Insights Into The Covid-19 Church Era –Part XXXX
“Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)
“Christ gave some as apostles, as prophets, as evangelists, and some as the pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for works of service, to build up the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity in the faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-14)
We are willing to go into deep debt for a secular college degree, a present investment to prepare for one’s future. I invested in a four year Bachelor’s degree to get my job as a public school teacher and a two-year Master’s degree to maintain it. That investment turned into a 40-year career. With the effects of Covid-19 on our economy and a fluctuating job market, job security has become obsolete.
Before the pastor’s sermon each Sunday, the saints hear the financial pitch to invest in the kingdom of God. In what are they investing? How does that investment affect them personally? Old Wineskin budgets reveal an investment in staff salaries and benefits, mortgage and maintenance for a building, insurances, office expenditures, worship team expenses or new choir gowns, program costs, missionary funds, and a small benevolence fund. Professional staff development comes through attending “Leadership Conferences”, popular Pre-Covid-19 experiences, but church leadership is also measured by academic degrees and courses. What is missing here is the investment into the laity, the saints for works of service.” Old wineskins dictate that the staff gets paid to do the work; we don’t train the laity to do it.
Most Bible Studies, Sunday School Lessons, and sermons are academic dissertations to a passive audience that really don’t “equip the saints or works of service,” or call them into action. When Covid-19 closed down their building and programs, most Christians were clueless what to do. They had not been prepared to do anything but be passive, so they passively sat on their sofas and watched virtually prepared academic sermons. Although using new technology, the old wineskins produced the same old results, the old wine of passivity. Old wine seeks old wineskins, and Christians ran back to their pews once Covid-19 restrictions were lifted. How much of your local church budget goes towards “equipping the saints for works of service?” What services are they performing? Ushering, Nursery, Janitorial Duties, Parking Attendant, etc.? What services are for professional staff only?
What new wineskin is available? Ephesians 4:7 states, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.” What were those grace gifts? The passion and heart of a apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher to be released through believers in Jesus to bring unity in the body and advance the kingdom of God. The Great Commission says we are to make “disciples” not “professional leaders” by “equipping the saints” for the express purpose of doing “works of service.”
Instead of rushing our twenty-year old believers into leadership roles, the Church needs to equip, train, and mentor them by walking by their side as apprentices. If they have a heart of an evangelist, have them walk the streets with an older, more mature evangelist. If they have a heart to shepherd and care for the flock, the body of Christ, have them co-shepherd with an older, more mature shepherd. If they have the heart to teach, have them “walk” with a teacher, not academically, but practically as the disciples did with Jesus. If prophetic, have them spend time with seasoned prophets. If apostolic, have them walk the walk beside another mature apostle. We who are older in the faith must learn to put the mantle we wear upon other younger believers. When the mantle finally fits them, it is imperative we release them. After a time of practicing it alone, they may begin to invest in someone younger and newer. This investment will not be determined in dollars and cents, but in time and effort.
Instead of rushing our twenty-year old believers into leadership roles, the Church needs to equip, train, and mentor them by walking by their side as apprentices. If they have a heart of an evangelist, have them walk the streets with an older, more mature evangelist. If they have a heart to shepherd and care for the flock, the body of Christ, have them co-shepherd with an older, more mature shepherd. If they have the heart to teach, have them “walk” with a teacher, not academically, but practically as the disciples did with Jesus. If prophetic, have them spend time with seasoned prophets. If apostolic, have them walk the walk beside another mature apostle. We who are older in the faith must learn to put the mantle we wear upon other younger believers. When the mantle finally fits them, it is imperative we release them. After a time of practicing it alone, they may begin to invest in someone younger and newer. This investment will not be determined in dollars and cents, but in time and effort.
Instead of rushing our twenty-year old believers into leadership roles, the Church needs to equip, train, and mentor them by walking by their side as apprentices. If they have a heart of an evangelist, have them walk the streets with an older, more mature evangelist. If they have a heart to shepherd and care for the flock, the body of Christ, have them co-shepherd with an older, more mature shepherd. If they have the heart to teach, have them “walk” with a teacher, not academically, but practically as the disciples did with Jesus. If prophetic, have them spend time with seasoned prophets. If apostolic, have them walk the walk beside another mature apostle. We who are older in the faith must learn to put the mantle we wear upon other younger believers. When the mantle finally fits them, it is imperative we release them. After a time of practicing it alone, they may begin to invest in someone younger and newer. This investment will not be determined in dollars and cents, but in time and effort.
Instead of rushing our twenty-year old believers into leadership roles, the Church needs to equip, train, and mentor them by walking by their side as apprentices. If they have a heart of an evangelist, have them walk the streets with an older, more mature evangelist. If they have a heart to shepherd and care for the flock, the body of Christ, have them co-shepherd with an older, more mature shepherd. If they have the heart to teach, have them “walk” with a teacher, not academically, but practically as the disciples did with Jesus. If prophetic, have them spend time with seasoned prophets. If apostolic, have them walk the walk beside another mature apostle. We who are older in the faith must learn to put the mantle we wear upon other younger believers. When the mantle finally fits them, it is imperative we release them. After a time of practicing it alone, they may begin to invest in someone younger and newer. This investment will not be determined in dollars and cents, but in time and effort.
Throughout Paul’s journeys there is recorded a ton of young men who he names in his letters in whom he had invested in. By the time he would leave a town, he built up believers so they could stand alone, even in the face of persecution. He never had to call in “professionals” to minister of his new converts in a new city; he equipped the locals before he left. If a clergy properly equipped his laity the 10 years he is at a local church, he should not have to be replaced when he leaves or retires. A body naturally reproduces new cells over time to replace old ones and remain healthy.
Christians must ask themselves in this Covid-19 era not into what are they truly investing but into whom they are investing and how. That is a new mindset, a new wineskin.