Ministry Made Simple

 The task of spiritual leadership may

not be easy, but neither is it complicated.

When God called us to serve as leaders in

the church, He did not give us the 

responsibility to build the church. Instead,

He gave us the responsibility to proclaim

His word in order that people might be

transformed into the character of

Christ...

Ministry is really simple; it's a matter

of preaching the Word, loving the 

people, and living our lives as an

example for others to follow.

Glen Daman

Leading the Small Church

Page 224

                                                  

If You Don't Have a Philosophy of Ministry, Get One

Everyone who has been in ministry for any length of time has a philosophy of ministry. Whether they have thought through it thoroughly, or articulated it fully, they still have one. A philosophy of ministry is what you believe ministry is about, what you believe ministry is to accomplish, in essence it is your raison d'etre (reason for being). It is the mindset behind why you do what you do.

A philosophy of ministry is your guiding light, and will inform and be the foundation of all that you do. It will guide you in how you do church, from choosing curriculum and staff members, to structuring worship. It will influence every decision you make. It is your vision of what you want to accomplish in your ministry.

That is why it is important to take the time to think through what you believe about ministry and why, and then write it down. Tinker with it and adjust, make sure it reflects what you really believe. Of course, when related to the church, it needs to be based on biblical principles, and reflect biblical values. It is not a doctrinal statement, but will reflect doctrinal beliefs. 

If you are planting a church you need to have thought this through. If you are applying for a pastoral position, you need to be able to provide this to the search team. If you are choosing a pastor, you need to know this about the applicant, as that is how he will conduct his ministry; and if he does not have one or cannot articulate it, then pass him by.

I am sharing mine below as an example. 

Philosophy of Ministry

We want our people to:

     Know God  (Jeremiah 9:23-24, I John 4:16)

            So that they will be secure in their faith  (Isaiah 43:10, I Peter 1:2, John 4:42,

            II Peter 1:2, 3:17-18, Hosea 4:6))

     Love God  (II Corinthians 5:14-15, Deuteronomy 11:13)

            So that they will be sincere in their faith  (I Timothy 1:5, Hebrews 10:22)

     Glorify God  (Matthew 5:16, Romans 15:6)

            By being steadfast in their faith  (Psalm 112:7, I Corinthians 15:58)

     Know and Understand the Word  (Psalm 119:11, 27; I Peter 2:2)

            So that we can learn to think with the word (Romans 12:2, Psalm 119:24)

            So that we can view life through the word  (Psalm 119:14-15, 24)

            So that we can live life by the word  (Psalm 119:32, 59, 105)

We believe this is best accomplished by expositional preaching and teaching.

We want our people to corporately participate in and experience:

     Fellowship--which is the body sharing in the things of Christ, the work of Christ, the

     love of Christ, and ministering to one another to build each other up in love.

     I Thessalonians 4:9, II Thessalonians 1:3, Hebrews 13:1, I Peter 1:22-23, Psalm 55:14,

     Acts 2:42, I Corinthians 1:9,  12:12-14, 18, 25-26, II Corinthians 13:14,   

     I John 1:3, 3:14

     Praise and Worship—which is the exaltation of God alone, and is a witness to the

     believer and non-believer of all that God is through Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

     Deuteronomy 11:16, I Chronicles 16:29, Psalms 2:11, 21:13, 22:22-23, 29:2, 30:4, 12,

     Psalms 33:10, 66:4, 95:6, 99:5, John 4:23, Exodus 15:2, Deuteronomy 10:21,

     I Chronicles 23:5, 29:13, II Chronicles 5:13, Nehemiah 12:46, Hebrews 2:12, 13:15

     Prayer—which we believe is one of the great callings of the church. It is corporate

     prayer, not only when the church is gathered together, but also when the church

     members pray individually for a common concern and for kingdom issues that the

     church is the most unified and spiritually effective.

     Matthew 6:9, 19:13, 21:13, 22, Mark 11:17, Luke 1:10, 18:1, 10, Acts 1:14, 2:42, 3:1,

     Acts 12:5, 16:13, 16, Romans 12:12, Ephesians 6:18, Philippians 1:19, 4:6,

     Colossians 4:2, I Thessalonians 5:17, 25, II Thessalonians 3:1, I Timothy 2:1-4,

     James 5:16, I Peter 3:12, 4:7, Revelation 5:8, 8:3-4

We want to provide our people with:

     Spiritual Leadership—which should guide, guard, and feed the flock, and also be     

     an example to the flock. Leadership should also be concerned with the spiritual

     development and training of younger men to provide continuity in church leadership.

     I Timothy 1:11, 18; 3:1-7, 6:20, II Timothy 1:14, 2:2, Titus 1:3, 7-9, Acts 14:23: 15:2,

     Galatians 2:7, I Thessalonians 2:3-12, I Peter 5:1-3

The Five Essential Elements of a Gospel Ministry

In Colossians 1:24 -2:5 Paul bares his heart with the Colossians concerning the ministry given to him by God. And in the middle of this section, in verses 1:28-29, he distills the gospel ministry down to its essential elements.

"We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom , so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me."

So in these two verses we see the five essential elements of a gospel ministry. They are passion, preaching, purpose, perspiration, and power. If you look at Acts and the other Pauline epistles you will see these elements in the life and ministry of Paul. Let us look a little closer at these essentials.

Passion

In these verses we see Paul's passion for the person of Christ and for the people of God. We see his passion for Christ in that it is Christ, and Christ alone, that he is proclaiming, and it is Christ likeness that is his goal for every Christian. We also see his passion for Christ in this section of Scripture dealing with his ministry as Christ is the mystery which he seeks to manifest in his fully carrying out the preaching of the Word; and that his desire is for all to have the full assurance that comes from the true knowledge of Christ, Himself. This certainly fits in with what we see in I Corinthians 2:1-2 where he speaks of proclaiming the testimony of God and that he was determined to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. We also see how this fits with his own personal spiritual goal as revealed in Philippians 3:7-12 as he counts all things to be loss, to be rubbish compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord; and he presses on to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, so that He may lay hold of that for which he was laid hold of by Christ.

Here we also see his passion for the people of God, individually, as he uses the phrase every man three times in verse 28. Paul's main concern was not for the church universal, the corporate body, but for the individuals that make up that corporate body. His passion was to present every man, not the church, but, every man, before God as complete (fully mature) in Christ. It is not the church as an institution that Paul cares about, but the church comprised of individual members. We also see this laid out more fully in I Corinthians chapter 12 as Paul talks about the corporate body being made up of the individual members, which he gives particular emphasis to in verses 14 and 27. There is an old adage among us as pastors that if we pay attention to the depth of our ministry that God will take care of the breadth of our ministry. I believe that you can apply that same principle here. If we will take care of the individuals in our own flocks, having a passion for presenting each and every person under our charge as spiritually mature before God, then God will work through them to take care of, shape, and build the church corporately. We see this principle presented more fully in Ephesians 4:11-16.

So we see that the pastor must have a personal passion for Christ, must seek to have Christ at the center of his preaching, and must have conformity to Christ as the goal of his preaching. His concern must be focused on the individuals of the church rather than the church corporately. And we see that Paul's spiritual goal was the same for those he was ministering to as his personal spiritual goal. Shouldn't it be the same for those of us who are pastoring today?

One of the things that has bothered me about the Church Growth movement has been the emphasis on the church as an institution. Church Growth conferences and seminars deal with the strategies, techniques, and methods to grow the church corporately, but that is never the emphasis given in the Scriptures. The emphasis in the Scriptures is always on the spiritual growth, the growth in salvation of the individual, his Christ likeness, his conformity to Christ, his growth in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his understanding of the will of God for his life. When the emphasis is put on the growth of the church rather than the growth of the individual, then the individual becomes a replaceable cog in the wheel, part of the means to the end, and his only value is related to his ability to help the church reach its goal; and when he is no longer deemed useful he is discarded and someone else is plugged in to take his place; and when this takes place spiritual growth grinds to a standstill.

Preaching

Everywhere that Paul went he followed much the same pattern in his preaching, which was proclaiming Christ, admonishing, and teaching. The word proclaim means to declare or to announce aloud, to make known publicly. Paul always publicly declared the truth, the facts about the person of Christ and the work of Christ in order to make Christ known. We see this in Acts 17 as Paul was in Thessalonica and was saying "This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ." Later in Acts 17 as he was preaching to the Athenians he spoke of Christ and His resurrection. In Acts 13 :14-41 Paul preached the story of Jesus and proclaimed forgiveness of sins in His name. In I Corinthians 15:1-8 Paul makes known the gospel which he preached to them and this gospel centers around the person of Christ. In the epistles Paul talks about our position in Christ, our identity in Christ, our conformity to Christ, our reconciliation in Christ, our inheritance with Christ, our walk in Christ, our baptism into Christ, our freedom in Christ, our salvation in Christ, our righteousness in Christ, our redemption in Christ, our justification in Christ, our peace in Christ, our sanctification in Christ, our obligation to Christ, our relationship to Christ, our strength in Christ, our growth in Christ, our marriage to Christ, our hope in Christ, our faith in Christ, the love of Christ, the work of Christ, the person of Christ, the power of Christ, Christ our wisdom, Christ the living Word, the glory of Christ, the beauty of Christ, the headship of Christ, God's purpose in Christ, and we could go on, but in all of this we see the power of God unto salvation, in all its fullness, in the preaching of Christ. Paul determined to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified, so that He alone would be the focus of our faith, not only for salvation, but for daily living as well.

Along with his proclaiming Christ Paul also admonished and taught. These two terms are really the two sides of the same coin. To admonish means to put into the head, to warn by instructing. It is to say don't do this because this is what will happen if you do. We see an example of this in I Corinthians 10:1-13 as Paul uses the example of God's dealing with the Israelites and the consequences of their sin as a warning to the Corinthians, and to us as well. In I Thessalonians 4:2-8 we see another admonishment, this concerning sexual immorality. In Paul's presentation of the gospel to the Athenians in Acts 17 he warns them of the day of judgement to come. In Ephesians 5:15-17 Paul admonishes the Ephesians by telling them to be careful about how they walk and to not be foolish, but to understand what the will of the Lord is. Admonishment puts sense into the head where it is needed.

The word for teaching means to instruct or to explain. It is telling someone what to do, how to do it, when to do it, why it should be done, and the basis or foundation for doing it. We see Paul instructing and explaining in the verses immediately following this section in Colossians where he bares his heart. We see his instruction in I Thessalonians 5:17 to pray without ceasing. In Romans 12 he tells us not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, giving our bodies as a living sacrifice so that we may prove what the will of God is; that which is good, acceptable, and perfect. The pattern in all of Paul's letters was to lay the doctrinal foundation first, then move to application, with both being instructional, which follows the pattern given in this section of Colossians....proclaiming Christ, admonishing, and teaching. Should we not follow the same pattern in our preaching as well?

Purpose

As I mentioned earlier Paul had the same spiritual goal for those he ministered to as he had for himself and this was his purpose, his chief aim, in his ministry, to present every man before God complete (fully mature) in Christ. Notice, it was not to build a big church, to have a certain number of baptisms, to get them plugged into the life of the church, or merely about getting them saved, but it was about them becoming complete (fully mature) in Christ, and for them to stand before God in that mature state. This was the chief aim of the greatest evangelist/missionary of the New Testament. This is the fullness of the making of a disciple.

Why is this important to Paul? Why is it the purpose in his ministry? Because this is God's plan and purpose for each and every person! We see this purpose in Romans 8:29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. We have this promise in Philippians 1:6 ...that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. And we see a picture of its fulfillment in I John 3:2-3 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Paul knew and understood the heart of God and the purpose of God for us as His children, and he did not waver and was not deterred from this purpose in his own ministry. Look at what he told the Galatians in 4:19 My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.

You see, when we are presented to God, and stand before God, how will God measure us, what will be the standard He will use? It will be Christ, the God-man, the perfect man, the man who fulfilled all righteous, the man who was absolute in His obedience, the One who was heard in the time of His tears because of His piety, the One who was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. He is the One who is holy, undefiled, separated from sinners, exalted in the heavens, and is sitting at the right hand of the One before whom we must appear.

If this is God's purpose and, as such, Paul's purpose, should it not be our purpose as shepherds of God's flock and caretakers of His purchase? Are we given another purpose in Scripture? Is this not fulfilling His command to make disciples? Think about it! What could give more glory to God than for all of His children, all of us who have been purchased out of the slave market of sin, to be like Him? And the more we are like Him the more glory we bring Him. So, what is the focus of your ministry? What is the purpose in your preaching, in your vision-casting, in your day to day activities? Is this what drives you, and is it the spiritual completeness of your flock when they stand before God for which you are laboring and striving? Is it for you or for them that you labor and strive?

Perspiration

Speaking of laboring and striving, that is exactly what Paul was doing to accomplish the purpose of God. The word for labor is kopiao, which means to weary one's self with labor or toil. It pictures the bone deep fatigue that comes from relentless hard labor. The word for striving is agonizomai, which means to strain to the uttermost, and we see a picture of this in an athlete straining with every muscle to win a race. The word here is in the present tense, so we see that this working and striving is a continued state in which Paul lives. We see that the working toward presenting every man complete in Christ is an endeavor in which Paul is continually active and a goal for which he is relentless. Let's not kid ourselves, being involved in a gospel ministry is hard work, should be hard work, and we should not only expect to work hard, but endeavor to work hard. In

I Corinthians 15:10 Paul talks again about his own hard work. We see his expectation of this same hard work in others in I Thessalonians 5:12-13 But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor (kopiao) among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. In his first letter to Timothy, in 4:10, he uses the words labor and strive to describe the effort they were to make in their ministry. This labor and striving was not confined to the physical demands and hours involved in the gospel ministry, but as we see in I Timothy 5:17 The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard (kopiao) at preaching and teaching. It takes continuous labor and striving, it is hard work and agonizing, to preach the word in season and out.

Preaching and teaching is meant to be hard work, and coupled with the other demands and concerns that go along with a gospel ministry along with the demands of being a husband and father, and you can see how it can be wearisome and taxing. If a pastor is working to the point of weariness and fatigue then where does His strength to accomplish all of this come from? Which leads to the last, but most essential of the essentials of a gospel ministry.

Power

Paul does not continuously labor and strive in his own strength and ability. Because if he did he would have collapsed under the load and or would have been burned out (see II Corinthians 11:23-29). His own labor was in accordance with the power, the strength of God. The word for power is dunamis, which means mighty power, strength, or ability. It is the word from which we get our word dynamite. Paul's power was in accordance with God's power, and his ability was in accordance with God's ability, and this power or ability was working within Paul himself. It was Christ in Him, working in him and through him that gave Paul the power to do that which God had given him to do. Paul's obedience to the will of God lit the fuse that unleashed the power of God in his life and ministry. There is a distinct correlation between our obedience to His will, our effort to accomplish His will, and his empowering us to perform His will. Paul speaks to this in I Corinthians 15:10 By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

We see a parallel to this regarding our own sanctification in Philippians 2:12-13 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. As preachers and ministers of the gospel, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God, God unleashes His power within us to accomplish His will through us as we work and strive to do our part in accomplishing His purpose of Christ likeness in those whom He has put under our care and our charge. When His purpose becomes our purpose then we are empowered by His power through His Holy Spirit who indwells us.

We are never spiritually self-sufficient. Christ tells us so in John 15 when He says apart from Me you can do nothing. We are told in Psalm 127:1 Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Paul understood this and understood this well as he asks the question in II Corinthians 2:16 And who is adequate for these things? Then he goes on to answer his own question in 3:4-6 Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. His power will empower us as we seek to perform His purpose in our ministry, which is the perfecting of the saints who will appear before Him.

Yes, these are the five essentials of a gospel ministry. We see them in the life and work of Paul, and because of them we see the spiritual effectiveness of his ministry not only then, but as it continues now through his letters. Let us who have been called into the gospel ministry, and have been made stewards of the grace of God, seek to have these essentials be such a part of us that they automatically flow out of our life and ministry; and may we, like Paul, be spiritually effective, eternally effective, in our gospel ministry.

Measuring Your Ministry

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me,

because He considered me faithful, putting me into service.

I Timothy 1:12

(italics mine)

As pastors, our desire should be to be faithful, not successful!  Too much, pardon me...way too much... emphasis is put on a pastor being successful.  Pastors grade themselves, and are graded by others, on the success of their ministry, instead of the faithfulness of their ministry.  There are conferences, seminars, magazines (Leadership), blogs, articles, and websites that are devoted to the pastor's success. There are secular standards of measure that are used such as numbers, growth, baptisms, budget, missions involvement, influence, twitter followers, website or blog hits, and the like.  And, yes, the more 'spiritual' will talk about how true success in ministry is measured in spiritual terms, or how you can't measure success because it is spiritual; but the problem is that the emphasis is still on being successful.

I cannot find one scripture in the entire Bible that refers to a pastor being successful.  In fact, the Bible never stresses the success of the pastor, but stresses the faithfulness of the pastor.  For example see I Timothy 1:12 above and listen to I Corinthians 4:1-2 "Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.  In this case moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found (pistos) faithful/trustworthy.  

This is why we never find any Scriptures where the Lord is measuring our success, but we see where He is always measuring our faithfulness, our trustworthiness.  For example:
Luke 16:10 He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing will be unrighteous in much. For us as pastors we see this principle in Luke played out in Matthew.

Matthew 24:45-46 "Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time?  Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes."  And we see this illustrated vividly for us in a parable of the kingdom, Christ's kingdom, in Matthew 25:14-30. In this parable we see the Master leaving and entrusting his possessions to his slaves, and in verses 21 and 23 we see His commendation upon His return, "His master said to him, "Well done good and faithful slave, You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your Master." Christ has left this earth for a while, and has given us pastors charge over His possessions (His people, see I Peter 2:9, Titus 2:14). His concern, as so wonderfully illustrated in the Scriptures above, is for us to be faithful with what Has given us, and He has not entrusted everyone with the same amount.

You see, when you try to measure success, the only true way to measure is if everyone is given the exact same ministry, the exact same gifting, the exact same set of circumstances, and so on.  But the Lord has not seen fit for it to work in that way.  In addition to the verses listed above in Matthew consider this in Romans 12:3-6 "For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.  For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly; if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith." So there is no standard by which we can all be measured, except our faithfulness.  So as we have seen in Matthew (and also in Luke 19) when the Lord measures "success," He measures it by faithfulness.

What we are concerned about in our ministry will be what we emphasize in our ministry. When our concern is our success, then success, in whatever way we measure it, will be the emphasis; and if success in ministry is our goal, then our ministry automatically becomes about us and our goal(s) and not about the Lord and the accomplishment of His purpose(s).  

As indicated above, the Lord is using us (talking to pastors in particular here), to accomplish His purpose(s). We are the tools, the means, the vessels that He has chosen to use, but it is Him that is accomplishing His purpose(s) through us.  When we put the emphasis on our success, it then becomes us achieving our goals with the Lord's "help."  When the emphasis is on our success, the Lord becomes our means in accomplishing our goals instead of us being the means of the accomplishment of His eternal purpose; and, in effect, the Lord becomes our servant and we cease to be His; and thus, the glory is no longer the Lord's but ours. This is very subtle, but it is rampant in the ministry here in the states, as we have corrupted the ministry with the American success syndrome. In considering this, let us look at a few Scriptures that can give us the right perspective on this:

Psalm 127:1 Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keep awake in vain.

II Corinthians 3:4-6 Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.  Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit...

I Corinthians 12:4...the Spirit gives the gifts

I Corinthians 12:5...the Lord gives the ministries

I Corinthians 12:6...our God causes the effects

II Timothy 2:21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor; sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared (made fit) for every good work.

II Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.

How these verses work together in a gospel ministry is illustrated in these mysteries:

Mark 4:26-28 And He was saying, "The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows--how, he himself does not know. The soil produces the crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.

I Corinthians 15:10 By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove in vain (because Paul was faithful), but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God with me.

Brother pastors and fellow Christian workers.  Let us no longer be slaves to the secular success syndrome that has crept into the church and try to measure our ministries by artificial and arbitrary standards. Let our concern not be for our success, but for our faithfulness; and therefore let us seek to be faithful in the task, the great and noble task, of expanding the kingdom which was begun in Christ and will be culminated in Christ when He returns and rules.  Let our success be found in our faithfulness to the Lord and to the ministry to which He has called us and has equipped us and gifted us to perform; and let us keep our hands firmly on the plow as we follow His path and pray for His will to be done and not our own.

O Church, Whom are You Pleasing?

O, church, whom are you pleasing? A good question, and a question that every church leader and every church member should ask themselves. Healthy and honest introspection is good. It is good to ask yourself hard questions about yourself. It is good to have a season of self-examination. This is true also for the church, and it should be done by its leaders and its members.

There is a catch phrase that I have heard and read over the last few years, and it is in context of "doing church." It is, "It is not about me." Now this is used to mean that the church service is not for church members, but for those whom the church is trying to reach...the seekers, the unconverted, the non-Christian. It is used as a reason or excuse for the church doing what it feels is necessary to reach the unchurched. It is the undergirding of the philosophy that drives how the church conducts itself, and in particular how it conducts its Sunday services.

Even though it is true that church is "not about me," the application of this truth has been misplaced. It has become "it is all about them," which refers to the unconverted and unchurched. What has been missed here? It is simply this: it is not about me, nor about us, nor even about them....it is about God and His Son, Jesus Christ, and His Holy Spirit.

We have taken the focus in our churches off of God, and placed it onto those who are ungodly. We have ceased focusing on pleasing God, and are now striving in every way imaginable (and there is great imagination used) to please those who are enemies of God. When God gives the command in Hebrews to not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, He did not mean for the church to come together so as to focus on those outside of its self, to focus on anyone other than Him. The minute that the church starts trying to entice the unbeliever, it must start seeking to please the unbeliever in order to draw him or her in; and must conduct its service so as to please them in order to bring them back.

The hard question the church (its leaders and members) must ask its self is this, "In the way we conduct our services have we placed pleasing the ungodly over pleasing God; in our attempts to not offend the ungodly are we offending God; in our attempts to attract the ungodly have we made ourselves unattractive to God?" Has the church placed its affection and adoration on the ungodly and taken it off of the Lord? This is a question that I am afraid is not getting asked.  

Here are a smattering of Scriptures that speak to this. Notice how unimportant man is in these references.

Isaiah 2:22 Stop regarding man, whose breath of life in in his nostrils; for why should he be esteemed. (O church, why regard man if there is no area, no arena, in which he can be esteemed in God's eyes?)
Isaiah 40:17 All the nations are as nothing before Him, they are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless. (O church, even the nations are nothing compared against the great and mighty God who has given us life, breath, and all things!)
Psalm 144:3-4 O Lord, what is man, that you take knowledge of him?  Or the son of man, that You think of him?  Man is like a mere breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow. (O church, have you elevated man above where God has him?  Have you elevated man above God?)
I Corinthians 7:3 You were bought with a price; do not become the slaves of men. (O church, whom do you cater to?)
I Corinthians 8:6a yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things and we exist through Him.
( O church, for whom are you existing?)
II Corinthians 5:9 Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. (O church, is your highest ambition to please Him?)
I Thessalonians 2:4 But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. (Church leaders and members, if God examines your heart to see whom you are seeking to please, what would He find?)
Galatians 1:10 For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? or am I striving to please men?  If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. (O church, have you become the bond-servant/slave of the ungodly by trying to please them?  And in trying to do so have you left your first love and fallen to a lesser spiritual state?)
Leviticus 10:1-3 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on  it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.  And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, "It is what the Lord spoke, saying, 'By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored.'" (O church, by seeking to please the ungodly have you neglected to treat the Lord as holy before them?  In seeking to be attractive to men have you substituted honoring men over honoring the Lord?) 


In the final analysis, there is only One to please. As His body the church is to be a God-pleaser not a man-pleaser (Ephesians 6:6). Instead of trying to be pleasing to the ungodly the church should be teaching them what is required to please the Lord (Ephesians 5:10). O church, remember that it is the Lord Christ whom you serve, not man (Colossians 3:24). O church, examine yourself honestly and rigorously, and make sure you are living to please Him, for it is Him for whom you exist.

Keys to an Effective Preaching Ministry

1. Be diligent in preparation and accuracy.

II Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

I Timothy 4:14-15a Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through the prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.  Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them....

2. Be godly and growing yourself.

I Timothy 4:15b-16...so that your progress will be evident to all.  Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and those who hear you.

II Timothy 2:16-26...vs 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.

3. Be dependent on the Holy Spirit.

Zechariah 4:6..."Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit," says the Lord of hosts.

II Corinthians 2:16b-4:6 And who is adequate for these things? For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.....Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.  Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

4. Be faithful to God by fulfilling your calling.

I Timothy 4:14-16 Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you....persevere in these things....

II Timothy 3:1-2 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:  preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.

I Corinthians 4:1-2 Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.  In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.

I Timothy 1:12-14 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service....and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

II Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.

Brothers and fellow pastors, may this be our heart and our life; and may the benediction of our life be:
I Timothy 1:17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.  And may our lives and ministries bring Him, our King, honor and glory forever and ever!

Vision Casting, God's Way

Vision-casting is a term that has been in vogue in much of churchdom over the last few years. In fact, if you read many blogs or articles, you get the sense that any pastor that is worth his salt now days has this at the top of his priority list; and that it is a must if you are being the kind of pastor you should be.

In a recent paper by Tim Keller on how size affects church behavior, he posited that once a church gets to a certain size then the pastor should have staff in place so that he can spend his time vision-casting. Another popular blog that I check on from time to time recently posted a list they had run across of the top 10 attributes needed in a church planter, and number one was....vision...you must have it and be able to sell it. Two years ago I watched a video of a church service from a up and coming SBC church in South Carolina and whole service was about this vision that God was birthing in the pastor for the new and improved direction for the church. What was he doing? He was selling his vision to the church. I listened to a staff member of another church talk about what his responsibilities were, and how his performing his duties were enabling the lead pastor to spend more time vision-casting, as this was so important for this pastor to be doing. I use these examples to show how vision-casting is ubiquitous in the church and no section is immune to it.

What is vision-casting you might ask? Boiled down to its essence, it is nothing more than strategic planning. It is a business model and practice that has been co opted by the church and made to sound like it is indispensable for building and pastoring a church. Now don't get me wrong, some planning and thinking through critical issues regarding his church is needed by every pastor; but it is not the most important thing he does, and I don't believe it is even near the top of the list.

As pastors, if we truly need to have a vision for our church, would it not seem logical, even important, to see if the Bible gives us information or instruction as to what God's vision for the church is, so that we can then implement that vision. Knowing, after all, that it is His church, not ours, so any vision we have for the church must be in keeping with His vision.

In looking into the Scriptures for what the Lord's vision is for His body, what we find is His vision for the body is intrinsically tied to His vision for each individual believer, as He wants the same for each and every one of us. What is God's vision for each one of His children? It is Christ! Romans 8:29 tells us "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren." This is God's vision for each believer, to become like His Son. Let's look at Ephesians 4:13 and 15 to see what His vision is for the individuals who make up the church, "until we all attain to ...the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. ...we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ."

Christ likeness is the vision that God has for all of us who are His beloved children, and He will accomplish that in our lives. Philippians 1:6 says this, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." And I John 3:2 gives us this promise, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is."

What is the means through which God will accomplish His vision for us while we are here in this world? It is the teaching and preaching of His word. And reading through Ephesians 4:11-16 you see that God has given pastors and teachers as the main means to carry out His vision of Christ likeness. Let's look at some verses that show us what Paul, the ultimate pastor, has to say about his responsibility in the carrying out of this vision. I Timothy 1:6 he says this, "The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." In Galatians 5:19 he puts it this way, "My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you." Finally, look at his God given vision for each person in Colossians 1:28-29 "We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works in me." Notice how the phrase every man is used three times here in admonishing every man, teaching every man, so that we can present every man. And what is the purpose for which Paul labors and strives in this admonishing, teaching, and presenting every man? It is so that every man may be presented complete in Christ, fully Christlike, lacking in none of the attributes of Christ. In other words, Christ fully formed in them and them fully conformed to the image of Christ. Did Paul tell Timothy to be spending his time vision-casting? No, he told him to study to show himself approved, to preach the word in season and out, to guard the treasure entrusted to him, and to entrust it to faithful men who would do the same. It is the word of God that God uses to conform us to Christ. In fact, it is the the word put to music in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs by which we are to teach and admonish one another.

My fellow pastors and teachers, is Christ likeness your vision for your church, for each and every member of your church, each and every person that the Lord has allotted to your watch care? When you spend your time vision-casting, is this vision of Christ in each of your people the vision that comes to your mind? If not, may I dare suggest that your vision is not God's vision. If you are spending time envisioning and planning for anything else other than this then you are wasting your time; and it is time that cannot be redeemed and effort that will be wood, hay, and stubble before the judgement seat of Christ. You will have labored in vain, you will have envisioned in vain if this is not your vision for your church.

In envisioning and planning, everything that the church does should be subservient to and facilitate reproducing Christ in each and every soul brought under and assigned to its care. In Matthew 28:19 Jesus commissioned the church to make disciples, not build ministries. Pastoral vision casting should be concerned with accomplishing God's vision as He has laid it out in Scripture, not coming up with unique and clever concepts to build ministries or attract crowds. As pastors, God's vision should be our vision. We are not allowed to have our own vision for the church, or to make the church according to our vision. If you will make God's vision your vision you can trust Him to build His church, and you will have built for eternity and upon His word, which is the only sure and lasting foundation.

See also: A Vision of Christ
http://morris-pressingon.blogspot.com/2010/01/romans-829-for-those-he-foreknew-he.html