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Church Leaders Who Help Church Growth (Ephesians 4:11)

By Jeremy Myers
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Church Leaders Who Help Church Growth (Ephesians 4:11)
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Note: This study is from my book, God’s Blueprints for Church Growth.

Once upon a time, in a local church, there were four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. But Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

Then Somebody got angry about it, because it was Everybody’s job. But since Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, and Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it, it ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody and Nobody did the job that Anybody could have done in the first place.

Right about this time, a fifth person visited the church. This person’s name was Confused. He looked around, saw what was happening, and never came back.

All too often, this describes life in the local church. It is unclear who is supposed to do what, and this leads to confusion, frustration, and hurt feelings. But church is not supposed to be this way. God never intended for church to be so confusing. God describes in Scripture who is to oversee the building of the church and who is supposed to do the work. God very carefully delineates in Scripture who is supposed to do what in His church. Since God is the architect of the church, He gets to determine how the church is formed, and how the church grows and functions.

One of the premier passages in Scripture which lays out God’s plan for church growth is Ephesians 4:11-16. This passage describes the leaders on the construction site, which we can think of as the Foremen (Ephesians 4:11), the people who do the work, or the Crew (Ephesians 4:12), the construction Model that we are imitating and turning into a reality (Ephesians 4:13), and the Program goal that the church will fulfill once it is constructed (Ephesians 4:14-16). When all of these pieces are in place, the church will grow as God wants and desires.

who is in charge of church growth - apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers

This study considers the first part element to the Construction site, the Foremen. Every construction site has Foremen. On any work site, the Foremen make sure that everybody knows what they need to know, does what they are supposed to do, and does it in unison so that that the task gets done right. They make sure that the foundation is laid correctly, the walls go up square, and that the wiring and plumbing goes in correctly. They also make sure that things get done in the right order—the sheet rock goes on after the plumbing and the electrical work—and that the right people do the right job—you don’t want the plumber doing the roofing. Without Foremen, the construction site would be chaos.

The same is true for the church. There are four specific spiritual gifts God has given to various Overseers so that they can better shepherd the church. Ephesians 4:11 provides us with the list of four gifts. Now, if you don’t have one of these four spiritual gifts, that’s okay. It just means you have some other spiritual gifts. We will talk about that in a different study, but if you wanted to find out more about your spiritual gifts right now, I have an online course about spiritual gifts and a book about discovering and using your spiritual gifts titled What Are the Spiritual Gifts?

But Ephesians 4:11 just mentions four spiritual gifts, the four that are key to helping bring the church to a place where it can grow into unity and maturity.

Ephesians 4:11. And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.

In English, it appears that there are five gifts mentioned here: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. But in Greek, many scholars agree that there are only four gifts listed. The last two, pastors and teachers, are very likely combined in the Greek to form one gift known as pastor-teacher.

Apostles

The first of the Foremen are the apostles. We know the apostles were the twelve disciples chosen by Jesus in John 6. Judas, who betrayed Christ, was later replaced by Matthias (Acts 1:15-26).[1] Yet the number of apostles in the early church was not limited to just these twelve. Paul was an apostle (Gal 1:15-17; 1 Cor 15:8) as was Barnabas (Acts 14:14). Two members of the church in Rome were also called apostles (Rom 16:7), one of whom appears to be a woman. So with these five additional apostles, there are at least seventeen apostles in the Bible. Yet when we discover what makes an apostle and what an apostle was supposed to do, we can assume that there were more than just these seventeen.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches what is known as apostolic succession. They believe that the apostles were able to pass on their position of authority and leadership to other people. This is usually done by the church after an apostle dies, as we see happen with Matthias replacing Judas in Acts 1. In accordance with this, they teach that the Pope is the successor of Peter.

The logical consequence of this is the Catholic doctrine of Papal Infallibility. Catholics teach that since apostles have the ability to speak and write the Word of God, and since the Pope is the successor of the apostle Peter, then anything the Pope says or writes is without error and is equal to the Bible. This has gotten the Catholic Church into some problems over the years, and it all stems back to the belief that there are still apostles today who speak and act with the authority of God.

Yet even many so-called “Protestant” churches and denominations have their fair share of problems even without apostolic succession. Just as apostolic succession has not kept the church free from error and problems, the absence of apostolic succession has not done any better. Some pastors and Ph.D.’s have created just as many problems for the church as have various Popes. There are even a number of “Protestant” churches that are led by self-proclaimed apostles who are thought to speak with just as much authority as the Catholic Pope.

The issue of apostolic authority can be cleared up by learning from Scripture what an apostle is and what an apostle does. When we understand the apostolic requirements and responsibilities, we are then able to see why they are important for the church and what role they serve in the church today.The Apostles Judged Others in their Letters

What Makes an Apostle?

The term “apostle” is one of those English words that has not been properly translated from the Greek. (In fact, there are three of these words in Ephesians 4:11, “apostle,” “prophet,” and “evangelist.” Others such words include “Christ” and “baptism”). The Greek words is apostolos, and rather than translate this word from Greek into English, the word has simply been transliterated, so that the Greek letters are changed into English letters, and then the word is left as it is (minus the word endings). So when we seek to understand what an apostle is and does, we must begin by understanding what the word “apostle” means.

The best translation for apostolos is “sent one.” It refers to some sort of official or ambassador who is sent out by a group or individual to another place with a message to declare or task to perform. When translating this term, words like “messenger” or “delegate” would be good English equivalents. The apostles, therefore, were a special class of believers who were chosen by God to carry out a specific task and deliver a specific message to the world. There could, of course, be different types of apostles who were sent to perform different tasks. Jesus even referred to Himself as one sent (John 17:18; 20:21) from God, and so it could be said that He was an apostle of God.

For example, one type of apostle is the apostle of Jesus Christ, which is someone who was specifically called by Jesus and sent by Jesus to perform a specific task for Jesus. The New Testament records three conditions for being an apostle of Jesus Christ.

First of all, the Bible tells us that an apostle of Christ must have had personal contact with Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8, 21-23). This, of course, immediately eliminates everyone born after 33 A.D. Although we do not know if Paul had any physical contact with Jesus (some speculate that he was the Rich Young Ruler in Matthew 19 and Luke 18), he did have personal contact with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3-9, 15-16). This is why Paul refers to himself as one abnormally born (1 Cor 15:8).

Yet there were thousands who had personal contact with Jesus during His thirty-three years on earth, but not all of them are apostles. This is due to the second qualification. An apostle must also have personally seen the resurrected Jesus Christ (Acts 1:21-22; Luke 24:48; 1 Cor 9:1-2). This narrows the number of people down to just a couple hundred (1 Cor 15:5-8).

The third qualification narrows it down to a select few. The final element in becoming an apostle of Jesus is that a person must also have received a direct appointment to the office of apostle by Jesus Christ Himself (Luke 6:13-16; 1 Cor. 15:8-9).[2] Jesus Christ handpicked His apostles (cf. John 6:70).

These three requirements reveal that the official office of “apostle of Jesus Christ” cannot exist today, because nobody alive today can fulfill all three requirements. This does not mean that there cannot be apostles today; there can be. To understand how there can be apostles today while not the official office of “apostle of Jesus Christ,” we must understand what apostles do.

What Apostles Do

Since the word “apostle” means “sent one” the church can send out apostles, or God can send out apostles. We see various instances of these types of apostles elsewhere in the New Testament. Usually, they are called by God, or by a church, and are sent out to an unreached people group with the message of the gospel. I think that the other apostles in Scripture would fall into this category, such as Barnabas and the two apostles in Rome. Yes, these are “sent ones,” but they were sent out by the church, not specifically by Jesus Christ. Hence, they would not carry the official title of “apostle of Jesus Christ.”

These other “sent ones” are typically sent out by the church to carry the gospel to unreached people groups. Therefore, it might be best to think of them as missionaries. Missionaries are sent by the church to carry the gospel to new geographical areas and deliver it to new groups of people. So are there apostles today? In this missionary sense, yes. Just as there were some “apostles” in the days of Paul who were not “apostles of Jesus Christ,” there can be apostles today who can be considered as “sent ones” and yet do not have the same authority as the “apostles of Jesus.”

But Paul is not referring to the “missionary” apostle in Ephesians 4:11. Though Paul only refers to them as “apostles” here, he has in mind in mind the authoritative and foundation-laying “apostles of Jesus Christ.” In context, he refers to the “holy apostles” (Eph 3:5), as a way of speaking about the apostles who were called and sent by Jesus Christ to lay the foundation for the church by teaching and writing about Jesus Christ and the gospel (Eph 2:20). We also know that this is what Paul means because he refers to the “prophets” next, which will be discussed below.

So these apostles in Ephesians 4:11 where the apostles of Jesus Christ. Jesus called them and chose them to carry the news about His life and ministry into the rest of the world. But something happened as they went out performing this task. After Jesus died, rose, and ascended, they travelled around, teaching others about Jesus and the Kingdom of God which He inaugurated. Yet they expected that Jesus Christ would return during their lifetime. They hoped that the second coming of Jesus Christ would occur within a few years, or a couple decades at most. But it didn’t. The years went by, and Jesus did not return. As the apostles aged, they realized that the task of spreading the gospel to the entire world would require more than their lifetimes, and that it was increasingly unlikely that Jesus would return before they died.

So the apostles of Jesus Christ set out to record with pen and paper the message they had been given so that it could continue to go into all the world even after the apostles had left this world. These writings of the apostles are what we now call the New Testament. The apostles of Jesus received, declared, and recorded God’s written word (John 14:26; Acts 11:28; 21:10-11; Eph 3:5).

Therefore, when Paul writes about the apostles in Ephesians 4:11, he is referring not only to the apostles of Jesus, but also to their authoritative, apostolic writings, which has now been complied by the church into the New Testament. Further evidence that this what Paul means is seen by the next term he uses, the prophets.

Prophets

apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers

The prophets are the second of the Foremen. Like “apostles,” the term “prophets” is another transliteration from Greek. The Greek word is prophetēs, and refers to someone who declares a message from God. The word is similar to “apostle” but places more emphasis on the spoken message. Prophets were not often “sent” to another people or region (though occasionally they were, as with Jonah). They usually stayed in their home region and declared God’s message to their own people.

There were two main types of messages that a prophet might declare. There are two facets of prophecy. To most people, a prophet is someone who predicts the future, and foretells what will happen. But this is only a relatively small part of what a prophetic message. The vast majority of biblical prophecy is concerned with calling God’s people back to a proper obedience to God. This is not foretelling future events, but forthtelling God’s righteous requirements. While prophecy can refer to telling the future, it mostly refers to telling the truth. It is not primarily about predicting events, but rather about proclaiming God’s Word.

Are there prophets today? Well, just as with the apostles, the short answer is “Yes,” but not in the way that many assume. There are people today who have the spiritual gifts of apostleship or prophesy. But these gifts are used today when missionaries are sent to unreached people groups, or when certain people call the church to repent and return to a proper way of living with God. So while we do have these types of apostles and prophets (we should call them missionaries and preachers), we do not have the types of apostles and prophets that Paul refers to in Ephesians 4:11. The ones he writes about in this verse were those who wrote Scripture. The canon is closed. Scripture is written. So although there can be prophets today, this is not what Paul had in mind when he wrote about prophets here.

Just as with his term apostles, Paul has a very specific type of prophet in mind. Paul did not have in mind the various prophets who might have been alive in his day, but was instead referring to the prophets who wrote the Hebrew Scriptures, which we call the Old Testament. Jewish people typically referred to the Hebrew Bible as “the law and the prophets.” Jesus Himself spoke about the Hebrew Scriptures this way (cf. Matt 5:17; 7:12; 11:13; etc.). The “law” referred to the first five books of the Bible, which is sometimes called the Torah, or the Pentateuch, and the “prophets” referred to everything else.

Modern scholars tend to divide up the “prophets” into three divisions of historical books, poetic books, and prophetic books. Jewish scholars separate the prophets into two categories, the prophets and the writings, so that the entire Hebrew Bible was called the Tanakh (TNK, shorthand for Torah, Nevi’im, and Ketuvim). But since all the historical writings were written by Jewish prophets, it was not uncommon to speak about the writings and the prophets as “the prophets.” In fact, since the law itself was written by Moses, the greatest Jewish prophet (Deut 34:10; Acts 7:37), it too can be considered a “prophetic,” and therefore, included within the overarching term of “the prophets.”

So when Paul writes here about prophets, he is thinking about the people who wrote the Hebrew Scriptures. Just as “apostles” refers to the writings of the apostles of Jesus Christ, “prophets” refers to the writings of the Hebrew prophets, which make up the Old Testament (cf. 2 Pet 3:2). And all of this refers to the testimony about Jesus Christ (John 5:39; Rev 19:10)

Therefore, by referring to the apostles and prophets, Paul reveals his conviction about the centrality of Scripture for the church. No work that the church does can be successful in the eyes of God if not built on the foundation as laid by the apostles and prophets. And as we recall, the foundation is Jesus Christ Himself, but we read and learn about Him within Scripture. This is why the church should place a large emphasis on the Word of God. By doing so, the church is building on the foundation of Jesus Christ as we learn about Him from the pages of Scripture as recorded by the apostles and prophets. This is the good and solid foundation upon which we can build.

Many years ago, I worked at summer Bible camp as a counselor and director. The camp is located on a lake, and about 50 years ago, when they built the kitchen and dining hall, they thought it would be nice to situate the building on the lakeshore so that people could look at God’s glorious creation while cooking or eating. And it was glorious. I have many fond memories of eating my meals while listening to the waves lap at the foundation of that building.

But over the years, the shore of the lake slowly eroded away from beneath the foundation. As a result, the foundation started crumble. But the eroding lakeshore was not all to blame. Part of this problem was due to a poor foundation. They did not dig the foundation hole deep enough, and when they poured the concrete, they failed to use any supporting rebar. As a result, very large cracks eventually developed in the foundation until eventually the building was condemned as being too unsafe to use and the camp had to tear down that beautiful dining hall on the shore.

The apostles and prophets laid a good foundation for the church. The prophets laid the foundation as we find it in the writings of the Old Testament. The apostles continued to lay the foundation through writing about Jesus Christ, and these writings have now been collected into the New Testament. And if the church is going to grow and thrive, we must make sure that we are building upon this good and solid foundation.

So we have a good foundation in the writings of the apostles and prophets. But a building is not done with just a foundation. A foundation is important and necessary, but it is not a building. It is just a concrete slab. A building also needs walls and a roof, windows and floors. It needs plumbing and lighting. So how do all these things get added to the church? How does God’s church get put together? God’s church is not made of wood, concrete, glass, paint, carpet, and shingles, but of people who are called by God to follow Jesus into the world. So how is it that the church as God’s people is built and formed upon the foundation of Jesus Christ as recorded in Scripture?

Well, the first thing needed is to get people into the church and show them how to live. This is done through the work and ministry of evangelists, who are the third group of God’s Foremen.

Evangelists

Just as with apostles and prophets, the word “evangelist” is not a translation from the Greek, but a transliteration. The Greek word is euangelistēs, and is closely related to the word for gospel, euangelion. To emphasize this close connection, I have suggested elsewhere that the term “gospelist” might be a better translation than “evangelist,”[3] but since this word us unlikely to receive wide acceptance, maybe the word could be translated as “one who teaches the gospel.” However, since the gospel is about way more than just words and ideas, and also contains instructions on how to live life as a member of God’s family, it might be best to include some sort of element of “proper living” in the translation of euangelistēs, such as “one who lives the gospel.” Living the gospel would, of course, include both words and actions.

An evangelist, then, is someone who both understands the call of the gospel as found in Scripture and lives it out in their own life as a way to invite other people to believe in Jesus and live out the gospel as well. It would not be wrong to think of an evangelist as a disciplemaker. They live as a follower of Jesus themselves, and through their words and actions, invite others to also become followers of Jesus. Since the gospel is about all of life, then the evangelist who lives the gospel will be showing others how the gospel affects their entire life as well.

televangelistsNotice that when we understand an evangelist in this way, the work of evangelist is not accomplish by preaching in a street corner, knocking on doors, or handing out gospel tracts. The work of an evangelist is not primarily accomplished through inviting people to believe in Jesus for eternal life. While this is certainly part of the work of an evangelist, for the offer of eternal life is part of the gospel, it is not the entire work of an evangelist. Through their words and actions, an evangelist helps bring unbelievers to believe in Jesus for eternal life, and then brings believers to follow Jesus in their life.

This is what Paul means in 2 Timothy 4:5, when he invites Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist.” Paul is instructing Timothy to do the work of living out the gospel in his life. And since Timothy is a leader in the church, this means that Timothy is providing an example to the people in his church about how to live out the gospel in their own lives as well.

So how does the work of living out the gospel fit with the foundation that has been laid by the apostles and prophets? The answer is that just as the apostles and prophets laid the foundation, the evangelist prepares to build upon that foundation by bringing people into the church and then showing them how to live as members of God’s family. The evangelist is the supplier. The evangelist brings the boards and siding and shingles of the spiritual church building so that they are ready and available to be put together into a structure.

And who are the evangelists? The truth is that every Christian is to be an evangelist. Since all Christians are to be living out the gospel in their life, this means that all Christians are evangelists, for “evangelism” means “living the gospel.” But thankfully, as we have already seen, this does not necessarily mean that you have to pass out gospel tracts, go door-to-door, or preach on street corners. Evangelism happens when you live out the gospel in this world in front of your family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. While words might often be used, the gospel can also be lived out in front of others by loving them and serving them in tangible ways, or simply by being a good neighbor, an honest employee, or a cheerful friend. As we live the gospel in various ways, people see our good deed and glorify our Father who is in heaven, and are invited into the Kingdom of God along with us.

So the apostles and prophets laid the foundation of Jesus by writing Scripture. The evangelists prepare to build on this foundation by bringing the building resources to the construction site. Evangelists follow Jesus and invite others to do the same. But of course, we are still missing one element before construction can begin. The foundation has been laid, the construction materials have all been delivered. But right now, all the materials are all just lying around as piles of lumber and boxes of nails. There is no order, structure, vision, or direction for how all the pieces come together. This is why God provided the fourth foreman, the pastor-teacher.

Pastor-Teachers

As was previously indicated, these two terms in Ephesians 4:11 are best understood as complimentary to one another. They are not two separate titles. Linguistically, the Greek indicates that they must at least be complimentary if not synonymous. Greek scholar and teacher Daniel Wallace, in a detailed and thorough analysis of this Greek construct, says that although the Greek does not demand these two terms be synonymous, neither does it imply their separation. Ultimately, he comes to the following conclusion:

In light of the fact that elders and pastors had similar functions in the NT, since elders were to be teachers, the pastors were also to be teachers. Conversely, not all teachers were said to be pastors. This evidence seems to suggest that the [pastors] were a part of the [teachers] in Eph 4:11 … all pastors are to be teachers, though not all teachers are to be pastors.”[4]

pastoral theologyIn other words, while there are various types of teachers in the church, some of them will be of a special type, which Paul calls the pastor-teacher. While not all teachers are pastors, all pastors will be teachers, and therefore, it is best to think of them as pastor-teachers.

So what do the two words mean? We know what a teacher is. A teacher is someone who imparts information to others. But what about the word “pastor”? The word “pastor” is not just a title. It comes from the world of shepherding, and is related to taking sheep to pasture. In fact, the Greek word for pastor is poimenos, which can also be translated “shepherd.” A pastor is to the shepherd of the flock of God’s people under his care. As Philip Keller so poignantly reveals in his book, one of the primary tasks of a shepherd is providing proper nourishment and protection for his sheep.

He will go to no end of trouble and labor to supply them with the finest grazing, the richest pasturage, ample winter feed, and clean water. He will spare Himself no pains to provide shelter from storms, protection from ruthless enemies and the diseases and parasites to which sheep are so susceptible.[5]

A pastor, then, shepherds the flock. When used in reference to shepherding people, a pastor leads people to green pastures where they can be fed, shows them where the calm and clean waters are from which they can drink, and protects them from dangerous predators and thieves who only want to kill, steal, and destroy. Jesus is the great Shepherd, and His under-shepherds are pastor-teachers.

The fact that Paul equates the work of the pastor with teaching indicates that teaching is a primary function of shepherding. All the functions of a spiritual shepherd can be accomplished through good teaching. Through teaching, the pastor guides his flock to green pastures where they can eat healthy spiritual food. Through teaching, the pastor takes his flock to clean and calm water from which they can safely drink. And through teaching, the pastor warns and protects his flock against false ideas, damaging and destructive philosophies, and wolves in sheep’s clothing who want to kill and destroy the flock.

What is it then that the pastor should teach? Well, by inference, since the apostles and prophets laid the foundation for the church through writing Scripture, the pastor-teacher should focus on teaching Scripture. And who is it that the pastor should teach? Here again, since the evangelist gathered together the construction materials which will form the church, and these materials are the people of God, then the pastor-teacher focuses time and attention on teaching Scripture to God’s people (cf. Acts 6:4; 1 Tim 5:17; 2 Tim 4:2). Almost every time the New Testament talks about the roles and responsibilities of the spiritual leaders of the church, teaching Scripture is at the top of the list (cf. Acts 20:28; 1 Tim 3:2; 4:6-16; 2 Tim 4:1-4; Titus 1:3; 2:1; 1 Pet 5:2). For the spiritual shepherd, this feeding and protecting is best accomplished through teaching the Word of God. It is impossible to be a good shepherd without feeding the flock of God with the Word of God.[6]

The apostles and prophets poured the foundation. Through both words and actions, the evangelist gathers together the building materials. The pastor-teacher then explains Scripture in a way to guide and instruct these building materials on how they are to be put together in a logical and useful way for God’s church. He guides and protects the people so that together, they begin to form the church. We could almost say that if it is the evangelist’s job to bring people into the church, it is the pastor-teacher’s job to raise them up in the church. The evangelist brings a person to faith; the pastor-teacher trains a person about the faith. The evangelist increases the quantity of people in the church; the pastor-teacher increases the quality.[7]

Just as with the other three Foremen, the pastor-teacher’s job is vitally important. If the pastor-teacher fails to instruct the people of God about the Word of God, those Christians will never grow into maturity. They will forever be baby Christians. They will always remain disorderly and confusing heap of building materials. If a pastor does not faithfully and systematically teach Scripture to Christians, they will always be bottle-fed Christians who want only milk rather than meat, and who base their decisions on feelings and emotions rather than on the truth of the Word of God. Every pastor-teacher should want the people in his church to become mature Christians, and the only way to do that is to prepare and serve all-you-can-eat-steak-and-potato meals from Scripture.

I believe that nearly all of the blame for the sickly condition of Christianity today can be laid at the feet of those who call themselves pastors, but who have failed to serve as pastor-teachers. Bruce Wilkinson, in his book The 7 Laws of the Learner, states that if the students of a teacher or the congregation of a pastor are failing to learn, it is because the teacher or pastor is failing to teach.[8] This is where the modern church has failed the most. The church is weak because it has failed to understand that the primary role of a pastor is to teach, and to teach effectively.[9]

Part of the problem is that most pastors separate the two terms Paul lists in Ephesians 4:11. When separated, we get the idea that there are some leaders in the church called “pastors” and there are others who do the teaching. In the first case, when we have pastors who are not teachers, but are just care providers, we end up with Christians who feel cared for, but who don’t know much, and so cannot properly live or function as a follower of Jesus. They might be happy, but they are not very healthy. They remain immature babes for most of their life.

At the same time, the other extreme is just as dangerous. Some think that they are teachers who do not need to pastor. While it is possible to have teachers who are not pastors, they should not be given roles of leadership with in the church, but should instead seek positions in colleges or seminaries where they can focus on teaching. Then a pastor says “I am called to teach; not to pastor,” their teaching ends up lacking love and care for their flock, which is essential for their health and well-being. Such loveless teaching often degenerates into bashing sheep over the head with the bat of legalism every week, which leads only to fear, shame, and guilt, rather than into Christlike maturity.

church ministry growth

Pastor-teachers must remember that their two roles are actually one. A true pastor-teacher is one who knows the primary way of feeding and caring for his flock is through faithful and systematic teaching of Scripture, while at the same time, the teaching of Scripture is not an end in itself which is solely an academic pursuit, but is for the purpose of loving and caring for other people. Pastor-teachers will spend a lot of time with their nose in the books, but they will also spend time with the people of the community.

There is no room in God’s church for the unapproachable, ivory tower personality who stands on a pedestal to deliver a message from God and then retreats back to his chambers in order to avoid mingling with the masses. While it is a wonderful idea to have times set aside for the uninterrupted study of Scripture, every pastor-teacher should also have times where people can drop in for a visit, or where the pastor goes out to visit the people where they are at.

Richard Baxter, a great preacher himself, wrote a book called The Reformed Pastor. In it, he said this:

That work which is our great end must be done, whatever be left undone. It is a very desirable thing for a physician to be thoroughly studied in his art; and to be able to see the reason of his practice, and to resolve such difficult controversies as are before him. But if he had the charge of a hospital, or lived in a city where the pestilence was raging, if he would be studying fermentation, the circulation of the blood, blisters, and the like, and such like excellent points, when he should be visiting his patients, and saving men’s lives; if he should even turn them away, and let them perish, and tell them that he has not time to give them advice, because he must follow his own studies, I would consider that man as a most preposterous student, who preferred the remote means before the end itself of his studies: indeed, I would think him but a civil kind of murderer.[10]

Although Baxter first published this in 1656, the truths are the same now as they were then.

George Herbert lived about the same time. When he became a pastor, he set down for himself some rules to live by. His book, called The Country Parson, is filled with sound, practical advice for every pastor. He says at one point that “the Country Parson upon the afternoons in the weekdays takes occasion sometimes to visit in person, now one quarter of his Parish, now another. For there he shall find his flock most naturally as they are, wallowing in the midst of their affairs …”[11]

More recently, in a popular journal on leadership-related issues, Warren Wiersbe gave advice on how to preach practical sermons. “The experiences we preachers go through are not accidents; they are appointments. They do not interrupt our studies; they are an essential part of our studies … It is difficult to preach to people you do not know.”[12]

All of this is simply to reinforce that a pastor-teacher is primarily a teacher of Scripture, but this teaching must be warmed by personal encounters with the people under his care. Through a firm grasp of Scripture, the pastor-teacher will be able to see which building materials have been gathered together by the evangelist, and will then be able to teach, guide, and direct the people of the church to come together and build the church that God wants and desires. This will be the topic of the next study on Ephesians 4:12.

Conclusion

Ephesians 4:11 lists the four Foremen: apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers. Before any church can grow, it needs to have a firm grasp on the identity and tasks of these Foremen, and be committed to following them where they lead. The apostles and prophets wrote Scripture. The evangelists lives out the gospel in front of others as a way of gathering people together as the church. The pastor-teachers gets to know these people so that they can be taught Scripture and trained in how to function and grow as the Body of Christ in the world. With these Foremen in place, the church is ready to understand who does the actual work of the ministry.

Notes:

[1] There is some question as to whether or not this replacement was warranted. After this, the book of Acts never mentions Matthias again. Some think that maybe Paul was actually God’s choice. Or possibly there was not supposed to be a replacement at all. Maybe Judas served his role as an apostle, and so there was no need to replace him, in which case, the Bible does not endorse “apostolic succession.”

[2] Robert L. Thomas, Understanding Spiritual Gifts (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1991), 175-176.

[3] See my books The Gospel According to Scripture (Dallas, OR: Redeeming Press, 2018) and The Gospel Dictionary (Dallas, OR: Redeeming Press, 2018). There are online courses related to both books, which can be found at RedeemingGod.com/courses/

[4] Daniel B. Wallace, “The Semantic Range of the Article-Noun-Kai-Noun Plural Construction in the New Testament,” Grace Theological Journal 4:1 (Spring 1983), 83.

[5] Philip Keller, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23; The Classic Works of Philip Keller (Grand Rapids: Family Christian, 1970), 24.

[6] Gene Getz, Sharpening the Focus of the Church (Wheaton: Victor, 1988), 121-150.

[7] Chester McCalley, Commentary and Outline of Ephesians (Kansas City: Word of Truth, no date), 43.

[8] Bruce Wilkinson, The 7 Laws of the Learner (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1984), 30-31, 131.

[9] Michael Fabarez, Preaching that Changes Lives (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2002), 5, 19.

[10] Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1999), 312.

[11] George Herbert, The Country Parson (New York: Paulist, 1981), 75.

[12] Warren Wiersbe, “The Patented Preacher,” Leadership (Winter 1994), 70.

 

God is Redeeming God, Redeeming Scripture, z Bible & Theology Topics: apostle, church growth, Ephesians 4:11, evangelist, pastor, prophet, spiritual gifts

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The Internet and the Movement of the Spirit

By Jeremy Myers
50 Comments

The Internet and the Movement of the Spirit

I recently had a conversation with several guys about church and ministry, and we were talking about how there are so many people who seem to entering into a way of being the church outside of the four walls of institutional Christianity. By many estimates, there are now more people who follow Jesus outside of institutional Christianity than those who follow Him inside. I wrote about this a few weeks back.

As we were talking about this, one of the guys wondered why this is happening now … why we don’t see this sort of movement away from “Sunday morning congregational church” anywhere else in history.

My answer was “the internet.”

I believe that the movement away from Sunday morning congregational church has always been happening, but we only hear about it more today because of the internet.

internet and the Holy Spirit

There are three reasons the internet is helping us see what the Spirit of God is up to in the world today.

1. The internet helps us see the worldwide movement of God into a more relational Christianity.

Due to blogging and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, we can now connect with people all around the world and see that what is happening in my heart and mind is something that seems to be occurring in the hearts and minds of millions of people elsewhere.

Have you ever had a thought or an idea about how to be the church, how to follow Jesus, or how a particular passage of Scripture can be understood in a way that undermines what religious Christianity has often taught? And then you get online and discover that someone on Great Britain or South Africa or Brazil has just posted exactly the same thing on Facebook?

It happens all the time! The only real way to explain this is to recognize that the Spirit of God is teaching similar things to similar people all around the world. The Spirit is fanning the flames of a worldwide movement, and the internet helps us see this movement of God in real time.

2. The internet helps those with doubts and fears know that they are not crazy, that they are hearing the Spirit correctly.

Holy SpiritOne exciting benefit to seeing that other people in other parts of the world have similar thoughts and ideas to our own is that it helps us realize that we are not crazy heretics.

When I first started to question and challenge everything I had been taught, I literally wondered if I was become an apostate. I started to ask “Why?” about everything I had ever been taught and everything I had ever done in the church. It scared me.

And that is one reason I started this blog. I started it to hopefully get feedback from other people around the world who might be able to either

  • (Option 1) Reign me back in to correct theology and sound doctrine, or
  • (Option 2) Confirm that they too were having similar thoughts and ideas and that these were okay.

In the past ten years of blogging, the response has overwhelmingly leaned toward that second option. I often get responses from people who lean toward Option 1 as well, but in my experience, most of these people are having thoughts and ideas about Option 2, and it scares them, so they fight against it by leaving comments on blogs like mine.

This is why it is always wise to responds to such people with as much grace and dignity as you can muster, for your response to them in this way might be just the thing that helps them see that it is okay to question tradition and follow the Spirit’s leading away from institutional religion. A soft answer helps them see that the people “out here” are not apostates and heretics and backslidden sinners the way those inside institutional religion often portray us.

Be a calm voice of reason and love to all people you interact with on the internet, because the internet is one way the Holy Spirit is inviting people to take a tentative step in following Jesus in a more relational way.

And that leads us to the third point.

3. The internet gives a voice to those who were traditionally silenced.

There have always been lots of people who followed Jesus outside of church, but we have little historical record of them. Why is this? Because institutional religion silenced them.

internet Holy SpiritThere have always been lots of people who knew that the institutional Christianity was not the only way of following Jesus, but those who were in positions of power never gave these people a platform or a pulpit from which to speak. They were not allowed to write books, teach sermons, or even ask questions. And so we have very little record of them.

If you read some of the ancient sermon texts, even from the very beginning of institutional Christianity in the fourth century, you can often read between the lines of these sermons and see that the Bishops and Priests had such people in their congregations, and were cajoling them and guilting them back into conformity, and even sometimes persecuting them for “abandoning Jesus and the church.” The exact same tactics and language is often used today by those in power against the people who want to follow Jesus differently.

But today, thankfully, we have the internet. People do not need to have a pulpit from which to speak. They do not need permission from the gatekeepers to publish a book. The barriers are very low to starting a podcast so that your voice and ideas can be heard around the world.

So Be Encouraged!

You are not crazy.

You are not insane.

You are not a heretic.

You have not fallen away.

You have not turned your back on God and Jesus.

Instead, you are part of an ever-growing, rapidly-expanding, Spirit-led, worldwide movement of God to show the world that in Jesus Christ, a new day has dawned, a new creation has come, and that all things are new.

You don’t need traditional power structures.

You don’t need the rules and regulations and rituals.

You don’t need the standards of conduct the codes of ethics and the doctrinal guidelines.

You just need to follow Jesus in love, as countless millions of people around the world are learning to do each and every day.

And the internet helps us see what God is up to in the world and that He is leading millions of people to follow Him in new and exciting ways. So thank God for the internet!

(If you want to become one of the voices on the internet, I highly recommend you start a blog, and I have created a video tutorial to help you along. Go here to get started.)

God is Redeeming Church Bible & Theology Topics: Blogging, church growth, Holy Spirit, internet

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Waaaaa! I’m not getting fed!

By Jeremy Myers
35 Comments

Waaaaa! I’m not getting fed!

Vince AntonucciOver at the “All About Eve” blog, Eve asked me about getting fed as a Christian. I gave her a summary of the posts below, which were written by Vince Antonucci in 2008. These posts are classic Vince. (I hope he doesn’t mind me reposting them here … on his blog, they take up about 400 posts … so I compiled them all and put them here for your reading enjoyment.)

Oh, and full disclosure … I used to be one of those “I’m not getting fed!” Christians, and I encouraged this sort of attitude in the church I pastored. Why? Because I prided myself in being a pastor who provided good feeding. I praised people who came to my church from other churches because they wanted good preaching. I used to say, “We don’t steal sheep; we just grow the grass.”

Of course, today, I have a completely different view of preaching and church growth and how discipleship occurs … some of these changes I attribute to Vince Antonucci (who wrote an endorsement for my book Adventures in Fishing for Men.). Of course, though Vince pastors a church for people who don’t like church, even his church is too churchy for me. But that’s the point.

Maybe churches are not supposed to be a place for those who want to get fed. Maybe the Sunday morning “church” serves a particular role and particular function within the body of Christ to meet the needs of a particular group of Christians for a particular time. But beyond that, the Sunday morning event becomes unhealthy.

Let me be more specific: It is important to be fed spiritually … when you are spiritual baby.

But as you mature as a Christ-follower, you will hopefully become a self-feeder. That is, you will learn to feed yourself.

If a college professor has the same student in his class for 37 years, that professor is a failure. At some point, the college professor needs to pull that student aside and say, “You have learned everything you can from me. You have passed the class. It is time to move on and get started with life.”

So also, if parents continue to feed their children for 48 years after they are born (barring any special mental or psychological factors, of course), that parent is also a failure. At some point or another, those parents must show their children the door, saying, “It is time to be an adult on your own.”

I know that I have been negative in the past on the “institutional church” structure, but if there is one thing the institutional church does better than anyone else, it is the mass feeding of spiritual babes. I would LOVE it if the portion of God’s church which meets regularly on Sunday morning could make this a primary goal of theirs. They would bring in spiritual babes, teach them the fundamentals of the faith, and then kick them out the door. What if churches, instead, of trying to hold on to all the members from birth to the grave, instead held a “graduation ceremony” every year for those who had been there for 4 or 5 years and who were ready to launch out into the world as spiritual adults?

As the church, our goal should not be to feed people, but to mature people, which means they can feed themselves.

Anyway, here is Vince Antonucci’s (now famous) blog series, “WAAAAA! I’m not getting fed!”

But one warning first … Vince’s style in this series is … well … confrontational. Feel free to complain in the comment section below or directly to him on Twitter @vinceantonucci.

waaaaa im not getting fed

WAAAAA! I’m not getting fed! (Part 1)

I thought I’d share a few thoughts on the battle cry of my least favorite people, the church hoppers, shoppers, floppers, and stoppers … “I’m not getting fed.”

We’ve heard that quite a bit over ten years of Forefront, and I’ve gone through kind of an evolution of my thoughts on this topic.

For a long time I blamed myself and felt guilty about not being “deep enough” and thought maybe it was because I only attended seminary for nine months and can’t read Hebrew or Greek. (One ironic thing, though, is that I would sometimes “use” (i.e. steal heavily from) other people’s sermons, and often it would be guys considered “deep” preachers, or it would be a series from a church’s mid-week or “deeper” service, and people would still say it wasn’t deep enough.)

Then I started to blame the Forefront context. When you’re trying to reach people who are far from God it’s obvious. So, for instance, on a Sunday morning we’ll have some goofy videos (mostly for people who aren’t Christians) and we’ll carefully explain communion (mostly for people who aren’t Christians) and we have a rockin’ style of worship music (mostly to connect with people who aren’t Christians) and then we have a sermon. And even if the sermon is “deep” and really good for Christians, I think some Christians simply cannot see past the context it falls within. They realize that several other aspects of the service were not primarily intended for them, and that this church is passionate about non-Christians, and so it’s impossible for them to believe the sermon IS for them, even if it is. They’re wrong, but I understand it – it’s difficult to take anything seriously when it’s preceded by a dancing gorilla.

But as I talked to other pastors I realized almost everyone hears this complaint.

Even preachers who aren’t as shallow and uneducated as me, and even churches that don’t feature iPod Suppository commercials before the message. So I used to totally think it was I was to blame, or my church was to blame, and to some extent I still believe that’s partially true, but not as much as I did.

This caused me to take a closer look at the types of people who complain that they’re not getting fed, and increasingly I believe the problem lies in them. In the next few posts, I’ll explain why. Until then, leave big tips for your waitresses.

WAAAAA! I’m not getting fed! (Part 2a)

Last time we started a series on people who say, “I’m not getting fed!” and I promised we’d start to look at the type of people who make that complaint.

im not getting fedBabies.

Babies complain that they’re not getting fed. When my kids were babies, my wife and I had to feed them. I had never been around babies and so this was brand new for me. Suddenly I was pretending a spoon was an airplane and a cheerio was a chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo! When we didn’t feed our babies on time, they let us know it. They cried. As they got a little older they learned not to cry about their displeasure but would verbalize it, “Ma-ma, I’m hungry. Da-da, feed me!”

Babies complain about not getting fed. My son is now nine and now when he’s hungry he asks, “Dad, can I get something to eat?” My answer, of course, is, “You’ll eat when you have a job and can pay for your own food!”

Only babies complain about not getting fed. There should be a progression in life, and in spiritual life, from needing to be fed, to feeding yourself, to being able to feed others.

And so when someone in a church says, “I’m not getting fed” my thought is, “Then you BETTER be a baby.”

It never is. The people who complain about not getting fed are never new Christians. Never. Isn’t that funny? The people who complain about not getting fed are never the baby Christians, but always the older, supposedly more mature Christians.

Can you picture if I, at 37 years old, called my mother every month or two and complained, “I’m not getting fed!” Or if I e-mailed her and said, “Sorry, but I’m leaving this family because I’m not getting fed. In fact, I haven’t gotten fed in some time here.” Sound absurd? Well, it’s the freakin’ reality in most churches in America!

I illustrated this in a sermon once. I started my sermon by carrying a baby up with me, and fed it a few spoonfuls of baby food. At the end of the sermon I asked for a volunteer. One of the Navy Seals in our church raised his hand, so I brought him up, sat him on my lap, and got ready to spoon feed him baby food. It looked totally absurd. And, again, that’s the freakin’ reality in most churches in America!

WAAAAA! I’m not getting fed! (Part 2b)

Earlier today I posted about how only babies need to be fed by another person, and only babies complain about not getting fed.

This reminded me of when I was a brand new baby Christian … (I was twenty-years-old) … and I was immediately put in a situation where I had to feed others. The reason was that I was leading people to Christ and, compared to them, I was the “long-time Christian” (even though I had only been a Christian for a few weeks!).

I had no choice, at least not that I knew of, and so I studied the bible like a mad man, put together studies and lessons, and gave them (as crappy as they may have been) to others. You’ve heard of the blind leading the blind, well this was the baby leading the babies.

And what I learned is this: A person grows WAY MORE from feeding others than they ever grow from being fed. So, I guess, if you want to really be fed – feed someone else.

Sometimes babies can feed others … but only babies should need to be fed.

WAAAAA! I’m not getting fed! (Part 3)

Picture this: Tonight you’re watching the local news and you’re startled by the report: Every restaurant in your area is closing down. Not just your favorites, not just some, but ALL OF THEM. You would obviously be disappointed. Going out to eat is fun. And often the food you get in a restaurant is better than what you make at home. It’s also nice to have a night where you don’t have to make your own meal. And not having to pack your lunch everyday is a convenience you enjoy. So, of course you’d be disappointed.

But what if the next day a friend came up to you, “Did you hear that all the restaurants are closing?!? What will I do?!? I’m going to starve! I’m not kidding, I will die because of this! I can’t live without restaurants!” And you’re friend is serious. He’s not joking or exaggerating.

What do you think of your friend? That he’s got some serious problems, right? That he is ridiculously lazy, right?

Well, in my not so humble opinion, when a Christian says, “I’m not getting fed” this is truly what they’re saying. I mean, sure, it’s nice to go to church and get some bible fed to you. We all enjoy being lazy once-in-awhile. And most preachers can give you a better bible study than what you can do on your home at home.

So there’s nothing wrong with going to church and “getting fed.” But if you’re dependent on it, if it’s the only way you can get fed, if you don’t know what to do without it, you’ve got some serious problems and you are ridiculously lazy.

People who say, “I’m not getting fed” are lazy. Seriously, think about it. The people who say this only get 30 minutes with their preacher a week, but they expect their preacher to feed them. They have 167 ½ hours the rest of the week, but their spiritual sustenance is supposed to come from their preacher, in only 30 minutes. They can’t figure out some other way of getting spiritual nutrition the rest of their week despite living in a country where we can legally own bibles (and the average home has three!), where Christian bookstores are all over the place, and where the internet provides a never-ending supply of spiritual resources.

So, what kind of people say “I’m not getting fed”? Thumb-sucking babies, and pampered-pouting lazy Christians.

adult babies

Tomorrow I’ll tell you how I really feel. Until then, save me the aisle seat.

WAAAAA! I’m not getting fed! (Part 4a)

So I’m doing the greatest blog series in the history of the world. The series is on what pastors hear so often, “I’m not getting fed.” Last time I asked: “Who says this?” and answered, “Thumb-sucking babies and pampered, pouting lazy Christians.” Today I have one more answer: Christians who miss the point.

What do I mean? Some people misunderstand “spiritual maturity.”

What do you think are the signs of a person who is truly spiritually mature? This is something I’ve studied and thought about a lot, and here’s what I’ve come to. The three greatest signs of spiritual maturity are: (1) Intimacy with God, (2) Obedience to God, (3) Serving other people. The way we’d say that at Forefront is, “Love God, Love People.”

Jesus said that all the commandments hang on this. Loving God is a relational thing and leads to intimacy with Him. (So it’s sharing His heart, and sharing my heart with Him.) Jesus also taught us that to love God is to obey His commands. (So one way to measure spiritual maturity is how quickly you obey God.) Jesus also said He came to serve and we’re to follow His example. (So getting past self-centeredness and learning to put others before ourselves is what we’re after.)

We could argue about this (I guess that’s what the comment section is for) but I’m sticking with my answer, because it’s what I’ve found in the Bible.

Unfortunately, this is NOT EVEN CLOSE to the definition most American Christians have for spiritual maturity. How do they define it? I’ll tell you later today. Until then, I’ll give you $5 if you can get yourself on Cops.

WAAAAA! I’m not getting fed! (Part 4b)

So how do American Christians define spiritual maturity? I don’t know how it happened (but I’d be interested to find out*) but somewhere along the line we have equated spiritual knowledge with spiritual maturity.

We see this in all kinds of ways.

Who is in the person who leads the small group? Well, the person who knows the most, of course.

Who is revered in your church? The person who knows the most, of course.

Bible college professors are held up as spiritual giants. Why? Is it because of their intimacy with God? No. Because of their obedience to God? No. Because of their service to other people? No. We don’t know any of those things about them. What we know is that they know a lot. And that’s enough.

We believe the person who knows the most about God, the most about the Bible, is the most spiritually mature. And the only problem with that is that it’s wrong. Knowledge does not equal maturity. I have known lots of people who know lots about God and the Bible and are not remotely Christ-like. (And, by the way, I can think of someone who knows a ton about God and the Bible, could it be … Satan?!?)

Next time I’ll talk about how this misunderstanding of spiritual maturity has wreaked havoc for Pastors and churches and Muppets and people who press olives in Greece and …

* (this is a footnote!) – Do you think it’s possible that part of the reason we’ve defined spiritual maturity as knowledge is because that way we don’t have to obey? Instead of obeying what we know, we just learn more!

WAAAAA! I’m not getting fed! (Part 5a)

I said last time that in America we’ve (wrongly) equated spiritual knowledge with spiritual maturity. We think that the more you know, the more godly you are.

Because we’ve created that culture, we have Christians whose goal is to know more and more, and that’s why they come to church on Sundays. So … if our sermons don’t stuff more Greek and Hebrew and obscure (and probably useless) bible history into their heads, they’re not happy. (And many, many preachers are worshipping these people by giving them exactly what they want.)

So, actually, for these people, “I’m not getting fed” really means, “To feel spiritually mature (and superior) I need to expand my store of virtually useless bible information so I can impress my friends and win Bible Jeopardy and you’re not giving me the facts I need!”

This is SO ridiculous.

I also think it’s a MAJOR reason why so many Christians feel spiritually empty inside. It’s because they’re approaching Christianity like it’s something to be studied, rather than lived – and God becomes someone to know about, rather than to know.

Okay, I have to rant on this more, but I’ll do it a little later (in fact, two more coming today). If you don’t want to hear any more about this, I’ll understand if you stop reading my blog – but you’ll regret it for the rest of your life. So good luck with that.

WAAAAA! I’m not getting fed! (Part 5b)

So earlier I started going off about how people define spiritual maturity as spiritual knowledge and how they end up feeling spiritually empty (and thus say, “I’m not getting fed!”) and it’s because they’re approaching Christianity like it’s something to be studied, rather than lived – and God becomes someone to know about, rather than to know.

Think of it this way. Let’s say my marriage is going poorly. So my wife and I go to a counselor. We tell him we don’t feel close at all and want more out of our marriage. So he says: “Here’s what you need to do. Each of you should hire someone to do a 30 minute presentation on the other each week. Attend that seminar, learn all the facts you can about each other, and your marriage will be great.” Good advice? No. The stupidest thing you’ve heard since you learned that Brittany and Jaimie Lynn Spear’s mother is putting out a book on parenting? Maybe.

The way to make a marriage better is … quality time together, really talking, listening to each other, having date nights, serving each other, submitting, finding common interests.

So when Christians don’t feel close to God and want more out of their relationship with Him the answer is a “deeper” sermon on Sundays? Are you kidding me?!? The answer is that you need to get “fed” by your preacher? Really?!?

“You should go to a church with deeper messages.” Is that good advice? No. One of the stupidest things you’ve ever heard? Maybe.

If thing with God really is a relationship (or anything like a relationship) than what we’re after is not knowledge, its intimacy. And you can’t get intimacy through a sermon.

Wait, I have another way of saying this. I’ll tell you later.

WAAAAA! I’m not getting fed! (Part 5c)

Okay, this is like the 400th post in this series (sorry) but we’re talking about what spiritual maturity looks like and why people say, “I’m not getting fed” and how if you’re not feeling close to God or where you need to be spiritually, there’s no way my 30 minute sermon can help you.

crying like a babyEarlier I used a marriage as a metaphor, here’s another one: If you feel woefully out of shape physically, and once a week you attend a seminar on how to work out, or how to eat healthy, but then the rest of the week don’t live any different, can you complain about the seminars?

Of course not! A seminar can’t get you in good shape, you have to DO what the seminar is talking about, and you have to do it consistently.

And so … stop giving me your “I’m not getting fed” crap and go home and spend lots of time face-to-face with God, and you WILL grow in intimacy with Him. And then you’ll realize that there’s something far better than knowing about God, and it’s knowing God.

(Sorry, I lost it there for a minute.)

WAAAAA! I’m not getting fed! (Part 6)

So I’ve gone on and on about this “not getting fed” thing and I have to start wrapping it up. Here’s the question: What do we do when someone says, “I’m not getting fed”?

Well, I have two answers.

First, we need to make sure that we’re teaching people HOW to feed themselves. I’ve made it quite clear this last week or so that I don’t think it’s my job as a pastor to “feed people” on Sunday mornings. But I DO believe it’s the churches job to teach people to feed themselves. And so, when someone says, “I’m not being fed” I need to ask myself, “Have we taught this person to feed themselves? If not, then I have to take a lot of the blame for this, and I need to do something about it.

At Forefront, we’ve tried to make sure we’re teaching people how to feed themselves. For instance:

  • We do a sermon, or an entire series, almost every year on how to read the Bible. In 2007 we did “The Bible for Cavemen.” In 2006 we did a 3 part series called, “Off the Shelf and Into Myself”…
  • In our “Next Steps” class we have a session on how to have a “Quiet Time” of bible reading and prayer.
  • Each week in our program we provide six “ready-to-do” Bible studies that give you a passage to read, about six questions to help you dig into and apply the verses, and a study note or two offering background/context information.
  • This year we made and are going to distribute a “Pursuit” book, a spiritual growth handbook that teaches six spiritual disciplines, including bible study (why to do it, how to do it, etc.).
  • We had a guru at this kind of stuff come in and do sessions with our staff, and a session with leaders in our church, on how to develop intimacy face-to-face with God.

(I’m sure there’s more we could do — what are some of the ways you all are teaching your people to feed themselves?)

So when someone says, “I’m not getting fed” the first thing I do is ask myself: Have we taught this person how to feed themselves? If the answer is no, I’m the problem. If the answer is yes, well, we’ll talk about that next time.

WAAAAA! I’m not getting fed! (Part 7)

I think this is the last post in this insanely long series on the issue of people saying, “I’m not getting fed at this church.” Last time I talked about how I think it’s the church’s role to equip people to feed themselves, and if we’re not doing that, I need to take some blame for a person in our church who isn’t being fed.

However, if our church IS equipping people to feed themselves and a person still says, “I’m not getting fed,” – what would I say?

“Let me show you the door.”

Yes, I suggest that they find a different church.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve reached a point where I suggest that they find a different church. That may not be the most compassionate or pastoral thing to do, but I’ve got a bunch of people who want to experience intimacy with God, and want to obey Him, and want to serve people and change the world, and I need to spend some time with them, not with a lazy baby who wants me to help them succeed in bible trivia.

I hope I don’t sound too self-righteous, but it’s kind of like Nehemiah, when people were complaining about what he was doing and asking him to give them time and he said, “‘I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?’ Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.” (Nehemiah 6:3-4)

I’m sure some people thought, “That’s not very Christ-like,” (yes, I know that there was no such thing as “Christ-like” back then) but Nehemiah was a man on a mission, and you weren’t on the mission you were off his radar.

Jesus told people that if they wanted to follow Him they had to carry a cross. We tell people that if they want to run with us, they have to feed themselves. Will that turn away some Christians? Definitely. Do we want to turn away Christians? Definitely.

I want to have a church full of two types of people: the lost, and missionaries to the lost. When someone goes to a foreign country to be a missionary, they aren’t going over there to get fed. They are going on a mission, and realize that they’ll have to feed themselves. If you’re gonna be a part of Forefront, you’re going on a mission and must realize that you’ll have to feed yourself. And if that ain’t you – don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.

Waaaaa Responses to Your Waaaaa Comments

There have been so many comments and questions on this series that I promised I would try to respond to some. First, let me first say that I don’t consider myself some kind of Christian Yoda who knows all, so I’m just sharing my thoughts, not the “right answers.” Second, I don’t have a ton of time right now, so I’ll only be able to respond to a few and only give short answers. Third, I may post a few of my favorite comments later during the day. So here we go:

“Why should people bother coming to church (on Sunday mornings) if the pastor isn’t supposed to feed them?”

Answers: Wow, there’s a lot. And I think this question actually shows how we’ve gotten confused about church… so: (1) I’m not saying the pastor shouldn’t feed people or that it’s wrong to get fed at church. I’m saying that it should be something extra for Christians, not what they depend on for their spiritual sustenance. Just like going to a restaurant is a nice change of pace to get fed on a lazy day and get some food you wouldn’t get at home… (2) I think we want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, and meeting with other Christians on Sundays helps us with that – singing together, fellowshiping, etc. (3) Sunday mornings can be one of the places where the pastor gets to teach people how to feed themselves. (4) This is like saying: “If a basketball coach isn’t going to teach his players how to play basketball during half-time, why should the players even go into the locker room?” Well, maybe the players need to be inspired? Maybe they need to be reminded of what they already know? Maybe he needs to get in their face? Maybe they need some encouragement? (5) I could keep answering this question forever, I’ll stop.

“Does Forefront spend as much time developing Christians into missionaries as it does reaching out to non-Christians?”

Answer: No. But we need to. Please pray for us that we do a better job with this.

“Maybe lazy Americans … or single moms … or you name it … need to be fed by their preacher because they’re lazy … or don’t have time … or you name it.”

Answer: I feel for people who don’t have time or whatever, but the issue is one of intimacy with God. If I’m too lazy or too busy to spend quality time with my wife, we’re not going to have a great marriage. We could go to a weekly 30 minute seminar on marriage (or a weekly counseling session) but if we don’t spend decent quantities of quality time together outside of the seminar (or counselor’s office) we’re still not going to have a great marriage. So … even if you go to a church with the greatest preacher ever, if you don’t spend a lot of time with God outside of Sundays, you are not going to have a great relationship with Him. And it’s about a relationship with God. Now we can trick ourselves and pretend it’s about knowledge, but it isn’t.

“Why does Forefront produce people who have a ‘I’m not getting fed’ attitude?”

Answer: I think we produce less than most churches, but yes, we do have some. Why? Maybe because (1) We’re all naturally selfish and lazy (including me!) and so it’s easy to fall into this kind of thinking for anyone, and (2) Christian culture is so pervasive even our people get bitten by it – we live in an odd time where you can be exposed to other church’s preachers on the radio, podcasts, Christian books, etc. and so the church you go to is not going to be the only influence on how you think and approach God & Christianity.

“The last time I checked, God doesn’t talk back. Not lately, anyway.”

Answer: I disagree. God still speaks to us today. If not, it wouldn’t be much of a relationship, would it? God still speaks, the issue is whether we’re listening…

God is Redeeming Church Bible & Theology Topics: church growth, Discipleship, Preaching, teaching

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If you love your church service, don’t watch this video.

By Jeremy Myers
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If you love your church service, don’t watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RJBd8zE48A

Hat Tip to “Eve” for this video.

God is Redeeming Church Bible & Theology Topics: church growth, church service, humor

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What if there were no churches?

By Jeremy Myers
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What if there were no churches?

Brandon ChaseThis is a guest post Brandon Chase. Brandon is a baseball player at heart; a practicing Crossfitter, golfer, hoopster and guitarist; fueled by meat, cappuccinos and chocolate. He writes about learning to Live by the Life of Jesus Christ on his blog Zōē Perissos. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Marie, and has two daughters McKinley and Delaney. They live in Fort Worth, TX.

Like Zōē Perissos on Facebook or follow Brandon on Facebook, or Twitter.

If you would like to write a Guest Post for the Till He Comes Blog, begin by reading the Guest Blogger Guidelines.

Do you remember doing Science Fair projects in school? You know, the ones where you did an experiment in order to answer a question, solve a problem, or explore a “what if?”

I’m certainly glad I’m not in 7th grade anymore, and don’t have to whip out my tri-panel display board and fret over whether the Judges are going to like my project. But, I do have an experiment, while hypothetical, that I’d love to see tested:

What would happen to the Church – the Body of Christ, if it were forced to exist without:

  • Officially designated church buildings or offices
  • Paid, full-time vocational ministers
  • Institutional or otherwise officially organized groups or factions
  • Tithes, Budgets or Ministry Plans

As I stated, I realize this experiment is an anecdotal exercise. Truly, it would take an extreme set of circumstances (or… a magnificent move of God) to arrange a new playing field such as this.

But what if?

What would you do if you woke up one morning, and suddenly, as if in an alternate reality, you learned that following your Lord, practicing and growing in your faith – being a Christian – had to be done differently…

What if…

what if there were no churches?What if there were no “churches” to “go to?”

What if there were no buildings where Christians gathered once or twice per week?

What if there were no “Ministers?” No “Pastors?” No “Preachers?” No “Leaders?”

What if there were no denominations? No groups of like-minded people who practice the same theological or doctrinal expression and traditions?

What if there were no institutions to which you would tithe or give? There were no tax deductions? No budgets directing the allocation of funds or mission statements or plans dictating ministry form?

You would have prayer, the Bible, and people – but none of the above.

What would you do? How would you move forward? What would happen to the Church?

What would happen to the world?

Hypothesis: Revival

I am giddy as I fantasize about this query.

Can you imagine? The Body of Christ being released into the wilderness – amongst the darkness and danger and wolves of the world – with no “church” building to retreat to on Sunday, no “Pastor” to listen to week after week, no tribe to look for answers in tradition and no tax motivation or direction on where to give money?

To many, this sounds like chaos.

To me, this sounds like Heaven on earth. This sounds like the Ekklesia. This sounds like the Body under the Head. This sounds like the Bride in radiant Oneness with Her Groom. This sounds like the Family of God. This sounds like a dwelling place for the Lord.

This sounds like Jesus.

It was He in fact who said He was sending us out like sheep amongst the wolves. He said just as He is Light, so too are we, shining in the darkness. He said that the world was dangerous, but that He had already overcome it, and that we were the real dangerous ones in Him.

He also said He was the Head of His Body, the Church. He would lead; we would be equal, united and mutually beneficial members to each other, and the Body as a whole.

He said that as sheep, we listen to His voice and hear Him, as He leads us, and we follow.

He said there was no room for division or faction – only Him.

He said nothing about giving a certain percentage. He asked for everything. He did not direct ministry. Ministry is His Life – and It is to be taken everywhere, all the time, as He directs.

These were the simple, but profound instructions a small group of followers received from their Lord. They didn’t have buildings they erected and gathered in. They didn’t place titles on certain people or create offices around them. They knew nothing of denominations. They were not given percentage of giving or mission plan guidelines.

Instead, they gathered with each other, two or more at a time, at varying points in the day, every day, in as many varying forms and expressions as possible.

When they gathered, Christ, by the Holy Spirit, “lead” the meeting. He set the agenda. He was the agenda. He was expressed and His Life was given, and out of that expression and Life came mission direction and action – always in the form of humility, service and Love. Money and possessions and resources were given freely, generously, spontaneously and continuously – with no thought to percentage or personal benefit. Ministry was organic, dynamic, and viral.

Their simple, but powerfully obedient response to their Lord’s commission, changed the world.

The early Christians did not have anything that we do not have today. In fact, they had so much less. But the advancement of the Kingdom and the Life of Jesus was so much more explosive in their time.

This begs the question:

How did the early church do so much with so little? And… How are we doing so little with so much more?

And these are indeed good questions. But they are not the best question, which is:

What do we have now, that they didn’t have, that may be hindering the Kingdom?

While the answers to that question cannot be fully treated in one article, might I submit that in part, they include:

  • The modern day church building as the form and function of what we believe to be “church;” and if “gone to,” the primary function and practice of Christians.
  • The submission to, and sometimes idolatry of those in the position of “Pastor” or others in “Leadership,” to the point where, under the clergy/laity caste, the Priesthood of all Believers, and the identification of and free functioning in Spiritual gifts is retarded.
  • The division of the Body of Christ into many thousands of dis-unified parts, many of which give no more than lip service to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Head.
  • The oftentimes abused teaching of tithing, and the door that it closes to creative opportunities to be generous in giving and serving and loving outside of a corporate bank account and budget.

God is not hindering His work in our age. He has not designed that this time be marked with less power and wonder and expansion of His Kingdom.

No, man has done that.

Maybe, just maybe, this little experiment should not be anecdotal or hypothetical at all.

Maybe, we’ve always had the prescribed steps, ingredients and answers to this all along?

We have Him. He is all we need.

Maybe He is calling His children to get ourselves – our stuff and our ideas, out of the way…

…and follow.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: be the church, church, church growth, guest post, organic church, revival, Theology of the Church

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