The leaders in a church (staff, deacons or
elders, teachers, administrators, musicians, etc.) are primarily to help God’s
people grow to Christlikeness. Or as Paul said, God gifted the
leaders “for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the
body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of
God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s
fullness” (Eph. 4:12-13).
This is every leader’s first and primary
responsibility. It is not merely setting goals and efficiently
organizing and running activities for church growth. God will “add
to the body” (i.e. take care of church growth). That is what
Christ promised to His disciples from the beginning: “I will build My church”
(Matt. 16:18).
Because I knew
that every leader, in whatever place of responsibility, was first assigned to
edify, I would have an instruction time at the beginning of each church year for
our church leaders. I would remind them not to put their
work or ministry assignment first. Their primary assignment was to
assist each member under their care toward Christlikeness. As
leaders, they were to work together to make sure this was accomplished.
For example, though the finance committee handled the financial matters
of the church, or the missions committee was to guide the church to be on
mission with God, it was still the primary task of each leader to help each
member of their committee to grow toward Christlikeness as disciples of
Him. It was in the context of their ministry assignment that their
primary assignment of building up the body could happen. IF they
were faithful to the primary assignment, they would get their work
done.
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A God-Centered Church by Henry and Melvin
Blackaby
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