Ministry in the Local Church

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Good evening.
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We are starting again.
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It is class 6 and continuing tonight with our introduction to church life and ministry.
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Now I want to begin with a little bit of a reminder of something, or not really a reminder, just something I noticed today.
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Last week I had reminded you all we have reading this week and it was chapter what in the book? Chapter 9.
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But there was also two additional readings in the syllabus.
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And the two additional readings are online articles.
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One is entitled Why I Am a Cessationist by Tom Schreiner and Why I Am a Continuationist by Sam Storms.
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Now that was in the syllabus but I forgot to remind you to read them.
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So here's what we're going to do.
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If you did not read those, in fact let me by show of hands how many of you did.
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Okay yeah read the chapter but didn't read the articles.
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Okay if you did not read the articles I want to encourage you to read them and what I will do to make it easier is I will send out a link in the text messaging format to where it will come to you on your phone and you'll be able to link right to the articles and read them right from your phone or iPad or whatever it is you use.
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So again I kind of feel like that was on me even though it was in the syllabus so in a sense we all bear some blame but I didn't remind you last week that there was additional reading on top of the book and this is I don't do that often but sometimes we do and the subject matter of those articles is going to be what we discuss in the after break session tonight because the subject matter is the question of really the question of what gifts do we believe have continued on what gifts have ceased do we believe the gift of tongues prophecy miracles and things like that continue on that's the difference between what's known as cessationism and continuationism and those two articles present two different perspectives one from somebody who believes in cessationism one from somebody who believes in continuationism so even though you didn't read the articles we can still have a conversation tonight I can share with you my perspective and then you can read the articles and help you come to your own conclusions sound good all right well as I said tonight is class 6 even though I just noticed this is incorrect or no I'm sorry class 5 tonight is class 5 and this is a two-part class meaning we're going to do part 1 tonight and part 2 next week part 1 ministry in the local church our agenda is this we're going to first recap our previous lesson and our reading assignment number two we are going to discuss gift-based ministry which again if you read your assignment this week if you read the chapter 9 you'll know what that means by gift-based ministry and then number three we're going to look at ministry partnerships that isn't in the book I don't think I don't think I addressed the subject of ministry partnerships and you'll understand what that is when we get there we're after the class discussion after the class break our discussion is going to be cessationism versus continuationism so everybody knows what we're doing this is the agenda for the evening now let's recap last week's lesson complementarianism versus egalitarianism without looking and reading the board what is complementarianism anybody remember yeah they are created to complement one another and differing roles in the church and egalitarianism is the full equality on everything in any position the way I have it here men and women are both able to serve equally in any role in the church family and or society in general that's the egalitarian position and we discussed the danger of confusing gender roles and I will mention this if you're interested you can go look but I did receive a few negative comments on the YouTube page based on what I said one of them saying that I was dangerous because I'm a danger to the trans community according to the comment on the YouTube page so if you want to go to last week's class look at the comments you can see what was stated just goes to show you there are people out there who are just you know ready and willing to respond and and really drop some wild accusations oh they're not no this yeah no they're not going to come in here all right so now let's talk about the reading assignment you guys read chapter 9 how is ministry performed tonight's lesson is going to center around the information contained in that chapter but before we get to the lesson as I do every week I wanted to give you the opportunity to ask any questions that you might have does anybody have any questions maybe you took notes in the book or you wrote something and you said you know what I want to I want to ask this question when I get to class anyone sure she's like when nobody else is stepping in so she felt like God called this one because nobody else wanted to step in and be the pastor there because their attendance is dwindled almost nothing that's mostly older people that have been there for decades and all they do is squabble each other you know whether to put paper cups or plastic but no argument was like nobody else is willing to do it so what's wrong with her being the pastor and I'm not taking her side no I know you're not Ed and I I do think that we have to be we have to be kind even when we are dealing with someone that we would disagree with so I understand you're not trying to argue with her or argue with me and if someone came and said we don't have any men who wanted to be the pastor here so a woman had to step up my initial question without being terribly argumentative or hurtful I would say just how hard did you try to fill this position with a man or were you eager to move past that and find somebody who was willing and the second question I would have is how important is it that this church remain if you don't have a pastor if you don't have elders if you don't have a functioning leadership how important is it that this church remain I mean these are quite understanding these are questions I would ask her but as you said it's dwindled down to nothing yeah so yeah you know again it comes down to the issue of are we dedicated to what the Bible teaches you know if the only person willing to be the pastor was a 16 year old kid you know I mean and now we're just you know what's called added fit ad nauseum you know going to the extreme you know what if the only person willing to be a pastor was a homosexual what if the only person willing to be a pastor was you know or well I was going to say an atheist you know Harvard just just installed an atheist chaplain this this is not a joke this is this is it made national headlines that the head chaplain not even just a chaplain the head chaplain of Harvard Harvard does have chaplains remember Harvard began as Harvard Divinity School now it's Harvard Law School and all that but the chaplain at Harvard does not believe in God he calls himself a humanist not a theist and he would identify his view of theism as atheism so it wouldn't put me past I wouldn't I wouldn't put it past them to put an atheist as the pastor but my point is you know where do we where do we draw the line do we look for a biblical qualification or do we simply put in whoever wants to do the job or whoever feels you know well God called me God's calling I taught on this last night God's calling is not the only thing that makes a person qualified to a position they also have to meet the qualifications if somebody says well God called me to do this but they don't meet the qualifications then either God didn't call them or God didn't call them right now you know that's just you know so it's a good question Ed I mean like I said it depends you know having those types of conversations I've heard I've heard it so much in the past well you know there weren't enough men so the women had to had to rise up and that is an issue I would never question the fact that throughout church history the men have failed especially in the 20th century with the rise of the Industrial Revolution and men going to work and spending their weeks and work don't want to go to church on weekends because they're tired exhausted those things many of these things contributed to the higher concentration of women in the church men not in the church there's women sure yeah and I don't argue against that that there is a reality there but we have to you know we have to ask harder and deeper questions I think to get to the heart of it all right anything else before we move on okay well let's look at gift-based ministry this can be the first portion of our class tonight getting into the lesson on the subject of ministry how is ministry performed gift-based ministry what is ministry according to the Oxford Dictionary this is the online version ministry is quote this is directly from the Oxford Dictionary quote the work or vocation of a minister of a religion in quote that's how the dictionary defines ministry it's the work of a minister the problem is biblically ministry is not limited to the minister but rather it is the job of the whole church I cite Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 and 12 listen to what it says and he gave the Apostles the prophets the evangelists the shepherds and teachers to equip the Saints who are the Saints the body to equip the Saints for the work of what ministry the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ so in that schema in the schema of Ephesians 4 11 and 12 whose job is it to do ministry the Saints the job of the minister or the job of the elder pastor Apostle whatever whoever the leader whatever you call him the job of the pastor is to equip the Saints to do ministry so when someone defines ministry as what the minister does then they have misdefined what ministry is ministry is what the body does and they are equipped by the minister or the pastor or the elder so ministry is not limited to the minister ministry is shared by everyone ministry comes from the Greek word diakonia diakonia means to serve the same root diakonos is where we get the word deacon have you ever heard somebody call the deacons the diaconate that is more that's a that's a term that's used in church language they'll say you have the deacons and they'll say the deacons are make up the diaconate the diaconate or the deacons that is the that's their Greek title is the diaconate and it means servant Christian ministry is serving others in the name of Jesus Christ so diakonia is what we are all called to do we are all called to serve and in that sense we are all to be diakonos we're all called to be lowercase d deacons you know there's the office of deacon but we're all called to deacon one another we're all called to serve one another and I'll put it like this while not all Christians are meant to be in the office of deacon all local members church members are meant to be an active ministry which means service to one another we are all called to be an active ministry or service to one another so we go to the next question how do we know what ministry we are supposed to perform because let me ask you this is everybody called to do the same thing not at all and that's a huge issue because a lot of people feel like well brother I'm a pastor and you're not therefore I'm better than you I certainly don't feel that way but that some people do right they my ministry let's say I'm the minister of property right I'm the one who makes sure that the grounds are clean and the yards cut and the toilets are flushing so I'm more important than you because all you do is a ministry of communion preparation you only do that once a week I'm here every day you're not as important as me all right or something right we tend to see our ministry up here and other people's ministry because it's what we do right and I'm not I'm not saying it's the way it should be I'm saying it's the way people tend to be it's just like I have a relative who was a he was a machinist and he told me one time he says where are these machinists are up here everybody else is down here we are the smartest we're the we're the craftsmen of the world we make the world turn everybody else is down here that's the way he saw himself he saw and I'm it's one thing to have pride in your work but it's another thing to put yourself here and say everybody else is lower oh yeah oh it was the height of arrogance for sure and put but we see that creep into the church it is it's unfortunate but very much so if you would open your bibles to first corinthians 12 I have it on the screen I know it's hard for you guys to read so let's read it um begin at verse 14 first corinthians 12 14 paul tells us that not everyone is gifted in every area this is important because again we have a tendency to fail to recognize the giftedness of others verse 14 it says for the body does not consist of one member but of many if the foot should say because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body that would not make it any less part of the body and if the ear should say because I'm not an eye I do not belong to the body that would not make it any less part of the body if the whole body were an eye where would be the sense of hearing if the whole body were an ear where would be the sense of smell but as it is god arranged the members in the body each one of them as he chose if all were a single member where would the body be as it is there are many parts yet one body very important concept paul is giving us he is very clearly articulating to us that as members of the body of christ we are all unique and notice a couple of things notice that in this illustration paul is saying if a person says I don't have this gift I have this gift I might see myself lesser notice that the illustration I used earlier was I put myself high but the other problem that people often do is they put themselves low oh I'm not the pastor therefore I have no value or I'm not the deacon therefore I have no value or I'm not the one handling the money therefore I have no value and that's what paul is trying to help the church understand that even though your giftedness is different than these other people that doesn't mean you don't belong god has chosen you to be in the body for the purpose that he's placed you therefore so there's one thing about feeling too prideful but there's another thing about feeling too useless people who feel undervalued right paul says we should see ourselves rightly not put ourselves too high neither should we put ourselves too low but that we should use sober judgment you were going to say what's your take on um i have to open my bible i have the printed uh i can look at it real quick no it's fine it's fine i'm just not looking i'm looking at a digital text about this and i never really okay 22 on the contrary the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty which are more presentable parts do not require but god has so composed the body giving greater honor to the part that lacked it that there may be no division in the body but that the members may have the same care for one another what is it that you're what's your concern so this is important yeah the point that he's making is that there if you can if you compare the church to a body there are parts of our body that we use all the time and are you know indispensable there's other parts that are private that we keep hidden right and he's saying none of them are more important than the others because it all makes up the body right in the same way if let's say i just mentioned like somebody who does the communion preparation versus somebody who does the property versus somebody who preaches so they might say well the preacher is the most important right he's the most so this is based on partiality yeah it's giving partiality saying that you're more important or this is more important and he's saying when you look at the body you may say well yeah my private areas i keep hidden nobody gets to see them so they're less important no they're more important they're indispensable i wouldn't do it i wouldn't want to lose them but but okay yeah and we bestow more honor on them he says that's the other thing those parts that we might consider to be less valuable because you know they're covered up are actually more valuable we wouldn't dare want an injury or have them removed right so it's just a it's just a word picture he's using the body as a picture of value and he's saying every part of your body has value and every part of the church has value whether whether that value is on display or not or hidden that's right okay so sorry no and i'm glad you asked that i you know i i taught through first corinthians i did a verse by verse teaching through it a few years ago and i remember spending several weeks on chapter 12 because trying to help people understand their value is a difficult thing people have a tendency to either as i said put themselves too high and that's pride or undervalue themselves to the point of not recognizing how god has gifted them and seeing the balance you know using sober judgment for how we recognize god's gift in this is is very important so how do how do we know what ministry we are to perform we have to begin to recognize that god has gifted us in a certain area so continuing in chapter 12 but going up a little bit in chapter 12 verse 4 this is what it says it says now there are varieties of gifts but the same spirit and there are varieties of service but the same lord and there are varieties of activities but in the it is the same god who empowers them all and everyone to each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good now i want you to notice in that passage the use of the word varieties i'm going to try to do something i haven't done yet so if this i hope this comes off right notice here we see the word varieties here and the word varieties here in the word varieties here right notice it says there are varieties of gifts there's varieties of service and there are varieties of activities right so if you categorize these you can categorize these as one gifts two service three activities i did this in the book you guys who read through the book right you remember this okay so keeping that in your mind now look at this when paul mentions a variety of gifts service and activities the gifts are the motivations the service is the ministry of the gifts within the body and the activities are the manifestation go back remember he said there's a variety of gifts there's a variety of service there's a variety of activities well the gifts are the motivations the service is the ministry the activities are the manifestation.
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So you say I feel a little confused.
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You guys with me? We good? You're not if you're not confused I'll move on.
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I just don't want anybody to feel like I'm running away with this because this this was like a this was a light bulb moment for me like 10 or 15 years ago whenever I was studying this I guess was in 2008 2009 to like 12 years ago.
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I began because everybody wants to know what's my spiritual gift? What is it that God's gifted me to do? And my question to them is always what are you motivated by? What what gets you out of bed and drives you? That's first and foremost how you start to recognize God's gift.
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As I said to and I hope you understand what I'm about to say.
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Over the years I've heard people say well you're gifted teacher okay but what goes along with teaching? Ability to explain things, ability to articulate myself, use huh? A lot of study but being able to stand up and speak is itself a talent right? The number one fear of the average person is public speaking.
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The number two is death.
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Do you know that? So Jerry Seinfeld said this he said most people if they go to a funeral they'd rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy because the number one fear is public speaking.
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Number two fear is death.
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I have never been afraid of public speaking ever in the history of ever.
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Bobby can attest to this.
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I was a professional magician at age 16.
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I was and Bobby and I worked together we did magic together but what I mean I was singing in choruses.
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I asked to pray in church when I was eight years old you remember that? I asked Bob McIndoe if I could pray after service.
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I was eight years old because I had no fear to stand up and talk in front of people but I was not motivated to proclaim God's Word until after I got saved.
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When I got saved God's my motivation changed what got me up out of bed every morning changed and it was the desire to proclaim God's Word.
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So the talent that I had this public speaking gift and the ability to not fear you know I always joke I say I do have a little fear of like small social gatherings.