Simple Church Minute 93--requirements for leadership

93—Requirements for leadership

THIS BLIP IS NOT ON FIRST RECORDING

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            I have mentioned in other blips that for a pastor/shepherd/teacher or any other ministry truly appointed by God, as opposed to any man or organization, that it is a function of gifting—both spiritual and natural, experience, maturity, faithfulness and obedience to the Holy Spirit, according to scripture.  Scripture says nothing about academic achievement or accreditation by any man or human organization.

            Natural gifting is our natural abilities—we believers have no more or less ability to use these as the unbeliever, with the note that occasionally the Holy Spirit will guide a person to specifically not use a natural gift for a reason.  Spiritual gifts are listed in Romans, Ephesians, and First Corinthians without a comment of whether this is a total list, and with the case of a number of gifts, little or no explanation of exactly what it is.  There is no explanation on any of the gifts as to why, other than no one has all of them.  One person I’ve heard has suggested that one of these gifts that seems worthless to the human mind is useful for exactly that reason—if the Creator of the universe wishes to give you something that you don’t see a use for, who are you or I to question his choice to give such a thing to you.  Experience and maturity makes all God’s gifts more powerful, as those are two aspects of wisdom.  Faithfulness is a quality that results in one receiving greater amounts of experience based on doing the right thing.  While God can use even our rebellious acts to His glory, it is a thing far better to be minimized.  Obedience to the Holy Spirit is putting that faithfulness into action.  Given the things we have seen of gifted persons publicly embarrassing themselves and, in turn, dishonoring Jesus and embarrassing fellow believers by their actions, it must be pointed out that obedience trumps gifting.  The Holy Spirit has given gifts of leadership to a sufficient amount of people that there is no need for any one believer to believe that he or she needs to be the mentor to more persons than he or she can physically and psychologically handle.  Jesus poured his life into 12, and possibly to a lesser degree, 70. 

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  For more info on organic church, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/ or (local website)  

Simple Church Minute 13--obedience in spiritual growth

13—obedience in spiritual growth

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            …if you try to go any further in life, you keep hitting the same old issues.  And you have to resolve that issue before you can grow anymore.

            I read these lines in a book by an author who isn’t a believer, and today I’m using them in a totally different context than he did, which is why I’m not giving the citation.*

In a believer’s life, this is a simple explanation of what growing spiritually is.  The Holy Spirit brings an issue of sin or obedience before you.  You can do things God’s way and change, or not.  If you choose not, you will find yourself stuck with regard to the Spirit while, in a different way, the same problem is brought up.  Once again, you have to choose God’s way or your own.  If you continue to refuse to repent and go God’s way on this issue, like the children of Israel in the desert, you can keep doing laps, and not get anywhere, and not be of use to God the way you could.  If you are in leadership, you’ll start getting by on what you can learn intellectually, or how you can entertain others, instead by the direction of the Holy Spirit.  You may begin to walk the road of false spirituality.  It may not show at first, or show to other persons, if one is cleaver, but it is not God’s best.  There is a secularly influenced Jewish doctrine called Divine Earthly Retribution, and many other people feel something similar.  The idea was that things are going well for a person, whether it is fame, money, or power, that person has God’s blessing, without regard to how ethical or unethical that person lives and works, without regard to how much they know it inside.  That idea wasn’t doctrinally valid in the Old Covenant, and even more so, it isn’t now for believers in the New.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  For more info on organic church*, go to http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at (local website).

On the recording, at this time, it says, “house churches.”  While that phrasing is OK, to say “organic church” is better.  I comment on that in blip 94.

*When I posted this blips to the internet, it was over a year after writing it originally.  I no longer even remember who said this, now.