INTRODUCTION
Opening Statement: In a society that is becoming increasingly fragmented, in which people seem more and more separated from one another, the church can be a refuge. It’s more than a building, more than a Sunday morning meeting, more than an organization. A community. Church is a place where people come together; a place where everyone, not just the pastor, cares about and takes care of one another; a place where every person matters. At Sunman Community Church, that’s what we aspire to be - a community, a new community. And we are not just hoping to be a new community. We are taking practical steps to make it a reality. We are developing a process that will result in the body of Christ being equipped to do what “New Community” people are supposed to do.
Observation: It all started when I asked myself this question sometime ago: “God, if you give us a new believer who shows an interest and a desire in spiritual growth, what processes and opportunities do we have in place that will equip and grow that new believer in a healthy, balanced manner?” Since then I’ve discovered that there are not only new believers who need equipped, but there are many believers who have never been equipped in some essential areas of the spiritual life. Our key word here is “equip.” The operative phrase from the text is to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
Title: Equipping Them!
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Opening Statement: In my reading, I came across this advertisement. WANTED: Minister for Growing Church
A real challenge for the right man! Opportunity to become better acquainted with people! Applicant must offer experience as shop worker… office manager… educator (all levels, including college)… artist… salesman… diplomat… writer… theologian… politician… Boy Scout leader… children’s worker… minor league athlete… psychologist… vocational counselor… psychiatrist… funeral director… wedding consultant… master of ceremonies… circus clown… missionary… social worker. Applicant should be everyone’s friend, but cannot have close friends. Helpful but not essential: experience as a butcher… baker… cowboy… Western Union messenger. Must know all about problems of birth, marriage, and death; also conversant with latest theories and practices in areas like pediatrics, economics, and nuclear science. Right man will hold firm views on every topic, but is careful not to upset people who disagree. Must be forthright but flexible; returns criticism and backbiting with Christian love and forgiveness. Should have outgoing, friendly disposition at all times. Should be captivating speaker but should not get upset if people can’t remember what he spoke about only a week ago. He should be an intent listener. Will pretend that he enjoys listening to people talk. Education must be beyond Ph.D requirements, but always concealed in homespun modesty and folksy talk. Able to sound learned at times but most of the time talks and acts like good-old-Joe. Familiar with literature read by average congregation. Must be willing to work long hours, subject to call any time day or night but not receive any overtime pay ever. Must be adaptable to sudden interruptions. Will spend at least 25 hours preparing a sermon that people will forget in less than 1 hour and must spend an additional 10 hours reading books and magazines. Applicants wife must be both stunning and plain, smartly attired but conservative in appearance, gracious and able to get along with everyone, especially women. Must be willing to work in church kitchen, teach classes, babysit, never listen to gossip, and never become discouraged. Applicants children must be exemplary in conduct and character; well-behaved, yet basically no different from other children; decently dressed. Opportunity for applicant to live close to work. Home provided; open door hospitality enforced. Must be ever mindful that the house doesn’t belong to him. Directly responsible for views and conduct to all church members and visitors, not confined to direction or support from any one person. Salary not commensurate with experience, education, or need. All replies kept confidential. Anyone applying will undergo a full investigation to determine sanity.
Transition: For the most part, this ad struck me funny, but the amazing thing about it, is that it’s true in many people’s minds. Many cultural expectations have come to be attached to this role of minister or pastor while the biblical aspect of this position is often ignored. In fact, the job description didn’t even mention one key area of a pastor’s job.
Observation: That’s why today that we are focusing our attention primarily on the greatly neglected matter of equipping the saints. It was never God’s intention for one individual person to meet all of a congregations needs, i.e., visiting all the sick, comforting all the bereaved, preaching to all the lost, or teaching all of the newly converted. While the pastor models these things, it is his job to equip the congregation to engage in these things as well. It is part of what our text calls "the work of the ministry and the building up of the body of Christ." The pastor-teacher is to impart what he is and does to the congregation so that they can also be “ministers.” Do me a favor, when someone asks you, “Whose your minister at SCC?” Answer them: “We all are.” Ideally, a pastor-teacher is to work himself out of a job.
Exposition: Ephesians 4:11 It was he who gave [After Jesus Christ ascended, He gave gifts to the church that enabled it to function. Of the many spiritual gifts that people have, Paul mentioned four in particular here.] some as apostles, ["Apostle" means someone sent as an authoritative delegate. I like to think of them as pioneer missionaries or church-planters. ] some as prophets, [New Testament prophets provided edification, exhortation, and comfort to the church (1 Cor. 14:3). Some of them conveyed new authoritative revelation to the church (2:20; 3:5; Acts 11:28; 21:10-11). Most of the prophets, however, simply "spoke forth" truth that God had previously revealed (cf. Acts 13:1; 1 Cor. 11:5; 14:26-33).] some as evangelists, [Evangelists preached the gospel and served as modern missionaries both at home and abroad (Acts 21:8; 8:6-40; 2 Tim. 4:5). Their ministry was short-term.] and some to be pastors and teachers, [The Greek construction argues for a single function with two aspects. Pastor is the title. Teacher is the function. Their ministry happens among settled congregations in contrast to the itinerant ministries of the apostles, prophets, and evangelists (cf. 1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:9; 1 Pet. 5:1-3). Why did Christ bless the New Community with these gifted people?] 4:12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, that is, to build up the body of Christ, [The purpose of all these gifted leaders is to prepare the rest of the saints to minister and so build up the body of Christ, namely the church. Based on our list of the previous “four giftings”, the disciple-making pastor-teacher is the resident trigger mechanism that sets the process of growth into motion. His primary task is to “equip saints.” If he is doing that, then there will be EVIDENCES of spiritual growth. The first EVIDENCE is Christlikeness. An equipping congregation will have many Christ-like people in it.] 4:13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God—a mature person, attaining to the measure of Christ’s full stature. [The second EVIDENCE is stability. Equipped people are stable people.] 4:14 So we are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes. [A third EVIDENCE of spiritual growth is that truth and love are happily married to one another. If you’re all about truth and confronting all the wrongs and yet have no love, then you’re not being equipped properly. Who would want to be around people who approached the spiritual life this way? On the other hand, if you’re all about love and mercy, and never hold anyone accountable to the truth, that’s not proper equipping either. Equipped people will hold you accountable, but will love you all the way.] 4:15 But practicing the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head. [A fourth EVIDENCE of spiritual growth, of a proper equipping, is cooperation.] 4:16 From him the whole body grows, fitted and held together through every supporting ligament. As each one does its part, the body grows in love.
Transition: How can the people of Sunman “New” Community Church become Christlike, stable, truth and love honoring, and cooperative people? I bring you back to the operative phrase from the text to equip the saints for the work of ministry. We need equipped!
Definition: What about this word translated “equipping.” It is a special point of interest that this word first appears in our New Testament in connection with the calling of the disciples. When Jesus walked out along the Sea of Galilee, he saw the two pairs of brothers, Peter and Andrew and James and John, sitting in a boat, busily engaged doing something. What were they doing? They were mending their nets. The word "mending" is the word translated here "equipping." It is the same word katartizo. They were mending, they were equipping their nets; they were getting them ready for the next day; they were fixing them up, preparing them. This suggests, therefore, that the job of the pastor-teacher in particular as well as the other gifts mentioned here in general, is essentially that of getting people ready to live the Christian life and to do ministry in God’s world.
Explanation: This fact makes the pastoring job a unique job. Look at a couple of contrasts. A physician, for example, doesn’t train his patients on how to be a doctor; he simply gives the diagnosis and prescribes the medicine. A lawyer doesn’t train her clients on how to be lawyers; she simply represents the client in legal matters of arbitration. However, a pastor-teacher’s job is to actually train others to do what he does – to become ministers. The operative phrase is to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
Clarification: The role of the pastor-teacher is to work with faithful, available, and teachable persons in the church and to equip them to be leaders—so that together we can equip the entire church to do the work of ministry. A pastor must not allow himself to do everyone else’s service for them. He must equip them to do service and to use their spiritual gift-mix to build up the New Community.
Illustration: Our deacons are a case in point. They are beginning to serve and lead after 5 years of journeying together.
Quotation: So, why hasn’t this been the case in many American churches? John Maxwell says that there are several reasons. Let me mention just a few: 1. Pastors themselves have not been equipped to equip the saints. 2. Pastors have not been expected to be equippers of the saints. 3. It’s much harder to equip than it is to do it on one’s own. 4. Pastors feel that the laypersons are inadequate to do ministry. 5. Lay people feel inadequate to do ministry. 6. Pastor’s gain ego-satisfaction from being needed/indispensable. 7. Pastors have seen themselves as providers of ministry, not equippers for ministry. 8. Laity have seen themselves as consumers of ministry, not doers of ministry.
CONCLUSION
Application: Let me tell you what I believe so very strongly and what I know about our church.
SCC needs to become a fully functioning “equipping” church. I want everyone of you to know what your spiritual gift-mix is and where you enjoy serving; to know how to put together a satisfying devotional life; to know how to explain why you believe the Christian faith; to know and understand people and how to develop relationships with them; to know how to lead an exemplary life in the marketplace; to know how to build a strong family; to know how to be a servant-leader in a church; to know how to develop a positive attitude in life; to know how to bring someone to faith by sharing the gospel; to know how to read and understand the “big-picture stuff” of the Bible; to know how and be able to disciple a new Christian; to know how to move children successfully through the stages of life. When all of this stuff happens, then when we come together in corporate worship, we come together ready to celebrate what has taken place in ministry outside of the church. Worship services are celebration services. We will be so much more effective in every area if we are able to equip people.
Being an “equipping” church is a continual process at SCC. A farmer said, “The hardest thing about cows is that they never stay milked.” We’ll always be engaged in equipping people because everyone is not at the same level of growth. We all come in at different heights on the spiritual growth chart. The work of equipping is never complete, so we must commit for the long haul. We are crossing a critical cultural line into the biblical arena of church life when we make this commitment.
An equipped SCC congregation will outlast any one leader. Pastors come and go. Members come and go. We hate to see that happen, but an equipped congregation can keep moving forward and not lose the momentum of what is happening in the church when the other members are fully equipped.
Questions: Has your spiritual life made significant strides in the last five years? Would you like to live differently with some new tools at your disposal to help you do this? Would you like to be outfitted with some neat ideas that will help you connect with God and his people? Nobody can "do church" all alone. It will take all of us--that’s all of you and all of me! [Show the book.]
Application: Allow me to close with some key areas where growth is most evident in the life of a believer. This is a pastor’s perspective.
1. Relationships. How you treat people in your life is a good indication.
2. Satisfying devotional life.
3. Motivation to be equipped.
4. Attitude.
5. Leadership.
