Jesus, the Leader Maker

Elder Ben McBeth shared .

Slide 1: (Recap) The Four Secrets to a Thriving Church Family

1. Servant Leadership

2. Passionate and Authentic Spirituality

3. Committed and Active Laity

4. God-exalting Worship

Where we are Today

1. Servant Leadership

a. Faith-based Optimism

b. The Biblical Role of a Spiritual Leader – Jesus (Today)

c. Leader-making – Equipping and Motivating Others (Next Week)

Faith-based Optimism and You

1. It affects your perspective on God

2. It affects your witnessing and evangelism

3. It affects your attitude about church ministry and outreach

The Biblical Role of a Spiritual Leader

You may be asking, why should we explore the Biblical role of spiritual leaders? I’m not a spiritual leader, I am just a member of this church. Well, for one, understanding the Biblcal role of spiritual leaders will help me and your future pastors focus on what truely matters and will help you have realistic expectations of pastors.

Much of the pastors time is spent “putting out fires” which prevents us from focusing on...

For many centuries people viewed the role of pastors as “servant-caregiver[s]”, who teach and preach doctrine , are spiritual caregivers through visitation, “counseling, comforting, meeting the needs of people, etc, perform rites of passages (baptisms, weddings, and funerals), administration” (chairing meetings, coming up with novel church programs, and hopefully reaching out to the community through evangelistic efforts that will lead to… baptisms, the more the merrier.

Around the 1970 and 80s a new model of ministry started to emerge that promoted the role of the pastor as a CEO, or visionary leader who motivates and rallies the people to do great things that will impact and change society.

This new model seeks to import business principles into the church, which on the surface sounds good, but it has led to people following charismatic, eloquent leaders, worship services that are solely directed by professional musicians, that focus on congregationalism, rather than a global mission, and establishing megachurches instead of healthy churches.

Kidder, S. Joseph. The Big Four . Review and Herald 174; Publishing Association. Kindle Edition.

It’s high time we get back to the Bible, don’t you agree? Jesus lived out five principles that epitomize not spiritual caregiving, spiritual presidentialism, but servant leadership.

The first of these principles is,

Communing with His Father

After Jesus taught multitudes, restored sight to the blind, enabled the dumb to speak, healed the sick, freed people from demon possesion and raised the dead back to life, he felt drained and sought restoration through close commuion with the Father.

Luke 6:12 CSB

12 During those days he went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God.

After hearing Jesus preach, people often said, “No man ever spoke like this man.” Do you know why? It’s because no man ever prayed like this man, no man ever prioritized intimacy with the Father like this man.

Prayer was Jesus’s source of power; in fact, he considered prayer a necessity.

His humanity made prayer a necessity and a privilege. He found comfort and joy in communion with His Father. And if the Saviour of men, the Son of God, felt the need of prayer, how much more should feeble, sinful mortals feel the necessity of fervent, constant prayer.

Ellen Gould White, Steps to Christ (Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1892), 94.

Any measure of “success” that I have in ministry I owe to prayer. I keep a detailed prayer log with the date the prayer request was received and the date it was answered. Sometimes it takes years or months, but sometimes it has taken but a few days. I can tell you story upon story, of how God has been so merciful and faithful in answering my prayers. Marriages saved, the sick healed, relationships restored, impossible situations tackled in remarkable ways. Oh my friends, God is so Good!!!!!

Preaching & Teaching the Gospel

Jesus was always declaring the good news of God’s love for humanity.

Luke 4:18–19 CSB

18 The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

The Word of God has such power, and all of you are living testimonies to the power of God’s Word.

Jesus had developed a love for God’s Word from an early age on his mother’s knee, and harnessed the power of the Word to set captives free, and defeat the devil in his attempts to thwart his mission to save humanity from the eternal death penalty.

Kidder states, “The pastor should always lead people to a better understanding and living of the Word of God.”

Kidder, S. Joseph. The Big Four . Review and Herald® Publishing Association. Kindle Edition.

There are five critical things that knowing and living the principles of the Word does for us,

God’s Word gives us life (Phil. 2:16).

God’s Word can make us righteous (1 Cor. 15:1, 2).

God’s Word can produce growth (1 Peter 2:2).

God’s Word sanctifies us (John 17:17).

God’s Word gives us wisdom (Ps. 119:98).

Kidder, S. Joseph. The Big Four . Review and Herald® Publishing Association. Kindle Edition.

Please note, theoretical knowledge of the Word without practically applying the Word will do nothing for us. In fact, I dare say, we will become a curse to God’s work and used by the enemy to wreak havoc if we remain theoretical Christians. No, friends, God is looking for practical Chrsitians.

Desire of Ages Chapter 17—Nicodemus

It is not theoretical knowledge you need so much as spiritual regeneration. You need not to have your curiosity satisfied, but to have a new heart. You must receive a new life from above before you can appreciate heavenly things. Until this change takes place, making all things new, it will result in no saving good for you to discuss with Me My authority or My mission.

I love seeing lives transformed through the Word. It never ceases to amaze me, witness God change the most vulgar, calous individuals to docile, teachable lambs.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 (CSB)

13 This is why we constantly thank God, because when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is, the word of God, which also works effectively in you who believe.

[Quickly expound]

Meeting the Needs of People

Over and over in the gospels, we read how upon seeing the people, the Jesus had compassion on them. Jesus saw every person as a candidate for the kingdom that needed love, direction, and to be shown that somebody cared for them deeply.

Ministry of Healing Medical Missionaries and Their Work

Christ’s method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, “Follow Me.”

“Notice the progressive steps that Christ took in witnessing, which shows us how we can, through an intimate relationship with Him, follow the same pattern to bring love, power, and compassion to those around us.”

Christ associated with others and sought their good.

He sympathized with them.

He ministered to their needs.

He won their confidence.

He invited them to follow Him.

Kidder, S. Joseph. The Big Four . Review and Herald 174; Publishing Association. Kindle Edition.

Prayer without caring for people is self-centered and pointless. Could it be that so few pray, be so few really care? You will find yourself spending hours in prayer when you genuinely enter the lives of people.

Made Disciples through the Spirit

Jesus chose twelve men and carefully taught and modeled for them how to live the Christian life and minister to the needs of people. Refering to Robert Coleman’s book The Master Plan of Evangelism, Kidder says,

“His concern was not with programs to reach the multitudes, but with men whom the multitudes would follow. . . . Men were to be His method of winning the world to God.”

Kidder, S. Joseph. The Big Four . Review and Herald 174; Publishing Association. Kindle Edition.

Programs don’t lead people to Jesus, programs don’t change lives, it’s people used by God who change people.

My fondest experiences in my Christian walk to date have been being part of a small group who met regulary during the week, ate together, prayed together, sang together, worshipped togther, studied the Word together, and ministered to the needs of people together.

As a pastor who minister’s to three congregations and nonSDAs, I no longer have that luxury, but you can?

More will be said about that in coming weeks.

Live a Life of Service & Sacrifice

Jesus epitomized the concept of servant leadership by stating and living these words,

Mark 10:45 CSB

45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus lived a life of total selflessness that culminated in his death on a cross

Philippians 2:5–9 NASB 2020

5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross. 9 For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,

Kidder points out that Jesus’s life teaches us two things that Spiritual Leaders must do.

Live a life of giving, giving of time, resources, and life.

Give our lives in sacrificial giving—even to the point of death

Now you know the Biblical role of a Spiritual leader, but guess what? Spiritual leadership does not begin and end with pastors.

Desire of Ages Chapter 19—At Jacob’s Well

Every true disciple is born into the kingdom of God as a missionary. He who drinks of the living water becomes a fountain of life. The receiver becomes a giver.

This tells me that you are all ministers! We are a priesthood of believers. Every single person here has the potential to become a great spiritual leader. Imagine that, a church full of people who embody these five principles.

Commune with the Father

Preach & Teach the Gospel

Meet the Needs of People

Make Disciples through the Spirit

Live a life of Service and Sacrifice

John 20:21 (NKJV)

21 […], “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”