People who follow the teachings of Jesus Christ are taught that pastors, teachers and various leaders of the faith are in positions of responsibility to equip others to undertake works that God has prepared for them in advance.
They are to illuminate the reality of God
This seems to imply that Christian leaders are to mentor, equip, train and empower people to face situations and opportunities that God has already constructed so that those trained would be able to help those within their sphere of influence taste and see the practical goodness of God.
I therefore have the following musings...
- If leaders are mentors/teachers and spiritually gifted people who enable others to undertake God’s work and impact the local and global environment; does that not imply that the congregation, denomination or church, the multitude of people who follow the teachings of Jesus should be significantly impacting their community with acts that emphasize the reality of the Christian kingdom culture? Should the people who are taught not also be better known than the people who mentor them? As there are more people in the body of faith than the people who are leading, mentoring and teaching.
By simple mathematics, therefore, students should have more impact than the teachers as one of the reasons for teaching others is so that a magnified impact will occur . After all, Jesus told his disciples that they would do greater things than he did.
2. Could this imply that if leaders of a faith are more known or have a greater personal impact than the totality of the
people they are teaching then the body of the faith is not being equipped appropriately?
If the body of a church is trained and is undertaking the works that God has prepared for them then they are the ones who should be widely known within their environment and sphere of influence and not the church leaders who do the training.
However, there can be a tendency for charismatic leaders to be the face of a church or ministry and they are the ones that people flock to. If this ancient teaching is correct it should be that people flock to a church or a Christian gathering because of the impact and influence of the people meeting at that assembly.
People need to be attracted by the community of faith as a whole because of the reputation and impact that body of people has within their sphere of influence through the works God has prepared for them to undertake.
3. It would seem that a church, ministry or congregation that has leaders that are more well known than
the total impact of the people they teach, could have significant imbalances to address. Either because:-
- leaders have too great a control and are using the body to empower their own “ministry and or identity”. Or
- because of students who are unable or unwilling to undertake the works that God has prepared for them.
In the book of Acts chapter 2 the section starts with the impact of the Apostles but finished with the impact of the people who had been taught and mentored.
Ephesians 2:10, Ephesians 4:11, Acts 2!!!!
