creation and administration
“1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day....
10 And God saw that it was good.”
The most fundamental belief for Christians is that God is Creator. God created everything that has existed, does exist, or will exist. And He created it all from nothing (creatio ex nihilio). It is the first words of Genesis. And it is the first section of the Nicene Creed, which says, “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.”
In fact, God is God because He created everything from nothing. In Classic Christianity: A Systematic Theology, Thomas Oden writes, “God is ungenerate, without beginning, the original cause of the coming to be, sustenance, and destiny of all creatures” (125). Unlike other ancient religions, Yahweh is not a god because he defeated another god in battle or because he tamed chaos or controls the weather, but because He is the author of everything that exists. In Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, Andy Crouch says it this way, “Genesis begins with a Creator, purposeful and pleased with his work…there is no violent conflict among gods and monsters here, no irresponsible and threatening chaos, just the hushed sound of divine breath in the dark” (20). What makes God worthy of worship is the fact that he created everything. Unlike other religions where god is worthy because of what he does, for Christians God is worthy because of who He is as Creator.
And God did not create from existing material. He spoke and creation was. Where humanity creates using raw materials from the earth, like a carpenter using wood to build a table or a baker using milled grains to make bread, God created everything from nothing. According to Roger Olson in The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition Reform, the theological concept of creatio ex nihilio was introduced by Theophilus, a bishop of Antioch, in opposition to the Greek philosophical view of the universe as eternal (i.e., having no beginning and no end). Theophilus argued that “eternal matter would limit God… if God is truly infinite and perfect, then the universe must be created freely and our of absolutely nothing” (64-65). Quoting Augustine, Oden writes, “God brings forth out of nothing, according to his sovereign will, the visible universe and the invisible or spiritual sphere. Creation is entirely an act of divine freedom (Augustine, City of God 11:24)” (131). Oden argues the theology of creation from nothing “counteracts the pantheistic implications that matter is eternal. It also rejects the dualistic implication of another kind of equally eternal power standing contrary to God. Humanity is not made “out of nothing” (as is God) but out of “the dust of the ground” by God (Gen 2:19)….There is no other source of creation than the will of God (Heb 11:3; calin, Inst. 2.2.20)” (126). Or as Ken Wystma writes pointedly in Create vs. Copy: Embrace Change. Ignite Creativity. Break Through with Imagination, “only God creates completely from scratch” (31).
More importantly, God’s creation is good. Creation is good because God said so. In first chapter of Genesis, there are six affirmations from God regarding the goodness of His creation. Beth Felkner Jones says it this way in Practicing Christian Doctrine: An Introduction to Thinking and Living Theologically, “creation is good because it is the good work of the Triune God…all of creation is God’s work, and God who is goodness, made it all good” (85-88). Creation is good because the God who created everything from nothing is good. The goodness of creation means it is not necessary to withdraw from the world to experience God. The goodness of creation affirms that God cares about how we interact with the world. Christian spirituality is not about retreating from the world, but about how we chose to engage the world. Because God created it all. And because everything is good. If we do not begin with the inherent goodness of creation as Scripture does, it will inevitably lead us to a dualistic view of the world. While sin has distorted creation, “the fact that we are sinners does not undo God’s good creation, as if humans could destroy the work of God” (Jones 110). The brokenness of the world does not mean the world is inherently bad and needs to be escaped as proposed by the gnostic perspective. It means the world is in need of redemption and restoration.
Which brings me to the main point: God created administration and administration is good.
Just as God created everything on Earth, God created church administration. Ken Wystma writes, “we are all familiar with the idea of God as Creator, that He created the heavens and the earth – but [Scripture affirms] that He also created the blacksmith and is over [the creations of the blacksmith]” (42). God created church administration. He created the buildings. He created money. He created accounting and finance. He created technology. And he is over it all. There’s a famous quote by Abraham Kuyper, “there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” God created, and is present in, everything we use and do to manage the church.
And just as creation is good because God declared it good, church administration is good because God declared it good. Accounting and finance are good. Budgets are good. Maintaining facilities is good. Technology is good. Policies, procedures, and processes are good. God created church administration to work in a certain way to bring Him glory. Administration is not just necessary, it is good.
As church leaders, when we view administration in competition with ministry, when we treat ministry as more important than administration, we fall into the dualistic trap. And we take for granted the inherent goodness of God’s creation. Yes, administrative work is different than spiritual work. But differences do not mean hierarchy.
In the same way in which we can experience God by admiring the beauty of His creation in a sunrise, sunset, mountain view, or the ocean, we can experience God by admiring the beauty of His creation in church administration.
References:
Classic Christianity: A Systematic Theology by Thomas C. Oden
Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch
Create vs. Copy: Embrace Change. Ignite Creativity. Break Through with Imagination by Ken Wystma
The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition Reform by Roger E. Olson
