The Dimensions of Leadership

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The Dimensions of Leadership
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Restrictive Leadership

• Too much reliance on the Senior Pastor or the
  Solo Pastor
• Trained in an individualistic and competitive
  environment
• Theory divorced from the praxis of ministry
• Dispel the myth of the limited call

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Know Your Strengths and Limitations

• For by the grace given to me I say to everyone
  among you not to think of yourselves more highly
  than you ought to think, but to think with sober
  judgment, each according to the measure of faith
  that God has assigned. For as in one body we have
  many members, and not all the members have the
  same function, so we, who are many, are one body
  in Christ, and individually we are members of one
  another. We have gifts that differ according to
  the grace given to us prophecy, in proportion to
  faith ministry, in ministering the teacher in
  teaching the exhorter in exhortation the giver
  in generosity the leaders, in diligence the
  compassionate in cheerfulness.
• Rom 123-8 (NRSV)

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Leadership in the Early Church

• There is one body and one Spirit, just as you
  were called to one hope of your calling, one
  Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
  of all, who is above all and through all and in
  all. But each of us was given grace according to
  the measure of Christs gift The gifts he gave
  were that some should be apostles, some prophets,
  some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to
  equip the saints for the work of ministry, for
  building up the body of Christ, until all of us
  come to the unity of faith and of the knowledge
  of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of
  the full stature of Christ.
• Ephesians 44-13 (NRSV)

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Comments on Ephesians 44-13

• Not primarily about leadership
• Concerned with the ministry of each and every
  person according to their gifting
• Foundational categories by which individual
  members can discern their call
• Is the five-fold ministry normative?
• Restricted to the church in Ephesus?
• Restricted to the 1st century church?

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OutlineEphesians 41-16

• Calling and character (1-6)
• Grace-gifts given to every member of the body by
  the Ascended Christ (7-10)
• Leadership gifts (11)
• Purpose for which the gifts are givento build-up
  and equip Gods people to serve Christ in the
  church and the world (12)
• Goalbring about maturity, love and unity by
  connecting the whole body (13)

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Equipping Ministry Matrix
ApostleGround Breaker
Prophet Truth Teller
Evangelist Story Teller
Teacher Light Giver
Pastor Soul Healer
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Ministry Focus of Christendom Churches
ApostleGround Breaker
Prophet Truth Teller
Evangelist Story Teller
Teacher Light Giver
Pastor Soul Healer
9
Ministry Cluster of Missional Churches
ApostleGround Breaker
Prophet Truth Teller
Evangelist Story Teller
Teacher Light Giver
Pastor Soul Healer
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Three Dispensations of Apostles
JESUS Hebrews
The Twelve Luke
Numerous Apostles sent by the Holy Spirit Paul
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Preoccupation with Pastor/Teacher

• The person that local churches rely upon for
  their needs to be met
• Seminaries and Bible Colleges major on the
  training of pastor/teachers
• 98 of our financial and curriculum focus is
  directed to equipping students to be proficient
  as teachers and pastors

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Pastor as Soul Healer

• Ensure the spiritual health and well-being of the
  church members through the stages, struggles, and
  crises of life
• The need is greater than ever before
• Overwhelming counseling load
• Identify and train members to provide basic
  pastoral support
• People bring offload their emotional baggage

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Reasons for Pastoral Overload

• Dispersal of the extended family
• Marriages in trouble
• Increasing divorce rates, cohabiting singles,
  blended families
• Job Insecurity
• Downsizing need to learn new skills and find
  fresh opportunities
• Loneliness resulting from a culture of
  individualism and rootlessness

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Teacher as Light Giver

• Jesus came as a teacher (rabbi)
• Proclaim the great themes of Scripture and the
  whole counsel of God
• Teach systematically and comprehensively
• PropheticGods word is for Here and Now
• Need is as pressing as ever
• Biblical illiteracy among churchgoers
• Result of a therapeutic gospel

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Challenges Facing New Pastors

• Churches unable to pay a living salary
• Debt incurred to pay for education
• Mortgaged their ministry
• Church closures means fewer entry-level positions
• High casualty rate
• 50 drop out during the first ten years of
  ministry

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Challenges Facing Seminaries

• Preparing people for Christendom contexts, or
  Missional contexts?
• Biblical and theological debates internal to the
  church
• More articulate talking in the church sub-culture
  than in the wider world
• Treat the Bible as a missional text with our
  theology and church history addressing missional
  issues

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Key Questions

• Who needs to know?
• What do they need to know?
• When do they need to know?
• How can they best learn to apply their knowledge?
• What price can they afford?

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Equipping Ministry Matrix
ApostleGround Breaker
Prophet Truth Revealer
Evangelist Story Teller
Teacher Light Giver
Pastor Soul Healer
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Apostle as Ground Breaker

• Lukes use of Apostle (of Christ)
• In his Gospel 6 times Acts 28 times
• Restricted to the Twelve
• Counter the Gnostic challenge
• Pauls use of apostle (of the Church)
• Ground breakers for the advance of the gospel
• Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, James, Apollos,
  Junias, Andronicus, Epaphroditus and himself
• Earliest use of the term apostle

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The Role of Apostles of the Church

• Birth and care for networks of new faith
  communities
• Made for adventure
• risks, hardship, adversity
• Manifest an independent spirit
• I am free with respect to all (1Cor 919)
• (Martin Garner, A Call for Apostles Today.
  Cambridge Grove Books, 2007)

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Apostolic Distinctives

• An ability to go with nothing
• Messagethe kingdom is near
• Pray for the sick
• Depend on God to supply sustenance including
  those we are reaching out to
• Have faith that the harvest is plentiful
• Trust that key people will be found to open up
  whole communities

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What an Apostle is NOT

• The celebrity leader of a megachurch
• Controlling
• Franchising
• A title or position in the church
• An ecclesiastical appointment
• A self-appointed office
• A person claiming to be the channel of continuing
  revelation beyond the norms of Scripture

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Examples of Apostles

• John Wesley
• William Carey
• Hudson Taylor
• Jackie Pullinger
• Neil Cole, Organic Churches Growing Faith Where
  Life Happens, (Jossey-Bass, 2005)
• Note None of the above claimed the title of
  apostle.

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Apostles are made by God for adventure!

• Martin Garner, Apostles in the Bible go where
  there is NO work and No church.
• Take risks, suffer hardship and adversity.
• Willing to tackle the seemingly impossible.
• Have eyes of faith and wills of steel.
• Start from scratch with no resources.
• Make something from nothing
• Live with financial insecurity
• Reach those hardest to reach

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Putting the cart before the horse!

• Undo a long-established church culture
• Preferred style of worship
• Times and place of meeting
• Religious language
• Mode of baptism
• Type of government
• Style of communicationpreaching
• Belief system

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New Testament Sequence

• Where a culture has no indigenous expression of
  the gospel
• Kingdom Mission Church

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The Role of Apostles of the Church

• Clear sense of call to a region, people or place
• Made for tackling the seemingly impossible
• Prepared to face suffering and hardship
• Face financial insecurity
• Prepared to live by faith (and hard work!)
• Have eyes of faith for the missional task

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Prophets as Truth Revealers

• As nervous about prophets as about apostles!
• Brought the church into disrepute and led it
  astray
• Do not bring extra-biblical revelation
• Remind us about truths that have been neglected
  or rejected
• Bring a sense of urgency

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Prophets in the Early Church

• In predominantly Gentile Churches the Hebrew
  Scripture may not have been readily available
• Many of the New Testament Letters and Gospel had
  not yet been written or widely distributed
• Dependence on oral sources
• Pastoral and doctrinal issues that arose
• Need for guidance, correction and encouragement

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The Prophet Speaks the Word of God into a
Situation

• May occur in the course of the exposition of
  Scripture
• Bring encouragement, exhortation, warning, and
  guidance
• Address both the people of God and the wider
  society
• Prophets cannot claim infallibility
• Church must exercise discernment
• Beware of spiritual blackmail!

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Evangelists as Story Tellers

• Decisions for Christ
• Influence of Revivalism
• Knowing the Jesus story
• Provide adequate and reliable information
• The gospel in the Gospels
• Belonging in order to believe
• It takes a community in order to communicate
• Only two other texts in the NT that refer to the
  evangelist (Acts 218 2Tim 45)