So last time we talked about equipping we talked about Ephesians 4: 11-13 and what many see as the churches lack of time, energy and resources put into actually equipping Christians for the work God has prepared for the them to do Eph. 2:10.
Ephesians 4: 11-13 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
So, some are given the gift to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. These gifts and offices range from God given authority to lead the church or a sent leader on a specific task (apostles of Jesus and apostle of the church), to those inspired by the Holy Spirit to speak and preach, those gifted specifically to reach the lost (evangelists), followed by those who specifically shepard the flock (pastors) and finally those male leaders who teach the whole church or small groups of Christians. These men lead and equip the church (the people) to do the works of service needed in their community which leads to maturity and completeness in Jesus Christ.
The problem is we sit around and wonder why we have such spiritual infants running rampant in our churches and the same servants burn out from doing all the work both of which occur because we have a misaligned focus. A lot of the time, we as church leaders have forgot our biblical role to equip the church body to do ministry. More discipleship is not the answer, more fellowship is not the answer, but aligning our churches with more service oriented ministry opportunities is.
When and only when we focus on equipping our churches to do the ministry/ serving (whether in or outside of the church building) and tie their passions (formed when God created them) with the works (which God created for them in advance) will we see maturity and biblical understanding grow in our church, which is what the Apostle Paul is trying to tell us in Ephesians 2:10.
Next time we’ll talk about equipping and training lapses.
FusionLife is the personal blog of Ben Boles, who's passion is to help people find their way back to God. And one way I do that is by sharing my life, ideas, and experiences as a Christ-follower.
February 9th, 2008 at 9:53 am
great meeting you this week and hanging out. let me know how i can serve your summer team!
March 18th, 2008 at 11:14 am
[...] have looked at the over arching issue in part 1 and in part 2 we talked about the misaligned focus of leaders and today I want to look at training and equipping [...]
March 18th, 2008 at 11:16 am
[...] Whole Series Part 1 - Equipping? Part 2 - The Misaligned Focus of Church Leaders Part 3 - Training and Equipping Lapses Part 4 - What We Can Do About [...]