5. A Cupbearer Is Both Ministry Coach, and Missional Incubator

The last two Cupbearer roles—the ministry coach and the missional incubator—are more common in our ministry culture. Many people call themselves coaches, and many want to plant the seeds of mission in others. However, the distinctive of the cupbearer approach is that it would encourage the minister to apply the humble-shared glory motif throughout all areas of their ministry. Similarly, the mission that ought to be incubated and released through their ministry is intentionally Trinitarian and relational. If there is less mission or orthodoxy than desired, the Cupbearer might use a problem-posing approach, asking the pastor to think about an answer and then follow up later.

Cupbearers as ministry coaches will encourage the development of kingdom values, building on the Trinitarian glory model (i.e., It is shared, humble, and invitational) in keeping with Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount and specifically the beatitudes. From these kingdom values, will come an analysis of the fruit of the ministry entrusted to them, not the false narrative of the numbers game but the kind of fruit that issues forth from the presence of the Holy Spirit in a faithful believer. The role of a ministry coach is neither to hand out participation trophies nor is it to shame pastors into conforming to a popular model. It is rooted in the teachings, commissions, and promises of Jesus Christ and is motivated by the love of God poured into our lives, as Paul wrote to the believers in Rome,

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)

In such an approach, God sees to it that nothing is wasted. We can rejoice even in suffering for it produces endurance à character à hope. At the very least, suffering is laboratory learning! Jesus, our savior, and example, became human to identify with us, and in the process, the one who is omniscient in his divine nature actually learned obedience through suffering in his human nature. As Hebrews 5:7-10 says,

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Missional incubation is a natural function of the Cupbearer's calling for they are as committed to fulfilling the missio Dei (mission of God) as anyone if thought is taken to do it Jesus’ way and in cooperation with others. In the west, we like strong leaders, who get things done, but at the same time, we don’t like being told what to do. What we need are spiritual leaders that fully expect that their followers are hearing from God and are empowered by the Holy Spirit in their own lives and don’t need the leader to tell them what to do in order to do what needs to be done. The late Ron Mehl once shared in a pastoral staff meeting,

“A strong leader says, ‘This is what we’re doing!’

 A spiritual leader says, ‘What are we doing?’ He has the willingness to release   

 leadership to [others so they can] do what they are called to do.”

I love the stories of a former missionary who never told national pastors what to do (“You need to plant a church in such-and-such town”) but simply asked them questions about what they might do (e.g., “If you were to plant a church where would you plant one?”) which peaked their imagination and incubated the mission already placed within them from the Lord. Cupbearers, like Jesus in his passion, do not seek to shout in the streets, neither adding to the bruising experience of life in ministry, nor snuffing out the smoldering wicks of your dreams and callings (Matt.12:19-21), but rather they desire to restore, rekindle, and release it.

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:6-7) 

Is there something that God has put on your heart to do, but the pressures of daily ministry and the fear of the unknown have kept you from doing it? Perhaps now is the time to revisit it.