|
Transitioning from Pastoral-Only to Effective Apostolic Ministry
What ministry would God fill with His glory? Discover how to transition into effective ministry.
As the apostolic ministry revolution continues to progress we will see a change from a pastoral-only model of ministry toward an apostolic model of ministry.
The current structure or model of Church ministry revolves around the pastoral paradigm (model) of ministry. A paradigm is a structure of ministry that serves as a model or pattern. It's astonishing but the word pastor, Greek poimen is only mentioned once in the entire New Testament. From one occurrence in scripture we have built thousands of pastoral churches. Yet there were no churches ever built in the New Testament by pastors. Even the one started at Antioch soon received Barnabas as an apostolic leader. Barnabas was a sent-one (apostolic gift) from the church in Jerusalem.
All New Testament churches were built by apostles, not pastors. scripture says, “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11). Though we see the word pastor, poimen, only once in scripture we have used it to create a model of how ministry is supposed to function and have made it our current model for ministry. In reality we have created a structure of church services that is designed to bless, nurture and comfort attendees. After all, that is the dominate grace on the pastoral ascension gift to comfort, bless, nurture, protect and lead to still waters. There is nothing wrong with being a pastor. What we are discussing is the transition into an apostolic model of ministry that enables us to be more effective in establishing and advancing the Kingdom of God. Jesus said that we would know something by its fruit. So what is the fruit of a pastoral-only model of ministry? Some would say ineffectiveness, spiritual weakness and apathy in a major part of the body of Christ. Granted we all need pastoring but let’s explore the possibility that a pastoral-only model is not God’s best structure for effective ministry.
Let’s be honest, this model of pastoral ministry doesn’t raise-up strong believers that are capable of handling the spiritual warfare of our generation. Secular humanism, homosexuality and the advancement of foreign gods like radical Islam are attacking the Kingdom of God like never before while the Church of Jesus Christ does nothing but watch. This is the fruit of the current pastoral-only model of ministry. Could we expect any thing different? After all many of the leaders of pastoral-only model ministries were voted into service at their various churches. Some of these pastors, not all, we would call hirelings that God never called nor sent in the first place. These pastors more than likely were selected by some pulpit committee chaired by businessmen who were pre-qualified to select the next pastor of the church according to their financial status within the congregation. So what was the fruit of their selections? The fruit was men that were hired to pastor the people rather than apostle the church. These hirelings became the paid overseers of religious daycare centers that some call worship centers.
It is important for me to say that I am certainly not anti-church neither anti-pastor. Yes we need pastors but that’s not the only five-fold ascension gift grace the body of Christ needs. I love pastors and good shepherds of God’s people. As leaders transition into the apostolic model of ministry we will need thousands more pastors. I am strongly supportive of the local church with a set leader who is God-called provided the pattern of ministry is understood biblically. There will always be a set man over a congregation. scri pture says, “Let the Lord the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation” (Numbers 27:16). Apostolic ministry models may have a plurality of leadership gifts working together to equip believers known as a presbytery but there will always be one set man that is ultimately responsible before God to apostle a church. We will discuss this more later.
In the thinking of an old pastoral-only model of ministry I’m a pastor myself that has not missed a church service in over twenty years. Local meetings are very important for believers and Jesus himself supported them. The Word says, “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read” (Luke 4:16). Let’s face it the pastoral-only model of ministry is not working. We need something that is more effective and that’s going to be the apostolic model of ministry that we are experiencing today, the new apostolic prophetic church.
We have had two thousand years to reach this world for Jesus with a pastoral model of ministry. Even in the time of profound technological advancements in communication we still have not reached the world with the Gospel of the Kingdom. We know that the gospel of the kingdom must be preached in the entire world as a witness and then the end shall come (Matthew 24:14). So what's the problem? Could it be that the pastoral-only model of ministry created a religious system that has resulted in our ineffectiveness? Have we become so program oriented that we have bound ourselves in a powerless religious system? Have we so structured our ministries that we have created a religious form of godliness that denies the power of God? Have we compromised our faith and locked the Holy Spirit out of the Church?
FRANCHISED MINISTRIES
Without Holy Spirit-led meetings it’s easy to pattern our ministries into a religious form. We simply look at the current Christian fads and copy them thereby allowing our services to form some sort of structure or pattern. This is typical in many pastoral churches today. I don't want to sound anti-orderly but many times we are so structured that we miss the point of gathering ourselves together in the house of God. In a religious context church can become structured around a Sunday morning collection of people gathered together for the weekly “hour of power.” This is where you come to church...
- Sing a few songs
- Hear a song special
- Listen to announcements
- Pay one's tithes
- Listen to a simple, non-compelling sermon or motivational message
- Receive your blessing
- Pray a closing prayer
- Go home and wait for the next week of the same old same old next week. Boring!
In this setting everything is focused to climax in this one hour period. So inadvertently we create a system of “consumer only Christianity” whose only purpose in coming to church is to receive. To receive the best in music and teaching with the finale of being prayed for to receive one’s breakthrough. Please understand me, I am not at all against music, preaching, prayer or breakthrough but let's go a little further. People need to be both blessed and changed. A religious structure of church services can create a “bless-me-only” event-oriented entertainment model of ministry. Church then becomes a place where people become spectators and are never equipped and released to do anything. So in order to gather numbers and fill chairs many churches have reinforced the pastoral model of ministry and moved into...
- Entertainment (Hollywood Christianity)
- Programmed services
- Religious rituals
- Seeker friendliness
- Consumer Christianity
- Franchised ministry.
A franchise ministry is simply a cookie cutter of another ministry that has no Spirit life design. Because of this, we have inadvertently created a non-challenging, humanistic, consumer minded religious system that is being promulgated each week throughout the world.
BLESS-ME-ONLY MINISTRY
Today hundreds of churches are closing because they are refusing to let go of this old model of bless-me-only Christianity, the pastoral-only model of ministry. I submit to you that the Holy Spirit is challenging this model of ministry and is releasing a reforming spirit that will challenge this ineffective structure. Yes, change is on the way, good change that will help every pastor that is reading this. I know what you have been going through trying to serve God the best way you know how but are on the verge of burnout and despair. Let me assure you that help is on the way. The Holy Spirit is going to restore an effective structure of ministry that will empower you to raise-up strong sons and daughters in the Lord that will take the battle out of the church and into the city.
Our answer to effective ministry models will not be found in the efforts of church growth seminars based on humanistic efforts to get people to pencil Christ into their busy weekly schedules. scri pture says “Unless the Lord builds the house those that labor do labor in vain that build it” (Psalm 127:1). The way the Lord builds His house is through His pattern and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Effective ministry will come by the guidance of the Holy Spirit through revelation from the Word of God and His way of doing things. Christ’ Church was never intended to be built around a bless-me-only, nurture-me-only or comfort-me-only model of ministry. Yes, the Holy Spirit still blesses, nurtures and comforts people in every service but that’s not all He does. He equips them for victorious Christian living. The Church was designed to be built upon the foundational leadership of apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ himself as the chief corner stone.
THE COMING MASTER BUILDERS
A. W. Tozer once said, “How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Everything is made to center upon the initial act of ‘accepting’ Christ (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible) and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls.”
Apostolic ministry gifts are spiritual master builders that carry the revelation of Christ governing Church. As Paul said, “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon” (1 Corinthians 3:10).
My prayer is for the manifestation of this master building grace to be imparted once again to the Church. As apostolic grace is poured out during this time of restoration there will unfold an effective apostolic model of ministry where every believer can move beyond a bless-me-only, consumer mind-set of Christianity and ministry into a build me, mature me, prepare me and send me to change the world model of ministry – the apostolic model. I know there are thousands of pastors that are struggling with their callings who are doing their best by trying to shore up a pastoral-only model of ministry that is falling apart. The good news is the Holy Spirit is showing us how to stop pastoring and start apostling His churches. Pray about making the transition. Apostling doesn’t mean that the needs of the people don’t get met. Apostling means that you train others to carry out the pastoral aspect of ministry. We will discuss this more later.
The pattern for an apostolic structure of ministry can be found in the book of Acts. As we continue on our journey to discover the new apostolic revolution we will see this new model emerge right before our eyes. Are you willing to make the transition?
ACTION EXERCISE
Understand that the Holy Spirit wants to do more than bless, nurture and comfort you. Yes, you are going to get blessed, nurtured and comforted but He wants to equip you to make a difference with your life. The old concept of going to church to listen to a ten minute motivational sermon that helps you cope with problems or the concept of just getting blessed is no longer effective. Start developing a different mindset of your local church and see it for what it really is. The Church is not a white building with stain glass windows, red carpets, wooden pews, hymn books and tall steeples. No, it’s the Church of Jesus Christ, the seat of governing authority on the earth today. Inside you can hear the very voice of God, find forgiveness for sins and be equipped as a revolutionary change agent for the Kingdom of God.
Start asking the Holy Spirit to help you learn how to transition out of a pastoral-only model of ministry into a more effective apostolic model of ministry. Go to conferences hosted by real apostles that have actually built something and are the set leaders of apostolic ministries. Be sure to avoid the title only apostles. True apostles are identified by their function and not their titles. Apostles, for example, have churches. Listen to their audio recordings and read their books and make every effort to further your education regarding the new apostolic Church revolution.
Finally, ask the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you into effective ministry. Jesus said, “If any man lacks wisdom let him ask of God who giveth freely and upbraideth not.” My prayer is that this information has helped you see what the Holy Spirit is doing.
by Jonas Clark
Leaders: Do Your Top People Really See the Big Picture?
April 5, 2010
Lot's of people wonder why Joel Osteen from Lakewood Church in Houston is so successful. Why his TV program generates huge audiences, his books make best seller lists, and the church is so large. There's always a mix of reasons, but whatever you think of his theology or preaching style, one of the biggest reasons is that his leadership team gets the big picture. They understand that you need to invest in NOW to achieve success TOMORROW. They're willing to risk their success on the potential of a great idea. On the other hand, I see a lot of other leaders who's teams don't see the big picture. As a result, all they care about is this moment - how they can look good, how to gain more power, how to keep their job, or how to avoid risk.
They don't take chances, and are highly intimidated by outside voices. They even go so far as to skew information so results favor their side. Teams like this usually spend a lot of time behind the scenes in politics and scheming. In some cases, I've seen employees who would let the organization crash before they admit they might be wrong.
Trouble is, sometimes it's tough to tell which team you have - the long range thinkers, or the short term thinkers. On the outside, they can look just alike - loyal and hard working.
How to tell? Ask questions. Ask lots of questions and don't take people's word for it. It's not disloyal to your team to ask for proof - it's smart. And when you find a short term thinker? Get them off the team. No matter how much you think you need their particular skill, there's no amount of talent that makes up for an inability to see the big picture.
The stakes are too high, because it's about the future of your organization
By Phil Cooke
Christ's Fighting Instruments
Christ gave you powerful fighting instruments—His Word. Use His sword today and win every battle.
When you form, in the spirit of your mind, a picture or an image of something that might happen and act on that image you give life to it.
One of your greatest fighting instruments is the capacity to judge all thoughts and imaginations by the written Word of God. Unbelievers don’t have this ability because their carnal minds are hostile toward God (Romans 8:7). Using the written law of God as your guide for truth is the first sign of spiritual maturity. As you learn to judge all your thoughts you will discover that fear, insecurity and confusion will leave your life.
Some have more problems with debased thoughts and imaginations than others, but there is victory for everyone. You just have to learn how to bind them up. One thing that helps everyone is to stop taking imaginations as fact. Imaginations are only imaginations. They dwell in the unseen spirit of your mind. Thoughts too are only thoughts. Neither has power unless you give life to them by dwelling on them and speaking them.
Judging every thought and imagination will help you immediately. All your thoughts and imaginations should lead you closer to God and life in the Spirit. If they don’t they are vain and corrupted. To embrace them would only hinder your walk with Christ.
Vain imaginations never lead you closer to God but away from Him. They are exalted valleys. Many live, not according to the Word of God or the ways of God, but according to blemished imagery within their imagination. The imagination is the area where the devil works the most in the life of a believer. Just remember “the weapons of your warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” Strongholds are those destructive imaginations created by dwelling on corrupted thoughts.
Imaginations will talk to you. They have a voice and are not afraid to mentor you. Vain imaginations can, and will, laud themselves against the knowledge of God in your life. They have an anti-Christ voice and will challenge Christ’ truth for your life. An imagination, for example, may speak to you saying, “You’re going to die,” when Christ’ Word clearly declares, “With long life will I satisfy you and show you my salvation” (Psalm 91:16). That is how imaginations glorify themselves against the knowledge of God.
Have you ever felt defeated in the midst of victory? An imagination may also attack the Word of God in your life by saying, “You’re going to be a defeated person all your life.” When the Word of God says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). When the Word of God declares, “My God shall supply all of your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19), an imagination may attack to undermine God’s plan and purpose in your life. God may speak to you saying, “I’ve called you for such a time as this” (Ester 4:14), but an imagination may challenge, “Yeah, but nobody loves you, nobody cares about you, and nobody will listen to you.” All of these are simple examples of the lying voice of vain thoughts that attack the mind. You must learn how to get control over your thoughts and imaginations, and you can!
IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS
Within your imagination you can create supposed conversations with others. Sometimes people allow imaginary verbal exchanges to take them into error. Some start foreseeing in their mind’s eye, for illustration, a presumed dialogue they’ll have with someone. They may think of someone they’re going to meet at work and begin to think about a talk that has not yet taken place. Their mind begins to drift into the realm of imagination and they think about what they are going to say. They even visualize the person’s response. As they continue to think about the scene a voice of fear may be released into their imagination producing insecurity, alarm, rejection, unbelief or anger. Because imaginations produce emotion they then find themselves envisaging things that haven’t even happened. This is the poisoned fruit of corrupted thoughts and imaginations. This is why we must take every vagabond imagination captive. This realm can rob abundant life from you. Vain imaginations are “high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God” and attack your mind.
Have you drifted past coral reefs into the dark blue depths of a vain imagination today? You may have started thinking what your spouse might say, what your employer might say, or how your children might act. Suddenly your mind is consumed with unseen images that affect you in a negative way. When you dwell on corrupted thoughts you’re walking, not after the Spirit, but after the flesh that was introduced by the vain imagination. This is another example of how some live because they harvest imaginations and lose the victory of the knowledge of Christ in their lives.
Imaginations speak a foreign language and exalt themselves against the truth of God in your life. It is the voice of an imagination, for example, that says, “You can’t make it. Why don’t you just give up and quit?” When you hear unfamiliar sounds turn away and incline your ear towards heaven that declares, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13). Christ gave you powerful fighting instruments—His Word. Use His sword today and win every battle.
MEDITATION AND REFLECTION
Imagination produces emotion.
Imaginations are pictures within your mind of thoughts, events or conversations that are only in the unseen world within you.
|
|
How You Think Affects Your Life
As you become skillful at casting down every imagination and high thing that exalts itself against the Word of God you will experience more peace and a greater focus toward purpose within your life.
An evil imagination is a death wound formed in the soul that has its roots in the fallen corrupted nature of man.
God created your mind for thinking. Your mind is like a critically thinking super computer designed to draw on information for the purpose of coming to a rightful determination. It will continually search out bits of data from life experience, prior knowledge, even assumptions to extrapolate a conclusion. To extrapolate means to use information as the starting point to gain knowledge, draw inferences and make decisions about something unknown. There are thoughts that suppose something and are nothing more than random bits of information without merit, proof, witness, or substance. Thoughts like that have no real value and are unsystematic. The most dangerous thoughts, however, are those that lead to a particular belief.The source of thoughts, your thoughts, needs to be discerned. Are they real or imagined? Good or bad, right or wrong? Was Hamlet on to something when he echoed Montaigne who said, “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so?” Can your thoughts make things so? Do they deserve your attention? Should they be reflected on and acted out?
Only the mature understand the wisdom of parsed judgment until they can assemble all the necessary facts and come to a rightful conclusion. These champions of the kingdom know how to think. Like precision time pieces that carry the unfaltering sounds of tick-tock they examine each systematic movement of the big hand until finally clarity forms within their minds. Then and only then do they move the small hand forward and enter the next hour.
How you think affects your life. The Apostle Paul taught his students not to think like flawed gentiles. The gentiles were outside the covenant blessings of God until salvation. Paul used them as an example. He said that Christ’ disciples should not walk like they do in the “vanity of their minds,” in different words, banned imaginations. “How does one walk in the vanity of their minds,” you ask? By trying to live out vain imaginations.
Paul said, “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind; Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:17-18). Remember the meeting between the fallacious serpent in the Garden of Eden and Eve? As already said, she looked, she took, she ate, and she gave to her husband and he also partook. This scri pture teaches the power of toying with deceptive words and imaginations. Fallen mankind, walking out the vanity within their minds, searches for ways to fulfill sensual, fleshly, lustful passions, and when they find them those passions pull on their carnal nature.
WHAT’S IN YOU?
Satan’s activities are still the same today, thousands of years later. He looks through ancient eyes for something in you to work with. Something small, perhaps a seed, something hidden from the sunlight, or something buried deep within. It could be pride, rejection or lust. It could be bitterness, unforgiveness, even the love of money. Again, he has nothing to web except what’s already in you. Jesus said, “For the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me” (John 14:30). What about you? When that old dragon draws near can he find anything in you to anvil? To win the war against your mind you must, “Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Carnal thoughts and pondered vain imaginations give the enemy opportunity to attack you.
Peter also wrote about the dangers of vain words, thoughts and imaginations. “For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought into bondage” (2 Peter 2:18-19). Did you get that? Carnal passion, stirred by the lusts of the flesh and vanity within the mind is designed to overtake you and bring you to the timbered stocks. That’s why Paul said to avoid the vanity within the mind. Vain thoughts are enticements toward further carnality and conceiving sin. Like walking in cold sunlight they pull on the old man, that carnal nature that needs daily crucifixion. Is he dead in your life?
An evil imagination is a death wound formed in the soul that has its roots in the fallen corrupted nature of man. It is a different way of walking, outside your design. Like an addiction, vain imaginations can grab you and pull at your soul beckoning the reapers to come. Spoken greed, for example, draws on the blackened sinful nature of man. So, too, lust that pants for the forbidden. Lust is fabricated first within the imagination then onto the flesh looking for its harvest. When pondered it’s like a narcotic to the most addicted of junkies.
What did Peter mean “they are servants of corruption?” Bondage! That’s right, slavery trenched deep within their souls. Those taken captive through cultivated sinful imaginations become slaves fettered to their own carnality. Paul’s warning “don’t think like that” is significant. “How can one be overcome by an imagination,” you query? As mentioned before, by brooding evil thoughts within the mind, imaging them and acting them out. That’s what happened to Eve. She considered what the serpent said, she pondered the outcome, and she partook of the forbidden thereby giving birth to sin.
Futile imaginations obscure vision and corrupt judgment. scri pture says, “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:18). Your understanding can only be darkened when you are carried away by carnal thoughts and hollow imaginations. You must avoid them at all cost because they separate you from the good life of Christ and blind spiritual understanding.
All of us must avoid carnal thoughts and vain imaginations and cast them down as they occur, even those that come from others. As you become skillful at “casting down every imagination and high thing that exalts itself against the Word of God” you will experience more peace and a greater focus toward purpose within your life.
It seems we have come full circle once again in our pursuit of winning the battles against the mind. The bottom line is the mind must be renewed. Some try to get the Holy Spirit to grapple with their minds. The problem with that is you must be involved in the process by making every effort to renew your mind yourself. Give the Holy Spirit something to work with. Make the effort by studying to “show yourself approved.” Epictetus said, “No great thing is created suddenly.” So meditate on the Word daily. It will impart life, truth and grace for living into your soul.
MEDITATION AND REFLECTION
To extrapolate means to use information as the starting point to draw inferences or conclusions about something unknown.
There are thoughts that suppose something and are nothing more than random bits of information without merit, proof, witness, or substance.
Satan’s activities are still the same today. He looks for something in you to work with. It could be pride, rebellion or lust. It’s significant to remember that he has nothing to work with except what’s already in you.
By Clark
|
