Inspiring and Challenging Dreamers

5 Things I Learned Planning and Running Heal the Nations (our annual conference)

5. Delegate more and more and more. The people love to serve and will constantly surprise you by the input they will put in to a conference if they can see that their work is actually making a difference in people’s lives. Not only that it means you can focus on receiving the Word from the guest speakers and ensuring your message impacts as many people as possible as deeply as possible. Of course, this comes from a church culture of delegation, service and raising leaders.

4. Invest in the worship as much as the preaching. It makes such a difference to the preachers and those being preached too.

3. Integrate the conference into the life of the church. We preached on preparing for conference the week before and then last Sunday I preached on how to keep the conference high for the rest of your life. The conference is called HEAL THE NATIONS, which is from a Scripture “the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations”. That is why we are doing it – to reach as far as we can to dream big and impact nations. The speakers are speakers who have all spoken at the local church (with one exception but that was just time constraints). It is a bigger deal than Sunday morning but it has the same DNA. A mistake I made this year that I can see clearly now is that we did not consistently have declarations every service. Tree of Life Church make declarations every service – that’s part of our culture and DNA. So next year, expect Heal the Nations declarations every single service!

2. Enjoy yourself. It’s a hectic pace and things will go wrong and things will surprise you. Just keep smiling – keep at peace. Remember the big picture!

1. Remember WHY you are doing it. It’s to equip the saints to do the works of ministry. Invite people who will do that. Will Graham said something important – good works require longevity. I got into a bit of a mess trying to get all different speakers for all sorts of reasons, then I just pulled back and simply invited the speakers that over the many years have consistently impacted my life for the better. They all came, and they all helped and equipped people.

Pastors and Elders V: The Requirements for an Elder (part 2)

In part one of the Requirements for an Elder we discussed that an elder must be above reproach and briefly examined what that meant. Today, I want to look at the second Biblical qualification for eldership – that an elder be the “husband of one wife” (1 Tim. 3.2).

Now let me preface this article by saying that I do not believe that this statement precludes female elders. I often use “he” as a shorthand for “he/she” and it seems obvious Paul is doing the same here. I don’t have time to deal with the entire women in ministry debate, but in Titus 2.3 when Paul asks the older women to teach the younger, he actually is using the word elder in the feminine form: the female elders should be teaching younger women. So there are female elders in the church and Paul approves – that should solve that one! So if you are a female elder, or aspire to be one, just reverse the genders and apply what is said to yourself as the wife of one husband! Nor does this verse exclude single people from church leadership – just like

The phrase “husband of one wife” in Greek literally means a “one woman man”. This obviously means that bigamists and polygamists are not allowed to be elders in the church. But what else does it mean?

It’s in the present tense, so past indiscretions are not being referenced here. The man who is on his second or third marriage is not disqualified. In fact a man who is on his second marriage is the husband of one wife – that’s why his ex-wife is called his ex and not his first wife still. Now divorce is wrong, and also it cuts your soul to pieces and it would be difficult for a divorcee going through the divorce to be in church leadership, so you need to exercise wisdom but when someone has remarried with a healthy second (or third, or fourth, etc.) marriage then this verse is not applicable to them. I am not brushing aside divorce lightly – it is a grievous thing that takes a lot of time and effort to recover from, and should never be considered lightly. However, there is grace for divorcees, there is restoration, and part of that restoration involves open doors to leadership.

Your past cannot disqualify you from church leadership – but your present can! The way to enter leadership if that is your heart to do so is to make your present your past by dealing with situations and moving on!

However, this qualification for church leadership is a lot broader in scope than just “married with one wife”… a lot of people think they have that therefore they are qualified for church leadership just because they have a marriage certificate. But I think most people are aware that there is a lot more to being a one woman man than being married, and most people know at least one married man who is not a one woman man!

You see the role of an elder is not just a ceremonial title because someone reaches 55, so they can see in a council of elders and discuss the colour of the church carpet or pull the pastor apart week after week. An elder is someone who is regularly making disciples and running a discipleship group in their house. They are people who are looking after people – people who may be broken, lost, immature, going through grief and loss. They can be vulnerable people.

If you have vulnerable people visiting your house regularly, you need to be a one woman man.

You can’t be flirting with people, giving people the wrong impression, fantasising about other people. You need to be in a healthy marriage, one that is stable and secure, and women need to be able to trust that you see them as a whole entity, not just a body or someone to exploit.

The New Covenant warns against coarse jesting and language that should be not be used!

You must be someone who can treat others with respect and dignity and want their best, whether they are male or female, whether they are pretty or pretty ugly, whether they are in need or anything. Another thing that could easily happen is that someone in the group of people you are discipling could develop a crush on you, or start to elevate you and honour you in a special way. You need to be in a healthy marriage, not looking for a way out or else these things will end up problems. You need to be a one-woman man!

If you want to follow Tree of Life Church on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ilovethetree

If you want to follow Benjamin Conway on Twitter: http://twitter.com/pastorbenconway

Enjoy!

5 Quick Steps to Energise a Church Service!

Leader, you can do this in the middle of the worship, in the middle of the notices, as soon as the service starts or even in the midst of a dull sermon 😉 (I know, you never are in the middle of preaching and think man, if this is boring me what MUST it be doing to them – that’s only me)

5. Give a word of knowledge. Ask God for one, and be open with God – tell Him. The surprise is that God wants to speak more than you do. So ask for a word for healing, or for finances, or for anything – and watch God come through for you!

4. Call everyone in pain forward. Lay hands on each of them and command the pain to leave. Ask who has less pain to share a quick testimony.

3. Get everyone to pray in tongues for five minutes. If people cannot pray in tongues, call them forward and believe God for them to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

2. Invite everyone in the church believing for a new job, a job, promotion or a payrise forward. Lay hands on them and agree with them.

1. Give an altar call – it doesn’t have to wait until the end of the service. Explain the gospel quickly and get everyone to bow their heads and close their eyes and invite anyone wanting to know Jesus to raise their hand. Then prayer with everyone in the room and make sure the people who got saved get a bag of literature or you get their details so you can follow up!

Now you never need have an unenergized service again – say thanks Ben!

Paying People Less than the Market Rate

It’s not a problem for a ministry or church to pay people less than market rates who want to work for them. It’s not a sin. As long as three conditions are in place:

1. The person realizes that is the case before he enters the situation. You must be upfront with people. You cannot be dishonest.

2. You value the person appropriately and realize that they are making a sacrifice to help serve your dream. You don’t ignore that or take it lightly or for granted. This will show in the way you talk to people, in the way you deal with people’s requests for family time, holiday time, etc. It will show and people will know.

3. You lead by example. People are willing to sacrifice for the mission if they see you are making a sacrifice for the mission. If you are driving in with a brand new Bentley when they are struggling to pay the bills, and they know they are underpaid, resentment will kick in.

People are prepared to take less salary to work for a mission because the joy of fulfilling the mission is worth more than any monetary reward – just make sure they feel like mission partners and not cheap exploited labour.

Pastors and Elders IV: The Requirements for an Elder (part 1)

Although good churches should be built on the grace of God, the moment you step into church leadership there are expectations of character. Otherwise the church will implode. For the next few weeks, we will examine the qualifications for eldership as outlined by the apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 3.

Now remember – only Jesus Christ appoints pastors, but pastors (like Timothy) appoint elders. We can see this from 1 Timothy 3.1: The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. (ESV). You see you can aspire to the office of overseer and elder. You can desire it and want to do it, and if so you desire something good!

Being an elder means being an overseer – you have to look after people. In Tree of Life, our elders run house groups – once a week they gather people in their houses and love them, study the Word with them, care about them and show grace to them and pray with them. That is looking after people! We call these groups Living Churches as they are part of the church and these meetings are church as much as our celebration services over the weekend. It’s not glamorous, but it is a noble task! It makes disciples, it helps people, it changes lives.

But to do this task of making disciples you need not just gifting but character. Here Paul explains to Timothy what to look for:

Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, (1 Tim. 3.2)

Overseer (bishop in the KJV) and elder are synonyms. They mean the same thing: you cannot be an elder if you are not overseeing people.

An elder must be above reproach. This is Paul’s starting point. What does it mean?

In the Greek it literally means “cannot be grabbed hold of” – it means to be a Teflon man – nothing sticks. Whoever you are, you will upset someone at some point and the minute you are in a position of leadership it’s even more likely to happen! Someone will always complain and moan about a leader – it happened to Moses, it happened to Jesus, it happened to Paul and it will happen to every leader in the church.

That’s why a leader has to be a Teflon man – firstly people don’t spread the complaint because they know there’s no foundation to it. If someone lies about you, no-one believes it because they can see your heart.

And secondly, you are someone who doesn’t let accusations stick to them: you don’t hold a grudge, get bitter or offended. You know that if they persecuted the Master, they will persecute you and you just love them and bless them.

Any other result and you are not going to be a good elder or leader.

Next week, we will keep doing down this line and look at the rest of these qualification.

If you want to follow Tree of Life Church on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ilovethetree

If you want to follow Benjamin Conway on Twitter: twitter.com/pastorbenconway

Enjoy!

3 Leadership Lessons from England in the World Cup

3. You have to put energy and experience into defence. The natural attitude of a leader is to advance, to take ground and to win. But while we are called to be pioneers and move forward, you have to also ensure that no one is going to advance on you. England did not have defenders that were able to play at international level and keep the other teams away from their net. As a leader, always make sure that the people you have in place are able to do their jobs. David had a mighty man whose only job was to defend a lentil field. That seems a bit mundane, but if you are going to win a war you need lentils. If you are going to win a football match, you have to defend your goal. If you are going to lead a team think carefully about your assets, your direction and your plans and work out what needs defended (it might be unity, it might be a culture, it might be a structure or USP) and make sure it is defended by your best people.

2. Don’t appoint on the basis of potential but on the basis of results. Hodgson got carried away with the dream that his young, fresh defenders could make headway, and appointed on the basis of potential rather than results. It’s the same with Wayne Rooney – who has only ever scored 1 World Cup goal (which let’s face it was a tap-in!) yet has been the hope of the England team because of his potential. As a leader you have to appoint on the basis of results, not personality. Jimmy might not be your favourite small group leader, but if his group is growing in size and depth over and over, then that’s probably who should take on the supervisor role. Your best salesman is your best salesman on the basis of results. Your best players have to be the ones that get results. Yes we need to develop young talent, but you do not develop people by putting them in positions they are not ready for.

1. A team needs a leader, not just a coach. A coach can encourage individual players and get the best out of them, but let’s face it England has better players than any of the teams it lost to. It needed a leader to show them how to work as a team, to work them in the right places and ensure that people fit together. Most people do not know how to find their place and do not know what they do best and where their strengths and weaknesses are. You need leadership who can be honest with you, who care about building a team that works, rather than exalting individuals. A coach is great for building a person or a group of persons – but a leader builds a team.

Gleanings from the Restoring Leadership Conference

Pastors and Elders III: What Paul taught the Elders

I said in the first post in this series (https://benjaminconway.net/2014/05/19/pastors-and-elders-ii-the-elders-conference/) that we would find out what Paul taught the elders at Miletus. And I give you my word that before this series is over we will look at Acts 20. But due to emails and questions that have arisen from the first post, I am going to answer some more questions first, laying a foundation to what we will say later. In Acts 14.23, it says that Paul ordained elders in the churches. Part of being a healthy New Testament church is having elders ordained by a pastor or apostle. In fact I would go as far as to say that if you do not have ordained elders, then you are not going to a church. Certainly the apostle Paul did not know a church without pastorally ordained elders! So elders are vital to any discussion of church health and leadership.

Today, I want to answer the question what is an elder. Great question – glad you asked, and glad the answer is in the Bible! Every church should have several elders. In James 5.14, sick people are told to call the elders (more than one – notice the “s” at the end) of the church (just one church, notice the lack of “es” at the end!). So a church should have some elders, and everyone in the church should know who they are. Eldership should not be a secret! Titus was told to ordain elders in the church as well. If you read Acts 15.1-2 you find out that the early church had apostles and elders. There was a plurality of elders in Jerusalem and they worked with the apostles. They had a discussion on the role of the law in the church – and Peter was the spokesman for all the apostles (see v. 7) but James (see v. 13) was the spokesman for the elders. Apostles – along with prophets, teachers and evangelists – are travelling ministries. Elders – along with pastors – are local ministries. James, functioning as the chief elder, was the pastor of the Jerusalem church. Later in history, you find James takes the title of pastor of the church of Jerusalem. And we can see that role developing here in Acts 15, and in Acts 21.18 when Paul visits Jerusalem with the phrase “James and all the elders”. That’s how a church should be run with “Pastor, and all the elders”. To meet Paul, James brought all the elders. They were all elders, but James was in a different role and office: James was the pastor – ruling over and shepherding the elders. Pastors are appointed by Jesus (Ephesians 4.11) but elders are appointed by pastors or apostles. Elders are to help the pastor oversee the church and love and disciple people.

The Bible tells us: Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. (Hebrews 13.7). The elders are supposed to rule over the people – not in an arrogant hard-hitting way, but in the way of leading them to the Word, helping them be disciples, inspiring them to dream and challenging them to life the dream. They are supposed to teach in their house groups and they are supposed to both teach the Word, based on the apostle’s or pastor’s teaching, and then set an example for the faith. That is the role of an elder in one verse:

Rule – through love and grace, make disciples.
Teach the Word of God to people, based on what the apostles and pastors are teaching
Set an example of faith for people to follow

That is what a Biblical elder should look like. They are not necessarily preaching – that is the role of the pastor and the 5-fold – they are not necessarily running the show, but they are looking after people in their house on a regular basis, showing love, setting an example, ruling in love and teaching the Word.

Next week: what are the requirements of being an elder

Pastors and Elders II: The Elders Conference

In Acts 20.17 Paul travels to Miletus, and calls all the elders of the Ephesian church to him.

And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church

There were a lot of elders in the church in Ephesus. Paul decided he wanted to separate the elders and teach them the Word – this was the first pastors and elders conference ever. In it, Paul gave some great instructions to the elders that all elders need to consider today.

According to historians, each of the elders in Ephesus would have looked after a group of Christians that met regularly in their house, they would have been appointed by the pastor of the church and put in place by the pastor. Notice: Paul didn’t go to Ephesus to address the elders, he went to Miletus. It’s 63 miles from Ephesus to Miletus, that’s not a short journey when you don’t have a Toyota and have to make the journey by foot or donkey. And Paul calls the elders.

The first amazing thing that has to be mentioned is that the elders came! Paul called the elders to make a 63 mile trip to a conference and they came. You see being an elder in a local church, hosting church in your house, is a sacred trust and requires people who love God, love God’s Word, and love the people of God. The essential quality of an elder is an attitude of humility that is prepared to travel to the elder’s conference. These weren’t people who struggled to get to the church meetings on a Sunday. These were people who knew they needed input and continual education and training to do their task. These were people who were fanatics.

If you take on the role of an elder in the local church, you have to be a bit of a fanatic. You have to be the kind of person who is willing to travel 63 miles on foot to be at the elder’s conference. Now I know a lot of people would say – of course I would travel 63 miles to hear Paul. But that’s only after 2000 years of knowing how successful his ministry was. The Ephesians saw Paul as the bloke who started the church, the travelling apostle who seems to get more attacks and more criticism than actual results. Yet, they knew he was worth travelling to hear because they were people who were spiritual fanatics. Good elders love their pastors and apostles, and they weren’t sitting around going “surely it’s easier for Paul to travel to us, rather than us all having to go to him… who does he think he is”… they were too busy thinking of the adventure of going to Miletus to hear the Word. That’s a good attitude for anyone to have, but it is essential for elders. Grumbling, selfish attitudes in elders will destroy a church. I wonder if Paul held the conference that far away just to see who would come. I think part of the reason was to get these guys away from the church to give them a rest as well as a conference, but I also reckon part of the reason was Paul was finding out where the elder’s hearts were.

When they arrived, Paul didn’t open up the Scriptures to them but rather started reminding them about his ministry and his life when he planted the church (vv. 18-19):

And when they had come to him, he said to them,

“You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time,serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews;

I find this a staggering opening to the conference. Paul gets in the pulpit and basically preaches on his humility and what he did for the church. To the elders – who Paul appointed. The elders would have no influence, no ministry, no life – a lot of them wouldn’t be Christians without Paul coming to Ephesus to plant the church. They would not be doing what they were doing, and through Paul’s teaching and ministry they have matured and they have become who they are.

Why would Paul then need to remind them so strenuously of his ministry among them and how he served the Lord. He goes on to tell the Ephesian elders the following:

how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul is telling the elders he put in place that his ministry was good for them. (As an aside, notice when Paul planted the Ephesian church and was the pastor of the church, he taught publicly and from house to house. In other words, there was a public meeting and house meetings and Paul visited both. That’s how church should be done: a big meeting where the pastor preaches and teachers, and then the house meetings run by elders with the pastor going from meeting to meeting to encourage and support and teach. Many people today are finding the value of house meetings and ditching the big meeting – no Paul did both, the church in Jerusalem did both, and healthy church in the 21st century needs both. People who are not involved in local church in both large pastor preaching meetings AND house meetings are alien to the New Covenant). I find it amazing that Paul told the elders about his ministry – they were there, they knew it, they witnessed it. They owed their ministries to Paul planting the church. They surely didn’t need reminding of that – even after travelling 63 miles to hear it!

But they did. The elders of the church needed to be reminded that their ministries are appointed by the pastor, and that they should be reminiscent of the pastor’s ministry. They needed to be reminded that their message should be his message, that their heart should be his heart. They needed to be reminded that they need to preach repentance and faith like he preached repentance and faith. Their role as elders was to take his apostolic message and reproduce it to the people, not sit in their house and go “I’m not sure about this repentance stuff”, or “faith isn’t really necessary today”. And there are elders in churches that don’t even understand repentance and faith, and the role of elders. And Paul is taking these guys and reminding them! That is good pastoring. That is great wisdom.

If you are a pastor, take your elders away and remind them of your life and ministry. Let them know the heart of the message you preach. Take a leaf out of Paul’s book and plan a leadership conference. That’s what I am planning now – to take our elders deeper into the Word, to get them aligned better with the core values and culture of the church. Elders – not people with a title but people who are discipling people in their house on a consistent and supervised manner – are the heart of your church. Get the heart right and everything else will be right.

If you are an elder, get with the programme. Realize how much you owe your pastor and appreciate him or her. Grasp the core values of your church and give those. Make sure you know what repentance and faith are! Be ready to travel!

NEXT WEEK: what else did Paul teach the elders. Essential information you need to know!

Pastors and Elders (part 1)

The local church should be run the way that the Word of God teaches, not according to tradition and not according to man’s opinions.

There is so much ignorance in this area that it is amazing some churches manage to keep their doors open at all! In the next few weeks, I intend to show from Scripture the way a church should be structured.

The source of authority in any given local church is the pastor. The pastor submits to Jesus Christ – in fact the whole body of Christ should submit to and honour Jesus Christ – and should be submitted to Jesus every day of his life. As he prepares sermons, as he preaches, as he pastors and cares, as he helps people in their marriage, as he prays, as he ministers to the sick, as he appoints elders, as he trains and makes disciples. You see Jesus is the head of the church: the Father made it that way. The Father put Jesus in charge of the church, and even the Holy Spirit will do nothing in the local church without the instruction and Lordship of Jesus! The Holy Spirit, the Father and Jesus are all equal, and yet they are able to accept instructions from one another and still have unity and love. You can have submission and equality at the same time. If the child doesn’t agree with the father, it doesn’t make the child any less human or any less wonderful than the father, it just means that they recognize that he is the one in charge of the household. If the father does a good job and follows the Word and love, then the children will respect and love and obey him. If he does a bad job, he’ll probably still get obedience, but never respect and submission. Obedience without submission is self-defeating, it will never work.

Your own body works on the principles of submission and authority. Imagine if your hand didn’t do exactly what your head said. You would say your hand was sick! In the human body, every limb obeys and submits to the head. The body can get sick, but it doesn’t deliberately disobey the head – it recognizes that it is the same body!

When God puts authority into place – God always chooses authority that is from the same body. Authority that loves the body, that wants the best for the body, that knows the body. Christ died for the whole church. Ladies, marry someone who loves you as Christ loves the church. People do not cut or hurt their own body for fun – if they do, they get locked up. People look after their bodies.

True heads love the body! Jesus loves the church. Fathers love their children. And good pastors love their church!

The pastor is in charge of the local church. He loves the church. That’s why he can be in authority in the local church. He is like the head of the body, like the father in the family, and like the Father over Jesus.

Now listen: decapitation in 100% of cases ends up with death. Heads need bodies and bodies need heads. They don’t survive long without each other. Husbands – you need your wife. You need her wisdom and her guidance. She is your helpmeet! Pastors – you could not survive without the local church, it completes you. And don’t ever, ever think you don’t need a pastor and don’t need a local church. You absolutely do! God posts pastors into position, and he posts people into local churches. Ephesians 4.11 says that Jesus Christ gave some men and women to be pastors to equip the saints. If you are a pastor, you need the saints. If you are a saint, you need a pastor. It’s that simple.

The Greek word for pastor is poimen and it is the same word as shepherd. You can read in TImothy and Titus that the pastor appoints elders in local churches. The Greek word for elder is presbuteros and it means someone who is experienced – to be an elder in a local church you need experience of the Word, experience in dealing with people and experience in dealing with life. Next week, we will discuss elders as a lot has been said about them in the Word. But let’s this week conclude by looking at the pastor: the pastor is the shepherd of the flock, the leader of the local church: and to be a good shepherd he has to make good decisions about the sheep. He has to make the final decisions concerning the flock, he has to ensure they are fed well with the Word. The pastor needs to be a man of the Word – he can delegate many functions, but he cannot delegate the feeding of the sheep. God has given every pastor the ability to dig into the Word and create sermons that feed the sheep, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit will be on those messages to change lives and inspire dreamers and challenge people to make good decisions.

Peter has some great wisdom for pastors at the end of his first epistle:

The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. (1 Peter 5.1-4)

In this passage Peter starts off talking about elders, but not just any elders – he is talking about the pastors who are reading the letter. How did I see Peter talking about pastors here – because v.2 when it says “Feed the flock of God” actually says “Pastor the flock of God”, using the Greek word for pastor. Peter was a pastor and an elder. In fact, every pastor should be an elder – who wants a pastor who is not experienced? But as soon as Peter says PASTOR the flock, we know that he is talking to pastors. Every elder should be a small-p pastor, looking after and shepherding people; but pastors are a particular gift from God to equip the body of Christ and to appoint elders. So not every elder is a pastor, but every pastor should be an elder. But actually, the pastor is the chief elder of a church. Next Peter tells the pastors to take oversight of the flock of God – that is the pastor’s job to look over the flock.

Notice Peter is telling the pastor – take oversight. He is saying “Pastor, do something. Develop leaders. Take charge. Run the ministry! Do what needs to be done!” Pastors shouldn’t be on their knees praying for God to lead the church and show people stuff, and correct people. The pastor needs to be on His knees asking for wisdom, then get up and with boldness and compassion oversee the flock of God.

Now we all know that has been abused – Peter saw that coming too, and qualifies his statement. He tells the pastor to oversee willingly, without compulsion or constraint. Never pastor because you have to! Do it because you are called to and your heart burns to. Otherwise, go back to selling insurance or accounting. I am not disparaging selling insurance or accounting, but I am saying that you must do what you are called to do. People not called to pastor and who find the pastoral ministry so much pressure are going to hurt the sheep. It’s that simple.

Then Peter says don’t do it for financial gain. It’s like Peter is looking into the future there! I know a number of people who are in the ministry for money. Never do that. I asked the Lord that I would know I am not doing it for the money. Within a month another church, not the Tree, offered me more than double my salary, a company car and a rent-free house to be their pastor. I turned it down in an instant, but now I know money does not drive me – the love of the church drives me. That’s not saying a pastor shouldn’t be paid well – he should. But money is not motive!

Then finally – and again it’s like Peter can see the 21st century charismatic church – he tells pastors not to be the lords over the heritage of God. Do you realize that your people are the HERITAGE OF GOD! They are not your legacy, they are God’s legacy. You don’t own the people, but you are responsible for them – they don’t answer to you, they answer to God. God owns them. You have to feed them, inspire them, challenge them. But when they walk out the door of the service, then you have to relax and rest and let them be: because whether they believe and receive or doubt and do without is up to them! That doesn’t mean your heart doesn’t bleed for them, that you stop loving them, but that you give up control of them to the Lord their rightful owner. You can lead them to still water and green grass, but you cannot force them to eat and drink, no matter how good for them you know it will be!

Don’t become a little dictator, even out of the best intentions. Love the people and be an example. I never ask anyone in the Tree to do anything I am not prepared to do myself. That’s what being an example means.

Now can you see the legitimate chain of command in the local church: the chief Shepherd is Jesus. He rewards the pastor. So Jesus connects directly with the pastor. The pastor is an elder. So Jesus is the chief pastor, and the pastor is the chief elder. Each identifies with and leads the next one. Jesus even though he is Lord of all has never stopped being a pastor. I don’t care how awesome your church is – never stop developing the qualities of an elder. If a pastor stops having an open house and stops having people round his house he is no longer hospitable. Therefore he is not qualified to be an elder. How can a pastor expect every elder to open their house up to the church and show hospitality to people, when he won’t do it himself. in the qualities of those below him.

So, pastors be elders and shepherd and oversee the flock. Don’t do it for money and don’t become a dictator, but remember the church is God’s heritage not yours.

Flock – learn to listen to your pastor. He is put in place by God to equip and love you.

Elders – what you do will be revealed next week.

Grace and peace,

Benjamin