What an Equpping Church Looks Like

As I ponder the question of what an equipping church looks like, three words come right to the forefront: Biblical, Intentional, Relational. An equipping church must start with a focus on the finished work of Jesus Christ and allow the grace and promise of the Gospel infiltrate all they do.

Biblical

We live in a day and age of quick fixes, microwave solutions. This often spills over to the manner in which we look at equipping the Body of Christ. I get plenty of catalogs and e-mails promoting the new program or tool to develop leaders. Our goal is to make Jesus the center of all we do, so we better look at the Word of God to be the center of all we are and do. In our haste to produce ministries and leaders we need to see want the Lord is saying before we act. There may not be a step by step process, but we can learn from Biblical examples of Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Ezra, Nehemiah, Jesus, Peter, John, and Paul. We are blessed with real-life modeling of Jesus to His disciples; Paul to Timothy, Solomon to his sons (Proverbs).

As we build this foundation of equipping on the Holy Scriptures, we realize our dependence on God and the work of the Holy Spirit in developing leaders for His Church. If we start with a business model, we are sure to stray from our focus of godly head, heart, and hands.

Intentional

Leadership development and general equipping of the Body will not happen automatically. In Charles Hummel’s classic booklet, Tyranny of the Urgent, we discover that the important often gets set aside because of the urgent less important day-to-day stuff of life. Hummel quotes a manager, “Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important.” Have we let “the winds of other people’s demands” drive “us onto a reef of frustration?”

Being intentional means that we take time to plan, take aim to execute, and close the loop by evaluating how we are doing. These three things will not come by happenstance, but by intentionality. But being intentional is much more work. There is the need to row against the winds of the urgent, focusing our eyes on the destination.

Relational

Equipping the next generation of leaders and ministry partners must be done in the context of relationship. This is not development by proxy, but by rubbing shoulders. When the apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians he told them that he not only shared the gospel, but his very life. Some call this, “life on life,” and that is a good phrase. Equipping people must include mentoring and discipleship, working alongside others to show by example and watch as they develop. All this takes time, but it is worth it in the long run.

Jesus is our master model here too. He lived with the twelve disciples, modeled ministry and lived out love before their eyes, and then sent them out, two-by-two, to let them live it out. After, they compared notes and corrective teaching and encouragement followed; All this in the context of relationships.

Are our Churches Becoming like the New Boxes of Cereal?

I was eating my Trix cereal the other day and I noticed something. Though the front face of the cereal box was the same size, the box has been getting thinner and thinner over the years. I learned in Business School that Cereal Producers die for space on the grocery store shelves. So in an effort to maintain shelf presence they needed to do something to balance cost and price. Their solution: reduce the amount of cereal without "appearing" as if anything has changed. So now, a box of Trix is and 1-1/4 inches and offering less cereal for the same price.

I started to think about our churches. On the front face, our churches look the same as they have in the passed. Though attendance is down, we still maintain a facade of health. We have glitz and programs, but I would suggest that something is wrong. We are becoming thinner and thinner every year. The cost of discipleship is becoming less and less each year. It is is harder to get people to attend Sunday morning. And the church at large is missing the depth of faith that was present in the early church or at the beginning of the Reformation.As a pastor this is a warning and a judgment. I need to continue to hold out the Cross of Jesus Christ and the life that He would have us live. Luke 9:23 is still in the Bible: "If anyone wishes to come after Me (Jesus), let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. I cannot soft peddle the gospel for it is the power of God. so I need to be on my knees more for the local church that God has called me to. With tears and pleading I must encourage them to pursue Christ.

Diving In

I have been keeping a journal since 1982 and now am on my 53rd volume. I do not think that this blog will supercede the hand-written journal. I really enjoy having a pen in my hand, being able to draw connecting lines, arrows, write sideways. My journals these days contain private prayers to the God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, so those may not be of interest. And, frankly, I am not very good at writing critical essays on current events.

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Sooo, this blog will probably contain the better of my hand-written entries. For instance, the other day I was reading a Calvin commentary on Philippians 2:21 and was struck cold by a paragraph that he wrote.

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"...How great a hindrance it is to Christ's ministers to seek their own interests...For you must give up your own right if you would discharge your duty: a regard to your own interests must not be put in preference to Christ’s glory, or even placed upon a level with it. Whithersoever Christ calls you, you must go promptly, leaving off all other things. Your calling ought to be regarded by you in such a way, that you shall turn away all your powers of perception from everything that would impede you.

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It might be in your power to live elsewhere in greater opulence, but God has bound you to the Church, which affords you but a very moderate sustenance: you might elsewhere have more honor, but God has assigned you a situation, in which you live in a humble style: you might have elsewhere a more salubrious sky, or a more delightful region, but it is here that your station is appointed.

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You might wish to have to do with a more humane people: you feel offended with their ingratitude, or barbarity, or pride; in short, you have no sympathy with the disposition or the manners of the nation in which you are, but you must struggle with yourself, and do violence in a manner to opposing inclinations, that you may keep by the trade you have got; for you are not free, or at your own disposal. In fine, forget yourself, if you would serve God."

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How this comment has touched my heart. It is so easy to follow my own self-interest, wanting ministry my own way, desiring God to work in such and such a way...all for seemingly good motivations. But Calvin has forced me to show my hand. For I must give up my own right to discharge my ministry. Lord Jesus help me.