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In The Eye of the Storm
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Part II Chapter 7
God Gives Leadership Gifts God has called every believer in the Body of Christ to be a participator, not merely a spectator. Everyone has a vital place and job to do as we serve each other. God has given spiritual gifts to each person (you)to be used for the glory of God and the growth of the church. If we are not utilizing and flowing in the anointing of our giftings, the body of Christ becomes sickly and unhealthy. Like the talent in Matthew 25, some Christians' spiritual gifts are still buried in the ground. We must discover what our gifts are and use them. The degree to which we discover and use our gifts will determine how well the task will be accomplished. The New Testament provides a listing of twenty-one of the many functions and ministries necessary for the growth and expression of the Body of Christ. Some of these gifts include prophesying, serving, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading and showing mercy (Romans 12:6-8). Other gifts are the gifts of the Spirit-word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues (I Corinthians 12:8-10). Ministry Gifts In this chapter, we are going to take a look at leadership responsibilities (often called ministry gifts) God has given to equip and edify the Body of Christ. We will not only include the five listed in Ephesians 4:11—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. In addition, we will discuss three more important offices recognizable in the church— bishops, deacons, and helps. All of these responsibilities require that the person has the appropriate spiritual gift to perform this responsibility. I am not inclined to call them positions, instead, they are job descriptions to describe the functions a person performs. Once a leader bears fruit, he will be recognized and given a title for the work he does in the corporate church. For example, the apostle needs to have the gift of apostle, the pastor must have the gift of pastor, and so forth. When the body of Christ is functioning according to recognized spiritual gifts, there is an incredible anointing and power in the body, and the church can grow and move "full steam ahead!" But how does a leader get to be a leader? How are his gifts recognized? It starts in the trenches. In a small group setting, a person simply serves in some place of ministry. He allows God to shape his character. As he bears spiritual fruit in his life, his gifts and anointings become apparent. He then is given greater responsibility. While he ministers within his job description and calling, he is able to train others to do the work of ministry and everyone working with him begins to function in their God-given giftings. Soon, it is apparent to all that this person is an apostle or teacher, or prophet or has the potential to oversee a group of people as a bishop, and so on. Accountability to God and Others The goal is for the body of Christ to move forward in love and Holy Spirit power "until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to the mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:11-13). This can only happen when believers serve one another in love and are built together with others so that we are all functioning together as one body. Everyone in the body of Christ needs to be interconnected and give an account to God and others regarding how they live their Christian lives. A leader must also give an account to the Lord and his spiritual advisor for those under his spiritual oversight. For each ministry gift below, you will notice a pattern of interconnectedness as accountability flows throughout the body. If a leadership gift of the church becomes "out of joint" with the rest of the body of Christ, they are spiritually dislocated. That is why it is so important for each gift to remain connected or accountable to God and other believers. Apostle
First of all, apostles are here today. As described in the last chapter, God is restoring apostleship to today's church, and it is not a first-century phenomena as the church often has been taught during the past 2,000 years. Although it was only a few short decades after the early church began that the curious phenomena occurred of apostles dropping away and bishops taking over, I believe it was always God's intention for the apostles to design and engineer the church and continue to lay the foundations. Without a master designer, the church falters. I understand this dynamic well, because as an inventor and designer by trade, I know that if a customer has problems with a machine I designed, it is probably one of two reasons. Either there is a defect in design of that particular machine or the owner of the machine needs more training in order to use the machine properly. The apostles job is to expertly engineer the designing of the machine (church) so that it can be used to the optimum capacity. It is an apostle's gifting to look at a group of people and know how to adapt that culture and people to the gospel. It is his business to look carefully at the hunger and needs of the people and then design a working body. He will go to the believers meeting in a particular region and help them organize according to the fruits evident in leaders' lives. He will lay hands on a person to ordain him to oversee the group and fit other people, like pieces to a puzzle, expertly into church operations, according to their anointings. The tremendous vision God gives to an apostle allows him to know God's plan for His people so that he can discern how to utilize all the functions of the church for the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of an apostle's jobs is knowing how to plan a strategy for mission work which is adaptable to a particular culture. His experience in planting churches and anointing of God within him enables him to plan a strategy for a new region or culture and know when leaders are ready to be incorporated into the life of the church. In this way, others can be trained and equipped to do the work of ministry, and the work is reproduced. The Training of an Apostle How does an apostle become an apostle? He is raised up within the family group setting. The apostles in the New Testament were first disciples of Jesus. This family of disciples later became apostles after three years of training. Jesus went to heaven satisfied that He had trained twelve replicas of Himself to carry on His work. Paul, too, was first a disciple who witnessed to the churches. He then was a helper to Barnabas. During this time, he became a master builder and designer of the church and was sent out as an apostle. All this required training. Spiritual growth took place, and then after much experience, an apostle was raised up to design and plant more churches. Today we need the apostles' work now more than ever so that the church can be properly designed to accommodate the tremendous harvest to be reaped in the last days. The early rains, or seed-planting time in the church, took place during the book of Acts in the New Testament. Today we are in the latter rains or harvest time, so there is a tremendous need for the church to be designed properly—with apostles—in order to help bring in the coming huge harvest. A Group of Twelve Apostles Work Together Apostolic ministry is not an individual work, but a collective work. I believe a group of 12 apostles should work together to cover churches within a region of the world and be accountable to each other. There is a reason for that. Jesus started with twelve disciples who became apostles. No one man received the credit for the work that was accomplished. When one leader failed the whole ministry did not collapse. He was simply replaced. In the book of Judges there were 12 tribes of Israel. In Revelation 21:10-14, John describes his vision of the heavenly Jerusalem, a city with a great wall consisting of 12 gates on which were inscribed with names of the 12 tribes. The foundations were inscribed with names of the 12 apostles. The foundation of this heavenly city is an example of God's design for the foundation of the church on earth. Throughout God's Word measurements and multiples of 12 are often represented, perhaps, according to Halley's Bible Handbook, "intended as a sort of dim photograph, given in the distant past, of what God was working toward." 8 Today a group of 12 makes up a corporate body in the business world. Groups of 12 working together create think tanks, allowing minds to flow together in order to make corporate decisions. The same is true in the church. I believe God ordains a group of 12 apostles to work together to oversee a country or work so that they may be submitted to each other, and one person (apostle) need not make all the decisions. As we mentioned before, the apostles will look at a country and develop a strategy for its culture and peoples. They find the will of God and translate that will of God to a functioning operation. They make sure everyone is moving with the anointing of God to accomplish God's plan. In other words, they make sure the teacher, pastors, evangelists and others find their special place in the Body. Questions an apostle may ask are: "How can we win this group over to Christ? How do we release evangelists? How do we get the whole body of Christ functioning and healthy and working together as a unit?" Apostle’s Job is Itinerant Apostles are itinerant and do not stay permanently in one location. They may have a base or headquarters, but their job is to go from place to place to see that the church is being properly built. They may help existing church structures return to apostolic foundations or help establish new Christian communities. When apostles follow the work of an evangelist by helping to establish new churches for the new believers, they will observe the new church group starting out, and temporarily help to administrate the church or churches until it is time to lay hands on leaders to ordain and release them into ministry. They will release an overseer to look after the entire group of cells in the area when they believe he is exhibiting and bearing fruits under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, thus knowing he is ready to have the greater responsibility of more cell groups. The apostles will also go house to house giving communion to the cell groups, and by this contact with the people, understand the condition of the church's overall climate. This will help them to design that particular church to the specifications needed for that group of people. After an apostle has designed a work and built a proper foundation, he will cover the people spiritually by bringing objective appraisal to the now established church's ongoing spiritual condition. Paul operated in this capacity through his letter writing to various churches and his occasional visits. It should be noted, that in order for an apostle to be effective, he must be received by the body of believers he is working with. If he is not received as an apostle, he cannot function, because the people will not embrace him as the "called out one," and he would not have the authority to make corrective changes. Paul spent much time in writing, particularly to the Galatians, claiming his apostleship in order to be received. Strengths and Weaknesses An apostle's personality needs to be strong and decisive. He must know what God's plan is and move affirmatively while giving clarity and a sense of direction and anointing. Along with an apostle's strengths may also come weaknesses. Some pitfalls of an apostle may be; · to design the church or movement on past experiences. When Peter witnessed Jesus' transfiguration, he wanted to build three temples. But they would have been built according to Peter's past experiences. God wanted Peter to see that all the Old Testament prophecies found their fulfillment in the fact that Jesus is the Son of God—a new concept for Peter. An apostle must build a church toward the future. A church designed from past experiences is a monument to the past and becomes a form of idolatry. · to move ahead of the Spirit of God. Apostles have great vision for the future. A weakness may be that they get carried away by their own fantasies and fail to see that the people are not with them. If their people do not yet have the future picture, an apostle must be prepared to wait and remain in the anointing of the Spirit until the people are ready to move together. · to override the overseer/bishop's responsibility. An overseer's responsibility is similar to that of a captain of a ship. Local churches or cell groups are his area of responsibility, and he cannot function properly if the apostle remains in the new Christian community he helped design and tries to make local decisions for the church. If an apostle stays beyond the time appointed by the Holy Spirit, he loses his apostolic anointing and begins to function as an overseer in the church. The apostle must stick to what he does best—designing the over-all work and then moving on, while still giving spiritual covering to the work so there can be unity and peace flowing throughout. It's the apostle's job to point out problem areas and give solutions to those problems, but the overseer has the liberty to respond to or ignore the advice. God has a much greater vision for apostolic ministry than what the church has experienced to date. It is very unlikely that any local expression of Christ's body will grow into the full measure of the stature of Jesus Christ by ignoring the gift of the apostle. Apostles are important in aiding all the other ministry gifts so that the saints can be built up while the apostles lay a solid foundation for the church, giving it directional authority. The job of an apostle could be summed up by saying that his desire is to see everyone in the church released in their talents and giftings so God can be glorified! Ephesians 4:11-13 says the apostles are needed for the building up of the Body until we all come to the unity of faith. Apostles are careful foundation layers, and believers will build on these foundations for years to come. Apostles are people of vision sent by God to build and rebuild the church today. Their ministry is vital to the effective functioning of the body of Christ. Paul told the Corinthians, "God has appointed in the church, first apostles ... " What God has appointed, let us also set apart and not set aside. Prophet
As we said before, the function of a prophet is similar to the navigator of a ship. A ship's navigator radios ahead and finds what the weather is like so he can tell the captain, who ultimately decides what route to take. Like the navigator, the prophet is the one who looks ahead and sees what is down the road, and reports back to God's people. You could say that the prophet's message from God is like a compass. The church needs the compass to follow the course laid out on the nautical chart (God's Word). A prophet functioning in the ministry job description for the corporate church guides the church and predicts its future so that it stays on the right course. He also warns people if there is sin in the camp. Whether he is predicting the future, receiving timely revelation (direction) for the church or warning someone of sin, a prophet's words hold great influence. Like the apostle, the prophet lays foundations that will stand the test of time in the church.
As "one who speaks forth," a prophet is not shy to forewarn of coming danger, but on the other hand, he often confirms what God has already spoken to the church. Leaders of the corporate church should hear from the prophets regularly to see if they are moving in the dimension of the Spirit. Prophets can tell leaders if they are beating their own drums or hearing a voice other than God's voice. The prophet calls it to their attention and encourages them to get back on course. The prophet Nathan called David into account for his affair with Bathsheba, and David repented of his sin. Some other words of correction a prophet could give to a leader may be these: "You are intellectualizing things, you need to listen more closely to the Holy Spirit," or "You are taking personal ownership for God's work rather than trusting it completely to His hands." Prophets Raised Up in the Home Group Setting First of all, we do not want to confuse a person operating in the gift ministry of a prophet and one who operates in the gift of prophecy. The gift of prophecy is a gift of the Holy Spirit given to certain believers. We spoke of this earlier in Chapter 4, explaining how the gifts of the Holy Spirit can be utilized in the home group setting for the purpose of edification, consolation and exhortation (I Corinthians 14:3).
In the home group setting, the New Testament describes women who prayed and prophesied. Acts 21:7-9 tells us that Philip had four daughters "who did prophesy" This gift of prophecy is a very important facet of prophesying. But these daughters were not recognized prophetesses. They were believers who prophesied. A person recognized as a proven prophet (having the gift minis-try of a prophet) establishes or repairs foundations in local churches. Some recognized prophets and prophetesses in the New Testament were Judas and Silas (Acts 15:32). Agabus (Acts 11:28; 21:10-11), and Anna (Luke 2:38). A person in a cell group who will later be recognized as having the ministry of a prophet in the church has to start somewhere. I believe he starts as a believer in a cell group who "desires earnestly to prophesy . . . " (I Corinthians 14:39) and wants to "stir up the gift of God, which is in you ... " (II Timothy 1:6). In the home group setting, he will be learning to hear God's voice and may eventually be recognized as a prophet in the church. During this time, the fruit of his ministry will be confirmed by those in his cell group. He will be a worshipper who studies God's Word diligently and faithfully. He will boldly operate with a pure heart before God. A recognized prophet or prophetess should be free to prophesy at all times; however, he or he needs to be subject to the spiritual father in the cell group who will judge the prophecy based on the written Word of God. If a personal prophecy is given directly to an individual by a prophet, that individual must make the final decision what to do with the prophecy. Apostles and Prophets Working Together According to scripture, apostles and prophets should work closely together (Luke 11:49, I Corinthians 12:28, Ephesians 2:20). The prophet is kept balanced by working closely with an apostle, although he is not directly accountable to the apostle. A prophet needs to be accountable to God, otherwise the messages he gets from God would be diluted. He has divine authority as God's spokesman, so his words have the same authority as God's words. Of course, prophets (and all leaders) should always be accountable to God and others within the family group setting as to how they live their Christian lives. Kevin J. Conner in his book Today's Prophets, confirms that prophets need to work hand-in-hand with apostles: Prophets at times have sought to say and to be the 'final word" of direction for churches, and the tragic results have been seen. Prophets are not called to govern churches by their ministry unless they work in harmony and safety with apostolic ministries. Because of the subjective nature of their giftings, prophets need apostles who are of a more objective nature to be checks and balances for them. "God has set in the church first apostles, and secondarily prophets…" Both are equal as persons before God as to redemptive value, but both have instinctive grace and giftings and both are set forth in New Testament divine order. Apostles and prophets work together. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers work together. Together these minis-tries constitute the government of God's church. Together they act as checks and balances to each other. Together they help maintain balance in the church, both locally and universally. 9 Should Not Have Administrative Responsibilities Under the kings in the Old Testament, prophets did not have administrative authority. The same was true in the New Testament church. The New Testament churches were governed by apostles or apostles and elders—Acts 15:1-18, 22-23. (Notice: I believe the term "elders" can be used interchangeably with "leadership." Elders or people in leadership are people whose spiritual maturity is proven in their lives and ministry. I will hence-forth use the term "elders" as a generic reference to any combination of mature leaders, bearing fruit in local leadership). Just as in the New Testament church, today's prophet should never have responsibilities in administration. That is the overseer's job. A prophet is not the captain of the ship. The prophet's job is to hear clearly from God and then pass the message on to the overseer and local elders who can decide what God is saying and carry out the directions of the prophecy. Local leadership always takes on the responsibility of judging the prophet's ministry (I Corinthians 14:29), and the prophet needs to be willing to submit to that authority in the local church. As a safeguard, we need to constantly test a prophet. A prophet may have a tendency to want to take authority over the whole church and make final decisions for the church based on his prophesies. This can be devastating to the life of the church. A Prophet and His Message Must Be Received Because a prophet is seeing things ahead of time, it may take some time for the message to be received by the church. A prophet must often learn to be patient. This is no easy task for a prophet, according to Harold Eberle in his book, The Complete Wineskin, The heart of the prophet is directed, intense, burdened, tender and often frustrated. His heart is continually focused on the specific task God has given to him. His emotions are linked to the results he perceives in relationship to his calling—often in tears when change is not seen joyful when correction is received. He has a tender heart which is easily broken at the sight of sin. Yet, it is common for the prophet to be frustrated, even angry at times, when he sees that what is written in the Bible is not real in the church. Many Christians have not been able to understand this anger, and they do not realize that in the prophet we see another side to God's heart. 10 Because a prophet is sensitive to see into the spiritual world, he is often impatient or frustrated with other believers in the body of Christ because they do not sense the urgency of the problem or see a way through to a solution like he does. We desperately need the voice of the prophet in today's church. Without him, the church would lose her way. You could summarize a prophet's main job by saying he is constantly checking to see that God's people stay in the dimension of the Spirit. Evangelist
Earlier, we compared the evangelist to a salesperson or travel agent for a ship's voyage. An evangelist is a person who persuades people to come aboard the ship (enter the kingdom of God). The evangelist his a great commission to go into all the world and make disciples. In recent times, evangelists have done an excellent job of presenting the gospel. With today's technology and the mass media, the gospel of the kingdom can be preached easily by evangelists, even to far-flung parts of the world. One-On-One Evangelists There are basically two kinds of evangelists. Those who go out and minister one-on-one and those who go out to conduct evangelistic crusades. A one-on-one evangelist has the unique gifting of going out into the streets or house to house to talk to individuals about their heart's condition. It is quite obvious when the Spirit of God flows through such an evangelist, because he immediately captures the attention of his listeners, and people's lives are changed forever. An example from scripture of this kind of evangelist is Philip. In Acts 8, we read that Philip was told by an angel of the Lord to travel on a desert road. While on this road, Philip saw an Ethiopian eunuch reading scripture from the prophet Isaiah. The Holy Spirit led Philip to run up to the eunuch's chariot and ask him if he understood what he was reading. The eunuch admitted he did not. Philip presented Jesus to the eunuch, and he immediately fell under the convicting power of the gospel. They happened to go by some water; the eunuch asked to be baptized, and then went on his way praising and glorifying God. In this instance, Philip, as a one-on-one evangelist, (he also preached the gospel city to city—Acts 8:40), had a very simple approach to evangelism—God's Spirit nudged him to tell of the glorious good news of Jesus, and he saw the results as an individual responded to God's love. An Evangelist Who Holds Evangelistic Crusades Another kind of evangelist is one who organizes large or small evangelistic crusades. This evangelist preaches the gospel to hundreds or thousands of people who respond in great waves to the message of salvation. The dynamics of holding these kind of city-wide crusades is that the message of the gospel reaches out in a broad and marvelous way to many, many people. Signs, wonders and miracles often follow such an evangelist (Acts 8:6-13). In addition, this evangelist often has great success and anointing when he works alongside musicians or worship leaders, because the two complement each other in their ministries. Because he has an itinerant type of ministry, the evangelist needs to move from house to house or congregation to congregation. God does not want an evangelist to be restricted, because he is called to the world. However, an evangelist cannot be a Lone Ranger, running loose and free. He especially needs to cooperate with church apostles so that they can transfer responsibility to teachers, pastors and bishops who can accomplish their jobs through utilizing home fellowships to do the work of ministry. In this way, everyone flows in their job descriptions and anointings. The Nature of An Evangelist It is the nature of an evangelist to move rapidly and change plans quickly, and sometimes people working with him get hurt because they try to do everything to please the evangelist, but to no avail—the evangelist is again changing and looking for new ways to bring souls into the kingdom. Evangelists are usually quite aggressive, forward, and have very little patience for people not ready to move ahead at a moment's notice. Peter, as an evangelist-type, made strong statements but had problems living up to them. Jesus had to teach him a lesson with a rooster so that Peter would learn to walk with Him more faithfully. He Should Not Be the Primary Leader of a Church The job of an evangelist is to bring in the lost. Evangelists need to be mobile as they move out into the world, bringing people to Jesus. It is a mistake for people called and anointed as evangelists to establish a church and remain as its primary leader. Sometimes an evangelist begins a new church with the people who have come to the Lord through his ministry, but after six months to a year, he should hand leadership over to those anointed as overseers for the church. Because the Holy Spirit moves through an evangelist's charismatic and strong personality, his work becomes the center of attention in church activities. If he is the primary leader, new Christians tend to idolize the evangelist's personality, bringing idolatry to the church. Also, because an evangelist is quite zealous for evangelism, as a primary leader of a church, he would make evangelism a priority and overlook other areas of need. An evangelist misplaced in an overseer's role is not operating in his God-given anointing and often loses patience with others who do not have his motivation to win souls for Jesus. People in a church led by an evangelist who do not themselves have an evangelist's motivation, become discouraged and leave because they feel guilty for not evangelizing on a full-scale basis. Of course, all believers need to be prepared to share their faith with unbelievers whenever they have the opportunity. However, not everyone has the gift of an evangelist. So under the direction of the Holy Spirit, the evangelist should move on after his initial evangelistic work is finished. To keep an evangelist as the primary leader of a church spells spiritual disaster. Whole churches have failed because their primary leader was an evangelist rather than an overseer—it has been a critical problem in the church. An overseer must work with a well-rounded group of elders (including apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists). This is God's plan for solving the problem of lopsided church government. Ministry of Evangelist Must Be Followed Up If an evangelist pushes ahead and does not have the backing of others in the body of Christ (pastors, teachers, and others who can help disciple the new believers) he is like a salesman who sells too many products and cannot deliver all of the, resulting in unhappy customers. Likewise, an evangelist, who brings people into God's kingdom without appropriate follow-up to get the people grounded in the Word and spiritually nurtured in a spiritual family cell setting or large corporate church setting, will find that he has many unhappy customers. It is a serious thing to "offend one of the little ones" according to God's Word. If an evangelist shares the love of Jesus with someone and he accepts this love, it would be a grave offense to lose the young believer because there is no follow-up available. That is why it is so important that the evangelist works hand in hand with others in the body of Christ so the "little ones" do not get lost. But what if there are no churches to train new Christians in their local area? In Russia, there are so many young people coming to the Lord and so few churches in which to be nurtured and trained. In some cases, I have seen evangelists holding crusades and immediately training new Christians to start cell groups, with great success. I know of even teenagers who have started as high as 10 home fellowships in their home town. The need is great, and God is providing a way, through home fellowships, to take care of the incoming harvest. God is raising up leaders within these small groups who will be apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, and evangelists; God's kingdom marches on! In conclusion, when an evangelist is given the freedom to evangelize (to plant the seed) and move from place to place as the Holy Spirit directs, he can flow with the apostles, prophets, teachers and pastors and trust them to water the seed that was planted. Teacher
Just as all believers have a responsibility to evangelize, they also should be involved in teaching to some degree. But, as mentioned before, not all have the calling or anointing on their lives to operate as an evangelist or teacher. When a teacher is truly anointed, he is enabled by the Holy Spirit to help others understand God's Word and His plan for their lives. This is the burning desire of every teacher. Jesus was the Master Teacher. Noted for His teaching tactics, He loved teaching those who followed Him. Jesus knew the importance of helping others to understand God's truths. When Jesus walked this earth, he taught in the temples, in the mountains, on the streets, even out on a boat. Everywhere he went, people flocked to hear Him teach. Jesus' ministry lasted only three years and much of it was spent in teaching. He had a popular following because he was anointed by the Holy Spirit. Without the anointing of the Holy Spirit, teaching will lack power. As a young person, I attended church long before I was born again. During this time, I received strong teaching on the Scripture—memorizing God's Word and learning the history of the Scriptures and Bible doctrine. Intellectually I knew a lot about God's Word, but it was not until I became a born again Christian at age 23, that certain spiritual truths were illuminated to me by the Holy Spirit. The Scripture came alive to me and I was no longer simply reading with my intellectual mind. Without Scripture being illuminated by the Holy Spirit , it becomes a dead law to the hearer. In other words, Scripture being taught from an intellectual only standpoint causes one to start making dead laws of fundamental principles found in God's Word. For example, a teacher who has natural abilities to teach but is not anointed by the Holy Spirit will not be teaching from a heart of love. Instead he will be teaching with an intellectual understanding that reduces God's Word to hard-core fundamental laws. These teachers become "lawmakers" rather than "love-makers." However, when a teacher is anointed by the Holy Spirit to teach, the Word becomes alive to the hearers. All Scripture is subject to this divine revelation of the Holy Spirit. What Teachers Do A teacher should closely follow an evangelist's ministry, because after new Christians are born into the kingdom, they need clear teaching about basic Christian doctrines. An evangelist basically expounds the Word, but teachers teach the Word. There is a difference. Expounding is "shedding light upon" (in this case—shedding light upon spiritual matters). Teaching is actual instruction or training. It is really taking people step by step from what they know to unknown spiritual realms. A teacher must discover what the people know and then take them into the unknown dimension of spiritual life and explain each step. So the importance of proper teaching to young Christians is vital. It is equally important that young children be taught Gods Word so that they can be grounded in Biblical truths. The Holy Spirit is ready at any time to illuminate the truth to children as they grow in the Lord. Through teachers who have the ability to communicate well to children, the seed will already have been planted. Some teachers are better at teaching within the cell group setting and others flourish in front of large congregational meetings (celebrations). Others use their gift of teaching through media, like radio or TV. A good teacher will use many illustrations or stories to develop his point. Jesus was a master storyteller who spoke in parables to illustrate a lesson. He used many earthly illustrations with, heavenly meanings and thus taught the people spiritual concepts. People's minds are stimulated by illustrations, and these new truths can be stepping stones in their lives, causing their faith to increase. Around the turn of the century in America and worldwide, churches experienced a tremendous revival in teaching through the Sunday School movement. Suddenly the Word was read and explained extensively. Lay people started reading the Bible and wanted answers to their questions. Teachers began teaching the Word, and this led to the missionary movement. Other revival movements followed, including the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. So you see, the teaching of the Word opened people's eyes and led them to action. Teaching should never be merely a spectator sport where people listen and are blessed, but don't do anything about it. Teaching, anointed by the Holy Spirit, will cause God's people to put it to practical use by going out and making disciples according to the Great Commission. In addition, proper teaching makes disciplined followers of Christ who are not led around by every whim of their emotions. Instead, they lead stable and powerful lives because they are rooted and grounded. in the Word. Pastor
I believe we could interchange the terms "pastor, shepherd or father" when referring to the job description of the one anointed as a pastor in the church. A pastor's heart, a father's heart and a shepherd's heart are closely related because all those under their care love them—people, children, and sheep! Jesus told Simon Peter three times in John 21:15-17 to "feed my sheep." The "sheep" Jesus referred to were God's people. Since they belong to God, the pastor's job is to take care of the people, all the while knowing that Jesus is the chief shepherd and He represents the Heavenly Father. The job description of a pastor is more an attitude than a job. When you see a person with a pastor's anointing on his life, you see a kind person who will reach out and gently bring people together. When he is in a group, he will listen to people's problems, taking time and effort to do so. He loves to make sure people's needs are looked after and their problems are taken care of. Like a shepherd, he leads them beside the still waters and seeks to give them a sense of security and peace. He wants to see them healed in body, spirit, soul, and mind. Pastoring in a Cell An ideal place for a pastor to function is in a home cell group. There he can nurture growth and see from week to week the spiritual condition of his people. If a person is hurting and fails to attend the home group, the pastor goes looking for him to discover what the problem is. More likely than not, that person will return, because he feels intimately cared for. In fact, sometimes people under the care of a person with a pastor's anointing never want to leave. The results may be a home group that becomes large and cumbersome. Before long the pastor has too many people to look after and finds that he is simply "putting out fires" rather than nurturing true growth in the home setting. Often, the pastor's overseers may need to remind the pastor and his people about the benefits of multiplying the group in order to make new disciples. Many Are Anointed as Pastors Personality profile tests consistently show that 69% of the general population are pastorally oriented people. I believe that God in His divine planning, created large numbers of people who qualify as pastors. Even new Christians who are pastorally anointed can reach out and care for others. By serving other people this way, they can get their attention off themselves and onto the purposes of God. In the corporate church setting, there should also be many pastors released to serve in ministry. These pastors can then be ministering to other pastors within the home groups on a regular basis. Pastors "pastoring" other pastors is a real need in today's church. All leaders (elders) need the nurturing care of a pastor, and they can receive this when they are a part of a home group ministry. According to the statistic just quoted, well over half of the people sitting in the church pews today are pastorally inclined. When we take into account the fact that we are a royal priesthood and each person has priestly duties of a pastor, many, many people can be in the ministry of caring for others, bringing people together and creating a place of rest for God's people. Pastors are compassionate, emotional people. That's why it is important for a pastor to bring their emotions under the control of the Holy Spirit so that they do not become overly involved with people's problems. A pastor must learn to take the problems to the Lord and allow Him to deliver and heal a person he is counseling. One of the temptations of a pastor is to personally take on the problems of the people and find himself at a burnout stage. Because a pastor is so understanding and kind, people may tend to look to the pastor and begin to depend on him rather than God. We should also mention that a pastor needs to be cautioned about getting so involved with the problems of someone of the opposite sex that they become emotionally involved with that person. Many pastors have fallen in this trap, leading to personal catastrophe. Since pastors function best while caring for a small group of people, I believe God intended for there to be many pastors functioning in the Body of Christ. We need many of them! When pastors are nurturing the people, developing close relationships with them and flowing together, church remains "people oriented." There are thousands of potential pastors out there who are not functioning as pastors because they don't know what God wants them to do. Once the Body of Christ starts teaching about the real work of pastoring, there will be thousands of new pastors released to lead small groups and find new freedom and love as they work together to see the church grow. Bishop/Overseer
As "captain of the ship," the bishop or overseer (the two terms may be used interchangeably, but for the sake of continuity, we will use "overseer") coordinates, is the general manager of, and has authority for the ship's operation. Before the ship leaves the harbor, a captain checks thoroughly to see that the ship is in proper shape, the passengers are on board, and the crew is ready. He reviews what the engineers (apostles) have told him about the design of the ship and feels confident the ship will be able to accomplish its mission. The navigator is also contacted and is "at the ready" to give advice during each leg of the journey. The overseer will take their advice into consideration because he wants to fully utilize all the designs the ship has and take the most direct route (avoiding storms) so that the passengers can be made comfortable, safe and secure. He knows that competent seamanship includes knowing how to handle the ship in adverse conditions as well as calm waters. Accurate weather reports (from the prophet) will allow the captain to avoid unnecessary hardship. He will know when to remain docked at port instead of going out when a storm is predicted and getting pounded at sea! An Overseer and His Job This is how Scripture describes an overseer, "For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict" (Titus 1:7-9). "Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock" (I Peter 5:2-3). As we see from these scriptures, an overseer must be a stable, spiritually mature person of integrity who is not afraid to "convict those who contradict," but on the other hand does not lord it over those entrusted to him. His job is a key one. He has the awesome task of being the general coordinator of a corporate church in a local area, including all of the house churches. In addition to the corporate duties of the ship—overseeing special ministries, celebrations, missions, etc., his primary responsibility is to oversee all the house churches, both on the ship and sailing alongside the ship. He not only gives leadership, but also delegates leadership to the pastors, teachers, evangelists, deacons, administrators and helps within all those groups. He keeps them flowing together while he continues to appoint and send out leaders to surrounding local areas so they can be responsible for managing the job in their region. It is important for overseers to relate closely to the apostle and prophets so that they can remain on a spiritual level, rather than following their own desires or ideas. Because the overseer is accountable to the apostle, he will listen closely to his advice about the general management of the church. The overseer will then make the final decisions, based on the advice of the apostle. An overseer needs to coach those who are responsible to him in order to teach them how to become better teachers, pastors, deacons, etc. He needs to recognize if those on his staff are getting burned out, carrying too heavy a load, or not doing their job. He brings everything into the focus of God's plan so that people flow together in unity. When all of cells in a given area come together for a central celebration, the overseer's job is to coordinate these celebration meetings. He needs to bring the most anointed people together (teachers, worship leaders) to conduct the meetings because these times of corporate praise are important times of encouragement for God's people. Strengths and Weaknesses An overseer needs to be cautioned against becoming too authoritarian. Although he makes the final decisions in the life of the local church, he must do so in love as he takes into consideration everyone's needs. He must make sure the pastors, deacons and all the others in leadership feel needed, are flowing together in unity and getting things accomplished. Under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, an overseer can and should be able to hear God's voice clearly and sense the needs of the people. He will be able to put the two together and become an overseer of a spiritually powerful people-oriented group who are working together to accomplish God's plan. Nehemiah, in the Old Testament, was a classic example of this when he got the people to work together to build the wall. He heard from God and then caused everyone to feel wanted and needed as they worked together. An overseer heads in the wrong direction when he no longer delegates others to help him in his task. Sometimes, overtaken by a false sense of authority, an overseer may get the idea that he "owns" the group he is leading. A feeling of ownership is a way Satan can get his foot in the door, leaving the overseer vulnerable to Satan's attacks. (See page 105 for more on ownership). An overseer lacking accountability may begin to use his spiritual authority to command and give orders to people, becoming a virtual dictator. Others in leadership will feel like mechanical robots, a means to an end, and will begin to feel dislocated from the body. They may continue their job disheartened, or they may bail out completely before they are told to "shape up or ship out." On the other hand, an overseer, because he wants to please everyone, cannot sit back and refuse to lead or give counsel or advice. This lack of leadership will cause people to become frustrated, because they don't know what to do, in what direction to go, or where they are headed. Overseers Are Accountable to Apostles … In early church history, as we learned before, the bishops took over the authority of the apostles and instead elected a central bishop who headed church operations. This led to lopsided church government. In other words, after the apostles designed the church for their locality, the bishops (as captains of the ships) in essence said about the apostles, "We have our ship now, we don't need you." But this idea is faulty. A ship must be updated and refurbished—the church must be updated and refashioned to fit the needs of the people it is ministering to as it marches on through history. Apostles need to be the ones to do the refurbishing. ... But Overseers Make Final Decisions Overseers should ask their leadership team for advice for church decisions, but the final decisions are left ultimately in their hands. Apostles need to be in place as a group of counselors and advisors to the overseers. The apostles represent God to the overseers because they are the designers and organizers of the church.
The need for apostles to design and overseers to captain the ship is paramount in the church today. Leadership must clearly be understood between the two so that God can flow through the power of the Spirit and build His church in the method He has ordained. Deacon
In the early church, a problem arose. We read in Acts 6:2-6, that there were complaints and murmurings among the people in the church—the widows were being overlooked in the "daily serving of food." The house churches were an important part of the widows' lives and since they had pressing financial needs, the apostles knew they had to delegate someone to administrate their finances. If the apostles tried to administrate this need, they would be pulled away from their true calling and responsibilities. So they decided to appoint deacons to collect money from the church and hand it over to the widows to take care of their needs. Anointed For the Job Acts 6:8 tells us they picked some of the very best men they had—and Stephen was one of them. "Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people." This man who was later unjustly stoned, was not a wimp! He was a man of power and anointing—what was he doing "waiting tables" and distributing money to the widows? It's clear that Stephen was doing it because God asked Him to. He humbly embraced a "behind the scenes" job because he was called. In my experience in Russia, I have seen the tremendous pressure alcoholism puts on homes. Many women are virtual widows because of alcoholic husbands. These "widows" are part of cell churches, and just like the early church, they need the help of anointed deacons, called of God, to help administrate to their financial needs. That is exactly what a deacon is—a financial administrator. A deacon needs to hear from God so that he can know when to give finances to individuals. This calls for the gift of discernment, knowledge and faith so that it can be plied with patience and charity to the people in need. It's an important job, but can also be a thankless one because people are constantly making claims to the deacon's funds. The deacon needs to discern if people are becoming dependent on the finances or if the finances are, indeed, helping them to grow spiritually in their time of financial need. Teaches People How to Manage Money In the illustration of the ship, we compared a deacon to the person who helps a passenger prepare financially for his journey—he shows them how they can manage their money so that they can pay their fares without falling into financial debt. There is also a teaching ministry that goes along with the responsibilities of a deacon because he will teach people how to handle their finances properly and not become enslaved to credit cards and heavy debt. On the cell level as well as the corporate level, deacons can have a tremendous ministry by teaching money management, either one-on-one or in classes and seminars. Addressing he need for people to know how to handle finances is very important in the church today, especially in American society. Americans can easily become enslaved to credit card debt and pay enormous interest rates. This is poor stewardship of God's money. In extreme cases, Christians get into such heavy debt that they are in total bondage, even causing the breakup of their families rind their faith. Deacons can teach people how to bring their finances under the control of the Holy Spirit. Money management, of course, must be understood in light of the particular culture one lives in. Deacons should work with the apostles as much as possible to find how to adapt money matters to various cultures and economic systems. The deacon must also work with leadership in the local area to find something that works within that culture so that he can understand the plight of the congregations and then make adaptations for their situations. Helps
"And God has appointed these in the church: first the apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues" (I Corinthians 2:28). A person who takes the responsibility as an assistant or apprentice to someone in public ministry is someone who functions in the area of "helps." They may assist or share in the ministry of an apostle, a prophet, a pastor, a teacher, or other leader. Rather like the Scripture found in Philippians 12:5, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus," the helps person grows to understand the person they serve so well that they begin to have "the mind of their boss." During a time in my life when I administrated a large ministry, I had a secretary that seemed to know what I needed to have done even before I said it. We understood each other well, and tasks were performed almost effortlessly as we flowed together in unity. Then one day something a bit out of the ordinary happened. Rather than arranging for others to pick up ministry guests at the airport, she abruptly left the office and went herself to do a task normally delegated to other people. It was not the usual procedure, so I immediately sensed something out of the ordinary was happening. Sure enough, I later discovered she was in a romance and the young man she admired had gone along to the airport too! The point I am making is this: There will be a great anointing on the leader and his helps person who flow together in unity. They will understand each other well and accomplish their task with great success. The vital supporting ministry of the "helper" will benefit the whole church because they support the leader to be more effective in ministry. Although this may be one of the least recognized responsibilities in the church, the ministry of helps is a much needed one. These people fill their responsibility with humility and don't look to bolster their egos. They are just there to help get the job done—loving and caring people who know their calling. Helping to Carry the Load Often this assistant understands more than anyone else the weak spots of the leader they serve. They can fill in or take the extra load the leader is carrying. Aaron and Hur had this relationship with Moses when they held up Moses' arms during a battle (Exodus 17:11-12). Aaron and Hur didn't say, "We're not going to help Moses. If God wanted Israel to win this battle, He should have anointed us instead!" No, they knew they were anointed. . . they were anointed to support Moses. The helps person backs up, encourages and supports the person he serves. Helps people should be used extensively in the church. Their support ministry is desperately needed. He should never be overloaded with responsibility but pick up only those responsibilities God has called him to do. There is a delicate balance required here. The story of Mary and Martha illustrates this point. Martha was so help-oriented in her natural relationship with the Lord that she neglected her spiritual relationship with Him. A helps person would be wise to see that this does not happen to him. A helps person to an apostle may be sent out to accomplish a temporary job of setting up a base of ministry. In essence, the helps person is doing the job of an apostle, because he is like an apostlein-training. Because there is an absolute trust between the leader and his assistant, the apostle knows his administration is being carried out exactly the way it would be if he was there himself. Trained On the Job and Anointed For Service The assistant of an apostle, teacher, pastor or evangelist may or may not take on the full responsibility as an apostle, teacher, pastor or evangelist. It all depends on what God has called and anointed him to do. In the Bible, we sometimes see that someone from behind the scenes moved into the more prominent position of the one he served, such as Elisha or Timothy. Of course, this happened after years of faithful apprenticeship to Elijah and Paul, respectively. Other times, helps people remained as helps and never were called to follow in the footsteps of their leader. The assistants are an important facet for the continued growth of the church because they know their ministry responsibilities and "do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord they will receive the reward.
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