Empowering The Pastor Empowering The Church

He (Jesus Himself) called some to be Apostles, some to be Prophets, some to Evangelist, some to be Pastors and some to be teachers.  And He did so to equip the saints, or people of God, to do the work of the ministry. He did this to edify, or build up the body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-12
God almighty is all about giving power to the Pastor to fulfill the Pastor's calling. This fulfillment of this sacred calling, in turn,  will empower God's people in each and everyone's ministry to which God is calling them; yet, somewhere along the line, something happened.  Pastors, for some reason, have become "The Minister" in each congregation, and absolutely nothing could be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, Jesus actually hated this form of ministry style, which will disempower God's people, make a church's community impact highly ineffective, and the average Christ Follower's spiritual journey  will resultantly become anemic.
MORE BANG FOR THE $BUCK$
When I served in the U.S. Air Force, I use to hear from our commanders that they wanted to get "more bang for the buck."  In other words they wanted to have a greater war fighting capability for as inexpensive a cost as possible. This is especially true in the war we are now experiencing that seems like it will never end.  For some reason Christ-Followers have forgotten about the dangers of spiritual warfare.  As a matter of fact, few even seem to acknowledge such a thing exist.  So, the evil one convinces people to sit back, believe that pew sitters are "just laity" and to convince the average church attender to "leave it to THE minister."
Consider this for a few moments:  Imagine, if their are one hundred and fifty other Ministers (laity)  in the congregation who have all kinds of gifts. Imagine these  Lay Ministers realize they are also called of God, just as the Pastor is called of God. Imagine them looking to God, via the Pastor, to be empowered to fulfill their work of ministry. Imagine each one of them getting energized and or empowered by The Holy Spirit of God to really take their calling seriously and, along with the Pastor, decide they need to take their power and make disciples. What is likely to happen when, not just one person, but a hundred and fifty people get intentional about building God's Kingdom.  You can see the dynamic outreach that will change lives, save souls, edify the church and bring about "more bang for the buck."
I have seen God pack a church full to overflowing multiple times when God's people accept their call and, with the Pastor, "set the world on fire."

 SoJourner

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