PILLARS OF CHURCH MINISTRY

When we talk about the church, we need to remember that the church is the people of God and not our buildings or services. The function of the fivefold ministry is to train and resource the people of God to effectively demonstrate - through living it out - the works of the gospel, so that the church of Christ may be increased to its fullest measure. The work of leadership within the church, is to support and encourage the children of God to grow in their identity and gifting as they bring the Kingdom of God to their area of influence. It’s called discipleship!

Listening to some of the leaders in the Christian faith, the opposite could appear to be communicated! It’s very easy, when caught up in calling and destiny, to slip into the mindset that the body of Christ primarily exists to provide finance and service for the ongoing development of your ministry and influence! Jesus is the good shepherd who willingly lays his life down for his sheep. The book of Jeremiah is very scathing in its treatment of those shepherds who would neglect their sheep to further their own advancement. The call of leadership is to guard, protect, discipline and even lay down your life, for the people in your care.

"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:12-13 NIV

What you won’t find in the New Testament is a blueprint on how to run meetings, set up care groups or develop service teams. The structures that should contain the Glory of God are the people themselves! In order to create a church that will catch and carry the Glory of God, we need to invest in each person so they learn how to do this. Programmes and courses specifically designed to encourage people to grow and take hold of their destiny are awesome. When a programme fails to deliver, the course needs to be dropped - not the people! Programmes are the tools used to help create foundations; but the foundations themselves are found in the lives of God’s chosen people.

So, what elements of discipleship do we need to structure into our gatherings? In Acts 2, we learn that the early church devoted itself to four things; The Apostles Teaching, Fellowship, Breaking of Bread and Prayer.

BREAKING OF BREAD

During a visit to Prague, I was reading about the early reformer Jon Huss. One of the complaints Huss and his followers had concerning the Roman Catholic church, was the central role of the highly ornate and decorated eucharist table found in the established churches. In contrast, the services run by Huss during the Bohemian Reformation centred around the preaching of the Word of God! As time went on, pulpits became more highly decorated and grandiose. In many Protestant churches today, the preaching of the Word of God is the centrepiece of the service and the speaker delivering the sermon seen to be the most important member of the team! I would question that premise! In the first book of Corinthians4 we read that Communion should be taken regularly and in remembrance of Jesus. We understand that the early church partook of the Breaking of Bread weekly, if not more frequently.

The act of Communion, whereby we symbolically ‘eat’ the body of Jesus and ‘drink’ His blood, not only puts Jesus at the centre of our lives; it reminds us of the sacrifice He paid for our sin, and the lengths God was willing to go to, to bring us into His family. It also serves to remind us that we cannot live this life without God’s help! Our best efforts are considered as no better than filthy rags in comparison to the standard required. Taking this sacrament reminds us to build our foundations in God and rely on His strength not our own.

Although I don’t believe that the bread and the wine are transformed into the literal body and blood of Jesus as they are blessed, I do believe it is a supernatural act! The Apostle Paul warns that people have become ill through partaking in Communion irreverently. remember being livid on hearing that a Sunday school teacher had given my four year old daughter Communion without my permission. Coming to the Lord’s table is a powerful act and we must be careful not to misuse it. I’ve heard many stories of people being healed after taking Communion daily. I believe that the bread and wine are powerful sacraments, and as we take them we are bringing life to our mortal bodies and building them up with a strength which is able to break down strongholds! I take Communion as an act of worship to my Lord; submitting my life to His service, allowing my mind and heart to be renewed, and permitting Jesus to live in and through me.

It is too easy for Christians from protestant backgrounds to dismiss the power of coming to the Lord’s Table, due to the heritage of the Reformation. I believe that taking Communion is not only beneficial for our minds, but also, when we come in reverence it can’t help but bring life and health to our very being! Would it be so wrong to centre our services around the cross, by first entering through the gateway opened to us at the Lord’s Table? I believe it to be an essential pillar of our act of worship. Whether we integrate it into our small groups or main services, taking Communion is not only one of the four pillars the early church was established on; it is a command from Jesus himself!

FELLOWSHIP

I have a confession to make; I’m a bit of an introvert....I like my own company! My idea of a great night out, is watching a film on my favourite sofa at home with a takeaway! I’m quite happy when visiting a new church to sneak in, engage in worship, prayer and teaching, and then leave again having talked to no-one. If there is heart-felt, passionate worship and good teaching I feel at home. I’ve come to realise though, that as humans, we see the world from different perspectives and value different things!

At the time of writing this book, I’m employed to help and advise church leaders on how to build great churches. When invited into a church for the first time to give an assessment of how well they run their services, leaders will expect me to comment on their sermon or worship culture, and are puzzled when I start talking about parking facilities or the confusing instructions on how to get a coffee! As church leaders, and members, we often fall into the trap of believing that the most important part of coming to church is to focus on God; worshipping Him through song and listening to the Word.

Through spending time on my own, I have learned how to pray and hear God’s voice; but I can’t easily look someone else in the eye and ask how they are doing! I admit to personally finding this rather difficult! However, frustrating as it may be when I’m ready to start a service that I’ve sown a great deal of time and energy into preparing, I believe it’s a sign of good health when people prefer to first take some time to catch up with and encourage one another, rather than simply concentrate on themselves and what they can take home from a meeting! Didn’t Jesus say that loving your neighbour ‘is just like’ loving God with all your heart, mind and strength?6 To forsake the second greatest commandment is to forsake the first. Through sharing and encouraging before the start of the service, we can actually help each other to focus on and experience Father when the formal part begins!

When we gather as the church; we are an army! We are there to be trained and coached, but we also need to know how to gather as a family! The church coming together should include times of having food and laughter - and kids having fun! If children don’t learn how to make great friendships in church, their closest friends will be found outside of it! We should be encouraging people to create deep and meaningful relationships with one another; if it doesn’t naturally happen, we need to programme it into our schedules.

My personal experience has been that most of my discipleship conversations have taken place informally with friends! Friends who I do life with! Friends who know and still accept me when my actions don’t always live up to my words! Rather than fighting against the strong desire of your church family to catch up with one another; let’s recognise it as a legitimate need and purposefully build it into our meetings. The people who need it most will be those who turn up late, leave early and struggle to make conversation!

CORPORATE PRAYER

I have come to realise that a praying church, is a powerful church! I don’t mean a church that conducts many prayer meetings, I mean a church that values and lives a life of prayer. The early church devoted themselves to prayer and yet, let’s be honest – our most poorly attended meetings today are usually the prayer meetings. Why? because they are often boring! Why? because people on the whole either don’t know how to pray, or don’t know how to fit their style of prayer into the one being demonstrated and therefore struggle to engage!

How then, can we encourage our people to pray?

Teach Are we actually teaching our church families, either through services or in our small groups, how to pray; or are we simply telling them that they should? When was the last time the subject of prayer was taught in your church? If we want to have a praying culture, we need to focus on it as a priority.

Leadership If I need something praying for, I will turn to powerful intercessors who know what it is to really pray. Ask them to pray for an event and they will storm the heavenlies for hours without any intervention from me! But, when I want to hold a prayer meeting I turn to those with a different skill set; I turn to people who can host meetings well. I’m not looking for the star player who will blaze a trail through every game against any opposition! I’m looking for the coach who will give instructions and encouragement to the team, look after the weaker players, rotate the squad and get everyone over the finishing line in a team effort.

In other words, I’m looking for people management rather than individual skill. If I need an urgent matter resolved - I call in the expert intercessors! If I want to train the church on how to develop the culture of prayer as a lifestyle - I bring in the coach!

Training To create a learning environment within our prayer meetings, I will mix together some inspiration to aid focus and energy, and some teaching to develop understanding and skill. I’m not talking about a long rambling lecture followed by a few minutes of prayer at the end; five minutes teaching followed by five minutes prayer, then repeat! That’s all it takes!

Clarity & Direction Many people would love to engage in prayer but are sometimes unsure of what they’ve been requested to do and become paralysed by indecision. Have the leader deliver clear instructions for each prayer point - including any directions for solo or group prayer, length of time, style of prayer, whether to sit or stand! I’m not suggesting this needs to be a detailed description, just a nudge in the right direction to help give people structure and security. If these directions are simply to encourage engagement, I would offer them out more in the form of a suggestion than a direct instruction; for example, if people are already happily engaging in prayer and would prefer to do something different, that’s fine by me. Be imaginative! Write prayer requests on pieces of paper and place them around the room, or introduce some prophetic actioning. Some who came only to pray may hate it – but it will pull many folk in from the fringes.

When hosting prayer meetings, I don’t allow myself to get lost in the heavenlies! I have my eye on the room and may not even be praying! My role is to encourage people to engage in

prayer; and that includes pouring in some inspiration, or a change of direction or style, if things are not working! I’m not waiting for everyone to ‘finish’ their prayer. When people in the room are winding up their prayer point, I’m moving them on to the next one! What am I doing? I’m providing movement which encourages engagement.

Running the Race As part of my discipleship journey, I was brought into a training atmosphere of praise and worship without songs or instruments. I’m not talking about the atmosphere that exists in those awesome meetings where worship just takes off, I’m talking about starting from that place of nothing; no atmosphere whatsoever, no preamble, just get on with it! It wasn’t the easiest period of my life, but by digging in and refusing to quit, structures were built into my life that have since enabled me to worship my God without the ‘crutches’ of written songs, instruments, or atmosphere. A few years ago I was discipling an awesome group of young people who knew how to hear the voice of God, would frequently witness God moving in the miraculous, and loved to lose themselves in praise and worship. I decided to take them to a conference where I knew the style of worship would be that in which I’d been raised! The band were already leading the congregation in praise and worship as we found our seats and joined in.

Twenty minutes in and there was still no trace of any kind of organised song! The band were completely lost in worship and singing in tongues, in english - whatever was on their hearts! I looked round to see that my incredible, trail-blazing team had become bored spectators. Half of them had already sat down and the other half, though still standing, had been unable to engage with the worship in any way! Even though these guys were practiced in spontaneous worship, they hadn’t yet developed the spiritual muscles they needed to last for this length of time without some platform direction or structured song.

If this amazing group of youngsters struggled to engage, who I considered to be elite warriors in the faith, then how much more a new believer? I grew to understand that whenever we gather together there is often an incorrect assumption that everyone knows how to pray and worship well; but many have not gained the spiritual muscle, which for some of us has taken years of training to acquire! I remember at the height of my running phase I wasn’t incredibly speedy, and my friend asked to run with me as he wanted to get fit. As we set off from my house we were jogging along fairly slowly - barely past walking pace, and I was chatting away nineteen to the dozen. We’d only gone a couple of hundred metres when my friend gasped; “We need to stop!” and dropped to the floor in a heap! The pace had been too fast for him, yet I’d felt like we hadn’t even started!

Leadership, like being a shepherd, is learning how to run at a pace that is good for the sheep in your care. This may be painfully slow at times, but doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be nudging and encouraging them to run faster and further; teaching them how to push boundaries and develop good, strong prayer muscles. When I lead prayer meetings I’m seeking to run alongside others, rather than look back and see them eating my dust! It may

be frustrating at times, but my aim is to develop prayer warriors and that requires training, investment and patience.

Pray the Psalms

“..speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,”

Ephesians 5:19 NIV

The word ‘Psalms’ is translated from the Hebrew word ‘Tehillah’, which in it’s simplest form means ‘sung prayer’. Praising God is a powerful act, and adding song to our praise brings even greater depth. Thanksgiving and declaring the goodness of God, are key weapons in prayer warfare. One of the benefits of great worship songs is that they encourage us to focus our attention on God and how powerful and loving He is. Introducing a worship band into our prayer meetings and acknowledging that praise is a vital element of prayer, will keep a healthy, heavenly perspective on what we are praying over.

Another useful reason for having a worship team during prayer times, is that it allows the people to pray together with one voice! In many of our churches we have lost the discipline of praying set prayers together; instead, we have swapped the prayer book for a song book. I believe something powerful happens when the people of God declare the goodness of God with one voice. There will be people in prayer meetings who would love to join in but don’t know what to say! Singing set songs will give them the opportunity to participate. I would also use set prayers or declarations, for example; ‘God is Good over...’ , and allow people to fill in the blanks. Instantly you have released every voice in the room to prayer with one heart and mind over multiple topics.

THE APOSTLES TEACHING

As I’ve mentioned before, I‘m not keen on being given specific topics to talk about! I would prefer to either share what is currently burning on my heart, or something that God previously laid on my heart that has since become a life message. Give me a title and I’ll work out how to deliver it in a way that releases what’s burning within me.

I’m sure you’ve been at a meeting where someone is desperate to share a prophetic word with the congregation. When they do share it, it quickly becomes obvious to those who know the person, that the prophetic word is actually intended for the one delivering it! This doesn’t prevent it from being encouraging or insightful to the rest of the congregation, however, it can become a little awkward when the ‘prophet’ then demands a response, not realising that God is speaking predominantly to them!

I have quite often recognised this phenomena in the church; God will speak to someone about a need and they will be desperate to share it with a wider audience, fully expecting that others will immediately step forward to provide a solution for something which only the person sharing has been burdened with! ‘Someone needs to respond to...’ they will say - well yes they do, but I believe we should first be ready to respond ourselves before asking others. How often do we pray for others to be changed? God bring revival to this land!.....but don’t change my cosy life....

One of the most dangerous things you can do when trying to accomplish something is to have a planning meeting about it! During the meeting you will talk through the problem with your team, strategize, and then work out ways to effect the agreed solution. Hopefully, this will leave all concerned with a feeling of accomplishment, especially if it’s been a tough process, and they will leave the meeting energised and upbeat. Then, what happens in the minutes before the follow up meeting? A sudden burst of activity as people rush around trying to complete the tasks they were set during the first meeting, which they hadn’t got round to!

What’s happening here, apart from people being lazy? The chemicals released at the end of the last meeting tricked them into believing that the task had already been accomplished, releasing them from the urgency to solve the problem. The truth is; at the end of the last meeting nothing had actually been resolved apart from everyone agreeing to a plan to try and accomplish something! Most projects fail not because the plan was bad, but because it was poorly executed....so, a new planning meeting is scheduled, a new plan drawn up, and the original one quietly forgotten.

I believe this happens in churches all the time; God lays something on the heart of the preacher and they’ve prayed about it, studied it and formed it into a sermon to be delivered from the pulpit the following weekend. Come Sunday morning and the minister delivers the message, and it’s an absolute corker! The sense of accomplishment they feel from obeying God’s voice is further fueled by the resulting encouragement from well-wishers, a well- earned Sunday roast and a delightful afternoon nap! When the congregation return the following Sunday however, to the dismay of the preacher nothing seems to have changed...

Just as we would in a planning meeting, we deliver our message and can have a real sense of accomplishment - at least that’s hopefully how it goes on a good Sunday! But, let’s face a few facts! Even if you’re an amazing communicator; of those that were present to hear your gems from heaven - some would have been day-dreaming (if not asleep), some wouldn’t have understood what you said, and some would have said they did understand but arrived at completely different conclusions! Of those who did understand; some would flat-out disagree, and others believe you’re absolutely correct but what you said doesn’t apply to them! Still others would have heard and understood - and are definitely considering acting on it - but this is the first time they’ve heard it so they need some processing time....

Too many preachers believe their job is done as soon as the message is given; “I’ve said it, I’ve done my bit!” - Have you not heard! “Talk is cheap, actions speak!”

Just because you’ve preached a message doesn’t mean the task has been completed; you have only just started the process of gardening a miracle! People tend to need to hear the same message a few times from different perspectives before it really sinks in, and be given clear opportunities to respond - and I’m not talking altar calls! Multiple layers of foundation need to be laid down over the top of each other until the key message becomes ingrained in the core of the believer. Follow up questions, even if just spoken over the congregation as a whole, are important to remind, encourage and challenge. I have come to appreciate that good teachers are those who will spend time laying down principal upon principal in order to help create strong foundations in peoples lives that will support tall structures! For too many congregation members, discipleship input is a talk on Sunday morning which is forgotten by lunchtime and replaced with another ‘new’ message the following week. This quickly anaesthetises any lack of action which was required following the previous message.

When reading my Bible, what continually strikes me is that the apostle’s teaching would consistently lead to action within homes and throughout the wider community! I can’t help but conclude that alongside the theories and theology, or the ‘how to...’ for personal spiritual improvement, they must have routinely delivered guidance and instruction on how to best impact their neighbourhood. It was when Jesus asked people to do something that He got the biggest response! I love to share what God is speaking to me about, but have come to appreciate that while it may feel good to preach it on a Sunday morning, it might not actually be what people need.

The next time you’re frustrated about how little of their income people give towards the finances of the church, reflect on when your leadership last taught on the subject of tithing and offerings! If you can’t remember, don’t be surprised that giving is low! If your answer is that it happened in another forum outside of your Sunday Service, it might be worth reflecting on how effective that forum is! I will always consider inviting someone else to speak on topics that aren’t my areas of strength. It may be worth reaching out beyond your church or even your denomination. Just a thought, there are many incredible teachers with sermons readily available through the medium of technology!

Having said all that – it’s so important to hear what God is saying over your congregation now and not just what He has already said. The point of creating foundations for Glory, is so that the Glory continually fills them! There is so much more to the voice of God than simply delivering principal upon principal. If you are reading this book as someone who is great at teaching, you may need to let a fiery prophet in to shake the foundations up a little and create some havoc! Whatever is built on a solid foundation will continue to stand; principles of human reasoning will fall, and rightly so!