In the community that God has birthed around me I have been given the immense pleasure and honour to serve in helping develop leaders. In this charge by the Holy Spirit, our saviour has been faithful in equipping me in the ministry of other men who are called in the same way. I have been given some useful tools for serving and enabling leaders to be the church in the certain ways God has gifted them to be so. This is another post regarding leadership. It is for those who are called to equip the saints for acts of ministry. If this is you please read on, if it is not read on if you like so that you may love and serve those who strive to serve you.
When Christ ascended after his resurrection he left a ragtag band of rebel conspirators, blue collar fisherman, crooked government officials, professional whores, and cowardly followers. This laughable motley crew was Gods foundation for the way he was going to appeal to the nations. His church was going to be built on these misshapen rocks. In no other group were Pauls words more true than with these men and women when he said regarding the church,
"26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, [2] not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being [3] might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him [4] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." (1 Cor. 1:26-31)
But sadly and gloriously enough, this starts to become familiar does it not? Are we not in our own way just as destitute in our abilities as those early followers? The stolen moments of gossip, late night lusts, backstabbing, eating disorders, suicide attempts, and all other obvious disbeliefs in the gospel are marked in our history. At least that is true for me and my community and I don't suspect that we are unique. That is why we need help leaders. The most potent and evil lie of the enemy is that of self sustainability. We have nothing inherent in us that will enable us to build up the saints in the gospel to be sent out. Let us not forget the gospel as we build people up in it. Remember the way in which you were saved? It had so little to do with you. Your role was to except the obvious, the truth. You earned your salvation as the poet earns the sunset, by seeing it. It was revealed not, discovered. (Luke 10:21) You continued in that salvation by faith did you not-for it was not your works that sanctified you either. "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, [5] as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." (Rom. 1:16) It is the belief in the gospel that saves us, but it is the belief in it that preserves us, sanctifies us also. You are not only saved by your faith but to your faith. Your ability, your power is foreign and even hurtful to your sanctification. Therefore, your ability to lead and serve is not yours either. "It is God who works, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil 2:13). Jesus did not simply allow his disciples to immediately start fulfilling his great commission right after his ascension. But rather told them to wait for his power to enable them for works of ministry. (Acts 1:8) Then and only then would they do the work set before them. It is in his great working that we can do church. And there is great wisdom in waiting for the Holy Spirit as evidenced on the day of Pentecost when 5,000 people committed themselves to Christ by the workings of the Holy Spirit. Paul adds to this implicit pattern with explicit command to the Church in Corinth in the twelfth chapter of his first letter, verses four through seven. "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." As you can see here in this chapter if you read on is the extant of the spirit empowered giftings that are to build up the Church. Furthermore, He "gives" the church people who are equipped by the spirit to build them up in works of ministry. (Eph 4: 11) We as those who are to lead are not doing so because of an objective knack or charismatic personality, rather by the empowerment of the living God who is good to redeem. This truth corresponds with and is obeyed by our belief in the gospel. If we are living in accordance to the annals and precepts of the glorious truth of whom Jesus is and what he does- faith in Christ- then we will stray from pride and what is really false Gospel. What believer in the Gospel is propelled and motivated by himself? He knows that he is worthy of nothing more than hell, eternal separation. He knows that it took a perfect God dying for his sin, to save him from himself. That is why he lives as he is saved. He works as he is saved, by grace in Christ that is given to him on the cross, by a life empowered by the Holy Spirit through faith. That is our power.
Why do I go through this before I get to the point of this post? Why would a post called "know yourself" have so little to do with me, the leader? If that is not your question then I may have failed because that is exactly the point. What I am about to un fold is going to illustrate tools by which you can gauge your place so we do not have a case of mixed roles or ears trying to be feet in the body of Christ. But this cannot be mixed up with a personality test. WE ARE NOT UNCOVERING YOUR ABILITES BUT RATHER PRAYING THROUGH HOW THE SPIRIT HAS ENABLED YOU BY GRACE TO SERVE HIM AND THE BODY. This is not written so that you may find yourself to be a teacher, or a prophet, or an apostle. Rather, it is written so that you may find yourself to be a son of God by grace that has been given a job with tools to do it. It is a question of identity. You were purchased by blood to be a co heir, not a pastor.
With that stated, here are some assumptions. I am a staunch believer that Jesus is the head Pastor of the global church and therefore of the local Church as well. He will build it (king) (Mat. 16:18), he is the mediator (priest) (Heb. 3:1), he is the arbiter of truth (prophet) (Deut 18:15). Therefore there is not one man to a Church who can address all facets of leadership- i.e. teaching, counselling, organization etc. I do not see that in scripture, anywhere. Rather I see men who are called to a similar vision who are gifted in various leadership gifting who enable, encourage, submit to and organize one another for equipping the saints to believe the gospel and thus be the Church in their specific regional/ urban/ rural contexts. That is an assumption; that the following jobs, perspectives and gifting are to be worked out in teams, period. If you do not agree with me then you are going to have some issues with the following exhortation but I urge you, get alone with your bible and search the new testament for evidence of a "lone ranger" pastor who is not called to operate within a team who all submits to the spirit for direction and the Lord Jesus Christ in headship.
Now that's out of the way, let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. If you are still with me we have established that your giftingS to build up the church are not yours, but the Spirits work in you. That is part of the manifestation of the spirit not your ability per se. In the following we will examine what exactly those manifestations could be so that we can be most effective. At the end of the day I want any leader who reads this to be equipped and freed up to do what he is gifted to do and not what he thinks he should do. Do not get me wrong, I think that there are those who have a very hefty gift set that enables them to be effective in many facets of building up the body, but if we are honest this person is probably not us. Usually those people are called to a vast ministry which involves apostolic type work which initiates movements and church plants but then hands them over to teams that he has trained. However, these men are few because we only need a few. They impact many so there is not as much need for them as they have a large influence, where as the need for people gifted in teaching or shepherding is much greater as they have a smaller influence. The more people influenced by a specific gifting the less we need of that gifting where as the inverse is also true. To have more than one Paul results in redundancy, not increased effectiveness. Therefore the majority of us will have a more focused and specific gift set because of the need for us and therefore require us to work together in consensus rather than monarchy.
The following is an explication of how you can effectively reckon how you are gifted then what that might entail. There are some theologically based epistemological helps that I have found quite useful in learning how exactly your gifts flesh themselves out. Not the gifting specifically but rather how that gift is utilized in how you think. Its end is to determine how you filter the world, the word, and people through certain lenses. Before I get into that though I think it would be first good to illustrate exactly what the spiritual gifts are in regards to those who are to lead and equip the saints. I will get into the epistemological stuff in part two. So here you are, the moment you have all been waiting for, the spiritual gifts as they pertain to equipping the saints for works of ministry.
I am going to draw from prescriptive, explicit sections of the bible where Paul illustrates specific gifts which are either apparently or definitely used to equip your community in being the Church. Please note also that you can be blessed with more than one, not be blessed with only leading/ overseer gifts, or have only one. Christ is our sufficiency, not our gifts. These cannot save you. Also, as I move through the following gifts I will try to give insight in what that gift entails or how it is manifested. My thoughts are based on either my experience, my community's experience, or scripture. And lastly, the following gifts are going to be organized in first the paradigm Paul gives us for those who are to build up the body for works of ministry in Ephesians 4 then I intend to supplement those gifts with other ones he outlines in other books which are also useful in ministry. I consider the Ephesians list to be a very comprehensive in its wisdom but I am not convinced that it is a formula for a church leadership staff. Rather, it appears to be a global model which is general in its application. I hold this view because there is no need for an apostle to be stationed at a local church for long periods of time. Then he would not be an apostle. So that being said I take it as it is stated, that the list here is a group that God raises up to equip the saints, period. No more, no less. It is neither sodal nor modal.
Apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers.
This specific list of gifts in Ephesians has been considered unique by some as a either a description for what your leadership team needs to look like or a description of what your apostolic team needs to look like. I am utterly unconvinced of the former and still un sure of the later. However, since the purpose of this post is neither to define an apostolic team nor a leadership staff (a task I am unqualified in taking on) we can analyze the following and receive at the very least some good descriptions which will aid us in defining how some of us can serve whether that be sodally (regionally) or modally (locally).
Apostle (apostolos; Strong's #: G652): This word and office/ gifting, depending on who you talk to, has been the subject of a minor controversy. There are some individuals or even denominations who contend that it is simply an office given to the twelve and then Paul, Barnabas, and Timothy. I see no evidence for that contention. I am not here however to dispute it, if anyone has issues then talk to me. I do see the wisdom and some theological onus laid on idea that there was an office of the apostle that was given to the twelve that has sense closed, but am not convinced. We are now left with the gift of apostleship enabled by the Holy Spirit. Whichever the case, there seems to be definite biblical backing for both the gifting of Apostleship and the activity of the Apostles in the New Testament. This gifting pertains to those who are gifted in a regional perspective when they think, pray and engage in the body. More often than not in there regional perspective they develop systems of care or networks for multiple gatherings or even churches. These members of the body are usually gifted heavily in the leading/ teaching/ preaching/ prophetic gifting do to their necessity of raising up leaders and casting vision. In many ways their ministry goes past the local Church while they are involved in their respective local churches. They are more mobile then static. This precedent is heavily set from Christ leading and developing a team which will initiate movements that will eventually influence the world in a relatively short time. The disciples are called "apostles" multiple times and go out to plant churches and train up men throughout their area and beyond. Of course we see Paul following the same pattern and training up others to follow up in his apostolic ministry (i.e. Barnabas and Timothy). Contemporary illustrations of this gifting are manifested in men like Mark Driscoll, Alan Hirsch, Jeff Vanderstelt , Steve Timmis, Martin Luther and Billy Graham. You may have this gifting if you tend to serve in big picture ways, able to lead easily and equip people naturally. You tend to walk into a room and locate leaders and can easily see where this expression of the gospel needs to be in regards to mission. At many times you have a long term vision plan for many things concerning the church and how that factors into regional perspective with other churches.
Prophets (Prophetes; Strong's #: G4396): Here is another hot button gifting so to speak. At many times this particular gifting is intimidating because of its obvious supernaturalism and its seeming correlation to the Old Testament prophets. The former issue I think has arisen from a general lack of faith in the American Church in Gods power and a desire for control. The opposition has come as well with the advent of cessationism which is in my opinion an overreaction to the weak theology of the main vein of Charismatic or Pentecostal movements. The issue concerning a potential link to the Old Testament prophets is usually out of a concern of them being able to add to scripture as a kind of arbiter of God's word that is indisputable. When we do a brief survey of what is meant by the word "prophet" in the New Testament church who are operating out of this gift, there is no basis for this fear. (Acts 11:27,28; 13:1-3; 15:30-33; 21:10-12; 1 Cor. 12:28,29; Eph 3:5, Eph 4:11) We find that God has not only given us many examples of what that means but also rules and guidelines for how that gift is to be exercised in our gatherings both implicitly by example and explicitly through command. As we survey these verses we find that those with the prophet gifting serve in two different types of exhortation. The first is one of a general revealing of truth where future events are not the focus but rather the conditions of people's hearts are revealed or truths are displayed. This does require supernatural insight however due to the fact that you are getting revelation on what truth to spontaneously reveal realities about people that they have strived to keep secret. The second capacity is that of specific revelations about the future. As it would seem there are events that the spirit reveals to people with this gifting which tell them of what the future holds and how it affects those in the church. It is a beautiful leadership tool as it can reveal and cast vision that spirit is calling us to as well as display the glory and power of God. In this gifting though it is extremely important to understand the governances that the Spirit has laid out in scripture as illustrated in the above verses. In this definition of the New Testament Prophet I think we get a picture which is quite different from the one our knee jerk takes us too. This gift is overt and one which is plain to the gifted so a prescription I think is not necessary here. If you can prophecy and it corresponds with how the spirit has described in scripture then you have it. Contemporary leaders who have this gifting are those like Mark Driscoll who has exercised it responsibly in his service to the Church.
Evangelist (euaggelistēs; Strong's #: G2099): Now that we have waded through the mine field of gifts that we as American Christians have the hardest time with, we can now settle down into a more comfortable gifting like evangelism. In addition to gifts such as helps and services this is a gift which in addition to being a specific manifestation of the spirit is also a responsibility of all the saints and a right response to the gospel; this gifting however results in a more focused and empowered expression of spreading the gospel. While in scripture we have only a short list of people who are said to have the gifting, no demonstrated acts one exercising the gift. However, we can glean from what the word means a better understanding of what it entails. The original word is euaggelistēs which literally means a bringer of good tidings or good news. It really means bringer of the gospel in the biblical context. This being a spiritual gifting, that is a supernatural enablement by the Holy Spirit, we can safely say with relative certainty that this is a gift which enables a leader to communicate and declare the good news of Jesus in a way which goes beyond the average enablement of the spirit for every Christian. This gifting is a dynamic and necessary one for apostolic teams as well as the local Church. They are initiators for mission for their respective movements and teamed with a teaching gift can be a deadly combination for the kingdom. Those gifted with this are able to train up the larger body to be the church, the sent out ones. People with this gift are not necessarily teachers but it can manifest itself that way. It can simply be someone who quietly establishes social networks with intentionality, leaving a legacy of many won for Christ. However it can also be someone like a Billy Graham, Charles Spurgeon, or George Whitefield who is gifted in preaching and uses their preaching gift along with their evangelist gift to cause revival.
Shepherd(poimēn; Strong's #: G4166): Shepherd or Pastor is another gift that the spirit gives us to build up the body according to Ephesians 4:11. Comfortingly enough, the one who we see exhibit this gift most is The Great Shepherd Jesus. From him we can glean the best example of how to Shepherd and use the gifting. He exercised it best so we can see it best from him. If you feel after reading this that you have this gift I encourage you to reread some gospels so that you may see exactly how our King shepherds his sheep. Aside from the beautiful illustrations of faithful pastoring we get from Christ the specific ways those gifted with the shepherd orientation work out their gift in our context of the Church requires some investigation. We do not get overt examples or illustrations of what the pastor gifting looked like in the early church but we can draw on some obvious correlation between the word used and the action one is gifted to perform. We see the word literally means "a shepherd", a keeper of sheep. We also see that this word is closely related to the Greek word which means "to protect". Also, the context in which Jesus uses it seems to illustrate a protector/ leader of sheep whose job it is to "care" for his flock. This put into the context of a local leader in the church, illustrates a person whose Job it is to minister and care for the people who have been entrusted to them. This leader would have a deep affinity for his flock which would fuel his ambition for their care. You may have this gift if you are first and foremost concerned with the hearts and minds of specific people. In an intentional way you seek to always counsel, pray with and teach your community to grow in the gospel. It would fit then that Shepherds are those who are more local in their orientation, not necessarily regional. I believe that a manifestation of Shepherd exists within an apostolic team who would shepherd leaders and tend to their hearts. Some modern day leaders who are gifted this way are leaders like CJ Mahaney or John Piper who minister faithfully those whom God has entrusted to them. CJ Mahaney could be considered one of those shepherds who care for leaders more specifically.
Teachers (Didaskalos; Strong's #: G1321): This last gifting in the series of gifts given to us in the Ephesians list for building up the saints in the gospel is probably the one which is most self evident. It is one gift which all the other gifts build off of. If you cannot teach then you probably don't have the other leadership gifts. I say this for two reasons. I do not see how you can inspire movements and train up teams (apostle), declare and cast truth (prophet), declare and speak the gospel (evangelism), or shepherd a flock (pastor) without being able to teach. And secondly it is a requirement for eldership (1 Timothy 3:2). We must all be able to teach, not necessarily well, but we have to be able to do it. Teachers are characterized by both the effective transmission of information but also the ability to make it understandable and desirable to attain. This gift is the foundation for the others. If you have this gift then you are prone to explanation dissection. You easily understand and you are able to replicate that information into appropriate forms for specific audiences. Contemporary examples of this are great teachers such as Matt Chandler, Tim Keller, and Mark Driscoll.
Administration and Leadership.
Administration (kybernesis; Strong's #: G2941): This is a gift Paul mentions in passing in 1Cor. 12:28 and a word which is used only once in the whole bible. It actually directly means governance or to govern. So we could paraphrase that text by saying God has set some in the Church... to govern. This gifting is an indispensible one once you start leading more than twenty people. However, this is not a "leadership" gifting per se. It is just really nice if either you or someone else on you leadership team has it. I say this because it is entirely possible to have a quiet and understated ministry of serving the church with your gift without having to be in a leadership position. It is the one that binds and supports the other gifts in any expression of the body as it organizes and develops systems of care and networks by which the body can be loved, taught, and built up in the truth of the gospel. Sadly we see that the immediate assumption of this gift is that they schedule gatherings and buy real estate but at many times people with this gift are really well used in developing sequential training models or replication strategies or anything else that involves pragmatic, down to earth structure. It is then that we see a whole new world open up for this manifestation of the spirit because we see that it contains not a simple organizational mindset but a very specific experiential outlook which can leak into almost all facets of leadership which can pragmatize and bring down to earth the teacher/ apostle/ shepherds/ evangelist's vision. They are indispensible for the body. This is another gifting that if you have it you probably know it according to the description that I just gave. However if when you walk into a room where the body has expressed itself and immediately start to think experientially then you may have this gifting- how are people experiencing the ministry that is serving them. How are they being cared for in regards to how the vision is being implemented? Do not worry if you do not feel focused in this gifting as its focus is broad because there are so many ways that it can used. A good utilize of this gifting in modern terms are people like Mark Driscoll or Dr. James Dobson who have developed massive systems and curriculum to aid in the care of the body.
Leadership (proistemi; Strong's #: G4291): I waited to do this one until the end because I assumed that it would be assumed if you are taking any of this to heart. But this is the gift that binds together all the above gifting (with the possible exception of administration). If you are exercising them with any effectiveness in the spirit then you have this one to one degree or another. Obviously inherent within the name we know what this gift entails. The original word essentially means to preside over or to superintend. No real loss of meaning in this transliteration. However because this gift binds the entire over seer gifts there are some important things to note and this is where the beauty of a pastoral team comes into play. It manifests in different capacities and degrees of potency. There are some who are effective leaders of leaders but ineffective in smaller groups. There are those who can lead and inspire thousands while there are those who are best in discipling and developing three or four or even one! That is why it is necessary to know how you can serve and what you have been given by the spirit
What to do with this.
Now I want you to remember that this was neither a charge nor a redefinition of who you are. The sole reason for this post was to serve the leaders in my community with a gospel centred biblical tool to help them with serving others in their very specific and unique gift set. I implore you to remember that all these gifts are administered by the holy spirit that dwells in you richly by the death, burial, and resurrection of our risen saviour and Lord. If some, none, or all of these gifts were could be located in your realm of service then I implore you to not take them as your identity but rather praise God for your son-ship in him. And then, out of love, serve those around you to whom God has given you to disciple. Please do not consider this the beginning of the rest of your life, rather consider them slaves who you will whip until they serve your master Jesus until he returns or calls you home.
In part two of this series we will explore a less reified way in which we can gauge our selves as leaders. We get to mess around with some more theological/ philosophical ways we can know ourselves better as leaders in the body. This is done predominantly to piss off the Shepherd nature of Karl and the general old man nature of the Hamburgular. Love you guys.
http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/2214368/1_corinthians_12
