Politicians are currently arguing something called “The New Green Deal.”  We don’t want to get into the politics and economics of anything, but we do want to make a point: if there is a “new” green deal, there must also be an “old” green deal.  Or better stated, an “ever” green deal.

So, what is “The Ever Green Deal?” Who came up with it? And what’s it all about?  

The New Green Deal harkens back to and looks forward to a return to the Garden of Eden, a return to a life more in tune with nature or “gardenesque.”  So, let’s visit two gardens found in Scripture as we look to rediscover and understand the Ever Green Deal. 

IT IS NOT GOOD FOR MAN TO BE ALONE

Garden statement number one:  Eden. 

In Genesis 2.18, God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.”  

This qualifies as one of the most amazing statements in all of Scripture. Think of it!  Adam lived in a perfect world, sin-free and blessing filled.  He had “face-to-face,” no limits fellowship with God. 

And yet, in a sin-free creation, in perfect fellowship with God, God said Adam was somehow alone.  God knew Adam needed another human being with him, someone like him and yet different from him – someone with whom he could share life on a human level. So, God creates Eve – someone who can share Adam’s life with him, someone like him and yet different from him. Eve will share the journey of life with Adam.  She will walk with Adam in relationship just for relationship’s sake. 

Though fantastic, this really shouldn’t surprise us. The individual members of the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – are not alone but have each other in relationship. Just so, Adam and each of us is not to be alone. Each of us should have someone like us, but different from us in life, someone with whom we can share life on a human and personal level. 

But not only will Eve walk with Adam; she will also work with him.  She will share the journey of carrying out the divine mission of cultivating the Garden of Eden.  After the Fall, she will work with Adam in the divine mission of filling the earth with the knowledge of God. 

Neither should this surprise us. The individual members of the Trinity not only relate to each other, but they carry out a shared mission together. Father, Son, and Spirit do not work alone, but together in all things. The works of Creation and Redemption are carried out by each member of the Trinity working together in one shared mission. 

Eve will walk in relationship with Adam. Eve will work in relationship with Adam.  

Relationship in mission.  Mission in relationship. The Ever Green Deal, given to us by God in the Garden of Eden, is the extension of the relationship and mission of heaven’s Trinity in the world, expressed in humanity as we walk and work together in relationship and the mission of God. 

Why? Again, for the sake of relationship itself:  to know the joy and fulfillment of being in relationship with someone like us but different from us. And second, for the sake of mission:  for help in tending the particular garden God has given each of us in life, and in filling the earth with the knowledge of God. 

Genesis 2.18 serves as the first of two highly significant garden statements God has made on The Ever Green Deal. 

MAY THEY BE ONE, SO THE WORLD WILL KNOW YOU HAVE SENT YOUR SON

Garden statement number two: Gethsemane.  

On the night before he is to be crucified, Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane: 

“Father, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”  John 17.21

“Father, make them one, so the world will know you have sent your Son.”

In these words, Jesus prays the heartbeat of the mission of God: Mission in relationship.  Perhaps with an eye back to the Garden of Eden, the Son of God prays for the unity of His servants. Why? 

First, for the sake of relationship itself: it’s not good that any one of us be alone. It is not good – it does not give birth to God-goodness – when we are not walking in the kind of relationship we see between the members of the Trinity.  While this is true for all people, it is especially true in vocational ministers.  The number one killer of ministers is ISOLATION.  There is no close runner-up.    

Second, for the sake of the mission of God: filling the earth with the knowledge of God. It is only as God’s servants walk in relationship that the earth can be filled with the knowledge of God, the God who is Father, Son, and Spirit – one in unity. 

TWO GARDENS: ONE SEED AND HARVEST

God is a God of relationship and mission: each member of the God-in-three-persons Trinity walks and works with the other members of the Godhead. Relationship in Mission. Mission in Relationship.  

God created each human being for relationship with God.  But as the Garden of Eden reveals, God knows that each human being needs another human being to walk and work within relationship and in mission.  And as the Garden of Gethsemane shows, it is as Christ’s followers walk and work together as one that the world recognize that God has sent His Son to bring all who will do so into relationship with Him. 

In marriage, it is the relationship of walking together as husband and wife, working together to fill the earth with the knowledge of God at a nuclear family level.  

In the church, it is the relationship of walking together as brothers and sisters in Christ, working together to fill the earth with the knowledge of God at a local church and universal Church level. 

In vocational ministry, it is the relationship of walking together as servant-leaders in Christ, working together to lead our ministries in the mission of filling the earth with the knowledge of God at a local church and universal Church level. 

This is The Ever Green Deal. 

It’s a deal that proclaims, “It is not good that man (or woman) be alone.”  Each needs someone to walk with in relationship and to work with in mission.  

It’s a deal that prays, “Father, make your people one that the world may know You have sent Your Son.” It is as we walk and work together in relationship that the mission of God is accomplished and that we come to know the God of mission ever more deeply. 

It is this mission of a restored relationship with God that is the heartbeat of His church. And it is only in relationship with others that we can carry out our God-given mission. After all, how else would we ever carry out that mission of restoring relationship with God except in relationship with those who have, like us, been restored to right relationship with God?

MORE THAN A PRAYER

This prayer in John 17.21 is not an isolated statement in the life of Jesus. It is how He carried out mission His and ministry on earth. It is an expression of his ministry model.  

Jesus’ model for reaching our world with the Gospel is expressed beautifully by Gordon MacDonald:  

With a world of millions to reach, Jesus budgeted the majority of his time to be with just twelve simple men. 

It’s interesting that when Jesus launches His public ministry, He begins preaching to large groups. We see this in accounts like the Sermon on the Mount, the Feeding of the 5000, and the Feeding of the 4000. But the longer Jesus is in public ministry, the more private He becomes.  The more and more He invests in fewer and fewer people.  The more and more His mission is relationships – The Ever Green Deal. 

Jesus talked to thousands, but He walked with 12. 

The last half of His earthly ministry is really focused on two great missions:      

1.  Getting to the Cross  

2.  Preparing 12 men to continue His mission after He is gone.  

Jesus’ approach to preparing these twelve men is not only unique, but it dramatically contrasts with the currently popular liberal arts education training program for ministers.  How did Jesus prepare the Twelve for the ministry and then to take over His ministry after His death, resurrection, and ascension? 

Not in classes studying the various –ologies. 

But in literally sharing life’s journey with Him for almost three years:  

Walking the road with Jesus.  Looking. Listening. Talking ministry, theology, and life. Meeting people. Watching Jesus. Coming to know the other disciples. Talking with each other about Jesus, ministry, theology, and life. 

Sitting at table with Jesus. Relaxing. Eating. Enjoying food and fellowship. Laughing. Getting to know each other. Talking ministry, theology, and life. 

Praying with Jesus.  Reciting the Word of God. Praising. Singing. Asking. Waiting. Being still.  

Being with friends.  Meeting. Sharing. Celebrating. Comforting. Encouraging. Eating. Listening. 

Resting. 

Ministering with Jesus.  Watching. Helping. Serving. Learning. Listening. 

Ministering for Jesus.  Preaching. Teaching. Healing. Casting out demons. Encouraging. Comforting. 

IS THERE ROOM IN MODERN MINISTRY FOR THE EVER GREEN DEAL? 

Is there yet room for any of this in the life we demand of our pastors and ministers?  Is there yet any desire in us for our spiritual leaders to have this kind of life? 

And isn’t it interesting that Jesus sends His disciples out in ministry not one by one, but two-by-two?  

In 21st century America, we would probably send them out one-by-one so as to hit 12 or 70 regions in order to maximize the ministry and to maximize it now.  Not Jesus:  he sends followers out two-by-two so as to maximize not the ministry, but the minister.  And not for the immediate now, but for a lifetime of healthy and effective ministry.  Build the minister, you build the ministry.  And you do so for a lifetime of healthy and effective ministry.   

Why does Jesus send His disciples out two by two instead of one by one?  In four words:  The Ever Green Deal! 

For the sake of accountability.  As two walked and ministered together, each could be a check on the other: “That is or isn’t how Jesus said to do it.”

For the sake of encouragement.  As two walked together, each could breathe life into his partner’s self-doubt:  “You can do this, you’ve got this, we’re in this together.”

For the sake of sustainability.  Ecclesiastes 4.9-12 says it so well:  

“Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

THE OLD GREEN DEAL OR THE EVER GREEN DEAL? 

Yes, politicians are talking about a New Green Deal. Will it see the light of day? Who knows? But the “Ever Green Deal” is as old as the Garden of Eden and as new and fresh as the relationships – and potential relationships – in your life and ministry today. It’s a “deal” – a covenant – that acts on the principles upon which Jesus built His ministry training program on mission in relationship. Walking with twelve. Going two-by-two. Relationships based on accountability and encouragement. That translates into sustainability.

These three have been values of Journey since our inception in 2013. But Jesus had the idea first:  Build the minister – in the way Jesus built ministers – and you build the ministry; you do so for a lifetime of healthy and effective ministry. Building in relationships, you expand, extend, and execute the mission of God: from your living room to the ends of the earth.   

EVER GREEN DEAL, EVER NEW FIRE

First Corinthians 15:6 tells us that Jesus appeared to more than 500 believers after his resurrection from the dead. The apostle Paul goes on to tell us that with only two exceptions, those of Peter and James, Jesus always appears to groups of believers – at least two persons, but often more.

The most complete telling of any of these appearances is the account of the Emmaus Road disciples, seen in Luke 24:13–35. On the afternoon of the Resurrection, and unaware that Jesus has been raised from the dead, two disciples wander home from Jerusalem. They are not so much going home as they are escaping Jerusalem. They are escaping all they had experienced there. And the questions sting: why did Jesus have to die; we thought he was the Messiah; what will now happen to all we have lived and worked for; what will happen to us? 

As they walk along the way, Jesus joins their journey asking why they are so downhearted. Because of their hard hearts and lack of faith, the two disciples do not recognize Jesus. They openly give voice to their discontent, hurt, disillusionment, and pain. Jesus answers not with psychology but with the Scriptures, explaining why the Messiah had to suffer and die – Mission.  And then, over dinner, Jesus reveals himself to them:  Messiah is with them – Relationship.  

Excitedly, the two disciples talk with each other about what had just happened: 

“They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?’ And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!’ Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.”

“Did not “our” hearts burn within “us” as Jesus talked to “us” on the road? Did not “our” hearts burn within “us”as Jesus opened to “us” the Scriptures?  

Not “my” and “me,” but “our” and “us.” Their two hearts burned as one heart. 

A shared Journey – one that was missional and relational.  How revealing that Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of bread. That this refers to the sharing of a meal at table is clear. But we also know that breaking bread in Jewish culture at this time was much more than just feeding each person’s individual, physical body:  it was a shared time of building relationship, shared life, and shared journey. 

POST-ASCENSION

And The Ever Green Deal doesn’t stop with the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus:  the Twelve continue not only the ministry of Jesus, but they continue His ministry model:  they carry out the mission of Jesus in relationship with one other. Mission in relationship. 

The Twelve do life and ministry together. And they invite other believers to join their journey. 

The Book of Acts says they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers.  And to experiencing them together.  Mission in relationship. 

What happens as a result is powerful. Acts 2.43-47: 

Awe came upon every soul; 

Many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles; 

All who believed were together and had all things in common to meet each other’s needs;

They had glad and generous hearts, 

They loved praising God together,

God gave them favor with all the people outside the church, 

And (wait for it) the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. 

Mission in Relationship.  

The Ever Green Deal. 

FINAL WORD

Yes, God has formed each of us for mission: we are to make disciples of Jesus in all nations, beginning where we are. We are to tend our garden, and we are to fill the earth with the knowledge of God. 

But God has also formed us for relationship. In fact, He formed us first for relationship. And relationship is why the mission exists in the first place.  Mission in relationship:  the two never need be separated.

“Father make them one as we are one, so the world will know you have sent your Son.” 

This is The Ever Green Deal. It’s the only “deal” in ministry that leads to the sustainability of the minister and the ministry.  

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NOTE: Journey Pastoral Coaching provides pastoral coaching to Millennial ministers.

Saddled with large student debt, just beginning to set up homes and start families, and serving in low paying first and second positions, Millennials are those who most desire but can least afford to pay for pastoral coaching.

So we offer it to them at NO COST: Our members do not PAY for coaching; they EARN it.

We are able to do so through the faithful and generous gifts of friends who want to see young leaders not only enter the ministry, but remain in the ministry. If you or your church would like to help Millennial ministers in 21 US states and 5 nations build strong for a lifetime in ministry, please click here to contact us by email or to support Journey monthly or with your one-time gift. Thank you.

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“In the early years when I was becoming a pastor, I needed a pastor.” 

 Eugene H. Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir