Make Your Move
Part 2: Let the Pastor Move Over
“[Jesus] was interested primarily in having disciples in whom and through whom His ministry would be multiplied many times over.”
-James D. Smart
The Rebirth of Ministry
Key Scripture: Ephesians 4:11-16
Key Thought: The responsibility of a church’s pastor: the ministry of the Word of God and equipping the congregation for the work of the ministry.
The 1st time the word for “equip” is used in the New Testament is in Luke 4:19, (the “fishers of men” verse.)
Icebreaker: The results of a computerized survey indicate the perfect minister preaches exactly fifteen minutes. He condemns sins but never upsets anyone. He works from 8:00 AM until midnight and is also a janitor. He makes $50 a week, wears good clothes, buys good books, drives a good car, and gives about $50 weekly to the poor. He is 28 years old and has preached 30 years. He has a burning desire to work with teenagers and spends all of his time with senior citizens. The perfect minister smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his work. He makes 15 calls daily on congregation families, shut-ins and the hospitalized, and is always in his office when needed.
Intro: What’s our #1 core value as a church? The Bible is our authority for life. Do you believe that? Do you really believe that? That the Bible tells us how to live our lives? Okay, do you believe the Bible tells us how to run our church? Do you believe that the Bible lays out very clearly what the New Testament Church should look like in function and form?
-Okay. I want you to remember that as we look into God’s Word this morning. Because, for many of you, what we’re going to talk about it going to be difficult, because it represents a major shift in our philosophy of “doing church.”
-For some of you, you’re going to leave here today more energized and motivated than you ever have been for God’s Church. I hope that you’ll rejoice in seeing what God’s Church really is for the first time, today.
-For others among you, today is going to be painful. Because what we’re going to talk about today seems so different than what we’re accustomed to around here. Some of you may think, “No, this can’t be right.” But remember, the Bible is our authority for life. We believe what the Bible teaches and we want to put in into practice, even when it contradicts us. So I hope you’ll see that if there’s pain today, it is a good pain, it’s a needed pain.
-Some of you may even be offended over what we’re going to talk about, today. Heaven forbid we be offended at church, right? You may even start to feel a little angry. Because this is going to seem so contrary to what you believe that it’s going to seem like I’m preaching a false gospel. So I want to remind you, one more time, before we dig into this fundamental teaching on the Church, that the Bible is our authority for life. That means everything. So if you start to feel truly offended at what we’re talking about, just remember, this isn’t my opinion that I’m preaching. It’s what the Bible says. And I’m not trying to persuade you towards my opinion. This is God’s Word stating an emphatic truth, whether we like it or not.
-So, with that being said, some of you are probably freaking out already. “What on earth are we going to talk about, today?” Some of you are already in cold sweats. Just chill out and let’s look into God’s Word.
-For a recent survey of 5,000 pastors across the United States, they asked what their greatest needs were in their churches. Of those 5,000, 98% said their #1 or #2 need and priority was to get the lay people of their churches involved in doing the work of the ministry.
-In his book, The Rebirth of Ministry, James D. Smart says, “Jesus was not satisfied in having a succession of audiences to which He might proclaim His gospel. He was interested primarily in having disciples in whom and through whom His ministry would be multiplied many times over.”
-In Ephesians 4, Paul tells us what our responsibility as pastors is to you in the congregation:
Scripture: Ephesians 4:11-16
“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
-The apostle Paul, inspired by God, wrote that the moment that I equip you to do the work of the ministry and you begin doing the ministry, ere will maturity, edification, and growth in the church.
-You see, Paul teaches us very clearly as pastors that we are to equip you to do the work of the ministry. In other words, one of the greatest days of my life is when I understood that you pay me to get you to work in the church. That’s why the title of the message today is, “Let the Pastor Move Over.” In fact, until the pastor equips the congregation to do the work of the ministry and moves out of the way to let them do that ministry, the church will never be what it should be.
-The responsibility of the pastor, according to God’s Word, is to equip the people of the congregation for the work of the ministry. That’s my job. I want for us to look in depth together at what this equipping means and how we’re going to do it.
-“Equip is a very interesting word. The 1st time we find it in the New Testament in the Greek, is associated with Peter, James, and John and Andrew. Remember them? They were fishermen, and Jesus came by one day and sad, “Follow me and I will make fishers of men.” Do you remember what they were doing when Jesus came to them? They were mending their nets. That word, “mending” in the Greek is the exact same word that Paul uses in Ephesians 4 when he says that pastors are to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry.
-You see, fishermen didn’t actually catch the fish themselves. The nets did that. The job of the fisherman was to mend the nets – to equip them – so that they could actually do the work of reaching the fish.
-So, with that as our background, let’s talk about the root of equipping. Let’s dig in to the truth of God’s Word about the Church. When you think about mending and equipping, 3 important truths jump to the forefront:
3 Important Truths about Equipping
1. Equipping is a continual process.
-Fishermen never quit mending their nets. It is never completed. Everyday after fishing , they bring tin their nets and look at them, and of course the fish and the hull have torn them, so they mend the nets again. They never have a day when they say, “Well, I think I’ve mended this net once and for all. I don’t thik it’s ever going to be a problem again.” Everyday, they know they’re going to go back out and fish, only to come back to shore and mend the nets again. It’s a never-ending process.
-Mending nets is always under construction. Equipping people is always under construction. There’s never a time when you are totally equipped or totally discipled. So, the pastor who wants to have no fuss, no mess, won’t enjoy equipping. The church that doesn’t want to upset anyone or risk things getting a little messy won’t enjoy equipping.
Illustration: I heard about an ex-pastor who became a funeral director. Somebody asked him, “Why did you leave the pastorate to become a funeral director?” He said, “Well, it’ really simple. Pastoring was a mess. I remember one girl I tried to dry out and get her off of alcohol. But she just went right back to it. One guy I tried to straighten out the mess he had made of his marriage. For 2 years, I tried, and the marriage is still a mess. I just got so frustrated.” And then he said, “I became a funeral director because here when I straighten people out, they stay straight.”
2. Equipping is for the purpose of work.
-The mended nets are not just for display. In fact, as soon as the fishermen finish the mending the nets, they take them out fishing again. The old hymn says, “work, for the night is coming.” It doesn’t say, “just feel like something good is going to happen, for the night is coming.” It doesn’t say, “just get together with your Christian friends once a week for the night is coming.” It says, “work.”
-So this really represents a shift from the way many people understand church. Many people believe that the church exists to serve them, so then as an extension of that, the pastor is there to serve their needs and work for them.
-But let’s consider this: Why do we attend church? What’s the purpose? Many people aren’t really sure. I’d like to suggest to you that there are 3, and only 3 reasons we should be coming to church:
1. To Know – A time of worship when we focus on God.
2. To Grow – We come so that we can grow in our
spiritual walk and development with Christ.
3. To Go – We take what we have learned and pass it on.
-You see, when we receive without giving, we become fat.
-And when we give without receiving, we become faint.
-And when we receive and then give, we become faithful.
-You see, coming to church is like getting into the huddle at a football game. We’re here to call the plays and get the strategy and to go out and do the work of the Lord. So may church just call the huddle, and when they’re done, they all go and wait for another huddle. The don’t have a plan, a strategy, a goal. They just have “holy huddles” all the time. You know, hold hands, talk about how close of family we are, sing kumbayah, get a guitar, and a fire, roast a few marshmallows, ask each other how we’re doing, and go home.
-But Christian, the nets are meant to go to work. To bring in fish. We should be coming to church to learn something and do something with it.
3. Equipping is an extension of the equipper’s work.
-When those fishermen are mending nets, they know they’re going to extend their success. Those nets are going to go where they cannot go and get fish that they could never get. So, why equip the saints? So the saints can also be an extension of this church’s ministry.
-Our goal for Millville Avenue Church of God is different people with different backgrounds, using different gifts at different times in different places to meet different needs – all for God’s glory!
Illustration: Have you ever been to the circus and seen the guy spinning the sticks on the plates? You know, he gets the plats spinning on the sticks. He gets one going really good and then he goes to the 2nd one and then to the 3rd and so on and so forth. You know what happens when he gets down to the very last plate? That plate down there on stick #1 is about to fall of its stick. But he’s got it time just right, so he rushed back down there and spins them again. That poor guy sweats himself to death.
-You know, that guy reminds me of a lot of pastors. You see, in too many churches the pastor does everything. He has to touch everything to make it move, and it he’s not there, it doesn’t go. He has to be at every event that goes on in the church, or some people feel like the event was a failure. He has to visit every single person in the hospital and every single shut-in or some of those people are going to feel like they haven’t “really” been visited. Forget the fact that 10 laypeople from the church came by and spent hours with them.
-People ask, “Where’s the pastor? You’ve got to get the pastor.” Then they say, “Oh thank God, the pastor’s here, now this event is worthwhile.” Or, “Thank God, the pastor’s here, now I’ve really been visited.”
-But you know what the problem with that is? First of all, it really demeans the lay people’s ministry in the church. It says to those people, “Well, I know you’re in charge of this ministry, but the pastor really needs to be here or you may screw something up.” We’ll talk more about that next week. But the other problem with that is that the pastor becomes like that man spinning all those plates. Eventually, he’s going to miss some of them and they’re going to start crashing down. It’s inevitable. Because believe it or not, the pastor isn’t Superman. He’s flawed and fallible – just like you.
-So why doesn’t more equipping happen? Why don’t most churches really let the pastor move over and everyone do their part? There are 10 reasons:
10 Reasons Why Pastors Fail to Equip People
1. Pastors lack training in this area.
-I went to Christian University for 4 ½ years. In those years, I never had one class on how to equip people to do ministry. Now, I had my Bible classes. I had my preaching classes. I had my counseling classes. But I never had one class on how to equip you to do that work of the ministry. You see, they taught me how to be a theologian, but they didn’t teach me how to be a pastor or a leader.
-You know what? The first time I ever had an elder’s meeting here, I didn’t know how to have an elder’s meeting. I’d never been trained, never had one class on how to conduct an elder’s meeting. I mean, hey, why would my college want to teach me something that I would use every month for the rest of my life, right?
-“Christianity Today” magazine says that 85% of the things that pastors learn in college, we never use in our ministry. 85%! So please be patient with me. Even though biblically I’m supposed to equip you for ministry, one of the reasons I don’t is because I lack the training on how to actually do it.
2. Pastors are not expected to equip people.
-In fact, usually the expectation of the congregation is for the pastor to do the ministry. Isn’t that right? The average layperson, you know what they say? “That’s what we pay him for. Where’s he when I need him? We pay him for that; that’s why he collects a salary.” And in many denominations, even, the pastor is expected to do the work of the ministry.
-John Maxwell said one time…0 and 50,000 calls.
3. Pastors receive ego satisfaction from being needed.
-There’s something fulfilling to the ego when people need you. In fact, some pastors become co-dependent upon their people. Have you ever known somebody who was co-dependent on someone else for their entire sense of self-worth? There are pastors who are co-depenedent on their congregation. Their whole senese of meaning and worsh and fulfillment comes from their people needing them.
- Every pastor knows what it’s like to walk in the hospital room when there’s an emergency and have the people say, “Oh thank God, Pastor, you’re here.” And we wouldn’t tell you guys, but boy that old ego is just stroked real good then. “Oh yes, I’m here. Hallelujah, I’m here. And I tell you if I didn’t show up, these people would never have a chance in life.” But you know what? I’ve never seen a surgeon look up and say, “Oh thank God you’re here, Pastor.”
4. Equipping people is hard work.
-It’s just plain hard. It’s much easier just to do it yourself. Someone said once that, “If you travel by yourself, you can rise up early and walk, but if you travel with somebody else, you must wait for them.” Do we have any people in here who are the, “If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself” people? You know why equipping is so hard then, don’t you?
5. Pastors feel that lay people are inadequate.
-Some pastors just don’t think that their laypeople can do the job. I mean after all, you folks haven’t been to seminary where you learn 15% of stuff that you’ll actually use. You don’t know any Greek so you certainly could never have an effective ministry. I bet you don’t know any Hebrew, either so how could you possibly help someone in the name of Jesus? Obviously, that thinking is ridiculous. But you know what else is ridiculous? #6:
6. Lay people feel inadequate.
-Laypeople say, “You know, I don’t think I can do that. I don’t think I have those abilities.” Are you sure? By the way, have you taken the spiritual gifts assessment on the church website, yet? Just click the tab that says, “Grow” and you’ll see it.
-Many people tell their pastor, “Oh pastor, I just don’t think I’ve got anything to offer.” You know what they’re really saying? “I don’t think I can preach or teach or sing or any of the other visible ministries of the church.” Do you know we have a dozen ministries here at church, but this morning you’ve only seen about 3 of them? The ladies of our church are having a clothing and school supplies giveaway next Saturday. They’ve already been down the in the gym preparing for it. Sorting clothes and hanging stuff up. They haven’t been seen. But those women fulfilling what God has called them to do is just as important and me standing up here to preach and fulfilling what God has called me to do.
7. Pastors are in the habit of doing everything.
-Many pastors have done it all their life. I know some pastors, bless their hearts; they have a hand in all the ministries of their church. The got big key rings on their belts. I mean, they’re throwing their hips out of joint because they carry so many keys. But do you have any idea the toll this takes on a pastor? Just do a Google search for “Pastoral Burnout” when you get home and read some of the articles and studies that have come out. They will shock you.
-Listen to these stats: (Mark Driscoll)
Pastors
• Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches.
• Fifty percent of pastors’ marriages will end in divorce.
• Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.
• Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.
• Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.
• Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.
• Almost forty percent polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.
• Seventy percent said the only time they spend studying the Word is when they are preparing their sermons.
Pastors’ Wives
• Eighty percent of pastors’ spouses feel their spouse is overworked.
• Eighty percent of pastors’ spouses wish their spouse would choose another profession.
• The majority of pastors’ wives surveyed said that the most destructive event that has occurred in their marriage and family was the day they entered the ministry.
-Listen church, I say this as someone who really does love you and cares for the future of this church: You can’t have all of me. I’m getting married to the most wonderful person I’ve ever met on January 8th of next year, and her heart and the spiritual and emotional well-being of my family will always come before my work in the ministry of this great church.
-Many pastors are in the habit of doing everything. And it ruins them.
8. Pastors are unable to find people to work.
-This is a big problem. But you know, I believe that when laypeople seem unwilling to work, it’s not just a lay problem. It’s also a leadership problem. I believe that when we expect it and teach it to our laypeople, you guys will respond. I’ve seen it time and time again already in the short time I’ve been here. You’ve responded incredibly. And the most exciting part of ministry for me is watching you find your gifts and then using it for God’s glory. It’s like watching a beautiful flower, who never knew that it could be so beautiful, bloom.
9. Pastors are insecure.
-Sometimes laypeople are not equipping because pastors say, “What happens if a layperson goes out and does a better job than me? Oh my goodness, they won’t need me.” I want to tell you all something: the happiest day of my life will be the day when you don’t need me for everything in the life of this church. Because that will mean that I’ve done what I’m supposed to do, and that is to equip the church to do the work of the ministry.
-The greatness of this church isn’t in the pastor, it’s in the people who are using their gifts for God’s glory.
10. Pastors do not understand this responsibility.
-Unfortunately, this is the case for most pastors around the nation. They don’t understand what the Bible calls them to do. They spend all their energy and effort preaching, teaching, visiting, having meetings, etc…that they completely miss out on what God has clearly said in His Word is their biblically role.
Conclusion
I want us to be a congregation where every person uses their gifts for the glory of God. Let’s pray.
- (Pray that people would find their gifts and use them. Pray for obedience. Thank God for this congregation. Pray for God to encourage them.)
