Leadership in the Church

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Certificate in Biblical Studies and Christian Ministry

R1:11 “Mutually Encouraged”

S.L.C. Uganda

Contents

Biblical Foundations

The International Leadership Institute Course

Sacraments Baptism Communion

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Biblical Foundations

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1. Called by God

The sovereign Lord calls who he wills.

The Bible can only be understood when you realise that it is the story of God’s choosing and making covenant relationship with human beings in order to fulfil his purposes.

His original intention – to fellowship with the whole of his creation (Genesis 1 & 2) – was destroyed by human rebellion (sin – Genesis 3).

The Old Testament is then the story of God’s calling a people (the Jews) as his representatives in the world to bless and invite all humans back into relationship with their God. This call was based on law and faithfulness (obedience).

The New Testament is then the story of God’s calling a people (the Church) as his representatives in the world to bless and invite all humans back into relationship with their God. This call was based on grace (Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and exaltation) and faithfulness (obedience).

“The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.

I will make…..” (Genesis 12:1-3)

“The Lord said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb….’” (Genesis 25:23; see Romans 9:10-13)

“… I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” (1 Samuel 16:1)

“You did not choose me, but I chose you….” (John 15:16; see Matthew 4:18-22 & Mark 3:13-19)

“… I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” (Ephesians 4:1.)

Leadership in the Church is an extension of God’s call to every Christian and must be understood in this context. The leader is a servant of God called to enable the people of God to fulfil his purpose in the world. The call to leadership is God’s call to fulfil a role – to do a job – it is NOT a call to status in the body of Christ. There is only one head in the body - and that is Jesus.

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2.Called to what…

a. Descriptive words & titles

(ii) Priest The Old Testament priesthood was made up of the descendents of Aaron

and they, together with the rest of the tribe of Levi, acted as representatives before God for all the people of Israel. Numbers 1:44-53 is a good example of the role of the priestly tribe – they stand between God and the people looking after the things of God and protecting the people from God’s wrath. They take the place of the offering of the firstborn (see Numbers 3 & 8:5-26) – they are, themselves, an atonement (Numbers 8:19) and minister on behalf of the people. Aaron and his sons, alone, offer the sacrifices for the people and bless the people on behalf of God (see Leviticus 8 & 9).

In the New Testament there is no reference to a Christian priesthood in the style of the Old Testament (see below).

(iii) Apostle

This name comes from the Greek word apostello (= to send); literally the Greek word apostolos means “a sent one”. The word is used to describe Jesus (Hebrew 3:1), to describe those sent by God to his people in the Old Testament (Luke 11:49) and to describe Christian leaders sent by churches (2 Corinthians 8:23 where the phrase “representatives of the churches” [NIV] = “apostles of the churches” & Philippians 2:25 where “your messenger” [NIV] = “our apostle”.) In particular it describes the twelve chosen by Jesus to be closest to him, Matthias who replaced Judas as a witness to the resurrection and to Paul who also met Jesus. It should be noted that the apostles were not the leaders of the churches. Those specifically called and gifted – Elders – were the leaders of the churches. The truth about Jesus and their witness to him was deposited in the apostles (Acts 2:42) and through them into the Scriptures.

(iv) Deacon This name comes from the Greek word diakoneo (= to serve) & diakonia

(= service); the Greek word diakonos means a servant. It is used in this general sense in the New Testament (Colossians 1:7,23,25.) It is impossible to know when the word began to be used as a particular office in the churches. In Acts 6:1-7, a passage that is often recognised as the appointment of the first deacons in this technical sense does not, in fact, use the word at all. By the time Paul writes to Philippi (Philippians 1:1) the church there has deacons and Timothy is instructed about the qualities to be found in those appointed to the office of deacon (1 Timothy 3:8-13). Women are included in this too (Romans 16:1; 1 Timothy 3:11).

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(v) Presbyter/Bishop These titles come from the Greek words presbuteros (= elder) and

episkopos (= overseer). In most cultures the word elder describes a ruler of the nation/tribe recognised and placed in position because of their age and experience. In the New Testament faith and holiness play a big part but the idea is very similar. (see below for qualifications)

In the New Testament the words elder and bishop refer to the same people. Both Peter (1 Peter 5:1-4) and Paul (1 Timothy 3:1,2; Titus 1:5-9.) use both these words to describe the ministry of those who are leaders within the local congregations. Elders were appointed in every congregation (Acts 14:21-23; Titus 1:5) and operated together as a group – a team (1 Timothy 4:14).

(vi) Pastor This title comes from the Greek word poimen (= shepherd). In the NIV

the English word pastor is only used once (Ephesians 4:11) in the description of what are often called the five-fold ministries. However the word is used often in the Bible and is descriptive of those who look after sheep and those who look after other people. This latter use may be either political or spiritual. In secular writing kings and governors were called shepherds and in the Old Testament God is described as shepherd of Israel (Genesis 49:24; Psalm 23:1). Two shepherds are given special approval, Moses (Isaiah 63:11) and Cyrus (Isaiah 54:8). In the New Testament Jesus is the good shepherd (John 10) and the chief shepherd (Hebrews 13:20; 1 Peter 2:25). This work of Jesus was transferred to Peter (John 21:15-17) in the early church and then used to describe the work of elders in relation to the local church (1 Peter 5:1-4). In the New Testament this is a ministry rather than an office.

b. The Practice of Religious Leadership

Under the Old Covenant:

The priest stood between God and the people – on the one hand protecting them, on the other hand blessing them. (See above.)

How does this concept compare with African traditional religion?

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Compare church architecture:

The temple:

A Catholic church:

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A Reformed Church

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Court of the Gentiles

Court of the Gentiles

Court of the

women

The Holy Place

Holy of Holies

Court of Israel

Court of Israel

Altar

The Court of the Priests

The Court of the Priests

altar

priests congregation

Main entrance

Main entrance

Elders & congregation

Elders & congregation

Elders & congregation

table

pulpit

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Compare social practices:

In what ways do pastors act like priests in your country?

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Under the New Covenant:

Jesus is the high priest offering the atoning sacrifice of his own blood once and for all (Hebrews 8 – 10). All Christians have direct access to God through the atoning sacrifice of Christ.

All Christians become priests (1 Peter 2:4-12) making spiritual sacrifices of service and praise (1 Peter 2:5; Romans 12:1; Hebrews 13:15.). This is sometimes described as the priesthood of all believers. Christian leaders are called by God, gifted by the Holy Spirit and recognised by other Christians because of their gifts and quality of life.

Living within the New Covenant:

How are the roles of apostle, deacon, elder, bishop and pastor the same as that of the priest and how do they differ?

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3.Qualifications for leadership

i. Witnesses

The leader should be a person who knows God, whose trust is wholly in Jesus Christ and who is full of the Holy Spirit. They must have a heart to see others come to the same faith and an ability to teach it.

Read: Acts 1:8, 21-22; Acts 6:3; 1 Timothy 3:2 (“able to teach”); Titus 1:9; 1 Peter 5:1.

ii.Right motives

The leader must not want money or personal honour. They must want to serve God and his people.

Read: 1 Timothy 3:8; Titus 1:7; 1 Peter 5:2 (note also 1 Timothy 3:10).

iii.Maturity

The leader must be mature enough to stand firm in the faith and against the temptations that both the devil and circumstances will put before them.

Read: 1 Timothy 3:6-7 (see 5:22); 2 Timothy 2:2.

iv.An exemplary lifestyle

The leader must have an exemplary home, personality and lifestyle.

Read: 1 Timothy 3:2-7 (see also :10); Titus 1:6-8.

4.The Role of the Pastor

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“If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a

noble task.” 1 Timothy 3:1

Read again the definition on page 3.

a. Good and Bad Shepherds

Read Ezekiel 34 What are the complaints made against bad shepherds?………

Read John 10:1-18 What are the characteristics of the good shepherd?…………

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b. A heart for the sheep

(i) Jesus as the model shepherd

Jesus gladly left all the glory of heaven in order to sacrifice his life. Philippians 2:5-11.

(ii) David as an Old Testament model

David learned how to look after his sheep and transferred the principles to life with humans. 1 Samuel 17:32-37.

(iii) The pastor’s sacrifice

• Prayer and spiritual life • Employment and money • Time and energy

c. Knowing the sheep

(i) Jesus as the model shepherd

Jesus chose disciples to be with him and share his life at a very deep level. Luke 6:12-16; 9:18-27; 11:1-13.

Note the intimacy of the Holy Spirit.

(ii) Paul as a New Testament model

Paul never worked alone. He always worked within a team teaching and helping the future leaders of the church. Acts 13:1-3; 18:1-5, 18; 19:21-22.

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“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

John 10:11

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – I lay

down my life for the sheep.” John 10:14

(iii) The pastor’s relationships

• Knowing everyone – time for everyone? (N.B. gifts & techniques.)

• Mentoring others. • Knowing and being known - accountability –

other pastors / leaders.

d. Feeding the sheep

(i) Jesus as the model shepherd

Jesus taught his disciples in a particular way and he prays for them in the turmoil of the spiritual battle. Matthew 13:1-17; Luke 22:31-32.

(ii) God as the ultimate model

Psalm 23: God - makes me lie down – leads me – restores my soul – guides me – is with me – comforts me – prepares a table for me (before my enemies) - anoints me – blesses me – provides a home for me.

(iii) The pastor’s provision for the flock

• The pastor at prayer – the spiritual battle. • Praying with people – James 5:13-16. • Use your gifts. [Gifts of the Spirit; the five-fold

ministries.] • Use the gifts of others – worship leaders, teachers,

prayers. • Use Bible study groups – cell groups.

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“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.”

John 10:9

The International Leadership

Institute

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Core Values

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These notes are the work of the International Leadership Institute (ILI) whose purpose is to train and mobilize leaders of leaders to reach their

nations with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Their teaching plan is based on the eight core values set out below and we

are indebted to their work and offer it to you as an excellent resource for understanding and effecting good leadership within your Church.

Core Values

Based on global research, eight core values are essential for effective Christian leadership. These core values form the foundation of ILI leadership training.

1) Intimacy with God

God looks for consecrated men and women who lead from an intimate relationship with God.

✓ Biblical Foundation: Romans 8:15 “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father.”

The world needs people who are deep in their spiritual lives. True intimacy with God occurs through intentional effort over a long period of time as your relationship grows deeper.

2) Passion for the Harvest

God looks for men and women who share a passion for those without Christ. Jesus came to “seek and to save that which was lost.” God desires that everyone be reached with the life transforming power of the Gospel.

✓ Biblical Foundation: Matthew 9:35-38 “And Jesus was going about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. And seeing the multitudes, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest that he may send labourers into his harvest.”

Two-thirds of the world is yet to respond to God’s love. Until all have heard the Gospel, we are called to labour for the harvest.

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3) Biblical Leadership

God looks for men and women who are committed to biblical principles and who are able to cast vision, set goals, mobilize the Body of Christ and overcome obstacles in order to reach the nations for Christ.

✓ Biblical Foundation – Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

Servant leaders are needed based on God’s vision for the world. These leaders set goals, mobilize the Body of Christ, and overcome obstacles in order to meet needs and bring Christ to the nations.

4) Evangelism in the Power of the Holy Spirit

God looks for men and women who live and teach the Gospel with cultural relevance, sensitivity and power, so that the eternal truth of the Gospel will be understood and received in every culture of the world.

✓ Biblical Foundation: 1 Corinthians 9:19-27 “I have become all things to all people that I may by all possible means save some.”

The life transforming power of the Gospel must be communicated by word and deed in the power of the Holy Spirit with cultural relevance. The Gospel is equally relevant to every language and culture in the world.

5) Multiplication of Leaders

God looks for men and women who disciple, coach, and mentor other leaders, who in turn become leaders of leaders that effectively train others.

✓ Biblical Foundation: 2 Timothy 2:2 “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men and women who will be able to train others also.”

Excellent leaders multiply themselves by raising up other leaders who will effectively lead God’s people and who will raise up other leaders.

6) Family Priority

God looks for men and women who are convinced that the family is God’s building block for society and make their family a priority in developing leaders.

✓ Biblical Foundations: Ephesians 5.21 - 6.9 “Let each individual among you also love his own wife even as himself, and let the wife see to it that she respect her husband.”

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God ordained the family and provides guidelines for developing a healthy, strong family. Family is the first place that each person should prioritise for their love and leadership.

7) Stewardship

God looks for men and women who are faithful stewards of finances, time and spiritual gifts in their personal lives and ministries with the result people are reached with the Gospel.

✓ Biblical Foundation: Matthew 25:14-30 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master.’”

Leaders are responsible to use God’s gifts for achieving maximum impact for the Kingdom of God.

8) Integrity

God looks for men and women of integrity who live holy lives that are accountable to God and to the Body of Christ. Integrity glorifies God, protects leaders from stumbling, and encourages growth.

a. Biblical Foundation: 2 Timothy 4:1-7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.”

God wants leaders to serve well and to finish well in their lives and ministries. Integrity provides the moral authority for leadership.

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Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.

William Carey

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Intimacy with God

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Core Value God looks for consecrated men and women who live and minister out of an

intimate relationship with God.

Teaching Goals • To understand the importance of an intimate relationship with God as the

foundation point of the leader’s life and ministry. • To analyze the factors that prevent leaders from going deeper with God. • To encourage each participant to deepen his or her relationship with God.

Biblical Foundations “Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” Exodus 40:35

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on the behalf of him whose heart is perfect toward him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, or the strong man of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches. But let him who boasts boast about this, that he understandeth and knows me.” Jeremiah 9:23-24 “As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud could come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses…The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with a friend.” Exodus 33:9

“Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us…” John 17:20-22

The Problem: Wrong Priority

“I am lonely, hollow, shallow, enslaved to a schedule that never lets up.” (a pastor)

Fact: One can know a great deal about God and godliness without really KNOWING Him!

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“Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a great number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.” Richard Foster

The Solution - Going Deeper in our Relationship to God

“The depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” Rom. 11:33 “He reveals the deep and secret things: He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.” Dan. 2:2 “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him, but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.” 1 Cor. 2:9-10

Where Do We Start?

1. By acknowledging our need for God. Ps 42:1-2

2. By falling in love with Jesus all over again. John 21:15: “Peter, do you love me?”

Effects of Going Deeper in Our Knowledge and Experience of God

1. Those who know God have great energy for God: “The people who know their God shall be strong and do exploits.” Daniel 11:32

2. Those who know God have great thoughts of God: Daniel 2:2—23; 6:10; 9:4.

3. Those who know God show great boldness for God: Acts 4:13; 5:29: 20:24.

4. Those who know God have great contentment in God: Philippians 4:11-13; Romans 8.

Discussion Within a small group, discuss the following questions and make a list of answers to share with the others. Choose one person to be the spokesperson to read/share your list with the rest of us.

• How do you personally get to know God more intimately? • In your life, what hinders your knowing God in deeper and more intimate

ways? • In what ways is intimacy with the Lord more difficult for you because of

your leadership role?

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Personal Question (only you and the Lord will see this)

• Make a list of things that would have to happen in order for you to know God in a more intimate way?

• Write down specific actions you will take (set goals) to seek the intimacy with the Lord you desire.

Spend time in prayer to “purpose in your heart” or to “make up your mind” that you won’t allow the devil to stop you from seeking the Lord in order to see him face to face.

“Thou hast said, “Seek ye my face.” My heart says to Thee, “Thy face, Lord, do I seek.” Ps. 27:8 “You will seek me, and find me, when you seek me with ALL your heart.” Jer. 29:13

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Our goal during these days is to fellowship with each other, to learn a lot, and most of all

to know God at the deepest level of intimacy!

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Passion for the Harvest

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Core Value God looks for men and women who share his passion for those without Christ. Jesus came to ‘seek and to save that which was lost’. Passion is the fire that keeps vision alive.

Teaching Objectives • To study the biblical foundations for the harvest in order to understand

God’s passion for the lost of the world. • To examine the biblical connection between the passion of God and the

importance of the passion of the church. • To discover how to increase our passion for the harvest.

Biblical Foundations

1. The beginning point: God loves the world “The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has created.” Psalm 145:17

2. The world rejected God’s love and was separated from him. “Your iniquities have separated you from your God” Isaiah 59:2.

3. Yet God loved the world so much that he sent his Son into the world to redeem the world.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes would have eternal life.” John 3.16

4. God’s Son, Jesus, came into the world for one purpose. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Luke 19:10.

5. Now each believer is to continue the ministry that Christ started. “And God gave us the ministry of reconciliation … as Christ’s ambassadors.” 2 Corinthians 5:18,20.

6. The world that God loves, that Christ died for is waiting to experience God’s love.

“Do you not say, ‘Four months and then the harvest? I tell you open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.’” John 4:25

What Is Passion?

1. It is the fire that keeps your vision alive and dynamic.

2. “Passion means whatever a person is willing to suffer for. The root meaning of the word comes from the Latin word, paserre, to suffer. It is what you hunger for so intensely that you will sacrifice anything to have it? [McClung, Apostolic Passion]

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3. Passion is a force burning in you, that seizes you, a power that moves you beyond ordinary human activity, it won’t let you go until God’s goals are reached.

Biblical Introduction of Passion

1. Jeremiah 20:9 – “But if I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,” his word is in my heart like a FIRE, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.’”

2. Lamentations 1:13 – “From on high he sent FIRE into my bones.”

3. 1 Corinthians 9:16 – “…for I am compelled to preach, I cannot boast. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.”

4. Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Passion for the Harvest – Past, Present and Results

Past - The New Testament Church • People were being saved daily and added to the church [Acts 2:47]. • It was as if the church had turned the world upside down. [Acts 17:16]

Present – Something happened that changed the focus of the church. • Rev.2:1-6 – “You have lost your first love”.

• Jeremiah 2:2 – “I remember the devotion of your youth”

Results - After 2000 years and 59 generations, Almost one-third of the world has yet to hear about Christmas, or Good Friday or Easter

• There are two billion people in the world who do not know that they are loved by God.

• There are over a thousand people groups have never heard the Gospel.

• John 3.16 cannot be read in over 1700 languages.

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“In our busy schedule we recognize that soul-winning is part of our responsibility, yet it becomes almost incidental in our work plan and time plan. It remains our goal in theory, but in practice it is often not a priority in our public or private ministry.”

Wesley Duewel

“The great of the Kingdom are those who loved God more than the others. All other passions build upon or flow from our passionate love

for Jesus. Our passion for souls, missions, the needy, the disenfranchised all start there.”

A.W. Tozer

What can change this picture of the church and of our world, beginning today?

• Committed and broken men and women who live their daily lives with one passion - to save souls!

Where Can We Find Passion?

1. Passion Comes From God • Like every good and perfect gift, it comes from God [James 1:17].

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2. Jesus is our model • He loved the Father and the Father loved him and for that reason, Jesus’

passion was to do the will of the Father. John 14:21

3. It is the direct result of our love for Christ and our commitment • Christ’s love compels us. 2 Corinthians 5:14

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How do we get this Passion from God?

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” [Matthew 7:7-8]

“We cannot light this fire. In ourselves we cannot produce it. No man can kindle in himself that celestial fire; it must come from the coal

from the altar above”. Wesley Duewel

“The passion of Christianity comes from deliberately signing away our rights and becoming a bondservant of Jesus Christ.”

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

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Biblical and Historical Examples of Passion

1. “Let us all be of one business. We live only for this, to save our own souls and the souls of those who hear us.” (John Wesley) God heard his prayers and Methodist church was established that transformed England and touched many places in the world.

2. “When John Knox’s wife pleaded with him to get some sleep, he answered, ’How can I sleep when my land is not saved?’ He would often pray all night in agonizing tones.’ Lord, give me Scotland or I die!” God shook Scotland; God gave him Scotland.

3. David Brainard, missionary to the American Indians wrote, ”I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through so that I could but gain souls to Christ.”

4. George Whitefield great evangelist and friend of John Wesley prayed, “O Lord, give me souls or take my soul.” It is said that his face shone like the face of Moses when he sobbed that prayer.

5. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was asked by the King of England what the ruling force of his life was, he replied, “Sir, some men’s passion is for gold, other men’s passion is for fame, but my passion is for souls.”

Discussion/Application

• Share one time you knew your soul was on fire with passion and the fruit came from it.

• Is your passion today intense and focused enough to make your vision a reality?

• If ‘yes’ then pray for even more passion or a bigger vision. If “no”, then ask someone to pray for you to have the passion you need to make your vision a reality.

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May all of our hearts burn with a passionate flame that never goes out until the harvest is complete or until Christ takes us home.

Let us be about our calling - to save souls.”

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Biblical Leadership

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Core Value

God looks for men and women, who are biblically committed to cast vision, set goals, mobilize the Body of Christ, and overcome obstacles in order to reach the nations for Christ.

Teaching Objectives

▪ To teach the critical importance of leadership for advancing the Kingdom of God.

▪ To understand and apply the “Biblical Leadership Triangle” so that each leader can reach their full potential.

Introduction

“God changes the course of history through the selection of men and women who will act on His behalf.”

(Isaac Lim)

Give me a man of God – one man, Whose faith is master of his mind,

And I will right all wrongs And bless the name of all mankind

Give me a woman of God – one woman, Whose tongue is touched with heaven’s fire,

And I will flame the darkest hearts With high resolve and clean desire

Give me a man of God – one man, One mighty prophet of the Lord,

And I will give you peace on earth, Bought with a prayer and not a sword.

Give me a woman of God – one woman, True to the vision that she sees,

And I will build your broken shrines And bring the nations to their knees.

- GEORGE LIDDELL Biblical Examples

• Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3) – “I will make you a great nation.” • Moses (Exodus 3:1-12) – “I am sending you back to bring my people out of captivity.” • David (1 Samuel 13:14) – “I am anointing you King over Israel.” • Esther (Esther 4:14) – “.. you have come to royal position for such a time as this.”

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Definitions of Leadership

J. Oswald Sanders - “Leadership is influence.”

Lord Montgomery - “Leadership is the capacity and will to rally men and women to a common purpose, and the character which inspires confidence.”

Bob Biehl: Leadership is knowing… • What to do next • Why that is important • How to bring appropriate resources to bear on the need.

Reflection • What are other definitions of leadership you know? What is your own

definition of leadership?

Leadership as Influence (from John Maxwell, Developing The Leader Within You)

! Reflection List the five most influential people in your organization and the level of influence you are on with each.

Name Influence

1.________________ ________________

2.________________ ________________

3.________________ ________________ 4.________________ ________________

5.________________ ________________

What must you do to increase your level of influence with each? ! 29

The Biblical Leadership Triangle

Biblical leadership is best represented by the image of an equilateral triangle in which all sides have the same length. The triangle image is one of strength and stability. The three sides represent essential characteristics of biblical leaders:

• Spiritual Leadership – Biblical leadership is spiritual in nature and centred in God.

• Servant Leadership – Biblical leadership is oriented to service. Jesus is the supreme model of true servant leadership.

• Transformational Leadership – Biblical Leadership is aimed at meaningful change. Transformational leaders change themselves, their followers and their world.

For a leader to reach their full potential and achieve peak performance, all three characteristics must be present and increasing.

Spiritual Leadership

Introduction

The essential difference between the natural leader and the biblical leader is the spiritual nature of biblical leadership. Men and women of God in scripture illustrate spiritual leadership

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Spiritual Leadership in the Life of Moses

1. His leadership begins with a call “When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And Moses said ‘Here I am.’” (Exodus 3:4)

2. The vision is God-given “So now, go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:10)

3. His leadership involves following the Spirit “So Moses took his wife and sons, put them back on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.” (Exodus 4:20)

4. His abilities are God enabled “Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

(Exodus 4:12)

5. His abilities are supernatural “Take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.” (Exodus 4:9)

6. His leadership reflects the character of God “Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” (Numbers 12:3)

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 2:22)

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“The spiritual leader influences others not by the power of his own personality but by that personality initiated and interpenetrated and empowered by the Holy Spirit.”

J. Oswald Sanders

Natural and Spiritual Leaders

There are some essential differences between natural and spiritual leadership as pointed out by J. O. Sanders. They reflect the relationship of the spiritual leader with God as the foundation for leadership.

Conclusion

Spiritual leadership originates in God. Spiritual leaders are developed by God. The exercise of spiritual leadership is centred on God and the final goal is to give glory to God.

Servant Leadership

Introduction

The second side in the Biblical Leadership triangle is servant leadership. Spiritual leaders are also servant leaders. The call of God to men and women is always for service. Hence servant leadership accompanies spiritual leadership. Paul points to this leadership model when he exhorts the Christians in Philippi to have the same attitude as Christ:

“…who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.” (Phil.2:5-11)

Natural Leader Spiritual Leader

Self-confident Confident in God

Knows people Also knows God

Makes own decisions Seeks to find God’s will

Ambitious Humble

Creates methods Finds and follows God’s Methods

Enjoys commanding others Delights to obey God

Motivated by personal considerations Motivated by love for God and people

Independent God-dependent

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“Spiritual leaders understand that God is their leader.” Henry and Richard Blackaby

Definitions of a Servant Leader

A Servant Leader is a person who models leadership through service.

Robert K Greenleaf (Servant Leadership)

“Whoever wants to be first must be the servant of all.” Jesus (Mark 10:44)

The Biblical Model of Servant Leadership

Jesus led by being a servant to all and taught his disciples to imitate him and lead in the same fashion.

Today, servant leadership is one of the cutting edge models focused upon in the secular business arena as popularised by Robert Greenleaf. The foundation of biblical servant leadership comes from God as modeled through Jesus Christ.

Jesus and Servant Leadership – The Foundation

Jesus was able to take the role of servant leader because he was secure: • In his relationship with God; • In his knowledge of what God wanted him to do.

“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so……” (John 13:3)

Jesus and Servant Leadership – The Motivation

Why did Jesus wash his disciples’ feet? John tells us it was out of love for them. “Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.” (John 13:1)

Jesus and Servant Leadership – The Model “And during supper Jesus…got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.”

Jesus said, “So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example that you also should do as I have done to you.” (John 13:3,4,14,15)

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Leadership is NOT an affair of the head. Leadership is an affair of the heart.”

Kouzes & Posner

• Jesus was recognized as master and teacher. He knew this, as did the disciples.

• Servant leadership was not the leadership model of that day. • Jesus’ actions towards the disciples held greater significance than

washing dirty feet. It was an attitude of serving when one was not required to serve.

Jesus and Servant Leadership – The Power of Love

John describes Jesus’ act of washing the disciple’s feet by saying, “now he showed the full extent of his love.” (John 13.1)

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul expands our understanding of love when he states,

“Love is patient, love is kind, and not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” (v.4-8)

To help us understand the full power of Christ’s love in servant leadership, substitute the word “Christ” for “love” throughout these verses. These are also the practical qualities and characteristics required of a servant leader who is seeking to follow in the steps of Christ.

Several of them appear also in Paul’s list of the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22–23), which points us to where we must turn to find the resources that will enable us to display these qualities in our own lives.

• Patience: If we wish to have people share the vision that we believe God has given us, if we wish to train and teach them, it will take time. Jesus spent three years with his disciples.

• Kindness: Leaders demonstrate their love by the practical acts of kindness which they do for their team members and the people they serve.

• No envy (jealousy): Servant leaders welcome the gifts and talents, the skills and competences of other people. They do not envy them. They recognize the truth of 1 Corinthians 12 that the body of Christ is made up of many members with different functions and all are equally important.

• No boasting: Leadership is not an ego-trip. Kouzes and Posner comment that effective leaders do not talk about what “I have achieved” but about what “we have achieved.”

• No Pride: Servant leaders do not take pride in themselves but in the achievements of others. How often do we say, “Well done! Congratulations!”? Do we say it often enough?

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• No Rudeness: Rudeness is a sign of disrespect. All people deserve respect as they are made in the image of God.

• No Self-Seeking: Leaders, like all disciples, are called to forget self; to put others before self; to love their neighbours.

• No Easy Anger: There is a proper place for anger especially when we find people abusing or oppressing others and stopping the loving purposes of God (Mark 11: 15–18). But there is no place for the easy anger that flares up, even if we feel threatened.

• No Record of Wrongs: Once mistakes or misunderstandings have been dealt with, they are to be forgotten. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12)

• Truth, not Evil: What do we look for in other people? What do we believe about other people? Do we expect the worst of them? Jesus saw their potential and worked on what, through God, they could become.

• Protection: The servant leader does not abandon those whom he or she serves to their fate when danger threatens. Jesus promised protection to Peter: “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:31–32).

• Trust: The whole basis of our covenant relationship with God is trust, or faith. We in turn trust in the faithfulness of his promises. (Hebrews 11). The research of Kouzes and Posner revealed that trust is a vital ingredient in successful organizations.

• Hope: Servant leaders keep the vision before their team and all those they serve, even in dark days. In the “Farewell Discourse” of Jesus to his disciples he keeps before them the vision of their continuing God’s mission so that the world may believe (John 17:18–24).

• Perseverance: The servant leader, like the master, does not give up. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” (Hebrews 12:1–3).

Transformational Leadership

Introduction

Besides being spiritual by nature and servant by mission, biblical leaders are transformational because they are called by God to be agents of transformation. The Biblical transformational leader:

• Transforms his or her world by being an agent of meaningful change

• Transforms his or her followers into leaders

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Leaders are Change Agents

Jesus – The Ultimate Change Agent

In Matthew’s account, Jesus established right from the beginning of his ministry that he was here to bring significant and meaningful change by delivering what we now know as “The Sermon on the Mount.”

The Sermon on the Mount – Deep Change Jesus’ words to his disciples in this discourse contain four elements that are useful for influencing meaningful change.

• Reversal of expectations: Jesus surprises people with a set of beatitudes that cast a higher vision and challenge expectations.

• Higher moral standards: Jesus presents high moral standards that are impossible to live by apart from the power of the cross and the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

• Change grounded in unchanging truth: Jesus affirms categorically that God’s law cannot be changed.

• Challenge to become change agents: Jesus passes the torch to his disciples. They are light and salt. They are to live the changes in the marketplace so everyone will see and learn.

Reflec%onExamine Matthew 5. Remembering that Jesus is the ultimate agent of meaningful change, answer the following questions.

• What kinds of changes did Jesus preach? • How were Jesus’ teachings different from traditional Judaism of the

time? • How is Jesus’ teaching different from the kind of Christianity that you are

experiencing in your part of the world?

Conclusion

For the Christian leader, the purpose of their influence is to bring glory to God and bring about the kingdom of God on earth. Leaders who achieve higher levels of influence reflect authentic biblical leadership. They possess the spiritual depth, the servant orientation, and the skill necessary to bring about meaningful change.

God is looking for men and women who are true biblical leaders. God will use them to change history.

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4

Evangelism in the Power of the

Holy Spirit

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1. The Holy Spirit in the process of evangelism

• Jesus told his disciples that as the Father had sent him so he was sending them; then he breathed on them, telling them to receive the Holy Spirit. He was giving them power to fulfil his great commission, to ‘go and make disciples of all nations’.

• On the day of Pentecost, when the disciples received the Holy Spirit, it wasn’t followed by a seven-day revival convention. No. Immediately they began to communicate in the languages of the people gathered in Jerusalem, and to speak the gospel in ways that could be understood. He was giving them power to communicate.

• When the early church was looking for a group of people to engage in a work of practical ministry to care for those in need among them, what did they look for? Seven men ‘known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom’. He gave them power to act.

In Romans chapter 8, Paul makes it clear that the Holy Spirit is active in the ongoing development of our relationship with God. A quick review of Romans chapter 8 shows that through him…

• We are set free from the law of sin and death. Without the help of the Holy Spirit we are powerless to do anything outside of our sinful nature (vs 1–4).

• Our minds begin to tune in to what God wants. Through the activity of the Holy Spirit we are able to overcome the power of sin with all its deadly effects (v 5).

• We discover the daily life which God wants us to enjoy. Only by the Spirit of God can we have victory over temptation and evil in our lives. In fact, without the Holy Spirit we cannot even belong to Christ (vs 6–9).

• We receive the guarantee of eternal life, and know that the day will come when we will rise to live with Christ forever. But eternal life is not just for the future: it is an experience that begins when we follow Christ (vs 10–11).

• We know how to live and what to do. The Spirit bears witness to the fact that we are God’s children and gives us the confidence to approach him as ‘Abba, Father’ (vs 12–17).

How can we possibly engage in evangelism without recognising that it is the Holy Spirit’s work? Evangelism is no more than us coming into partnership with him as he continues to do what he is already doing in people’s lives. The Holy Spirit in the life of the Church

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Before his ascension, Jesus instructed his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they had received the promised power of God. This power was given so that they could fulfil his commission to go into all the world to make new followers.

One of the hallmarks of a group of believers who are empowered by the Holy Spirit is the quality of their life together. The early church in Jerusalem can give us a clear example of such a group:

• The Christians in Jerusalem were known for their unity, their friendship, their willingness to share everything with one another and their concern for others.

• They were known for their ability to bring people to Christ, and for their effectiveness in looking after those new converts and drawing them into the life of the church.

• The Jerusalem Christians had a strong sense of unity and a powerful prayer life.

• They did not tolerate sinfulness.

• They were committed to the growth and development of new work.

• Many believe that the church in Jerusalem grew by thousands of people in the early months of its existence. This growth was surely a witness to its health as a fellowship.

The Jerusalem Christians were truly effective in evangelism because theirs was a church empowered by the Spirit. Their life together paints a vivid picture of what a truly evangelistic group of Christians should look like.

The Holy Spirit in Power Evangelism

Jesus ushered in the kingdom of God by demonstrating his authority over the supernatural world, disease and death. He cast out demons, healed those who were sick, made the blind see, the lame walk and the deaf hear. He commanded nature’s obedience by stilling the storm and walking on water. He raised people from the dead to new life. Likewise, the apostles were known not only for their preaching and good works, but also for their ability to perform miracles and thus demonstrate that the power of God really works. In Philip’s ministry, we see this clearly illustrated:

When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said.

Power evangelism relies on direct intervention by God in the lives of ordinary people. It recognises God’s sovereign ability to break into our world with signs and wonders and miracles. John Wimber once commented, ‘In pragmatic evangelism we say something and God acts, but in power evangelism

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God says something and we act.’ In this kind of outreach, demonstration and proclamation go hand in hand.

The Holy Spirit in renewal and revival

A.W.Tozer pointed out that many churches do need revival. The telltale signs of this need were, in his opinion, ‘Rut, rote and rot’. There are many such church groups around today. They are bound up and lacking direction, religious but without any sense of understanding or reality in their faith. They expect nothing to happen and have no vision for reaching the lost.

We can define revival as a period of unusual blessing and activity in the church. A revival is something that happens first in the church and among Christian people. When the life of a church begins to wane, to droop and has almost become moribund it needs revival! Revival means awakening, stimulating the life, bringing it to the surface again. It happens primarily in the church of God. (Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones)

There are countless examples down the centuries of the reviving power of the Holy Spirit touching the lives of ordinary Christians and empowering them to evangelise the world.

1) In 1722, a small group of Christians in Germany met on the estate of Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf. There they encountered the Holy Spirit in a powerful way. Their hearts were set aflame with a new love for Jesus Christ and for one another. They began to meet in prayer more regularly and, on 25 August 1727, they established a ‘round-the-clock’ prayer meeting which ran, uninterrupted, for a hundred years. At every moment of the day and night there were people praying. Out of this was born a mission to evangelise many unreached peoples. Tens of thousands of people became Christians through the ministry of these evangelists.

2) On 1 January 1739, John Wesley and about sixty of his fellowship were praying deep into the night. He wrote in his diary: “About three in the morning, as we were continuing constant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of His majesty we broke out with one voice – ‘We praise Thee, O God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.’” As a result of this empowering, and the ‘strangely warmed heart’ of John Wesley, revival flooded across the United Kingdom.

3) In 1857, Jeremiah Lanphier, a city missioner in New York, gave out handbills inviting fellows Christians to join him in prayer for the nation. On 23 September that year, just six people took up his invitation. A week later twenty came; the following week forty. The meetings grew so popular that he had to hold them daily. Within five months there were three prayer meetings

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happening simultaneously in large theatres in the city. Soon similar gatherings for prayer were happening in Boston, Chicago, Washington, Buffalo and Newark. Thousands gathered each day to pray for the spiritual renewal of the United States. In Portland, Oregon, the meetings grew so popular that 240 major stores closed each day between 11 o’clock in the morning and 2 o’clock in the afternoon to enable their employees to pray. Natural and spontaneous evangelism flowed from the tens of thousands of Christians caught up in this renewal of faith. Historians estimate that there were over one million new converts to Christ in 1858–59!

4) Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, Charles Haddon Spurgeon was not only teaching about prayer, he was modelling the truth that prayer is integral toevangelism. Wherever he went, he called the church to prayer, teaching that it was the springboard for all true mission and ministry. Whenever guests visited him at his church, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, he would show them the prayer-room where church members continued a 24-hour unceasing vigil of prayer. Out of this renewed sense of commitment to prayer in the churches arose a great wave of evangelistic activity. Church historians estimate that there were around one million new converts to Christianity in Britain during 1860 alone. Out of this came new leaders such as Lord Shaftesbury, George Muller and William Booth.

5) Following five years of dedicated prayer by a small group of missionaries in the Philippines, a retired pastor, Paul Holsinger, called the people of his church to repentance and reconciliation. The congregation was suddenly and powerfully renewed with the Holy Spirit and, as a result, hundreds of local townspeople were converted to Christianity. The revival swept from town to town. Even now, decades later, there is incredible church growth all across that region.

6) In Korea, possibly the best known example of contemporary revival, experts suggest that 110,000 of the population were converted in 1982, and 120,000 in 1983. Pastor Yonggi Cho, leader of one of the fastest growing ‘super churches’ in the region, said, ‘We have seen the importance of developing and keeping a prayer life. If we stop praying the revival will wane. If we continue praying, I believe that all Korea can be saved!’

7) In the UK, sporadic and limited bursts of revival have continued up to the present day. Tom Wilson, a leading gypsy revivalist, told a capacity crowd at the Royal Albert Hall of revival among the gypsy population. A thousand gypsies came to Christ in a period of a few weeks in Scotland, and in less than a decade at least ten thousand have come to Christ across the country.

8) In England, local volunteers from the Prison Fellowship had long desired to do work in tough Lewes prison. Unable to find opportunities, they decided to

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walk round the outside of the jail, praying for the spiritual walls to come down. They prayed regularly and consistently for ten years. Eventually David Lowe was appointed as prison chaplain and, alongside the Prison Fellowship, they began evangelistic work in the prison. Over a two-year period, over 500 inmates, their relatives and prison officers have made professions of faith in Christ. The Daily Telegraph commented: ‘In the last 12 months fights between inmates have dropped dramatically. Half the prisoners “touched by the Spirit” have written to apologise to their victims.’ The newspaper went on to say that similar experiences of revival are reported in ten other British prisons.

9) In different parts of the world we hear of waves of renewal sweeping across the church, affecting tens of thousands of people in places like Toronto and Pensacola. God seems to be breaking down the structures of formalised institutional religion and inviting his people to meet him in new and uncluttered ways through miraculous demonstrations of his power. I believe there will be many more waves of spiritual renewal in the new millennium, each one calling us to move beyond the familiar trappings of our comfortable Christianity to meet God face to face. It is this kind of spiritual renewal that will enable ordinary people to discover the spiritual reality they crave, and empower them to share the message in new ways that are both relevant and creative.

A number of common factors can be found in these great periods of growth in Christianity. Each seems to have been preceded by the raising up of groups to pray and intercede.

Each seems to have brought forward rebellious young leaders with a heart for evangelism, people like George Whitefield (aged 22), Howell Harris in Wales (aged 25) and John Wesley (aged 36). Each manifests a renewed search for holiness, a mass movement in prayer, the re-emergence of authoritative biblical preaching, and the introduction of new and radical methods of outreach and evangelism. There is, however, a danger.

The eighteenth-century established church was united in its suspicion of ‘enthusiasm’, a term that meant much the same as ‘fanatic’ today, which they applied to anyone whose practice of Christianity manifested any fervour. Such religion was considered to be a threat to the peace of the realm. They preferred religion to be quietly dispassionate. This view was rejected by John Wesley, who opposed the dependence on reason his Anglican contemporaries so advocated. However, he also recognised the danger of relying too much on feelings. Wesley chose instead a middle way, one that expressed an awesome respect for the Bible, but interpreted in the light of reason, church tradition and personal experience. His evangelistic fervour and his advocacy of ‘the strangely warmed heart’ challenged the cold deism of the established church, but he fiercely protected his followers from the fanaticism England had seen in the previous century.

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Similarly, church leaders of the new millennium must guard the flock lest feelings become more important than the Bible. While the society of the new millennium may hunger for miraculous demonstrations of God’s power, we must ensure that these are based on the unchanging and eternal facts of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Without the power of the Holy Spirit in evangelism, the work is impossible. Without prayer, evangelism is a waste of time. This is God’s work and it would be presumptuous and futile to imagine we can do it without him.

Bible references: Acts 2:3-4; John 20:21–22; Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 6:3; John 16:8–14; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 10:3–4; Acts 1:4–5; 2:42–47; 4:32–37; 5:1–11; 6:1–7; 8:6.

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5

Multiplication of

Leaders

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Multiplication of Leaders 1 - Discipleship

Core Value God looks for men and women who will equip and mobilize other leaders who in turn will train others also. Multiplication of leaders for evangelism results in more and more people being reached for Christ.

Teaching Objectives • To understand that the first level of multiplying oneself is discipleship. • To learn the qualities to look for in a person to disciple. • To study different models of basic discipleship. • To make discipling others a priority in our ministry.

The process of multiplication may be divided into three processes: discipling, coaching and mentoring. The following diagram shows the entire process.

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Biblical Commands for Making Disciples:

Matthew 28:19-20 “Go into all the world and make disciples…” 2 Timothy 2:2 “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable men and women who will be faithful to teach others also.” Philippians 4:9 “Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing…”

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Definition of a Disciple:

A disciple is one who knows Christ inwardly and is committed to living outwardly in love and obedience to Him. Discipleship is helping other disciples grow to spiritual maturity by building the principles of God’s Word into a person’s life so he or she is equipped to understand and follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit in knowing how to respond to any situation with Christ-like attitudes and actions. We are commanded biblically to make disciples. The following are characteristics to look for in a person we are going to invest our lives into:

The HAFT Principle - Selection for Discipleship: When Jesus selected the twelve disciples, He looked for certain qualities in the people in whom he was going to invest. Four of the qualities to look for in the people whom you will disciple are:

A sword is a thin, sharp piece of metal. Without a good handle, you cannot hold the sword, thus making it useless. The handle on the sword is called the “haft”.

HHeart after God

• Deuteronomy. 6:5 • 2 Chronicles 15:15, 16:9 • 1 Chronicles 28:9 • Job 23:10-12, Matthew 6:33

AAvailable for God

• Isaiah 6:8 • Luke 1:38

FFaithful to God and others

• 2 Timothy 2:2 • Genesis 6-9

TTeachable spirit that is always learning

• Psalm 25:4, 119:33-34; Proverbs 3:5-8 • 2 Timothy 2:15

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Likewise, God wants to have a “handle” on our lives. He wants us to be useful in His hand. If the “HAFT” qualities are present in our lives and increasing, then we are in a position for God to direct and bless us!

Jesus’ Example – Discipleship Modeled: Jesus is the supreme example for how to make disciples. He selected key individuals and invested his life into them over a period of time. Jesus’ ministry can be illustrated by a series of circles. The outermost circle represents his ministry to the world. The innermost circle represents his ministry to three of the twelve disciples.

• In the world. • In the 500 brethren - 1 Cor.15:6. • In the 120 - Acts 1:15 (called disciples). • In the 70 - Luke 10. Jesus sends them out with instructions very similar

to those given to the 12 in Mark 16. • In the 12 disciples - 3 years with Jesus. • In 3 - Peter, James, John Matthew 17 at the transfiguration

o Mt. 26:37: Took these 3 further with him in Gethsemane. o Mark 5:37: Jairus’ daughter

Multiplying yourself by discipling others takes a long period of time, but it bears the fruit that lasts!

God’s Tool for Discipleship – Spiritual Disciplines: Spiritual disciplines are tools that God uses in our lives to help us grow spiritually. The word discipline is defined as “training that is expected to produce a specified character or pattern of behaviour.” Spiritual disciplines are the way that God uses to build godliness in our lives. Three primary spiritual disciplines are:

• Prayer • God’s Word • Obedience

A disciple is one who longs to obey and grow in these areas.

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Jesus is looking for HAFT Christians! We are to look for HAFT Christians!

! Our depth of intimacy with God is directly related to the time we spend with him in the discipline of prayer, and in the discipline of knowing his word to us. In Psalm 27, God says for us to seek his face. As we disciple others, it is very important to emphasize the practice of all aspects of prayer, which we have discussed in the intimacy section. The prayer relationship is that of communion with the Father and growing deeper in our communication with him. Our disciples will be amazed at God’s faithfulness as we are faithful to pray. Growing deeper in God’s word is a mark of a disciple. The following hand illustration is one that can be used. Just as it takes each part of our hand to get a good grip on an object, so it takes these disciplines to grip the word of God. As we disciple others, God’s word is the key means of understanding his plans for them and us.

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God’s word over and over again tells us that if we obey his voice and his word to us that we will be blessed and anointed: “You have declared this day that the Lord is your God. You have promised to obey his laws, commands, and regulations by walking in his ways and doing everything he tells you. The LORD has declared this day that you are his peculiar people, his own special treasure, just as he promised, and that you must obey all his commandments. And if you do, he will make you greater than any other nation, in praise, in name, and in honour, and

God

Intimacy

Bible

PrayerDisciple

Obedience

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Med

itat

ing

Memorizing

Studying

Reading

Hearing

Psalm 1:2-3Psalm 119:9-11

Ezra 7:10

Revelation 1:3

Romans 10:17

that you will be a holy people unto the Lord your God, as he has spoken.” Deuteronomy 26:17-19

Growing Through The Practice of Spiritual Disciplines

The following is an example of different commitments a leader makes and has those being discipled to make as an individual or as a group in a discipleship relationship. Some of the ministries might change, but the basic spiritual disciplines will probably remain the same.

SAMPLE DISCIPLESHIP COVENANT

A. Spiritual Disciplines:

It is my desire to glorify God by bearing fruit for Him in my character and service and so prove to be a disciple of Jesus (John 15:8). To allow God to accomplish this purpose in my life, I commit myself to the use of the following means of grace:

1. To seek every day to know God by spending _____ (time) in personal devotion. I will give this time to him in the following ways:

a. In reading and studying the word of God (2 Tim. 2:15).

b. In prayer, including intercessory praying for each member of the covenant fellowship by name.

c. In memorizing and meditating on God’s word (Joshua 1:8).

2. To meet together weekly with a covenant fellowship of like-minded disciples to stir up one another in love to build into our lives the principles/disciplines of Christian discipleship (Hebrews 10:24-25).

a. Bible study and discussion of the biblical principles of discipleship (Acts 17:11).

b. Prayer time for personal needs and for other members of the fellowship (1 Tim. 2:1,8).

c. Time for sharing, including struggles, victories, defeats, insights, etc. (James 5:16).

d. Give account to one another of our fulfillment of the covenant disciplines (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).

e. Consulting with one another on any significant decision/step in our lives, believing in the scriptural principle that where there is a multitude of counselors, there is safety (Prov.15:22; 24:6).

3. To follow the custom of the early church in fasting each week (Acts 13:2,3).

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4. To keep the Lord’s day holy and to be regular in attendance at public worship. (Ex. 20:8-11; Luke 4:16).

5. The memorizing of ____ verses of Scripture per week and a review of previous verses learned.

B. Ministries of grace:

To be used for God to serve the body of Christ and the world, I commit myself to the following ministries of grace:

1. To participate in daily family worship in our home.

2. To give a tithe to God as a reminder that he is Lord of all my resources and that he wants use of all of them in any manner pleasing to him. (Mal.3:8-12; 2 Cor.9:6-8; Phil 4:14-19).

3. To maintain a regular system of exercise to keep myself in good physical condition as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

C. Other possible commitments:

For further nurture and spiritual growth, I may commit myself to:

1. Keeping a daily journal - prayer request, praises, what God is showing/teaching me in his Word.

2. Being involved in a weekly personal ministry to others.

I commit myself to the covenant fellowship to make myself accountable in these areas so that God can continue to glorify himself in my character, service and relationship to him. Signed: ……………………………………………………………………….

Life to Life Investment: The bottom line!

• Takes our commitment to disciple at least one person this year. • Takes a personal investment in time, prayer and patience to see them

grow. • Takes a consistency in our own Christian life that will inspire them to want

to mature in their own spiritual life. • God will be glorified and we will produce much fruit.

Reflection and Action:

• Using Jesus’ model, how will you personally multiply yourself?

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• As leaders, we want to significantly influence the next generation of leaders. Which 3 potential leaders do you see as being HAFT Christians you might personally disciple during this next year?

• What decisions do you need to make in order for this first level of multiplication become a priority in your life?

• Of the persons you have led to Christ, how many have you personally discipled?

“I have no greater joy than to know that my children (spiritual children) are walking in truth.” 3 John 4.

Lord, give us spiritual children (those we have discipled) who walk in your truth!

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Multiplication of Leaders 2 - Mentoring

Three key steps to multiply the number of leaders are discipleship, coaching, and mentoring. Each part of this process is essential for developing a leader of leaders who is mature in Christ and effective in service.

Mentoring is usually a long-term mutual relationship in which one person who has more experience in an area of life or leadership comes alongside a less experienced person to help them achieve their priorities (vision).

I. Mentoring Is About Relationship.

1. A relationship in which a mentor helps a mentoree reach his or her God-given potential. [Biehl]

2. Mentoring is a relational experience in which one person empowers another person by sharing God-given resources.

3. Mentoring is a relational process in which a mentor, who knows or has experienced something, transfers that something [resources of wisdom, information, experience, confidence, insight, relationships] to a mentoree, at an appropriate time and manner, so that it facilitates development or empowerment.” [Stanley and Clinton]

4. Mentoring moves the mentoree from ‘trial and error’ [learning by mistakes] to a proven record [learning by example].

II. Two Key Questions A Mentor Asks?

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Go back in your memory to when you were younger. Imagine someone older and wiser coming to you and asking: “What are your priorities? And, how can I help you achieve them?”

Did anything like this happen to you? How would your life have been different if someone had done this for you?

Core Value God looks for men and women who disciple, coach, and mentor other leaders, who in turn become leaders of leaders that effectively train others.

Objective Each participant will understand the process of mentoring and will make mentoring a priority in their life and ministry.

Overview

1. What are your priorities (vision)?

2. How can I help you achieve them?

III. Biblical Foundations for Mentoring

1. Moses to Joshua: Numbers 27:15-23. “So the Lord said to Moses, ‘Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him . . . and you shall put some of your authority on him .” v.18, 20

2. Elijah to Elisha: 2 Kings 2. “‘Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you.’ And Elisha said, ‘Please, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.’” v.9

3. Jesus to Disciples: Mark 3.14. “And he appointed twelve, that he might be with them, and that he might send them out to preach . . .”

4. Barnabas to Paul: Acts 9:27-28; 11:25-26. “But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him . . .” 9.27

“And he (Barnabas) left for Tarsus to look for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it came about for an entire year they met with the church, and taught considerable number; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.” 11.25-26

5. Paul to Timothy and others: 2 Timothy 2.2, Philippians 4:9. “And the things you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men and women who will be able to teach others also.” 2 Timothy 2.2

“The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:9

IV. Mentoring has different levels of involvement and degrees of intensity.

A. INTENSIVE • Concentrated discipleship with a spiritual guide and coach

B. OCCASIONAL

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• Timely advice and correct perspectives on viewing self, others, and ministry.

C. PASSIVE • A past or present life that you can learn from through reading,

studying or observing.

V. Workshop and Discussion In a small group, talk about one key person who is your mentor or a special person in your life. How are they helping you achieve your priorities (vision)? There aren’t enough ideal mentors who can do it all. But lots of people can fulfill one or more of the mentoring functions. All you need to do is identify the specific area of mentoring you need.

VI. Discipling, Coaching and Mentoring Compared

Discipling Coaching Mentoring

Model:Timothy Model: Paul Model: Barnabas

Discipler – Mature Believer

Coach – an accomplished leader

Mentor - a wise, experienced guide

Focus: leader’s agenda

Focus: Need Focus: protégé’s agenda

Focus: content Focus: skills Focus: supportive relationship

Focus: spiritual disciplines

Focus: goal accomplishment

Focus: whole-life counsel

Interchange is based on content

Interchange is based on service

Interchange is based on relationship

Usually short term commitment

Variable Ideally, a lifetime

Offers academic mastery

Offers life skills Offers practical life experience

Requires only respect

Requires positive personal relationship

Requires positive, personal relationship

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• All new Christians must be discipled in order to establish them in the basic fundamentals of the faith. But all Christians also need a mentor to help them continue to mature in their faith and life.

• All Christians can be mentors of another. Life experiences qualify each of us to become a mentor. It is not a complex subject, but it is one of the most important elements in the advancement of Christian leadership for the 21st century.

• Mentoring can impact the next generation significantly because it ties needs, dreams and resources together in a relational way.

VII. Common Characteristics of a Mentor • Ability to see potential in a person • Tolerance with mistakes and brashness in order to see potential develop. • Flexibility in responding to people and circumstances • Patience, knowing that time and experience are needed for development. • Perspective, having vision and ability to future and make helpful suggestions • Gifts and abilities that build up and encourage others.

VIII. Discussion

Share with the whole group about one of your mentors and how that mentor is helping you?

IX. Starting a Mentoring Relationship

Either a mentor or a mentoree can launch a mentoring relationship.

A. FOR THE MENTOR: THREE RECOMMENDED STEPS

1. PRAY • Ask God to lead you to the right person(s)

You are praying for the kind of person that exhibits the qualities and character that you believe your experience and maturity could enable them to fulfill their God given potential.

2. ASK: TWO SIMPLE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS • What are your priorities? • How can I help you?

3. BEGIN TO MEET • Establish a time in which you both will meet. • Establish a simple agenda that begins with: “How can I help you

reach your priorities or goals or address your problems today?

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• The Mentor is not the one who has to resolve the issues for the mentoree but gives perspective, ideas, information, praise, general support and prayer.

• The number of times to meet is determined by the mentoree who will bring his/her agenda and the Mentor asks the same question: ”How can I help you reach your priorities today?

For your Response Which three persons would you most like to see do well in the future and who you might help them fulfill their God-given potential? Pray for all of them but start with only one.

1. ____________________________________________

2. ____________________________________________

3. ____________________________________________

RIGHT NOW! You can play a significant role in strengthening the future generation of Christian leadership by combining your experience today with their potential for tomorrow.

B. FOR THE ONE SEEKING A MENTOR

1. Ask God to lead you to a qualified person who would be willing to mentor you. • You are praying for the kind of person that you respect and also

someone you like who already exhibits the qualities and values that you want to have in your life and ministry.

2. Formally or informally speak to them and tell them what you have been praying about. Ask if they would be willing to meet with you several times to talk about what that might mean and for them to begin to pray about it too.

3. Establish a time when you are going to meet and be prepared to bring to the meeting your priorities and ask for his/her counsel concerning these issues.

4. After several meetings God should affirm in each of your hearts if this is a relationship that will be beneficial to both of you. If so, then you will only meet as you choose to, but seldom weekly. Talking on the phone is often all you may need. If not confirmed to both of you, then thank him/her for their time and begin praying for another mentor.

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For Your Response IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY MENTOR(S) IN THE WORLD… WHICH PERSON WOULD YOU ASK:

1. ___________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________

Note you may have three mentors at a time, each helping you win in different areas of your life (spiritual, professional, and social).

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When you are MENTORING you are significantly strengthening the next generation of

Christian leadership world-wide by combining YOUR EXPERIENCE TODAY

with THEIR POTENTIAL TOMORROW.

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Family Priority

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Family - Priority 1

Core Value God looks for men and women who are convinced that the family is God’s building block for society and make their family a priority in developing leaders.

Teaching Aims • To explore the reality of family in the Bible and in our contemporary

culture. • To discover Biblical principles for building healthy Christian families and

for dealing with the struggles families face. • To give opportunity for reflecting on our own families and for planning

strategies for improving them.

Definitions and Patterns REFLECT AND DISCUSS How would you define a family?

• In the Bible? • In contemporary culture?

Families in the Bible

There is no one definition, but we find many different patterns. • Monogamous: this is God’s intention (Genesis 2:24), re-inforced by Jesus

(Mark 10:5–9). • Polygamous: not infrequent among the wealthy patriarchs and the kings of

Judah and Israel, no doubt following the example of other cultures around them. Examples are Jacob (Genesis 29), David, Solomon, etc. Note the specific prohibition of polygamy in the case of the king in Deuteronomy 17:17.

• Extended family: for example, Peter and Andrew, with Peter’s mother-in-law sharing their home (Mark 1:29-30)

• Clan: for example, Jacob and sons (Genesis 37 etc). • Blended family: David, and the children from his various wives. • Nuclear family: for example, Joseph, Mary and Jesus and his brothers and

sisters (Luke 2:41ff.). • Single parent family: probably the situation of Mary and Jesus’ siblings

(Mark 6:3). • Widows and orphans: frequently mentioned, and to be cared for by the

rest of the community. • Singles: for example Jesus himself, possibly Paul.

Some of these families function well – or at least, some of the time. Others exhibit a considerable degree of dysfunction. The Biblical picture of “family” is

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not so different, in fact, from the picture of family presented by our contemporary society and culture.

Marriage in the Bible • The basis: Genesis 2:24: “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and

is united with his wife, and they become one.”

• Roles and status: there is equality of status (though difference of role) between husband and wife (Genesis 2:18–23).

• Marriage customs in the Bible: The usual Biblical phrase, in both Hebrew and Greek, for “to marry” is “to take as one’s wife.” It is used of Joseph and Mary (Matthew 1:18–24) and frequently in the Old Testament. The normal practice was for the bridegroom to go to the bride’s parents’ house and bring home his bride to his own house, where there would then be a celebration party (Matthew 25:1-10). A similar communal celebration is described in the case of the “marriage” at Cana in Galilee (John 2:1ff.). This was more a wedding reception than a wedding ceremony. None of these cases implies the need for a religious or civil ceremony, which we normally associate with the words “marriage, wedding, marry, etc.” We so often bring our own cultural assumptions and traditions to the Bible and read them in, making it mean something that it does not say.

REFLECT AND DISCUSS Given that in Biblical culture “marriage” seems to mean something different from what we mean, what do you think is the essential constituent of a “marriage” that transcends all cultural boundaries?

Families in our culture

Again there is no single definition that will cover every pattern of family life.

The ILI definition recognises this and defines family in terms of relationships. “Family is the network of close relationships in which we live as God’s children, including relationships within nuclear and extended kinship and the church family.”

John and Olive Drane in “Family Fortunes” [Darton, Longman and Todd, 2004] list a variety of patterns in answer to the question, “Who are today’s families?”

Couples (Husband and wives / Co-habiting couples) • Both parents in work. • Men at work. • Women as providers.

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• Blended families (second or subsequent marriages /relationships where partners have children from their previous, and perhaps also current, relationships).

• Couples without children (never had children or children have left home).

One-parent families • Women as lone parents (the more common form). • Men as lone parents.

Other patterns • Living alone. • Living in community. • Same-sex families. • Extended families. • Custodial grandparents (grandparents acting as foster parents – in a variety of situations).

REFLECT AND DISCUSS Note how many of these different family patterns you have come into contact with:

• In personal experience. • In your wider network of relationships. • In your ministry.

The Traditional Family It is clear that what we, especially we Christians, think of as the “standard family” (currently in Britain husband, wife and 1.9 children) – what the Dranes call “the industrial nuclear family” (breadwinner husband and home-maker wife) – is no longer necessarily the majority pattern.

Rodney Clapp in “Families at the Crossroads” [Inter Varsity Press, 1993] calls this traditional evangelical model “the bourgeois family” and points out that it is only 200 years old. Following Brigitte and Peter Berger [War on the Family, Doubleday, 1983], he lists its six characteristics:

• Family life is eminently attractive and the home, as a refuge from the harsh public world, is a major focus of life.

• A heightened concern for children, particularly for their formation and education.

• The family is the source of personal values and identity for both sexes. • Romantic love is the major motive for marriage. • Spouses are intensely affectionate and respectful to one another. • The woman is paramount in the home, which is her special domain.

REFLECT

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Which of these features are true to the life of families as you experience it or see it around you?

What are families for?

If there are no general definitions, for what purposes do families exist?

Natural purposes of the family:

Clapp lists three, which apply in almost any culture: • Sanctioning and regulating sexual mating. • Enabling the reproduction, survival and socialisation of children. • Apportioning roles, labour and goods between the sexes.

Trends in our culture, however, might lead us to question how far these still apply, especially the first two:

• Has the easy availability of contraception and fertility treatment eroded the regulatory role of the family?

• What about the tensions between schools and parents about who is responsible for children’s learning and behaviour?

• The family, from the beginning, has always been an economic unit, and many of the changes in family patterns are the result of economic changes; for example, the change from a rural economy to an industrial economy. But is the apportioning between the sexes fair in our society?

Some Biblical indicators of purpose. • To be God’s family (men and women are created in his image and for

fellowship with himself: Genesis 1:27–28; 3:9 Ephesians 2:19; 3:15 [TEV or NRSV – NIV is not so good a translation of the Greek of this last verse]) – spiritual purpose.

• For mutual companionship (Genesis 2:18) – emotional purpose. • For procreation (Genesis 1:28) with the aim of creating a world wide

network of relationships: children leaving their parents to establish new families, retaining their ties with their parents and siblings whilst creating new ones with their own children (Genesis 2:24; 4:9 Exodus 20:12) – societal purpose.

• To care for the earth and all God’s creation (Genesis 2:15–16) – economic purpose.

Pressures on the family today

Michael Moynagh, in his article “Family” [New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology, Inter Varsity Press, 1995], lists the following pressures:

• The separation of work from home – people having to live in two worlds.

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• The subordinate position of women: despite much progress, key decisions are usually taken with the interests of the husband in mind.

• Isolation, because of the breakdown of community. People do not have common interests with their neighbours; possibly do not even know them.

• Poverty. • Longer life expectancy, leading to the problems of caring for elderly

relatives. • Damaging family traits handed down from one generation to another (for

example, abuse, occult involvement, gambling etc). • The self-fulfilment ethic, which leads to selfishness and contributes to

breakdown and divorce.

In the Roman Catholic Bishops’ report, “Not Easy but Full of Meaning”, based on a survey of 15,000 families in 2004, a Nottingham family is quoted on the difficulties of modern life: “Pressure on appearances, consumerism, selfishness, non-permanent relationships, competition and Godlessness.”

Coming at the question from a different direction, many of the common causes of stress have particular relevance to family life. Wanda Nash, for example, in “At Ease with Stress” [Darton, Longman and Todd, 1988] lists six Common Immediate Stressors:

• Transitions: leaving home, getting married, having children, moving house, changing jobs, etc.

• Relationships: the family IS relationships! So the family itself is commonly a source of pressure and stress.

• Environment: having to cope with a young family in a house that is too small; uncongenial working conditions, but you cannot leave because you need the money.

• Hassles: the little annoyances that arise every day. • Acquired symbols of stress: phobias, like the fear of mice, spiders, etc • Meaninglessness: “a profound absenting of things that give value to life,

resulting in feelings of rejection, withdrawal of purpose, lack of direction or goal. This may be the result of external circumstances such as bereavement, redundancy, divorce, excommunication, or may be an internal loss of faith and trust.”

Finally, on a different tack again, Clapp’s thesis is that the family is under threat from the post-modern value system in which we live in our society today.

REFLECTANDDISCUSSWhich of these have you experienced or seen?

• In personal experience • In your wider network of relationships • In your ministry

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Biblical Guidelines for Families

We begin with some words of warning because, as Clapp and the Dranes point out, some of the Biblical teaching about families has, in the past (and, in some quarters, even in the present) been misinterpreted and made the rationale for abuse and oppression.

• We need to distinguish, as Jesus does in his teaching on divorce (Mark 10:5–9) between what refers to God’s intention before the fall, and

what relates to how he deals with fallen, sinful men and women. • We need to interpret specific, practical guidance to families in the

context of God’s foundational purposes for families. • We need to interpret specific passages in the wider context of the

Biblical teaching on men, women, children, relationships, etc, as will as in the context of broad theological principles like grace.

Some specific family-related guidelines

• Complementarity and equal status of men and women made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26–38; 2:18–24).

• Mutual respect between young and old (Ephesians 5:21; 1 Peter 5:1–5). • Power as service. Many of the issues around families relate to power and

control. This is an area where the verses on the submission of women (e.g. Ephesians 5:22–23) are sometimes taken out of both their immediate context and the wider Biblical context. Genesis 3:16 clearly states that male domination is a result of the fall, not part of God’s original intention. Jesus then teaches, and demonstrates by example, that true power and authority express themselves in service (Mark 10:41–45; John 13:12–17).

• Husbands and wives are to relate to each other in the same way that Christ relates to the church (Ephesians 5:25–33).

• Parents must teach their children the ways of God (Deuteronomy 6:6–7), which includes correction and discipline (Proverbs 13:1, 24; Ephesians 6:4). But note how discipline and correction are balanced by not making the children angry or irritating them (Colossians 3:21).

• Children must honour their parents (Exodus 20:12) but there is also to be mutual respect between parents and children (Ephesians 6:1–4).

• Parents must be prepared to let their children go (Genesis 2:24). • Children are expected to support their parents in their old age (Mark 7:9–

13). • The wider family also has a responsibility to support in times of need:

note the role of the “go’el”, the responsible kinsman (Ruth 2:20; 3:10–13). • Gender equality and complementarity in ministry in the churches. (I

include this because we often speak of the church as “family”). This is one of those occasions when we miss out by skipping over apparently boring or irrelevant bits of the Bible – lists of names! It is instructive to look at

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Paul’s lists of greetings in his letters, especially in Romans 16:1–16. Notice how many women are mentioned – not just as church members but as fellow workers. Many commentators today believe that the reference to Junia (verse 7) means that she was counted as an apostle. However, NIV and The Message persist in putting the name in its masculine form (in contrast to TEV, NRSV, The Jewish New Testament), no doubt in the belief that a woman couldn’t have been an apostle! In addition, Mary Magdalene has been called “The Apostle to the Apostles”, on the basis of her commissioning by Jesus to take the news of his resurrection to the eleven (John 20:17–18).

Discipline and Punishment When the ban on corporal punishment in schools was imposed, some Christians and Christian schools objected, on the basis that there is a Biblical mandate for corporal punishment.

There are in fact four texts, all in Proverbs, which link the use of the “rod” (physical punishment) with the disciplining or correction of children.

• 13:24 “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.”

• 22:15 “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.”

• 23:13–14 “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.”

• 29:15 “The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.”

The Hebrew word, shebet, used in these passages, means “rod, staff, sceptre or tribe.” When used in the context of discipline, it means “a rod of discipline used by one in authority” (a father, a civil authority, God). So the emphasis is not just on physical punishment, but also on authority and the relationship authority implies.

If we turn to the Old Testament term for discipline, we find that it also includes more than one shade of meaning. It combines the ideas of instruction and rebuke, as well as physical punishment (e.g. Job 4:3; Psalm 16:7; Proverbs 19:18). Discipline is associated with love, especially when the passage is speaking about God disciplining his people (e.g. Deuteronomy 8:5; Proverbs 3:12). When used of God punishing his people, it is always linked to his justice (e.g. Jeremiah 10:34) and is usually in the context of a covenant violation (Leviticus 26:18).

So when we think of discipline and punishment in a family context, we need to bear in mind:

• The texts about parents and children we have already referred to above. • That discipline is an aspect of a relationship of love.

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• That punishment, especially physical punishment, should be the last resort, after instruction and rebuke, and should always be just.

• That the main biblical passages supporting corporal punishment are in Proverbs. In general, proverbs are pithy, popular wisdom, which we do not interpret in the same way as more thought out instruction. Proverbs can even contradict one another: “Many hands make light work” – “Too many cooks spoil the broth.”

• One biblical command we would not wish to carry out is Deuteronomy 21:18–21, where a rebellious son is to be stoned to death.

In short, our understanding of discipline and punishment as taught in Scripture should be based, not on one or two texts, but on a balanced view of all that the Bible teaches on the topic.

Conclusion – the Family as Community

Both Clapp and the Drane suggest that we should think of family in terms of community. This is particularly appropriate, as men and women were created for communion – fellowship with God and with one another - as we have seen above.

The word for communion or fellowship - koinonia – occurs in the descriptions of the early church in the opening chapters of Acts. koinonia points to the essential features of community. It is one of a group of words related to the adjective koinos, which means “common, communal”. It implies that which all hold in common, in which all share, in which all participate. The description of the early church community (Acts 2:42–47) includes voluntary sharing of goods – a practical expression of mutual caring; commitment to the apostles’ teaching – a sharing of beliefs and values; and a shared participation in every aspect of the life of the community. “Koinonia… denotes the unanimity and unity brought about by the Spirit. The individual was completely upheld by the community.” (J. Shattenmann, New International Dictionary of N.T. Theology, I, 642)

All this is rooted, as Paul brings out through his use of the word, in a new relationship with God, a participation in Christ through the Spirit, based on the forgiveness of sins through Christ. God, “from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its true name” (Ephesians 3:15), has intervened to enable family communities once again to fulfil the purpose for which he created them.

Whatever pattern of family life we are part of, it should then be an expression of God’s new community, a demonstration of koinonia, a witness to God’s recreating of his world, and a foretaste of the heavenly community. A tall order – OR - an achievable goal?

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Prioritizing Marital Relationships

Introduction – The covenant of marriage

The Marital Covenant is a Blood covenant that God designed. The two shall become one in body, soul and spirit and the marriage relationship is likened to Christ’s relationship to the church, his Bride. (Ephesians 5:21-28)

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• Discuss how these Biblical principles for marital relationships are expressed in your culture

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How important is your spouse to you in your ministry?

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Eph 5:21-28 (NIV) 21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

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Knowing and Loving Your Spouse

Releasing God’s Agape Flow of Blessing

This ‘Agape’ Measure or ‘Love’ Measure can be used as a quick reflection on how you are doing as a loving couple.

1. Love one another (John 13:34)

2. Bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2)

3. Bearing with one another (Ephesians 4:2)

4. Serve one another (Galatians 5:13)

5. Be subject to one another (Ephesians 5:21)

6. Thinking more highly of one another (Phil 2:3)

7. Be kind to one another (Ephesians 4:32)

8. Show honour to one another (Romans 12:10)

9. Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

10. Strengthen & build up one another (1 Thess.5:11b)

ReflectandAnswer

▪ Which of the ten measures is your strongest? ▪ Which is your weakest? ▪ What can you do to live by your strengths as a couple and how can you

manage your weakness and strengthen them?

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Making Marriages Better

A loving attentiveness and desire to know and understand our spouse is the hallmark of a Christian leader. In knowing, we use every personal resource to support our spouse’s growth and service in the Lord.

Praise and Nurturing: ▪ Everyone has a God-given need for nurture and praise.

▪ The two enemies of nurture in a marriage are CRITICISM and SILENCE ▪ Guidelines for NURTURING your marriage relationship include: ▪ Giver: Speak words of praise and encouragement ▪ Receiver: Allow the words to reach not only the head but the HEART ▪ Receiver: Say “Thank You” to acknowledge that you received the message ▪ Commitment – We agree to give each other at least two praises daily for

the next one hundred days

Know What Your Spouse Likes: Find out what your spouse likes you to do to express love. Begin by sharing what you would like him or her to do.

What I Like You To Do To Express Love:

▪ Look at me now and then in a way that expresses appreciation

▪ Greet me when you wake up or come home.

▪ Touch my shoulder or hold my hand in appreciation and encouragement

▪ Talk to me about what matters to you

▪ Tell me why I’m the only one you love

_______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Communication: Inner Person Connection

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Prioritizing marital relationships involves good communication. The biblical injunction is that two shall become one. On a daily basis therefore, the togetherness is built up through good and Godly communication. Spouses are to be comfortable communicating at all levels.

Level 1 – Social General greeting to anybody (eg. Good Morning)

Level 2 – Functional Exchange Example: “pass the salt”; “don’t forget to lock the door”. Work related exchange: “Can you type this today!”

Level 3 – Personal Exchange Feeling and conviction level exchange

Level 4 – Intimacy Exchange Close and deep understanding-directed exchange. It can be physical, social, emotional and spiritual areas. “Intimacy… is the healing force in family relationships” (Judith Balswick in “Family: A Christian Perspective on the Contemporary Home”)

The Power of Forgiveness

“I’m sorry. Please forgive me”. These words are difficult to hear and even more difficult to speak. Every couple has experienced times when against their better judgment, they have needlessly hurt one another. These words therefore are a common healing balm in marriage relationships. Forgiveness Many couples have brutalized their relationships by careless behaviour that defies logical explanation. No amount of apologies can erase the devastating words No amount of pleading can dull the ache of having been rejected. Only the gift of forgiveness can heal.

When your relationship simply needs an adjustment, good communication skills or a renewed commitment to romance can restore its value in your heart.

But when the relationship has been cheapened by the darkness of human nature, only heartfelt, courageous forgiveness can bring healing to your heart and arouse new hope for your relationship.

This is one method for actualizing FORGIVENESS 1. Be determined to forgive as bitterness can invade the inner person (Heb.

12:15)

2. Don’t focus on the one who has hurt you but transform thinking (Rom.12:2)

3. Develop new patterns of living and use new role models (Heb.13:7)

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4. Trade in revenge tendencies for freedom

5. Call on the Holy Spirit to help. Only the Holy Spirit can mend a broken heart.

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Growing Intimacy: A Life Practice

To initiate a strong momentum in growing intimacy, begin with a commitment to marriage priority.

100 Days to Marital Intimacy (Adapted from Intimacy by Dr. Douglas Weiss) Over the next 100 days, marital intimacy can be built by following priorities

1. Prayer – It is an absolute necessity in marriage

a. It is not enough to pray separately, you must pray as a couple

b. Prayer is one of God’s active ways to build your marriage

c. Commitment: we agree to pray daily together to improve and maintain our intimacy for the next one hundred days.

2. Feelings – Emotional intimacy is a second important aspect to develop and maintain

a. If both cannot share the feelings in the heart, then intimacy will not be achieved

b. The following guidelines will assist couples to share their feelings with one another.

i. Avoid sharing your feelings as a means of attacking one another

ii. Maintain a loving and respectful attitude

c. Commitment – We agree to share our feelings with one another to improve and maintain our intimacy for the next one hundred days

Marriage and Togetherness

Psalm139:23-24 (NIV) 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

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Togetherness in marriage is the responsibility of both spouses and by building togetherness, Marital Relationships grow from strength to strength. Constant and concerted effort results in building the tie that binds. 1. We are able to take stress and crisis. When things go wrong we do not blame

one another but enjoy pooling our efforts together to work things out

• Here is one thing we can do to improve this area of married life:

________________________________________________

2. We handle differences by talking it out in a rational way. We express our feelings freely but will listen to what the other has to say. We do not quarrel in so doing but enjoy an enriching exchange

• Here is one thing we can do to improve this area of married life:

________________________________________________

3. Both spouses contribute to the well-being of the family by helping out with housework or adding to the family resources

• Here is one thing we can do to improve this area of married life:

________________________________________________

4. We love Jesus dearly and discuss spiritual matters together, sharing daily our personal experiences of hearing and obeying

• Here is one thing we can do to improve this area of married life:

________________________________________________

5. We allow one another to be themselves, encouraging the exercise of our different gifts and giving each other feedback on how to better use these gifts

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• Here is one thing we can do to improve this area of married life:

________________________________________________

6. We accept failure and celebrate commendable efforts even when we fail

• Here is one thing we can do to improve this area of married life:

________________________________________________

7. We trust each other totally and when we face difficulties, we are not afraid to tell each other about them

• Here is one thing we can do to improve this area of married life:

________________________________________________

8. We are so close in spirit that when one of us is in trouble, the other can sense it

• Here is one thing we can do to improve this area of married life:

________________________________________________

9. We resolve all differences or anger before the sun goes down each day

• Here is one thing we can do to improve this area of married life:

________________________________________________

� almost never � seldom � sometimes � often � almost always

� almost never � seldom � sometimes � often � almost always

� almost never � seldom � sometimes � often � almost always

� almost never � seldom � sometimes � often � almost always

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7

Stewardship

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Core Value God looks for men and women who are effective stewards of finances, time and spiritual gifts in their personal lives and leadership, with the result that people are reached with the Gospel.

Teaching Objectives • To help participants understand the biblical facts

and the realities of stewardship of money and resources. • To help participants understand time as a resource that has been

entrusted by God, and to manage their time according to God’s will.

Four Facts About Stewardship

1. God Owns Everything

a. He created everything – Psalm 24:1

b. His position gives him “the right” – 1 Chronicles 29:11

c. He is in control – Romans 11:35

d. He has the power – Psalm 89:8-13

2. People Manage God’s Resources a. The original command – Genesis 1:26-28

3. We are Accountable to God a. Luke 19:12-26 (Parable of the Talents)

4. Effective Stewardship is a Learned Skill a. Paul’s instructions to Timothy – 1 Timothy 6:17-19

Financial Stewardship – Three Principles

1. The Principle of Tithing

Under the Old Covenant, God’s people were commanded to tithe. In order to sustain the spiritual life of the nation and to take care of the poor, people were ordered to give 10% of all they produced. The same need is present under the New Covenant and the principle remains the same. God’s people should provide for the spiritual life of the church and the needs of its people. We no longer live under the Old Covenant law but, under the New Covenant where everything belongs to Jesus, 10% is a good place to start.

Under the Old Covenant note:

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a. Leviticus 27:30–33.

b. Notice the following key expressions:, • The tithe belongs to the Lord • The tithe is holy.

c. Malachi 3:8-12 – a curse and a blessing.

2. The Principle of Sound Management

a. Luke 14:28 – The Bible commands us to manage our money and resources wisely.

b. A budget should be planned according to priorities.

3. The Principle of Generous Giving

a. 2 Samuel 24:24 - God does not require equal amounts, he requires equal sacrifice.

b. Luke 6:38 – Give and it shall be given to you.

Conclusion

We live in a selfish materialistic world. Unfortunately, the church has been so influenced by the world that in many places it has taken the shape of the world. Money and resources have become the end in life, rather than the means for God to bless others through his people. God’s people need to learn to be faithful stewards of God’s gifts and not explorers of God’s grace. As leaders we have the responsibility to

a. Live as faithful stewards, setting the example for all. b. Teach stewardship and help our people become faithful

administrators of God’s immense grace to us.

Discussion Divide into small groups for discussion of the following question.

Imagine those in your small group are the leadership team in a church. Develop a strategy to help your church become stewards of God’s material resources in the coming year (teachings, campaigns, strategies to mobilize people)

Stewardship of Time

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Objective: Each leader will examine how to utilize their time in a more productive and effective way in order to reach their God-given goals.

Introduction God gives to each leader various gifts for ministry. God also provides financial resources and opportunities to serve. All of God’s provisions are connected to the reality that God is the source of all that we have and we will be held accountable for each aspect of our lives. Of everything that God has given to us, time is probably the most perishable and wasted. It is completely spent every day and once it is spent, it can’t be recovered. Therefore, committing ourselves to being good stewards of our time is a necessity for every leader.

I. What is time? a. Time is the passing of life

b. Time is your most valuable resource. Time is unique, because unlike other resources, it cannot be saved or stored.

c. Time is the same for everyone. Time does not discriminate. We all have 24 hours each day.

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II. The secret is in knowing how to use the 60 minutes in every hour WISELY.

“Be very careful, then, how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity” Eph.5:15-16

“Take a lesson from the ants, you lazy fellow. Learn from their ways and be wise! For though they have no king to make them work, yet they labour hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. But you... all you do is sleep. When will wake up? ‘Let me sleep a little longer! Sure, just a little more! And as you sleep, poverty creeps upon you like a robber and destroys you; want attacks you in full armour.”

Proverbs 6:6-11 (Living Bible)

III. What robs our time so that we can’t accomplish our tasks?

A North American survey of 30 Christian leaders asked them to identify their ‘time robbers.’ Most frequently mentioned were:

The Christian leader must be time-conscious. The leader must realize that time is his/her most

valuable resource.

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• PROCRASTINATION (putting things off): “The greatest time wasted is the time getting started.” [Dawson Trotman] Where are you not like an ant?

• Poor personal PLANNING and SCHEDULING : Where is your diary? • INTERUPTIONS by people without appointments: visibility means available.

Do you have any place to hide to study, read, pray? • Poor DELEGATION: Can someone else do this instead of me? • Poor use of the TELEPHONE: Could this call wait until later and what do I

want to accomplish by doing it? • READING junk mail: Why not prioritize the pile before you begin to read? • Lack of concern for good TIME MANAGEMENT : Do people expects you

to be late? Or not prepared? • Lack of clear PRIORITIES: What is the number one goal I want to

achieve today? • OTHERS: _______________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

Exercise: • Put a number by the top three ‘time robbers’ in your ministry and then

answer the question that follows it. • Turn to the person next to you and tell him/her how you are going to

change and how.

IV. How Jesus exercised good stewardship of His time. • He knew his time was LIMITED. Three years to equip the next generation

to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. John 9:4 “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work.”

• He never lost sight of his PURPOSE. John 17:4 “[Father] I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”

• He kept his goal SIMPLE. Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

• He understood that there is a RIGHT TIME when the important things must be done.

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John 4:35 “Do you not say,’ Four months more and then harvest? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.”

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V. Where to begin? 1. Your clock is running: what one thing do you want to accomplish in the next

month? Next year? In five years? • In your personal spiritual growth • In your family relationships • In your present ministry

2. Jesus had a purpose statement: to glorify the Father. What is yours?

3. Jesus had a goal that was measurable and attainable. Is there something more that did not fit into number 1?

4. Jesus did what He did when the Father wanted it done. Is there something you have been putting off that you need to decide to do now?

VI. Accomplishing More without Working Harder

Dr. Stephen Covey in his book, “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, developed a model for accomplishing more and feeling better about what has been achieved. One significant key is to understand two words or factors that define an activity:

• URGENT: It usually means it requires immediate attention. It is now. It is usually visible. They press on us. Often they are popular with others. Even fun to do. But so often they are unimportant. It is reactive.

• IMPORTANT: If something is important, it contributes to your mission, values and high priority goals. It has to do with results. Important matters that are not urgent require more initiative and more forward planning.

Use of the Leaders Time

“A Leader committed to letting God work his will through him or her will be sensitive to God’s timing. The effective use of time consists of doing what God wants at the time he wants it done.”

[Myron Rush]

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!

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I. ACTIVITIESCrisesPressing problemsDeadline-driven projectsMeetings, preparations

II. ACTIVITIES Prevention Values clarificationPlanning, preparation,Relationship building True re-creationEmpowerment

III. ACTIVITIES InterruptionsSome callsSome mailSome reports Some meetings Many pressing mattersMany popular activities

IV. ACTIVITIES Trivia, busyworkJunk mail Some phone callsTime wasters “Escape” activities

URGENT NOT URGENT

NOT

IMPO

RTAN

TIM

PORT

ANT

I. RESULTSStress Burnout Crisis Management Always putting out fires

II. RESULTS VisionPerspectiveBalanceControl Few Crises

III. RESULTSShort term focusCrisis management Chameleon character See goals as worthless Feel victimized, out of control Shallow, broken relationships

IV. RESULTSTotal irresponsibility Fired from jobs Dependent on Institutions for basics

Use of Leaders Time

Of all that God has given to us, time is probably the most perishable and wasted. It is completely spent every day and can never be recovered. Therefore, committing ourselves to being good stewards of our time is a necessity for every leader.

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The essence of effective time management is to organize and execute around balanced priorities.

Recommended Resource Materials: Management: A Biblical Approach - Myron Rush Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey

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Most effective managers organize their life and work on a weekly basis, rather than on daily.

The key is not to prioritise what’s on your schedule, but

to schedule your priorities.

The key is not to prioritise what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities

8

Integrity

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Core Value

God looks for men and women of integrity who live holy lives that are accountable to God and to the body of Christ. Integrity glorifies God, protects leaders from stumbling and encourages growth.

Objective:

To help Christian leaders understand the different levels of accountability in their lives and ministry, and to practically apply them so that they can maintain their integrity and model for future leaders the importance of accountability.

Introduction

There are three parts to the core value entitled “Integrity”, Part one: Integrity. What is it? Part two: Accountability. How do I keep integrity? Part three: Finishing well. The result of a life of integrity.

In this section, what is integrity and accountability will be presented.

I. Definitions and Descriptions of Integrity

The Christian life is to be an uninterrupted continuity between all beliefs and practices and relationships. That means that a person of integrity:

• Has an integrated life as opposed to a segregated life. • Is the same in heart, in mind and in actions? • Has the quality or condition of being whole or undivided; completeness. • In its simplest terms, this is a person who keeps their promises.

INTEGRITY is about • What I am: whole. • What I stand on: commitment to my promises. • What I do: action consistent with my wholeness, my commitment.

II. Key Thoughts

1. Jesus was a man of integrity Jesus had a whole and integrated life in which his inner life [intimate relationship with the Father] and outer life [the life the world saw] were consistent.

Mark 12:14 “Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You are not swayed by men because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.”

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2. Integrity is both inward and outward

A. Inward • 2 Corinthians 1:12 “Now this is our boast: our conscience testifies that

we have conducted ourselves in the world and especially in our relations with you, in holiness and sincerity that are from God.“

• SINCERE literally means ”without wax”. Sin = without; cera = wax. Nothing is covered up. Even if people try to hide things, God will expose them. 1 Cor.4:5 “God will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.”

B. Outward • RELATIONAL to the world. This is also called ‘blameless’. One who

will not do anything to cause others to stumble.

• 1 Cor.10:31-33 “Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble.”

3. Integrity is required for a blessed and effective ministry • 1 Kings 9:3-5: “As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and

righteousness as your father did and do all I command and observe all my desires and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel as I promised your father.”

• Proverbs 11.3: “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.”

• Psalm 78:72: “And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skilful hands he led them.”

4. Integrity is maintained regardless of circumstances • Job 2:9-10 “His wife said to him, ‘Are you still holding on to your

INTEGRITY? Curse God and die!’ He replied, ’You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?’ In all this, Job, did not sin in what he said.”

• Other biblical examples of integrity under difficult circumstances i. Daniel 1:3-8 in the kitchen. ii. Daniel 3:13-19 in the furnace. iii. Daniel 6:1-13 in the lion’s den.

Integrity is living Christianity because it is right and the best thing to do no matter what the circumstances. The choices of the Christian life are determined by the values we have learned from God, not the circumstances that happen to us. We accept that difficult circumstances will arise but we are always able to exercise the responsibility of human choice. A Christian’s

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life should answer the question “how did you respond?” not “what happened to you?”

III. Reflection

How do you see yourself?

• Where in your life do you have the most difficulty “keeping promises” and how has it cost you inwardly and outwardly?

• What decisions do you need to make to change?

IV. What is Accountability?

It means you are responsible for the decisions and actions in your life and ministry. It is an obligation to account for one’s actions.

Levels of Accountability There are at least four levels of accountability.

I. Accountable to God.

a. For our acts as Christians and leaders

i. For our deeds - 1 Cor.3:12-15 – Gold, silver and precious stones; or wood, hay and stubble.

ii. For the gifts and talents God entrusts us – Matt 25:14-25 – parable of the talents.

iii. For our responsibility to take the Gospel into our world – Ezek.13:17-21 – “When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him … I will hold you accountable for his blood.”

b. Scripture

i. Ecclesiastes 12:14. “For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”

ii. Romans 14:12. “Each one of us will give an account of himself to God.”

iii. Matt. 25:31-46. “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats.”

c. Application

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i. Plan at least twice a year a personal retreat time in which you focus your time on God’s greatness and kindness to you during the last six months.

ii. Take your daily journal with you and read through all of the victories you have had because of God’s kindness and mercy.

iii. Carry with the elements of holy communion and as you take the elements rededicate yourself to the God who gave you life, the God who sustains your life, the God who gave you Jesus, the bread of life, and the God will same day give you the crown of life.

iv. Meditate on Acts 17:27 “For in him we live and move and have our being.” And leave your retreat place convinced that he loves you and is working out his wonderful plan for you and in you.

II. Accountable to Myself

a. Scripture

i. I Timothy 4:16: “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them because if you do you will save yourself and your hearers.”

ii. Ps.139:23-24: “Search me O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

b. Application

i. Go back to the basic spiritual disciplines. Utilize the illustration of the hanger and the wheel from the lecture on discipleship. Be specific about your consistency in personal Bible reading, prayer and obedience to give you some insight into your sense of intimacy with God.

In addition to noting the things we are discovering or feeling from our devotional time, journaling will also help us clarify these continual questions: Who am I, What am I doing, How I feel about my life and world, What ways I am growing or changing. It helps us keep honest with ourselves. It helps us be honest with ourselves.

ii. Review and Reassess your personal goals.

1. My physical life: how I take care of my body.

2. My relational life: how I deal with my marriage, my family, my friends.

3. My intellectual life: how I take care of my mind.

4. My vocational life: how, where, and why I do my job.

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5. My financial life: how I manage my money.

6. My recreational life: how I rest, manage pleasure.

7. My spiritual disciplines.

• Make a decision

Either I would bring my life and resources into a design that was pleasing to God, or I would find my life being lived by default – by the pressure and influences of those around me. “Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mould, but let your world be moulded by Christ.” [Romans 12:1: Phillips Translation]

III. Accountable to an intimate few.

a. Scripture

i. Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

ii. Mark 3:13-15 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve-designating them apostle-that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.

iii. Mark 14:33-34 “He took Peter, James and John along with him and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death’, he said to them. ‘Stay here and keep watch’.”

b. Application

i. Be a part of an accountability or covenant group. The group should be made up of people that are spiritually growing, who love you and have your best interests at heart and are committed to mutual accountability.

ii. This group is not just a small group but is meant to be a place where each participant makes a covenant, a contract, with each other member of the group for the defined purpose of holding each other accountable for their lives and ministry.

iii. This covenant group usually includes these foundational elements: • Affirmation: Unconditional love. There is nothing you have

done or might do that I will stop loving you. • Availability: Anything I have - time, energy, insight, resource

are at your disposal. • Prayer: To pray for you in a regular pattern or plan.

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• Openness: To promise to be open to you about my struggles, joys and hurts.

• Sensitivity: To hear, see and feel where you and seek respond to your need.

• Honesty: I will speak the truth in love, risking that our relationship is strong enough to bear it.

• Confidentiality: to keep whatever is shared in the group or personally remains here so that total honesty and openness can be maintained.

2 Timothy 3:10. “You however know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance….” In a group committed to accountability there will be ‘iron sharpening iron’ and the result will be a Christian leader who is able to have an effective life and ministry, though filled with constant temptations and testing. But with each one, you will become stronger more effective and the leaders that are raised up through you will exhibit the same strengths as yours.

IV. Accountable to the community of faith

a. Scripture

i. 1 Corinthians 12:27 “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is part of it.”

ii. 1 Corinthians 12:18 “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; though all its parts are many, they form one body.”

iii. Acts 15:4 “When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God hade done through them.”

b. Application

Remember your Vows.

1. Vows you made when you became a Christian

2. Vows you made when you joined the church.

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God remembers our vows and holds us accountable for them. Whether they are doctrinal or personal, God expects us to fulfill them and our local or larger

church body has a right to expect us to fulfill them also.

3. Vows you made when you were ordained or licensed to be a minister or other church leader.

V. Discussion and Reflection

1. Review the four levels of accountability and select one of the four and share with your group how this particular teaching has helped you, encouraged you or convicted you.

2. After all in the group have shared, and then write down what one thing you need to do in order to be more accountable for the sake of your life and ministry and those who will follow you.

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Finishing Well

Core Value God looks for men and women of integrity who live holy lives that are accountable to God and to the Body of Christ. Integrity glorifies God, protects leaders from stumbling, and encourages personal and professional growth.

Objective That each participant will be able to evaluate their own spiritual life and passion for their calling against the points studied and decide that they want to finish well their ministry.

Introduction • When we began our Christian life and our calling in mission we expect we

will finish our Christian lives and ministry with just as much passion, vision, perseverance and joy as when we first began our ministry as a Christian lay leader, pastor or evangelist. Because ‘“Deep inside each soul, God sows a seed of destiny”. It is God’s intended purpose for our lives.

• In order to reach this intended purpose we need to now begin to establish certain biblical and practical principles that will guide us to finish well our life and ministry.

• These principles are to commit: 1. To be a person of integrity. 2. To be a person willing to be held accountable. 3. To be a person who stays focused on the goal.

God’s plan for us was that we, like Paul: START RIGHT ! Acts 9:20-22

FINISH WELL ! 2 Timothy 4:7

Rather than, like Solomon: START RIGHT ! 2 Chronicles 1:10

FINISH BADLY ! 1 Kings 11:4-6

YET, the FACT IS

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Where do they go? • They “Drop Out”. Like in 2 Tim. 4:10 “Demas has deserted me.”

• They Plateau. Like in Phil.3:19b “Their mind is on earthly things.”

73% of all ministers will not complete 20 years of ministry!

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• They are Disqualified. Like in 2 Cor.7:10 when they may show worldly sorrow but no real repentance.

100% Started Right - But Only 30% Finished Well.

How did this happen? Ask King Solomon.

Proverbs 1:7

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King Solomon is a tragic, biblical example of someone who started right but did not finish well. He ceased being a man of wisdom [as in Proverbs] and became a cynic and a fool [as in Ecclesiastes]. He forgot what he wrote.

Some factors that caused Solomon and others not to FINISH WELL

• Seldom is it just one factor or influence that causes one to not finish well. • Rather it is often just one step that starts us in a direction that if not

checked will cause us not to finish well our ministries. • These factors are called: THE BIG FOUR PLUS FOUR MORE.

The Big Four - Money, Sex, Power and Pride

These first four are the ones that are the most obvious and most common among Christian leaders as to the cause of their not finishing well and are described in 1 John 2:15-16: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful men, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from his Father.”

1. Money • 1 Tim 6:10: For the love of money is a root of evil. • 1 Tim 3:2: Lovers of money, boastful, and proud.

God’s Answer: Matt. 6:33)

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2. Sex

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and

discipline.”

“Seek first the Kingdom of God.”

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• Proverbs 2:16-19: “…for her [adultery] house leads down to death.” • Eph.5:3: “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality.”

God’s Answer: Heb.4:14-16

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3. Power • Acts 8:9-23: Simon the sorcerer.

God’s Answer: Matt.26:53)

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4. Pride • Prov.16:18: Pride goes before a fall, “What I have done”

God’s Answer: Phil.2:3

! Four More

Mark 4:13-19: “Still others, like seeds sown among thorns, hear the Word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and desires for other things choke the Word, making it unfruitful.”

Important note • These four are like cancer. You do not know they are growing in influence in your life until it is almost too late to change.

1. We stop Listening and Learning.

Ecclesiastes 1:9-10: “What has been - will be again, what has been - will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

God’s Answer ! Keep Learning • Lk.2:52 “Jesus grew in wisdom, stature and grace”.

Approach the throne of grace and find help.

Jesus never used his power for himself.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but humbly consider

others better than yourself.

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• Mt.11:29 “Learn from me”. • Proverbs 1:5; 9:9 “Let the wise listen and add to their learning”.

Do you…

2. We stop living by our convictions and weaken our character.

1 Kings 11:4-6 “As Solomon grew old… his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord… (vs 6).” So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord - he did not follow the Lord completely.

God’s Answer: Affirm your convictions and examine your character • Ps.139:23-24 “Search me, O God.” • Acts 4:20 “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” • Daniel 3:16-18: [Three Hebrews] “We will not serve your gods or worship the

image of gold you have set up.”

Do You

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Do You

3. We stop living for others and fail to leave a legacy or a lasting contribution that will honour God.

a. Ecc.1:11 “There is no remembrance of men of old and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.”

b. 1 Kings 6 - 8 Solomon built a temple and a palace that were both destroyed.

c. 1 Kings 11:42 - 14:31 The kingdom divided; his son and his grandson were both corrupt.

….have at least one person that will confront you about your life and

witness?

…have a regular personal retreat in which you specifically are open to

God for Him to examine you?

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…have some plan for personal intellectual growth?

God’s Answer: Renew your commitments • John 17:19: “For them I sanctify myself that they too may be truly sanctified.”

• Make God’s ultimate your ultimate: As transformed people be reliable reproducers of the Christian life (2 Tim.2:1-2).

Do You

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Do You

4. We stop falling in love with Jesus and lose our intimate relationship with God

1 Kings 11:9-13: Solomon followed other gods.

God’s Answer: Become more intentional about personal and intimate relationship with God.

• Psalm 27:4: “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek...” • Psalm 51:12: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation.”

Do You

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How do we start again?

! Our Goal is The Finish Line

Paul and many others have crossed it

…ever read over your marriage vows,

baptismal vows, ordination vows and reflect

…have a consistent devotional and intercessory prayer time?

One Step at a Time

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… have a “Timothy” in whom you are investing so that they are faithful disciples

and reproducing themselves in others?

• 2 Tim 4:6-8 “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”

We can too if we commit ourselves to …

1. Be a person of integrity. • Integrity is as simple as keeping your promises, to be a person who

can be trusted to do what they say they will do. It means to be whole, complete, integrated.

• We have integrity when the values of Christianity come together with consistency in every area of our lives regardless of the circumstances.

• See Job 1:1; 2:7-10.

Mk.12:14 “Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You are not swayed by men because you pay no attention to who they are; but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.”

2. Be a person willing to be held accountable. • To be accountable means that each of us is responsible to others for

our attitudes, decisions and actions. 1 Tim. 4:16: “Watch your life and doctrine closely.”

• Begin by reviewing the vows you made when you were baptized, when you joined the church, when you married, when you were given a ministry responsibility. Renew those vows.

• Select two or three persons whom you trust that love and respect you and share your commitment to integrity with them. Allow them to hold you accountable for your goal of finishing well and have them help you honor that commitment. Read Prov.27:17; “Iron sharpens Iron.”

3. Be a person that stays focused on the goal. “…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles,

and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right had of the throne of God.” (Heb.12:1-2)

The prayer of the finisher

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“I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus gave me - the task of testifying to the Gospel of Christ.” (Acts 20:24)

And we can too

“Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…” (Heb. 12:1)

Discussion/ Application

• As you look over the “Four More”, which one concerns your own personal life?

• What one step do you need to take to going toward finish well?

HOW TO FINISH WELL - Additional Bible Texts

1. Listening and Learning

• Proverbs 1:5 “Let the wise men listen and add to their learning.” • Matt 11:29 “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” • Proverbs 9:9 “Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man

and he will add to his learning.”

2. Convictions and Character

• Psalm 139:23-24. Start by letting God examine your character. • Ruth 3:1 “You are a woman of noble character.” • Proverbs 12:4 “The wife of noble character is her husband’s crown.” • Luke 23:47. On the cross, Jesus impressed a Roman guard. • Acts 4:20. “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” • Daniel 3:16-18 “But even if he (God) does not (rescue us from your hand) we want

you to know, O King, that we will not serve your gods or worship your image of gold you have set up.”

3. Legacy and Ultimate Contributions • Acts 9:10-18. Ananias • Joshua 14:6-15, 19. Caleb v.10 “So here I am today, 85 years old. I am still strong.” v. 12 “Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me this day.” • Acts 9:15. Paul – “This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the

gentiles, their kings, and before the people of Israel.” • Acts 26:17-18. • 2 Tim 1:13-14 “Sound teaching.” • 2 Tim 2:2 “Reliable leaders.” • 2 Tim 3:10 A Christian model.

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4. Intimate relationship with God

• Psalm 27:4 “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.”

• Psalm 51:12 “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, Lord and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.”

• Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

• Psalm 42:1-2 “As the deer pants for streams of water so my soul pants for you, O God, My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”

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Appendices

GoalSe;ngforEffecBveLeadership

Overcoming Obstacles

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Goal setting For Effective Leadership

Core Value God looks for men and women who cast vision, set goals, mobilize the Body of Christ, and overcome obstacles in order to reach the nations for Christ.

Introduction Someone once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, every road leads to your destination.” Our purpose in these goal-setting sessions is to discuss and propose a different lifestyle for all of us who are leaders (and we all are). This is a lifestyle oriented by specific, measurable, attainable, reachable and tangible goals. If we observe the lives of successful leaders (Christians and non Christians alike) we will notice that each of them had a vision, lived to fulfill a mission and had clear goals that they were pursuing each day of their lives. If we are going to make a real difference in the church and in the world we must do the same.

Benefits of Setting Goals • Goals give purpose and direction to your life • Goals simplify the decision making process • Goals keep you motivated • Goals exercise faith • Goals give a sense of achievement and satisfaction • Goals generate respect

An Important Question - Is Goal setting Biblical?

There will always be someone who will object to goal setting. You may be questioning that yourself. I would like to raise some issues and fears involved.

• Jesus had goals – Luke 19:10 and Matthew 16:21.

• Paul had goals - Acts 21:12-14.

• The bible encourages us to plan ahead - Luke 14:28-29.

Vision, Mission and Goals

A vision is the foundation of all leadership. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. Of course the vision must come to practice. If we want to see our vision accomplished, fulfilling the mission given by God to our hearts, then we must set goals and proceed to achieve them. Goals are the narrowing down of vision.

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• Provides focus and practical steps to achieving my vision. • Breaks down our vision into smaller, more manageable units. • And reaching our goals is the real measure of leadership success (not just

getting vision).

Goal setting in Different Areas

When we return to our homes, we will want to set goals for our church, for our organization, for whatever group we lead. That is wonderful, but we will only be effective in establishing organizational goals if we are “goal-oriented” in our personal lives. In this session, we will work more on our personal goals, although we will work together on some common goals later.

Areas in which you will want to practice the discipline of goal setting:

• Spiritual life goals • Ministry goals • Family goals • Intellectual goals • Physical goals • Financial (economic) goals • Corporate (organizational) goals

S.M.A.R.T. Goals (By Paul Myer, slightly modified)

“What does a goal look like? SMART is an acronym that helps us focus on five important characteristics of effective goals. This means ..........

SPECIFIC • With specific goals, you know exactly where you are going to do.

MEASURABLE • If your goals are measurable, you can monitor your progress as

you pursue them.

ATTAINABLE • Your goals must be in harmony with your gifts and talents. You

should not set a goal for yourself that is beyond your natural abilities, skills and spiritual gifts.

REALISTIC

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S

M

A

• Your goals should be within the reality you live in. It is unwise to set goals so large that they are beyond the possibility.

• An important question: What is the role of faith in goal setting?

TIME TARGETED • Every goal should have a deadline, a time when it should be

evaluated and completed.

Important Guidelines

• Your goals MUST be written. “You don’t know what you think until you read what you wrote” (J. Haggai). Our mind forgets easily. Make sure your goals are written in detail.

• Establish goals to fulfil yourself. Your goals must not depend on someone else to provide the resources or do the job.

• Organize your goals in order of priority. This will help us do the important things first and the essential things even before that.

• Make your goals flexible and changeable. Your vision must remain and so does your mission. Your goals must change as circumstances call for different strategies to fulfill the vision.

• Re-evaluate your goals periodically and change them if necessary. Your vision should not change, but your goals may need to be adjusted to new realities.

Goal setting - Six Practical Steps

This is a discipline. It will work if you take the time to do what is necessary. It also requires a lot of thinking. I believe in the process you will clear your focus and greatly improve your effectiveness

1. Write down your vision

2. Pray James 1:5 (you actually should pray through the entire process of goal setting and planning.

3. Write down a list of things it will take to fulfill your vision.

4. After a few days, review what you wrote and: • Eliminate some, combine others, restate, create some more. • Organize all of it by priority and area.

5. Write SMART goals based on the notes you made and organized.

6. Break down your goals into smaller, more manageable action steps by asking the question…

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R

T

a. What must I do in the first year of my goal period?

b. What must I do in the first month in order to fulfill (a)?

c. What must I do in the first week in order to fulfill (b)?

d. What must I do tomorrow in order to fulfill (c)?

You will end up with .....

A vision and a mission statement.

A set of SMART goals.

An action plan to achieve the goals.

The most important thing – a to do list for tomorrow.

Conclusion

I hope to have challenged you. I trust you have in your hands the resources to begin a life changing experience with goal setting. Setting goals is not all, though. Once the goals are on paper comes time to pursue them. If we trust they are God-given, then it will be our joy to lay our lives as clay in the hands of the potter and marvel at God’s Spirit working through our lives.

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Overcoming Obstacles

Core Value God looks for men and women who are biblically committed to cast vision, set goals, mobilize people and overcome obstacles, in order to reach the nations for Christ.

Introduction Obstacles are a normal feature in the ecology of leadership. If you are in a position of leadership moving ahead with a project of any kind, there will be obstacles. Add the spiritual dimension of God’s work and obstacles are many and certain.

Definition of Obstacle Anything that stands in the way of accomplishing God’s purposes for us and through us is an obstacle.

Key Scripture for Overcoming Obstacles “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be a healing for your flesh and refreshment for your body.” Proverbs 3:5-6.

• Trust is God’s way to live. Reason and logic is the human way. Often they are in conflict. Faith in God may be in direct opposition to reason and logic.

• We have a choice of living God’s way or our way. • If God’s way is plan A, there is then no place for plan B.

Part 1: Internal Obstacles

These are obstacles related to our own limitations and struggles. These may be the strongest ones to overcome because they are not always visible

Moral Obstacles – These have been dealt with in the integrity sessions.

Emotional Obstacles

✓ Issues of Personality – many of us carry traumas and dysfunctional areas of or personality.

✓ Issues of Self-esteem – Poor self-esteem can be an obstacle to visionary leadership.

✓ Issues of Past Failures – This obstacle is stronger with leaders who struggle with self-esteem.

Educational Obstacles

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“I’ve had more trouble with D. L. Moody than any man alive.” D. L. Moody

✓ Issues of inadequacy – Some of us are given responsibilities for which we have not been prepared.

✓ Issues of inferiority – The lack of opportunity for proper education can be a serious limiting factor for a leader.

Medical Obstacles

✓ Chronic debilitating diseases can limit the strength and stamina required for effective leadership.

✓ Poor physical shape – Visionary leadership requires physical resistance.

Administrative Obstacles

✓ Issues of indecisiveness – The ability to make decisions is an important trait for effective leaders.

✓ Issues of poor/over delegation o Poor Delegation – Some leaders don’t know how to delegate and

try to do everything themselves. o Over Delegation – Some leaders delegate what is their

responsibility and don’t provide support and accountability for leaders under them.

Reflection Get in a small group and discuss briefly which of these obstacles you struggle with most. Open your heart to your colleagues and ask for help. After a brief discussion, pray for each other and ask God to help us overcome our own obstacles.

Part 2: Obstacles from Without

These are obstacles that we meet originating from our environment, our workplace, community and nation.

Obstacles in the Church

✓ False brothers (2 Cor.11:26) – These can destroy an entire congregation.

✓ Difficult Christians under our leadership – Sincere Christians may think differently from us and this causes conflict.

✓ Sincere opposition and criticism from other Christians – Not everyone will agree with your vision. Some may oppose it strongly.

✓ Daily pressure to perform – The secular competitive lifestyle has entered the Church. There is a tremendous amount of pressure for the Christian leader to perform – to show large numbers of converts or large budgets for ministry.

✓ Lack of fruit for the effort (Mark 6:5) – There are “seasons of

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desert” in anyone’s ministry. This can be discouraging.

✓ Finances

Practical Tools for Handling Conflict

Conflict is unavoidable. In any team situation conflict will arise. Here are five easy steps that can help you handle conflict within your team.

1. Understand the nature of the conflict. Appreciate differences of opinion.

2. Pray for wisdom to discern the real issue and the needs of those with whom you are in conflict. It is important to remember that the conflict may be about personalities and needs, rather than the subject matter.

3. Praying together can be an important means of resolving a conflict.

4. Explore possible solutions together. Wherever possible, attempt a win-win position.

5. Make peace with those you are in conflict.

Self-examination in a situation of conflict Sometimes you are the one caught within serious conflict. Here are five questions you can ask yourself that can help resolve a conflict.

1. Is the conflict at stake worth the time and energy spent?

2. Will it make any difference if I win?

3. What is God saying?

4. Why am I holding on to my position?

5. Have I contributed to this conflict? Do I need to repent of anything?

Scriptural Guidelines • Do not bear a grudge (Leviticus 19:18). • Vengeance is the Lord’s (Prov.20:22; Romans 12:18-21). • Love your enemies (Matthew 5:43-48). • Be slow to anger (James 1:19-21).

Obstacles from the Local Community ✓ Opposition and criticism from the people in the community. ✓ Bad press from the media (especially unfair treatment of issues

relating to Christians).

Obstacles from the wider community (nation) ✓ Policy issues that affect Christian morals and ethics. ✓ Issues that affect the safety of Christians because of anti-Christian

groups.

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Overcoming Obstacles from Without Overcoming an obstacle may include one of the following:

✓ Removing the obstacle from our path - David and Saul. ✓ Finding a way around the obstacle - The wise men and Herod. ✓ Using the obstacle as a stepping stone - Joseph in Egypt.

Reflection

Determine with your colleagues which of the external obstacles above are the most important in your own context. Prayerfully think about strategies to overcome them. Write down the strategy God gives your group and share with the other participants.

Spiritual Obstacles to Leadership

Eight ways in which Satan tries to destroy your call to lead and evangelise. This study is based on the eight core values taught here. If God is looking for leaders who live by these values, Satan will try his best to destroy or neutralize these in our lives. Let us look at these strategies of our enemy and how we can best overcome them.

The Battlefield Is the Mind

✓ 2 Corinthians 10:5. Where do Spiritual weapons work? They work where the war is fought.

o Demolish arguments o Demolish every pretence against the knowledge of God.

✓ Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ

One of the lies of Satan is that spiritual warfare is only about burning idols and casting demons out of people who are possessed. Spiritual warfare does involve these activities but the real battle occurs in our minds.

Eight Strategies against Christian Leaders

1. …to break our intimacy with God a. By tempting us into sin and loss of holiness.

i. Biblical Example: 1 Samuel 15:11-34. Saul’s disobedience caused him to lose his leadership.

b. Counter attack – make relationship to God your first priority. i. Psalm 42:1-2 - Hunger and thirst for God.

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2. …to kill our passion for the lost a. By taking our eyes off the lost and fixing them on ourselves.

i. Biblical Example: The sons of Zebedee (Mark 10:35-37). Like them, some leaders seek high positions and preach a self centred Gospel.

b. Counter attack – keep your eyes focused on the harvest. i. John 4:35 – Open your eyes and look at the fields/the lost.

3. …to blur our vision, so we don’t make an impact in the world a. By discouraging us in times of trial and convincing us that our vision is no more than a fantasy.

i. Biblical Example: Elijah flees from Jezebel (1 Kings 19:1-5) b. Counter attack – stand in the gap of intercession (Ezekiel 22:30).

i. Like Nehemiah, standing in the gap means hearing from “the field.”

ii. Like Daniel (Dan.10:12-14), standing in the gap means praying prophetically and getting answers from heaven.

4. …to destroy the relevance of our message a. By tricking us into legalism and making absolutes out of specific instances.

i. Biblical Example: Judaizers in Acts of the Apostles (Acts 15:5) - they could have destroyed the spread of the Gospel.

b. Counter attack – become all things to all men (2 Cor.9:19-23).

5. …to stop our multiplication by sowing dissension in the ranks a. By sowing fear of competition in our hearts.

i. Biblical Example: Saul and David (1 Samuel 18:7-9). b. Counter attack – have a servant attitude (Matthew 23:11).

6. …by attacking our family so as to discredit and neutralize us a. By luring the leader into a workaholic lifestyle.

i. This causes leaders to abandon family relationships and leaves spouse and children open to direct attack.

b. As a consequence of i. the leader indulges the sins of his or her children and they fall further into those sins.

i. Biblical Example: Eli and his corrupted sons (1 Samuel 3:12-14). c. Counter attack – set your priorities straight.

7. …to kill our reputation as stewards, using our success against us

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a. By tempting you to use money for your personal benefit – dishonesty. i. Biblical Example: Ananias and Saphira (Acts 5:1-10).

b. By tempting you to “ride on” your success and not give the glory to God. i. Biblical Example: Herod the Great (Acts 12:21-23).

c. Counter attack – be disciplined in material matters – begin with tithing faithfully.

i. John Wesley – make as much as you can, save as much as you can, give as much as you can.

8. …to destroy our integrity, cancelling all the impact of our ministry a. By tempting you into sin. b. Counter attack – do not leave even the “slightest room” for slipping and falling.

i. Submit to God and resist evil – (James 4:7). ii. Be accountable to someone.

II. Overcoming Obstacles – A Nehemiah case study

Every obstacles can be overcome with God’s help by confronting, removing or using them for God’s glory.

Nehemiah faced many obstacles when pursuing his vision of a restored Jerusalem with completed walls. The obstacles he came against and conquered will often be the same ones we will face when trying to “attempt great things for God” (William Carey).

A. Ridicule “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble – burned as they are?” Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said “What they are building – if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!” (4:2-3). The response: prayer and perseverance (4:4-6).

B. Being plotted against “When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.” (4:7-8). The response: prayer and “a guard to meet this threat.” Often despair (4:9).

C. Disunity within the team “Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their Jewish brothers… we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery.” (5:1-5) The response: Confront injustices. Deal wisely with difficult situations (5:6-13).

D. Delaying tactics

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“Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: ‘Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono’ … Four times they sent me the same message.” (6:2,4). The response: Remain focused on the work (6:3-4).

E. Spreading lies to blacken reputation and intimidate “Then the fifth time, Sanballat sent his assistant to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter in which was written: ‘It is reported among the nations – and Geshem says it is true – that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us confer together’.” (6:5-7).

The response: A prompt denial and prayer (6:8-9). Don’t let yourself be distracted. The important thing is that the work is done – your reputation may be darkened but this is far less important than a God-given vision becoming reality.

F. Personal threats (6:10-14) “One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, ‘Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you – by night they are coming to kill you.”’ (6:10) The response: Courage and discernment. Prayer. (6:11-14)

“So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realised that this work had been done with the help of our God.” (6:15-16).

Some principles to remember • Remember to pray (Phil 4:6). • You must not quit (1 Corinthians 15:58). • You must live your lives in holiness (Heb.12:1). • You must persevere as you walk by faith and not by sight

(Hebrews 11:6). • You must keep your spiritual eyes fixed on Jesus the author and

finisher of your faith (Hebrews 12:2).

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Sacraments

Baptism

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In Reformed churches, we practice two sacraments – baptism and

communion. These sacraments are “means of grace”. They are practices that Jesus commanded us to do and through which God blesses his people and ministers spiritual benefits. These blessings are not automatic – the water in baptism does not become “special” (“holy”) - the bread and wine in communion do not become the body and blood of Jesus. This is not some kind of Christian magic in which the sacraments cause people to be “born again” or have their “sins washed away”. The blessings are present in the acts, however, because God has instructed his people to do these things. The “rebirth” and the “forgiveness” are received through faith as believers enact the sacrament and as the Holy Spirit ministers the blessing. These sacraments are important parts of the Christian life and should be practiced at appropriate times. Baptism is normally administered shortly after birth or shortly after re-birth. It is administered to the babies of believers or to those old enough to know their own mind and who have made a clear faith commitment to Christ. If administered to babies, its emphasis is on the covenant relationship with the people of faith into whose family the baby is born – parents must be committed Christians! The emphasis is then on the grace of God at work in a persons life from the womb onwards and to the point of personal faith and commitment. It should be followed by a confirmation of faith when the person has made their own commitment to Christ at an age when they know their own mind. If administered to “adults”, it should follow a personal response to Christ as soon as is reasonable following that response. In Acts 2 and Acts 8 baptisms took place immediately following the commitments of Jewish believes. Within a few generations the Church was requiring that Gentile Christians undergo extensive instruction before baptisms that were reserved for Easter Sunday. Today, some churches prefer to give instruction before baptism while others prefer to baptise as quickly as possible and then instruct the new believers in matters of the faith. The amount of water used should not be a big issue. We do not know if Jesus – or the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8 - was submerged in the water or whether they had water poured over them while standing in it. However, the Greek word “baptizo” means to submerge and the symbolic act of going down into death and being raised to new life with Christ is a powerful ministry tool (read Romans 6:1-11). Wherever possible submersion is the best option.

It is very important that people know that baptism does not make someone a Christian. However, it powerfully ministers the salvation gained through faith to the person being baptised.

As far as the administration of the sacrament is concerned there is no prescribed liturgy to follow but there are a number of ingredients that need to

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be used for the baptism to be the powerful means of grace that it is intended to be.

1. Worship

2. A proclamation of the Gospel

3. A thanksgiving (prayer)

4. A confession of faith

5. The baptism – with water in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19)

6. Affirmation of salvation and belonging to the family of faith – with laying on of hands

7. Prayers – intercession, prophecy etc

Notes on the seven ingredients above:

1. The worship is part of the normal worship of the church in which the baptism is taking place whether it is at a normal service time or on a special occasion. The baptism is not a private affair, it is a meeting of the church.

2. The proclamation may be a statement of faith or it may be preaching. If it is preaching, it is good to allow the congregation and those to be baptised an opportunity to affirm that this is their faith.

3. Prayers of thanksgiving for all that God has done for us in Christ must be said. How they are said can be very varied.

4. Those to be baptised (or parents of a baby) must confess their faith in Christ. For those old enough to know their own minds a personal testimony is most appropriate.

5. Following a confession of faith and once the person to be baptised is in position in the water, one of those administering the baptism should make a declaration similar to that below:

“Name…… as we have heard you testify to your faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, we baptise you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

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At this point the minister will pour water over the person being baptised – or with the aid of a helper – will lower the person being baptised into sufficient water to cover their body.

The baptism is often accompanied by a naming. For a baby this will be its parents’ chosen names. For a believer, he/she may take a new name that symbolises the rebirth that they have experienced. Usually, a Christian name, a biblical name or a name that conveys some Christian truth is taken.

6. The minister will declare the blessing of baptism on the person being baptised:

“Name … you are a child of God, washed clean through faith in Jesus Christ. Go from this place to witness to and serve your Lord and Saviour.”

7. The person being baptised is prayed for – by the minister(s) and the congregation in an appropriate way. Among other things, pray that the person baptised should receive the Holy Spirit in all his power and receive gifts and graces to serve the Lord. They may also be prophesied over if such gifts are manifested.

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It is good practice to say, “..in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – NOW!” in order to tell the one being baptised that they are going under the water. This is particularly true if they are being lowered into the water backwards. It is good if they can hold their noses. Both hands clasped together over the nose is a good position. Those baptising have then got a “decent” part of the body they can grasp in lowering the person under water. This is particularly helpful if the person being baptised is a lady.

Sacraments

Communion

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In Reformed churches, we practice two sacraments – baptism and communion. These sacraments are “means of grace”. They are practices that Jesus commanded us to do and through which God blesses his people and ministers spiritual benefits. These blessings are not automatic – the water in baptism does not become “special” (“holy”) - the bread and wine in communion do not become the body and blood of Jesus. This is not some kind of Christian magic in which the sacraments cause people to be “born again” or have their “sins washed away”. The blessings are present in the acts, however, because God has instructed his people to do these things. The “rebirth” and the “forgiveness” are received through faith as believers enact the sacrament and as the Holy Spirit ministers the blessing. These sacraments are important parts of the Christian life and should be practiced at appropriate times. In Reformed churches communion is taken regularly. Some take it annually and have a prolonged period of preparation before taking it. Others take it weekly and make it part of their “normal” spiritual experience. However, most Reformed churches take communion monthly.

Communion is normally administered to believers although it can do non-believers no direct harm. Paul’s warnings in 1 Corinthians 11:27-34 are to believers not to non-believers.

Children may receive communion although some fear their lack of understanding might make “light” of the sacrament. Different churches take different views over this matter and it is important that the rules of the denomination are followed or that ministers and elders (and members of the congregation) make an informed decision and follow it.

It has become a tradition in many Reformed churches to use unfermented grape juice or non-alcoholic wine in communion because of the problems of drunkenness and addiction to alcohol in many cultures. However, in the New Testament Jewish culture, Jesus would have taken alcohol at the last supper and it is important that the use of alcoholic wine is not seen as a sin itself. The issue is one of wise judgment given the local culture. If there is no red grape juice (it represents the blood of Jesus) then the most suitable alternative should be used (“Fruity” – allowed to go flat, not fizzy - in Uganda??). The kind of bread used doesn’t matter at all. There is an outline of a communion service below in order to give a basis for good practice. The different parts of the service should be seen as essential ingredients rather than prescribed words. This is not a liturgy that must be read – it is a model that should be followed.

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A service of Communion

The Invitation:

Use words of scripture (e.g. 1 John 4:9-10) or the words of a hymn (e.g. Love so amazing, so divine….”) or words of your own choosing to invite people to the Lord’s table.

Prayer(s) of humble access:

Let us pray: Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. OR

Most holy God, we do not presume to come to this table because we are righteous, we come because we recognise our sin and need your forgiveness. We do not come bearing gifts, we come with empty hands and open hearts so that we may receive the benefits of your love and grace. We come at your invitation to receive the life that you have promised and to share these symbols of your loving sacrifice. Amen. OR

A prayer of your own…...

Declaration of forgiveness:

Hear the promise of scripture…. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

We come to this table, therefore, as forgiven sinners to share these symbols of grace.

The institution:

Read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” OR

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Read Luke 22:19-20 “And he (Jesus) took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after the supper, he took the cup saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.’”

Prayer of thanksgiving:

As Jesus gave thanks, let us give thanks…...

Loving and gracious Father, we thank you for the self-sacrifice of Jesus; for body broken and blood shed. We thank you for the victory over sin, death and hell won on the cross and for all that this act of remembrance means to us. Through our faith, please minister to us all the benefits of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and, as we take this bread and wine, may we rejoice in the blessings of our salvation. OR

A prayer of your own giving thanks - for Jesus, for forgiveness and for bread and wine. A prayer asking God to minister the benefits of the cross and resurrection to all those sharing the communion.

Sharing the bread:

Take some bread in your hands, lift it high so that all can see it and break it as you repeat the words…..

“The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’”

Sharing the wine:

Take the cup, lift it so that everyone can see and repeat the words….. “In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’”

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The bread is then given to the elders/members assisting you who take it to the congregation. The congregation will follow your directions when to eat it - always tell them what to do. Either tell them to eat it when it comes to them or tell them to save it until everyone is served. If you do the latter you will need to say a few more words – e.g. “Jesus died for you, eat and rejoice” – and then eat the bread together.

Response in praise and intercession:

Let us pray: Gracious Father, we praise you for what you have given and for what you promised in this sacrament. You have made us one with all your people, in heaven and on earth. You have fed us with the bread of life and renewed us for your service. Fill us with your holy Spirit so that we may worship you with our lives as well as with our lips and witness to the life-giving power of your kingdom in everything we do and say. Amen. OR

A prayer of your own…...

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The wine is then given to the elders/members assisting you who take it to the congregation. The congregation will follow your directions when to drink it - always tell them what to do. As with the bread, if you tell the congregation to keep the wine until all are served, you will need to say a few more words before all drink together.

Allow the congregation some time to say their own prayers. Then lead them in some intercession or close in prayer yourself.

Workbook

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Certificate in Biblical Studies and Christian Ministry

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R1:11 “Mutually Encouraged”

S.L.C. Uganda

Question 1. Read the notes provided and all the scripture passages referred to in those notes. Complete any work that needs to be done within the notes as you go through them. Then write below anything that you do not understand and anything that has challenged or blessed you in a surprising way.

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Question 2. What makes a person a good leader in the Church?

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Question 3. Read Nehemiah chapters 1 to 6 and write down below the things that you think made Nehemiah a good leader. In your own words, describe why and how Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem.

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Question 4. What are the characteristics of Jesus’ leadership that make him our ultimate model? Then, from the Gospels, give one examples for each characteristic and explain their significance.

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