The Call: Designed for Ministry We serve because. . .
Because we are here on earth for more than just ourselves. We each have a Ministry.
Kevin Miller tells the following story:
I was asked to conduct the funeral for a man who had helped develop the famous Boeing 747 aircraft. After the service, I spoke with the widow and commented on how remarkable it was that her late husband had helped build that marvelous machine. She said, "The truth is, he worked on one little switchbox smaller than a loaf of bread. That's all he worked on for 15 years. But when that 747 lifted off the ground for the first time, it was the happiest day of his life."
He worked on one small switchbox for more than a decade. Yet the huge plane couldn't have lifted off without this man's contribution. Often we see only our seemingly small efforts and feel we aren't very important. But when the great Kingdom of God "lifts off," we'll be thrilled to find out that all of our efforts were essential. M. Craig Barnes, pastor of National Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C., from a sermon delivered at Christianity Today International (September 19, 2000); submitted by Kevin A. Miller, editor and author, Wheaton, Illinois
It was Jesus who started the church. It was Jesus who first called people to be Christ followers and who called them into doing ministry and being His witnesses. We looked at that last week. We believe that all followers of Christ are to be engaged in ministry everyday of their lives. You have seen two video stories now about people who use and view their everyday jobs as ministry. Something God called and prepared them to do.
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Eph. 2:10
That is one focus and one view of ministry but I want to view this same idea of being called a little more closely.
Paul writes about this in his letter to the Ephesians. Last week I ask you to take some time on Sunday afternoon to read the New Testament and see how important Christ thought ministry was in the Gospels. I also suggested reading the letters or epistles of Paul to see how much emphasis he put on the doing ministry and the church.
“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until 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.” Ephesians 4:11-13
1.The Established Offices (v. 11)
God “gifts” those individuals who serve in ministry, and He establishes offices that are very intentionally designed for the health of the church.
“...gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,”
Someone once said, “everything rises and falls on leadership.” God planned that the church would function not as a corporate model or an organization but as an organism. We are to be a body that functions fluently and effectively.
This series is about the 3 C’s: Celebration, Community and Call. The reason I am taking more time with the Call is that it is critical that we understand what it means for us individually and for us as a church.
There are those God call’s to serve the church in the church. We are called staff. We are paid to take care of the day to day operations of ministry. Through preaching and teaching and administrating we have been called to work with the rest of the body in helping them find ways to utilize their giftedness.
No church can function on paid staff alone. It takes an army of volunteers to serve and make the ministry of the church effective. Often there are jobs within the body that require a great deal of humility and sacrifice of time.
Too often there are people who will not or do not see the importance of answering the call within the ministry of the church. As this church continues to grow there are more and more ministry jobs that need to be done.
Lights, information booth, greeters in the parking lot and foyer, connect team, servers, child care and children’s church, tech crews, sound engineers, film producers, youth volunteers, security, and the list goes on and on.
The problem is, a lot of Christians do not know their gifts. Some knows their gift but they are not willing to exercise it to the church.
Consider the story told by Bernard Brown, Jr. President of the Kennestone Regional Health Care System in the state of Georgia: Brown once worked in a hospital where a patient knocked over a cup of water which spilled on the floor beside the patient’s bed. The patient was afraid he might slip on the water if he got out of the bed so he asked the nurse’s aid to mop it. The patient didn’t know it, but the hospital policy said that small spills were the responsibility of the nurse’s aides while large spills were to be mopped up by the hospital’s housekeeping group. The nurse aide decided the spill was large one and she called the house keeping department. A housekeeper arrived and declared the spill a small one. A argument followed. It’s not my responsibility, said the nurse aide, because it’s large puddle. The housekeeper did not agree. Well its not mine, the puddle is too small.
The exasperated patient listened for a time, then took the pitcher of water from his table and poured the whole thing on the floor. Is that a big enough puddle now for you to decide? He asked and that the end of an argument.
Obviously the “puddle” is big enough. Who is going to clean it up?
2. The Explained Objectives. Ver. 12-15
I love these verses because they read like a passage from a good book on leadership or management. If you don’t have objectives or a target when you start a project or venture you will go nowhere.
a. God’s purpose: “to prepare God’s people for works of service.”
Those of us who serve on the staff of this church or any church have one major goal and that is to get as many people involved in ministry as possible.
A vital part of our developing ministry plan is to find more and more creative ways to really touch our community. Next week come prepared to hear more about this.
b. God’s plan: “so that the body of Christ may be built up.”
Do you realize that a parent’s responsibility when a child is born, is to help that child grow up, so that it can cope with life? Finally, the day comes when that child leaves home & the parents, through tear-filled eyes, wave "good-bye." But they realize that this is what God called them to do.
It is the same way in the church. If a church is going to grow, then there must be many ministries taking place, & the Christian leader’s responsibility, according to what Paul said in the words that we read this morning, is to "build one another up, so that each can do his or her part."
Dr. Robert Burns preached at Peachtree Christian Church in Atlanta, GA. for a number of years. He was a great orator & people loved to hear him preach. Hundreds came every Sunday to listen to him preach the Word of God.
But when the Associate Minister was scheduled to preach, a lot of people stayed home. So the elders decided not to announce when Dr. Burns wasn’t preaching. As a result, people would come, & then after communion was served & the Associate stood up to preach, a number of people would get up & leave.
It was an embarrassment to the Associate & to almost everybody else in a leadership capacity. Then one Sunday morning the Associate stood up to preach, & before anyone had a chance to leave he said, "Now for those of you who have come to worship Dr. Burns, you may leave. But for those of you who have come to worship the Lord, please open your Bibles & let us read & study together."
They said that people dove for their Bibles all over the place, & you could hear the pages turning. You see, we haven’t come here to worship any man. We’ve come to worship God, & that is an important lesson to learn.
We’re mature when we can worship the Lord, regardless who the preachers or leaders are, because we’re not building our faith on them. We’re building our faith on Jesus Christ.
We are to be engaged in the life of the church as well as the culture around us.
c. God’s pleasure: “until we all reach unity... and become mature.”
A long time ago, a little child in an African tribe wandered off into the tall jungle grass and could not be found. The tribe searched all day, but could not find the little boy. The next day the tribal members all held hands and walked through the grass together. This enabled them to find the child, but due to the cold night, he had not survived. In her anguish and tears, the mother cried, “If only we would have held hands sooner.”
I could spend a great deal of time on this point today but I let me try to make it as simple as possible. Maturity in a Christ follower happens because there is intentionality to the process.
Serving in the church could mean for you that you take on someone in a mentoring role. You help them understand what it means to live by faith, to talk with God on a
3. The Expected Outcome (v. 16)
The goal of people being involved and serving and using their gifts is to produce a fluent and effective ministry. The Bible uses the metaphor of a body coming together in verse 16.
Engage the metaphor: This church will never reach its full ministry potential until we find ways to effectively serve.
You see the broad focus of last week and today’s video illustration is basic Christ following. Whether you travel around the world, teach in a classroom, or spend your day going to the same spot on an assembly line or cubicle, there is also another part to serving.
Our church is like an indoor mission field. Every week there are people who come through these doors that desperately need to connect with people just like you and me. They need mentors, friends, someone to just be friendly and they need to be served. There are children who need to be taught and teens that need guidance. There are marriages that need support, and small groups that need to be led.
"Help Others - Help Yourself"
During the bombing of London in WWII, it was found that people suffering from nervous disorders found unexpected health by forgetting their own troubles and ministering to the terrible needs of victims of the air raids. The reason many of us have no energy, no vitality, no joy, is that we are living only for ourselves.
"Servant" in our English New Testament usually represents the Greek doulos (bondslave). Sometimes it means diakonos (deacon or minister); this is strictly accurate, for doulos and diakonos are synonyms. Both words denote a man who is not at his own disposal, but is his master's purchased property. Bought to serve his master's needs, to be at his beck and call every moment, the slave's sole business is to do as he is told. Christian service therefore means, first and foremost, living out a slave relationship to one's Savior (1 Corinthians. 6:19-20).
What work does Christ set his servants to do? The way that they serve him, he tells them, is by becoming the slaves of their fellow-servants and being willing to do literally anything, however costly, irksome, or undignified, in order to help them. This is what love means, as he himself showed at the Last supper when he played the slave's part and washed the disciples' feet.When the New Testament speaks of ministering to the saints, it means not primarily preaching to them but devoting time, trouble, and substance to giving them all the practical help possible. The essence of Christian service is loyalty to the king expressing itself in care for his servants (Matthew 25: 31-46).
Only the Holy Spirit can create in us the kind of love toward our Savior that will overflow in imaginative sympathy and practical helpfulness towards his people. Unless the spirit is training us in love, we are not fit persons to go to college or a training class to learn the know-how or particular branches of Christian work. Gifted leaders who are self-centered and loveless are a blight to the church rather than a blessing.
The church is the only cooperative society in the world that exists for the benefit of its non-members.
2005/05/22
Sermon Reources available here...
Content goes here
Content goes here
Content goes here
Content goes here
Content goes here
Content goes here
Content goes here
Sermon Reources available here...
Content goes here
Content goes here
Content goes here
Content goes here
Content goes here
Content goes here
Content goes here
The Call: Designed for Ministry We serve because. . .
Because we are here on earth for more than just ourselves. We each have a Ministry.
Kevin Miller tells the following story:
I was asked to conduct the funeral for a man who had helped develop the famous Boeing 747 aircraft. After the service, I spoke with the widow and commented on how remarkable it was that her late husband had helped build that marvelous machine. She said, "The truth is, he worked on one little switchbox smaller than a loaf of bread. That's all he worked on for 15 years. But when that 747 lifted off the ground for the first time, it was the happiest day of his life."
He worked on one small switchbox for more than a decade. Yet the huge plane couldn't have lifted off without this man's contribution. Often we see only our seemingly small efforts and feel we aren't very important. But when the great Kingdom of God "lifts off," we'll be thrilled to find out that all of our efforts were essential. M. Craig Barnes, pastor of National Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C., from a sermon delivered at Christianity Today International (September 19, 2000); submitted by Kevin A. Miller, editor and author, Wheaton, Illinois
It was Jesus who started the church. It was Jesus who first called people to be Christ followers and who called them into doing ministry and being His witnesses. We looked at that last week. We believe that all followers of Christ are to be engaged in ministry everyday of their lives. You have seen two video stories now about people who use and view their everyday jobs as ministry. Something God called and prepared them to do.
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Eph. 2:10
That is one focus and one view of ministry but I want to view this same idea of being called a little more closely.
Paul writes about this in his letter to the Ephesians. Last week I ask you to take some time on Sunday afternoon to read the New Testament and see how important Christ thought ministry was in the Gospels. I also suggested reading the letters or epistles of Paul to see how much emphasis he put on the doing ministry and the church.
“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until 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.” Ephesians 4:11-13
1.The Established Offices (v. 11)
God “gifts” those individuals who serve in ministry, and He establishes offices that are very intentionally designed for the health of the church.
“...gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,”
Someone once said, “everything rises and falls on leadership.” God planned that the church would function not as a corporate model or an organization but as an organism. We are to be a body that functions fluently and effectively.
This series is about the 3 C’s: Celebration, Community and Call. The reason I am taking more time with the Call is that it is critical that we understand what it means for us individually and for us as a church.
There are those God call’s to serve the church in the church. We are called staff. We are paid to take care of the day to day operations of ministry. Through preaching and teaching and administrating we have been called to work with the rest of the body in helping them find ways to utilize their giftedness.
No church can function on paid staff alone. It takes an army of volunteers to serve and make the ministry of the church effective. Often there are jobs within the body that require a great deal of humility and sacrifice of time.
Too often there are people who will not or do not see the importance of answering the call within the ministry of the church. As this church continues to grow there are more and more ministry jobs that need to be done.
Lights, information booth, greeters in the parking lot and foyer, connect team, servers, child care and children’s church, tech crews, sound engineers, film producers, youth volunteers, security, and the list goes on and on.
The problem is, a lot of Christians do not know their gifts. Some knows their gift but they are not willing to exercise it to the church.
Consider the story told by Bernard Brown, Jr. President of the Kennestone Regional Health Care System in the state of Georgia: Brown once worked in a hospital where a patient knocked over a cup of water which spilled on the floor beside the patient’s bed. The patient was afraid he might slip on the water if he got out of the bed so he asked the nurse’s aid to mop it. The patient didn’t know it, but the hospital policy said that small spills were the responsibility of the nurse’s aides while large spills were to be mopped up by the hospital’s housekeeping group. The nurse aide decided the spill was large one and she called the house keeping department. A housekeeper arrived and declared the spill a small one. A argument followed. It’s not my responsibility, said the nurse aide, because it’s large puddle. The housekeeper did not agree. Well its not mine, the puddle is too small.
The exasperated patient listened for a time, then took the pitcher of water from his table and poured the whole thing on the floor. Is that a big enough puddle now for you to decide? He asked and that the end of an argument.
Obviously the “puddle” is big enough. Who is going to clean it up?
2. The Explained Objectives. Ver. 12-15
I love these verses because they read like a passage from a good book on leadership or management. If you don’t have objectives or a target when you start a project or venture you will go nowhere.
a. God’s purpose: “to prepare God’s people for works of service.”
Those of us who serve on the staff of this church or any church have one major goal and that is to get as many people involved in ministry as possible.
A vital part of our developing ministry plan is to find more and more creative ways to really touch our community. Next week come prepared to hear more about this.
b. God’s plan: “so that the body of Christ may be built up.”
Do you realize that a parent’s responsibility when a child is born, is to help that child grow up, so that it can cope with life? Finally, the day comes when that child leaves home & the parents, through tear-filled eyes, wave "good-bye." But they realize that this is what God called them to do.
It is the same way in the church. If a church is going to grow, then there must be many ministries taking place, & the Christian leader’s responsibility, according to what Paul said in the words that we read this morning, is to "build one another up, so that each can do his or her part."
Dr. Robert Burns preached at Peachtree Christian Church in Atlanta, GA. for a number of years. He was a great orator & people loved to hear him preach. Hundreds came every Sunday to listen to him preach the Word of God.
But when the Associate Minister was scheduled to preach, a lot of people stayed home. So the elders decided not to announce when Dr. Burns wasn’t preaching. As a result, people would come, & then after communion was served & the Associate stood up to preach, a number of people would get up & leave.
It was an embarrassment to the Associate & to almost everybody else in a leadership capacity. Then one Sunday morning the Associate stood up to preach, & before anyone had a chance to leave he said, "Now for those of you who have come to worship Dr. Burns, you may leave. But for those of you who have come to worship the Lord, please open your Bibles & let us read & study together."
They said that people dove for their Bibles all over the place, & you could hear the pages turning. You see, we haven’t come here to worship any man. We’ve come to worship God, & that is an important lesson to learn.
We’re mature when we can worship the Lord, regardless who the preachers or leaders are, because we’re not building our faith on them. We’re building our faith on Jesus Christ.
We are to be engaged in the life of the church as well as the culture around us.
c. God’s pleasure: “until we all reach unity... and become mature.”
A long time ago, a little child in an African tribe wandered off into the tall jungle grass and could not be found. The tribe searched all day, but could not find the little boy. The next day the tribal members all held hands and walked through the grass together. This enabled them to find the child, but due to the cold night, he had not survived. In her anguish and tears, the mother cried, “If only we would have held hands sooner.”
I could spend a great deal of time on this point today but I let me try to make it as simple as possible. Maturity in a Christ follower happens because there is intentionality to the process.
Serving in the church could mean for you that you take on someone in a mentoring role. You help them understand what it means to live by faith, to talk with God on a
3. The Expected Outcome (v. 16)
The goal of people being involved and serving and using their gifts is to produce a fluent and effective ministry. The Bible uses the metaphor of a body coming together in verse 16.
Engage the metaphor: This church will never reach its full ministry potential until we find ways to effectively serve.
You see the broad focus of last week and today’s video illustration is basic Christ following. Whether you travel around the world, teach in a classroom, or spend your day going to the same spot on an assembly line or cubicle, there is also another part to serving.
Our church is like an indoor mission field. Every week there are people who come through these doors that desperately need to connect with people just like you and me. They need mentors, friends, someone to just be friendly and they need to be served. There are children who need to be taught and teens that need guidance. There are marriages that need support, and small groups that need to be led.
"Help Others - Help Yourself"
During the bombing of London in WWII, it was found that people suffering from nervous disorders found unexpected health by forgetting their own troubles and ministering to the terrible needs of victims of the air raids. The reason many of us have no energy, no vitality, no joy, is that we are living only for ourselves.
"Servant" in our English New Testament usually represents the Greek doulos (bondslave). Sometimes it means diakonos (deacon or minister); this is strictly accurate, for doulos and diakonos are synonyms. Both words denote a man who is not at his own disposal, but is his master's purchased property. Bought to serve his master's needs, to be at his beck and call every moment, the slave's sole business is to do as he is told. Christian service therefore means, first and foremost, living out a slave relationship to one's Savior (1 Corinthians. 6:19-20).
What work does Christ set his servants to do? The way that they serve him, he tells them, is by becoming the slaves of their fellow-servants and being willing to do literally anything, however costly, irksome, or undignified, in order to help them. This is what love means, as he himself showed at the Last supper when he played the slave's part and washed the disciples' feet.When the New Testament speaks of ministering to the saints, it means not primarily preaching to them but devoting time, trouble, and substance to giving them all the practical help possible. The essence of Christian service is loyalty to the king expressing itself in care for his servants (Matthew 25: 31-46).
Only the Holy Spirit can create in us the kind of love toward our Savior that will overflow in imaginative sympathy and practical helpfulness towards his people. Unless the spirit is training us in love, we are not fit persons to go to college or a training class to learn the know-how or particular branches of Christian work. Gifted leaders who are self-centered and loveless are a blight to the church rather than a blessing.
The church is the only cooperative society in the world that exists for the benefit of its non-members.
Because we are here on earth for more than just ourselves. We each have a Ministry.
1.The Established Offices (v. 11)
2. The Explained Objectives. Ver. 12-15
3. The Expected Outcome (v. 16)