Foundation of Ministry
Christianity 101 Series
CCCAG November 10, 2019
Prayer for Veterans and message
Scripture- Ephesians 4: 1, 4:11-12
Intro:
In 2001 and 2002 I was serving as an interim pastor at the first church I ever attended as an adult. We had some newer believers coming into the church that needed some teaching in basic Christianity so the church leadership had me update it because I was attending Bible school at the time, so they figured I was the best person for the job.
That curriculum became something known as “Foundations”.
I rewrote pretty much the entire curriculum and even made a few diagrams for the appendix. When it came to discussing church leadership, I put it and what I considered a very logical Top down progression.
I based this diagram from what I read in Ephesians 4:11 and 12.
Slide 1
We had a little bit different form of governance in our church in that the elder board which handled spiritual matters in the board of directors which handled the secular matters were 2 different groups of people. I had to submit the curriculum to both boards for approval.
One of the elders, his name was Larry, pulled me aside and said that my diagram of church leadership was wrong. I said show me biblically where I am wrong. Larry pointed out that within Paul’s writings, the first sentence or two at the beginning of any chapter generally puts the rest of the chapter in context, and that is especially important in Chapter 4.
Eph 4:1-2
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
Larry showed me that Paul wasn’t even speaking about spiritual leadership yet, but was referring to the church as a whole and saying that everyone is called into some sort of spiritual leadership based on your position in Christ as one of God’s children.
One of the truths I want you to really internalize and believe for yourself this morning is this- Every person here is a big deal in the spiritual realm.
You are a son or daughter of the King of Kings and Master of the entire universe. If you are here this morning living in defeat it’s because you don’t understand or believe this simple truth.
After Larry explained that to me, he the Top down list and flipped it over and said this is the appropriate way to see church leadership
Slide 2
This agrees with what Jesus said about the principle prerequisite of anyone who aspires to spiritual leadership.
That principle prerequisite is that of being a servant. Those who want to be a leader must first learn to serve before they learn to lead, just like those who want to be a long distance runner must first learn to walk before they every learn to jog. As you see in the diagram, the leadership supports and serves the church, not the other way around.
Looking back 19 years I've come to realize the wisdom in Larry’s critique of my work.
I was 31 years old when I began my work on that foundations class. In about 3 weeks I'll turn 50.
I have been around the spiritual block a few times. I’ve seen it from a new converts eyes, a servant’s eyes, a board member’s eyes, an associate pastors eyes, and finally now as a senior pastor.
I have learned many valuable lessons, often painfully.
One of the most important lessons I have learned is this-
The need for promotion, position, and power are 3 cancers that kills spiritual leaders.
Consider what the need for Promotion, position, and power did in the beginning. These deadly cancers turned an Archangel or cherubim into a devil so they have to be recognized and avoided by anyone who desires to be aspire to servanthood in the church.
If church leadership is not Godly servant leadership, God will not bless it and the end result will always lead to destruction.
With this in mind, we're going to be looking at this thing called “the ministry.” We will be flipping through a lot of the Bible and the scriptures will be using will be on the back of your bulletin so you could stay ahead and stay up with us if you want to follow in the Bible.
To start off I want to point out again the verse Larry pointed out to me- Ephesians 4:1
Eph 4:1-2
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2
Here are some questions that are vital to the understanding of what we will be talking about here-
Who is Paul talking to in this first verse?
Is it the pastor of the church in Ephesus?
Is it the leadership?
Is it the deacon board?
NO!
He is talking to the church congregation in his letter. What does he say about the congregation? “Live a life worthy of the calling YOU have received”
Every single person under the sound of my voice right now is called into the ministry. You are called by virtue of who you are in Jesus Christ. You have a spiritual position because you are a child of God.
One of the reasons the 21st century American church has gotten so weak is because we have forgotten this truth, or we acknowledge this truth but refuse to live it.
One of the missions I have this morning is to help you take your eyes off of whoever is standing behind this pulpit and start looking inward to what God has for you.
God did not save you to sit in a Pew . God called you to serve in his Kingdom. This position of serving HIM has been reserved for you before God said “Let there be light!”.
God told the prophet Jeremiah-
Jer 1:4-5
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
The calling of God to service is the birthright and the responsibility to everyone who calls Jesus Lord and Savior. This lesson today is speaking as much to everyone listening as it is describing the functions of leaders in the congregation.
Saying that- There are specific positions or offices within the body of Christ that serve as leadership or as trainers to the body, and they are found in Ephesians 4:11-12
Let’s read about those.
Eph 4:11-16
It was he (Jesus) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until 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.
We are going to look at the servant ministry positions we see in the church.
Again-Emphasis on servant. These are not high and lofty positions, but ones that are sacrificial and should have the same heart as Christ- to give up their lives for the people they serve.
These are your spiritual leaders or mentors in the faith. They are your servants whose role it is to help mature you in the faith, to guide you into God’s will for your life, and then help you fulfill that role so that you will receive a wonderful reward when you stand before God.
They are unique positions in the body and come with a few qualifications.
The first qualification is to be a student of the Word of God. Paul wrote 3 pastoral epistles to men who he had discipled or trained to be elders or spiritual leaders of churches. The first person was Timothy over the church at Ephesus, and the second was Titus, the elder or pastor presiding over the church at Crete.
He wrote to Timothy the importance of being a student and steward of God’s Word-
2 Tim 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
That is the first qualification for spiritual leadership in any capacity. You need to be a student of God’s word, and you need to let God’s word Study you.
That brings us to the second scriptural qualifications, and they are character and personality qualifications found in 1 Tim 3 and Titus 1.
This list of qualifications is in both these chapters of the Bible and are fairly identical, so we'll just focus on the one in first Timothy chapter 3 today.
Before I read it I just want to point out that the Greek word for overseer is also translated elder in other parts of the Bible. This position in the church would be most closely attributed to what we call a pastor today.
As you may remember from 2 weeks ago, we saw that the New Testament only uses the Greek word Poi-men once in regards to a spiritual position once in Ephesians 4:11, but otherwise it’s only used to refer to shepherds over sheep.
Let’s look at Paul’s personality, character, and spiritual qualifications for leaders in the church-
1 Tim 3:1-13
3 Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap.
8 Deacons, likewise, are to be men worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain. 9 They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience. 10 They must first be tested; and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons.
11 In the same way, their wives are to be women worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.
12 A deacon must be the husband of but one wife and must manage his children and his household well. 13 Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus.
NIV
Let’s break this down a little, because we can all look at a list like this and think- no one except Jesus every met these qualifications.
1. Desire. “IF anyone sets his heart on being an overseer”
This is speaking to calling. God has to call you into this ministry. If you try to do with without the calling of God- it will be a disaster both for you and for the people who you try to serve.
When I read articles about pastors who have failed in ministry, just about every one of them will say that they wanted a position, but never really received a calling for it.
Jesus’ little brother, James tells us this-
James 3:1- Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. ESV
This verse serves as a sober warning for those who would consider spiritual leadership. There are two reason’s James gives us this warning.
The first thing
I can tell you 1st hand that there is a difference between the spiritual attack I received as a person in the pew, versus being an interim pastor, versus being a board member, versus being an associate pastor, and now being a lead pastor.
Let me illustrate this-
If I’m placed on call at work and I need to not sit around the on call house all day, I often go and sit on a bench or in my car down by the dam in Black River Falls. One day the guy who runs the dam came down from some maintenance and I asked him how he decides how many of the 4 gates that are on the dam to open. He told me he gets a readout upstream from the dam in Hatfield and if the water pressure is increasing, it alerts him to run down and open some gates.
The water flow upstream determines the actions of the dam under it.
Bringing this back to what we are talking about this morning in regards to the heaviness of spiritual attack-
When I was-
Person in a pew- one gate with moderate water flow.
Interim pastor- 2 gates with moderate flow. I had a lot of pastoral responsibilities but the big decisions remained with the boards.
Associate pastor and board member- 3 gates with heavy flow.
In all three of those positions- I could always walk into someone else’s office and get perspective, advice, and direction.
Lead pastor- it sometimes can feel like all gates open fully with water coming over the dam. I have my district presbyter, and Dale helped tremendously in my first year here, but in the end, but buck stops at my desk.
That’s spiritual warfare aspect, and it’s something that is hard to explain to people who have never experienced it, but trust me it’s there.
The second thing about James’ warning is the aspect of stricter judgment by God with people He calls into servant leadership.
Why is there a stricter judgment?
I’m going to quickly go over a complicated truth, so if you have questions let me know at the end of the message shoot me a phone call for email.
God always judges based on revelation. (repeat)
Let me give you a quick example- does the devil or his demons have any chance of being saved?
No. Why?
Because they had as complete a revelation of God as any created creature can. They stood in HIS very presence and saw HIM without filter.
Humanity didn’t get that in the beginning. Adam and Eve saw God as creator and in their innocence had a limited understanding of His nature.
Because of this, the cross was written into the plan of God.
Tie that into our subject today- why are spiritual leaders subject to a greater or more strict judgment?
Because ideally, we should have a greater revelation of God through our studies and through our increased prayer and devotional life.
Saying that- as I said in the beginning, we are all God’s children and called to a specific function in HIS kingdom. In today’s digital age Americans are without excuse when it comes to knowing who God is and what the bible teaches. Everyone who has a digital device can access free Ph.d level education in biblical and theological studies.
If God judges the The American church it will be because of our lack of discipline and for spiritual laziness. We are starving to death in the midst of an all you can eat buffet because we are too lazy or too distracted to lift a hand and take of the food readily available to us.
That helps explain the next part of this list in 1 Tim 3- the spiritual/personality qualifications.
In verse 2 it says that the overseer must be above reproach. That’s the standard for spiritual leadership. The rest of this chapter is a summary of what that looks like in practical terms.
“The husband of one wife”
This is speaking against polygamy or polyamory meaning more than 1 wife which was common in Paul’s time, not necessarily to divorce. Jesus and Paul give several reasons for divorce such as infidelity or an unbelieving spouse abandoning the marriage. I don’t think divorce automatically disqualifies a person from spiritual leadership. However, if you are on divorce #4, we would look at that a bit differently- at least call into question your judgment in picking spouses.
As we continue to look at the qualifications, we see some personality or character attributes that should be present. These can all be tied back into fruits of the Holy Spirit-
Temperate- not given to huge emotional mood swings
Self-Controlled- not easily lead into potentially sinful activity
Respectable- the elder/pastor/overseer is respected by others
Hospitable- makes outsiders or new people feel welcome.
Able to teach- had to be able to mentor people and explain the bible to people- “study to show yourself approved”
Not given to drunkenness- pretty self-explanatory
Not violent, but gentle- most importantly in speech and in action
Not quarrelsome- not looking to cause fights
Not a lover of money- most will not get rich doing ministry, and in fact we are rapidly approaching a time where a biblical church will not be able to support a full-time minister- they will all be bivocational as they were in Paul’s day.
Manage his own family well- as much as it is up to him/her, their first ministry is to their families.
Not a recent convert- no specific timeline given, but it does take years for the Holy Spirit to develop the character to be able to withstand the pressures of ministry. Just like you don’t throw an 18 year old high school graduate directly into Combat without some basic training, you shouldn’t throw a new covert directly into ministry.
Good reputation with outsiders- This follows not being a recent covert. This is tricky, and sometimes it means not being a spiritual leader in the town you grew up in, or having to leave for awhile before you do.
Remember Jesus had zero respect in Nazareth. A prophet has no honor in his own country.
Those are the general prerequisites of an overseer/elder/pastor. Deacons have pretty similar qualifications and are often seen in some circles as the first step toward being an overseer. In our fellowship, we generally see Deacons as being more servant minded or being part of the official church board.
Finally I want to conclude with the mission of overseers/pastors/elders.
It’s seen in Eph 4:12- Eph 4:12-13
to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until 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.
There is a reason that we want spiritual maturity in the pews. It’s for the health of the church for sure, but it’s also for your benefit. God wants you to be as successful as you can for Jesus in life, and to reap the maximum reward in eternity.
One of the main lesson’s my former pastor Ron Auch taught us is this-
No one has ever regretted living a spirit led life once they see Jesus in heaven
If we as a church body have and developing servant leadership in all areas of our church body, we will have the following result.
The result-
Eph 4:14 Then 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. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From 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.
NIV
And that is the application for us today.
Does this last scripture describe you?
Are you being tossed around in the sea of life?
There are two questions I have for you then-
What has God called you to do? If you are not fulfilling your calling, you are missing out on God’s maximum blessing, presence, protection and provision in your life.
Second, are you submitted to the leadership God has place in your life?
When we talk about biblical submission to authority it’s not about the pastor getting his or her way. It’s about you receiving the maximum blessing of God in your life.
Finally, I end with this scripture-
Hebrews 13:17
Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.
It’s not about me. It’s about you being completely blessed and fulfilled in God’s Kingdom.
I am very blessed to say that probably 99% of my ministry here in Whitehall has been a joy and I’m blessed beyond what God should ever have done for a wretch like me.
Thank you for that.
Q&A Altar Call
