right to pass judgment upon people;
in many cases, it had already been passed by someone else (court orders, etc.)
And so, his goal was always to present the Gospel, which is impossible without
the person’s recognition of their sin. On the opposite end of the spectrum, one
time he had to deal with a woman whose husband was heavily involved in witchcraft,
abusing her in cruel rituals; this presented a different kind of challenge, as
though it was important to offer her sympathy, he knew it was necessary to
bring her to the place where she could recognize her sin as well in order to be
brought to Christ, the true solution to her pain.
Grandpa was adamant that the goal of
any work must be bringing people to Christ; if you help people with
psychological issues or comfort them but don’t present the Gospel, then you’ve
done nothing for them. Christ commanded us to go into all the world and preach
the Gospel to all nations, not to go into the world and straighten out people’s
lives, though that should follow as a result of the work of Christ in them. Ministering
to physical needs, etc is important, but it is secondary and even
inconsequential compared to the importance of leading them to Jesus Christ.
This was difficult in the context of airport ministry as there was generally
very little time to work with people. The first question he asked people was what
time their flight was, after which he would calculate the amount of time he had
to present truth. He also approached his ministry with a great deal of prayer,
as he didn’t have the luxury of getting to know people and strategize the
Gospel presentation. He found God to be incredibly generous with blessing his
efforts, often giving him specific scripture passages that dealt with the
people’s issues and helped to make the Gospel clearer to them. Ethically, then,
he faced the issue of making sure that he was being faithful to his calling and
the leading of the Spirit, in presenting the Gospel to as many as possible,
rather than simply comforting and counseling.
The practice of this ethical
approach was quite different when he moved to working as the pastor of a
church; he was dealing with an almost polar opposite situation: a large chunk
of time with people who were mostly born again. When dealing with justice
issues among Christians, he still took the emphasis on the Gospel, reminding
them of who they are in Christ as well as Who their boss is. He would bring
them back to the truth that they are children in the family of God and that
they have the resources in Christ to be brought into holiness; as children,
they need to obey their Father. People need to understand God’s love for them
and love Him in return. This will lead to obedience. He recognized the need to
speak firmly at times, but it needed to be done in love, not in judgment. One
of the biggest temptations for pastors is to judge whether someone is worthy of
the Gospel or not, which is a fundamental misunderstanding of the power of the
blood of Christ.
In terms of the ethical ways of
dealing with conflict in the church, he emphasized that it is important to humble
oneself in disputable issues, not condemning others for holding opposing views
but rather commencing in unity from what can be known; start with obeying
Christ, rather than judging others, neither casting the first stone, nor
pointing out the speck in our brother’s eye. It is also important to keep in
mind, the true enemy of the church, Satan. This is important, for if we target
flesh and blood adversaries, we are both disobeying the second greatest
commandment (to love our neighbor as ourselves) and ignoring the true source of
the attacks.
The most important thing is to not
rely on human ethical systems (which can justify many things contrary to Scripture),
but to rely on the Holy Spirit and the truth of the written word of God. When
God is involved, real change can happen and He can give us wisdom and knowledge
on how to deal with people: not to judge but to bring them to redemption. The
Gospel is the foundation upon which to build ministry; when dealing with social
issues or church conflicts, it is this knowledge of the Truth that sets people
free!
