Session 12:
What can God do with a leadership team
that is totally committed to Him?
Welcome to the final session in this series on Church Leadership. I trust they have all been a blessing to you and helpful as you continue on in your walk with God. I want to end on a positive note and look at what God can do when leadership teams are totally committed to Him and united in their service for the Boss – the Head of the Church.
In the book, The Trellis and the Vine (Marshall and Payne (Matthias Media 2009) – ISBN: 978 1 921441 58 5), the writers compare the work of planting, watering, fertilising and tending the vine to that of Christian ministry. ‘The basic work’, they continue, ‘of any Christian ministry is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of God’s Spirit, and to see people converted, changed and grow to maturity in that gospel’.
However, they also acknowledge the essential need to tend and maintain some sort of framework to help the vine grow. The authors put it this way: ‘as the ministry grows, the trellis also needs attention. Management, finances, infrastructure, organisation, and governance – these all become more important and more complex as the vine grows.’ The book provides a balanced perspective on these two sometimes competing demands on leaders.
Let us be encouraged to keep in mind our ultimate goal – to see men, women and children won to faith in Christ. But at the same time, let’s not forget to tend, repair, watch over and maintain the trellis, or the vine will have nothing to grow on.
Today, in our churches, are we achieving this ultimate goal? Are we, on a regular basis, seeing people converted, changed and grow to maturity in that gospel?
Do those of you who are leaders have a vision of what God, by the power of His Spirit and in the Name of Jesus can achieve in His church in your community?
A Senior Pastor asked his leadership team three questions when they were considering the impact of future growth:
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Are you prepared to do everything it takes to achieve it?
Powerful questions! Do we have such a vision from the Head of the Church that we are gripped by the prospect of many coming to faith in Christ, that we will go to any lengths to make sure it happens? Of vital importance is that the vision is from God – a “God idea” not just a “good idea”. More than once we read in Acts that, after the church had prayed about a particular matter, “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” Incidentally, when was the last time, after you have prayed, “the place where [you] were meeting was shaken. And [you] were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (Acts 4:31)?
God gave dominion to the human race and He is longing for us, through redemption and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, to enter once again into that creation purpose. Jesus promises that the power of the Holy Spirit will result in our words having the same authority and wisdom as His own. Just think for a moment of what such a vision means to Jesus. He sees us - His own Body in the future exercising all of this and doing it to a greater extent than He could possibly do in His own human body. So after His resurrection, Jesus commissions the disciples. The promise of Jesus is: 'Your proclamation will be validated by signs and wonders that accompany it.' So those who refuse to believe will have no excuse. They will be condemned. (This raises questions about the nature of our own gospel proclamation in these days – but we don’t have time to discuss that now).
Like the early disciples we are called to go to the ends of the earth and for us, seeing the suffering that there is throughout the world, it is even more imperative than for them, that we should go to the ends of the earth and proclaim the good news of Jesus. Only then will the end come and our Lord return.
We have been placed on this earth to fulfil the destiny that God has for us, that we should exercise His authority and through the exercise of that authority, through His praise and worship and His power in our lives, we should bring down the powers of darkness and see satan's kingdom finally destroyed and the Lord's return set in train.
All this is ours! If that does not produce a 'Wow!' in your spirit then there must be something wrong with you. “Rejoice little flock. It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom” – Jesus said (Luke 12:32).
Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus: “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3: 14 – 21)
I can do more that repeat that prayer for you and the churches where you serve.
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