“Positional Servitude”
Part 1
Ephesians 4:11-16
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets,
some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the
saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of
Christ, 13 till
we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ; 14 that
we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with
every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness
of deceitful plotting, 15 but,
speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole
body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the
effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body
for the edifying of itself in love.
Many ministry leaders are impotent in
their service to God because there are individuals serving in positions they
have not been qualified to possess. Some
pastors have become overwhelmed because they have become a one man army instead
of an army of one body. God never
intended for one person to do EVERYTHING!
In Exodus 18, Moses’ father-in-law
observed as Moses was judging Israel.
After he saw how Moses conducted business, he told Moses, Man you’re going
to kill yourself! Then he wisely instructed
Moses to choose capable leaders to judge the small issues and to bring the most
difficult issues to Moses. Some pastors
are expected to visit people in the hospital, bury the dead, counsel everyone,
conduct weddings, feed the hungry, etc.
One person cannot do E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G! Do you know why deacons were chosen? The
deacons were selected to fulfill the day to day responsibilities that would
prohibit the Apostles from spending adequate time studying and preaching the
word of God. Many churches have deacons
and ministers who are unfruitful and lazy.
The position of deacon and minister are not given so that certain individuals
may have specialized seating. If the
person is not functioning in the capacity that the positions require, capable
people should be replacing them. I know
that it can be a difficult choice to remove people from leadership positions. However, if they are not a benefit to the
people, they need to be replaced. One
way to determine if an individual is mature in the faith is to observe their
response to correction. If they are not
mature in the faith, they may leave. If
they do, that will be one less problem to deal with.
No one obtains spiritual maturity overnight
and we ALL need time and opportunity to grow, but there should be a certain
amount of growth BEFORE people assume positions. The Bible teaches us that there should be a
testing phase BEFORE people step into various positions. In Matthew 19, a young man came to Jesus
wanting to know how he could obtain eternal life. Jesus’ response was for him to keep the
commandments. The young man acknowledged
that he had observed the commandments all of his life. Jesus then instructed him to sell all of his
possessions and give the money to the poor.
The young man had no desire to comply with these instructions and he left. Guess what Jesus did? HE LET HIM GO! Jesus didn’t run after him and try to
convince him to stay and He did not change the requirements in order to appease
him. Jesus gave him a choice and the young
man chose his possessions.
Many people in our current culture would
call Jesus’ actions hardcore and unloving, but God has standards and He
requires us to live up to them. God is
also a just God and the only reason He would require us to relinquish anything
is because it doesn’t benefit us in our relationship with Him. He will replace whatever we have given up with the things He wants us to have. But He wants to be our FIRST choice. Jesus did not cater to people’s expectations
and He doesn’t expect us to compromise His principles either. If a person cannot support a ministry or
pastor without having a title or position, they are not a benefit to that
ministry or the kingdom of God, and if they desire to leave, so be it. Leaders who serve under the leader of a
ministry are required by God to support the vision of the leader as they have
received it from God. God expects those
who have been chosen for support to do just that: support.
If a person is unable to support what the leader has instituted, they are no longer qualified to serve in that
capacity or they need to relocate to a ministry that they can support. God will not approve of mutiny or disorder.
