clcgh.org Building The Capacity Of Christian Leaders, Equipping The Saints For The Work Of Ministry, Redirecting Straying Christians To The Sound Knowledge Of Christ
By James Quansah, Pastor.
THERE IS no denying the fact that there is the work of God being done in the world today. This work involves making humanity reconcile to God through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It includes snatching sinners from eternal damnation to eternal salvation, from poverty to true riches, from darkness to light, from captivity to freedom, from ignorance to knowledge, from blindness to sight and from oppression to liberty.
People who are engaged in this special work of God are called Christians, Holy Spirit-filled men and women, charged to actively participate in the ministry of God. Thus, Peter, the apostle, exhorts that “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another” (1 Peter 4:10). This means no true Christian should idle around with an excuse that he has no spiritual gift dispensed to them by the Holy Spirit.
However, beyond spiritual gifts which are generally given to every believer are the fivefold ministry gifts or what others call ascension gifts such as the apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral and teaching gifts. These are given to some Christians to perform leadership duties or play facilitative roles in the church. They are set in the church to equip the saints (believers) for the work of ministry.
In other words, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors/bishops and teachers are strategically placed in leadership positions in the church to see to the spiritual, mental, financial and educational growths of all believers to make them fit to serve one another as God would have them. Those who aspire to serve as apostle, prophet, evangelists, pastors or teachers are said to desire a noble task which is self-sacrificing job, decent job, moral job, polite job or principled job.
In this article, we use the pastoring office to represent all the other leadership offices in the church. These days, many Christians, who love to be recognized and respected in society, flaunt themselves as pastors when they have not actually received adequate preparation to serve by Christ-like character and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Most of them pay huge amount of money to be ordained, decorated with strange sacerdotal garments and ascribed with unbiblical ecclesiastical titles.
They forget that Christian ministry and doing God’s work in particular has nothing or least to do with titles and special uniforms. They also lose sight of the fact that pastoring is not a job for the boys and girls. We are not talking about number of one’s age here, but adequate preparation leading to suitable qualification for pastoring a church or community of believers. Certainly, boys and girls may minister to God and the church under the tutelage of mature believers or leaders until they are well equipped spiritually.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Head of the church did not just hit the street one day, claiming to be the peerless good shepherd/pastor. John the Baptist introduced Him. And before He was announced to the world, He had been hidden and prepared for years. When He was a boy, He did not call Himself as a pastor. Instead, He committed Himself to sitting under the feet of the teachers of the Law, listening to them and asking questions (Luke 2:46).
And He had to fast 40 days and 40 nights, and avail Himself for temptation by the devil. These, He did, before He commenced His public ministry, destroying the works of the devil. Thus, Christ Jesus did not do the work of God as a boy but as a man, full of the Holy Spirit, power, wisdom and grace. This enabled Him to endure campaign of calumny against Him without answering His critics.
Similarly, the life of Samuel teaches us that pastoring is not a job for boys. He never was given the responsibility of leadership in the midst of the congregation of Israel until he was properly prepared and qualified for it. When Samuel was a boy, he could only minister to the LORD under the guidance of Eli, his father in the Lord (1 Samuel 3:1). But when Samuel matured he was able to do the work of God independently as a prophet (1 Samuel 3:19).
Solomon was also humble enough to recognise his limitation and obvious inability to shepherd the people of God as a little child when he ascended the throne of his father, David. As a boy, Solomon knew his incapability to lead effectively, envisaged the possibility of making bad decisions which would dishonor the name of God. Though Solomon was obviously prepared, he still prayed to God for an understanding mind to govern and be able to discern between good and evil (1 Kings 3:5-9).
To be continued.
James Quansah is the Executive Director of Christ-Conscious Leadership Centre (CLC) and lead Pastor of End-Time Christ’s Commissioners (ECC), Kumasi, Ghana. James is also a journalist by profession. He is married with four children.
