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Introduction
Jesus Christ said, "I will build My church."
Down through the ages, from the first century
to the 20th, God has done just that. There
have been dark times in church history and
glorious times, but the church,
God’s people, has weathered the storms. God has always
kept His plan to have the church within the
eye of the storm where He is building even
in the midst of stormy seas.
God gave a church government pattern
for us to follow so that He can build believers
together as living stones to form His house. He organizes the Body and determines
what function each member will perform so the
church can be built with the proper foundations to last. God wants His
people to work together to get the job done!
However, God would never want us to start
building without first following His blueprint. But, haven't we done just that?
Since apostolic church days, we have often
succumbed to traditions and a structure of
church that is neither biblical nor
efficient. For
example, the apostles and prophets who God
ordained as designers and navigators of the
church have literally disappeared from view
since the early church. We desperately need
them in today's church to lay proper foundations and keep us on track.
While not presuming to have the final
word on how God will build His church,
still, I believe God has designed the
pattern for church building and left us the blueprint in
His Word. Incredibly, He wants to use earthen vessels like you and me to
implement the plan!
My goal in writing this book is
not an attempt to set up a model of
church structure, but to show a
biblical standard
for church
structure—an ideal to strive for—so we can
work together in harmony and effectiveness
to see God's kingdom advance. It is what God is calling the church to be
today so that He can come back to a mature
church, not having spot or wrinkle.
People today are recognizing that each
person's unique
contribution to the body of Christ is
needed and they want to work as a
team to discover that special place of
service He has designed for
each one of them. They want to be equipped
saints who can go out and do the work of ministry so that God can
build His church and the gates of Hell cannot stand as Christians march,
unified, to destroy the works of darkness!
For years,I
administrated a ministry which encompassed people from many different
denominations working together to reach the masses through huge "Jesus
Festivals." What a privilege it was
to work with Christians from different
backgrounds with the common goal of
wanting to see the kingdom of God
advance! God wants to move
across
denominational lines to unite us as one
Body!
God will build His church so that His people
are ministering in two phases. The first phase is the spiritual family
relationships which God's people can have in small
group settings—where they can be nurtured
and learn to make disciples.
During the past several years, I have worked
within house fellowship based
churches in America and overseas and have
seen how these small family group relationships
are so essential in equipping believers to do
the work of ministry and in fulfilling the Great Commission to go into
the world and make disciples.
From this beginning in family groups,
where leaders are homegrown, they can continue
to grow and be ordained for ministry
in
corporate church
settings. My interest in
church operations with a particular burden
for counseling church leaders spiritually
and financially has led to extensive
travel throughout the world, spending time investigating
and seeking ways to serve the body of
Christ.
The second part of this book comes from
this experience of interacting with God's
people as they lead out in a corporate
church setting. It will tell how God
deals with the people holding responsibilities or offices within the
corporate church (governmental,
equipping part of the body of Christ). We
will discover how God has called and
anointed leaders, giving them
special tasks to perform so the church
can be properly built.
Using the analogy of a ship and describing
its crew and passengers to enlighten us
how the church will operate and function if
"the whole body is fitly joined together," I dare you to dream of the
unlimited possibilities of a church that
fully understands its mandate.
May we all ride the high
seas, remaining
faithful to Jesus until that time when our
ship will come into the harbor
after its final voyage on earth …
Harold
Zimmerman
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