Office of Administration: Moving Vision From Fantasy to Reality.

Office of Administration: Moving Vision From Fantasy to Reality.

1 Corinthians 12:28 NKJV

28And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.

1. Administrator is an office: Like that of any of the five fold Ministers.

• God builds pastors (and any other minister)or people and purpose .

• “ My Ministry” is not mine. It belongs to the Lord .

• Whatever gifting or callingsI possess come from the Lord; because of that fact, Father builds my gifts and callings for the ministry that he has for me.

• Just like any other gifts, there are levels to which we are willing to grow into. Sometimes, God will call someone to be a bi-vocational administrator, likewise God might call someone to be a bi-vocational pastor.

2. A vision has to be clear before you can administrate

Habakkuk 2:2NKJV

2Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.

• “write the vision down and make it plain.” writing it down and making it plain is an act of administration.

• to write it down is one thing; to make it plain is another thing all together! Making it plain is often an act of administration.

How do we make it plain? That is the question we must ask before taking the action of administration!

· We ask the reporters questions.

· Who is it for?

· Who is going to do it?

· How long are we doing it for?

· How much will it cost?

· How does it fit in the Vision?

· Where is the money coming from?

· What is our measure of success?

· When do we grade its effectiveness?

· Who will champion the cause?

· Are there any others I didn’t think of ?

3. As we determine our vision, and making it plain, we have to decide our priorities.

Matthew 28:18–20 NKJV

18And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

• here is the great commission: the mission of the Church in the words of Jesus.

Matthew 28:18NKJV

18And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

• all authority has been given to Jesus in heaven and on earth, this is a pretty heavy set up for the command that is fixing to come.

Matthew 28:19NKJV

19Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

• we are called to make disciples…

Think about the life of a believer, think about the church, think about all the aspects of the walk of faith. Now write a definition of discipleship that encompasses all aspects of our lives

› this is your homework this week don’t go cheap.

Notice the first word in the great commission is GO.

• Thinking about the passage makes me think that the “go” is a significant part of the great commission.

• The call to go can be enough to keep any church from going stale or can keep them so busy that busyness can cause us to be stale.

• This is a cause for prayer.

• This is exactly why we need to keep the drama to a minimum so that those who are called to lead us can spend their time in feeding and prayer and discipling directly.

• Think about the “go” requirement in the great commission and the stay requirement as well. To teach is one of those stay requirements. this is where the truth has an opportunity to set up in our lives.

• Then there are the life situations that teach us spiritual truth.

• When I say “Spiritual truth” I mean truth that is not directly derived from scripture, rather the whole counsel of God’s Word informs my behavior.

All nations,

• Of course we know the word ethnos means people groups.

• How many different “people groups are there in Abilene?

› have the white board ready for writing down the different groups of people the students mention. Press them hard make them think of different people groups.

• Do we have any idea who are reaching each of these ethnos?

• How are they reaching them?

• What room do we have in what God has called us to for some of these people?

• What things in what we are already doing could be slightly changed or adapted to make room for another “people group?”

• Do we (not just me) believe in the work we are doing here to spend some time every week in prayer over these things?

• These prayers would include:

• Lord where might you be leading us in reaching Abilene for the gospel?

• Lord what people are we ignoring that you have called us to?

• Lord who are you calling to champion these people?

• Who are you calling to stand with the champion?

• What resources are needed?

• What should we do ?

• When should we start?

Baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit.

• While Phillip did Baptize the Ethiopian eunuch right away, (Acts 8:26–40), it is not the norm in a non-saturated culture. the American south in general and Abilene TX in specific are saturated cultures. Saturated cultures in general are those cultures where the claims of Christ and the gospel are generally understood even by people outside the church.

• Later on in the second century we see that believers are encouraged to wait a year before baptism because once you where baptized you could end up lion food or a streetlamp. (burned at the steak for believing in Jesus).

• In a post Christian world, we may have to do a little more teaching than in previous generations. We are in a post Christian world. Our morality is not the norm. Our morality is considered antiquated.

• Since that is the case, we are going to have to truly know the truth, not just spout the truth.

Teaching them to observe all things that I have Commanded you.

• This is what the Church is good at now; teaching and worship.

• In order for us to have leaders who have been through some sort of process we need to have administration to promote growth.

• There are things that we will put leaders through to judge their willingness.

Some of those things might be:

• Straightning the sanctuary.

• Cleaning the church

• Cleaning the bathrooms

• Driving the van

• Running the benevolence ministry

• Dealing with difficult members.

• Running the outreach.

• Training workers.

• Leading ministries.

• Enforcing polices.

• In this way we see what is spotlight and what is calling.

• There will be times no matter how high you get that you will have to return to cleaning a bathroom or driving a van. When you are serving God, it won’t feel like a demotion it will be a part of service.