If you have already had a physical exam, you will know that there are certain criteria for determining your health. Blood pressure, heart rate, weight, number of white blood cells in the blood . . . all of this will be reviewed. They sting him, mark him on the wrist, push him and interrogate him so that his health can be assessed.
A good doctor must be trained to discern health marks; if you don’t see them, you don’t help your patients.
- If you are called to be a pastor of a church.
- You should also be trained to look for signs of health.
- A pastor who doesn’t know what a healthy church looks like finds fresh air in any wind of doctrine.
- He becomes a novelty hunter.
- Often at work.
- But rarely builds anything with substance.
- Paul describes these kinds of Christians as “boys.
- Agitated back and forth and carried by all the wind of doctrine.
- By the artifice of men.
- By the cunning with which they deceive?(Ephesians 4:14).
It is ironic, but to truly enjoy health, the Church must exist for something beyond herself, that is, a healthy church is a church committed to something better and more important than herself and that is willing to sacrifice herself to achieve it. pastor is a man who can lead a church to make the sacrifices necessary for this to happen. Therefore, the key to a successful pastoral ministry is to help the church cultivate a heart for sacrifice.
Lose a lot to earn a lot
It is natural to think that the best way to protect a church is to safeguard its resources and protect God’s people from risk. Keep Paul in Antioch or keep the eleven disciples together in Jerusalem. Turn carts, strengthen defenses and keep everything clean and tidy. We love cleanliness and cleanliness. This fuels our desire to order and protect what we have received.
But we must remember that the gospel does not come from well-established, well-endowed and well-protected New Testament churches. The context was persecution and the missions were very expensive. Sacrifice became a means by which missions continued.
Establishing churches is like having children. There are always good reasons to wait, after all, the establishment of churches is something that costs us, we may be tempted to think: it hurts the mother church, we already have enough churches. We are not ready to start another, establishing one church will impede our communion.
While these statements may have some truth, here’s the reality: for a local church to have life, it must exist for something beyond itself. If you feel called to the ministry, read this again. That’s a very important thing to remember.
In his Prison Letters and Documents, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes: “The Church is the Church only when it exists for others. “The Great Commission is a call to sacrifice ourselves to bring others to life.
In a church I ran, we had a difficult season, people were worried, some decided to leave and there was a lack of momentum, in fact, it looked so bad that we thought a good dose of missions could solve the problem. So we set up a church! The elders decided we had to take our eyes off each other and put them on the field. Our church has recovered and the establishment of churches has begun.
The church exists to reproduce, and this only happens when the church spreads. The harvest that Jesus spoke of (Matthew 9:37) demands our own incarnation, draining us and sacrificing us. The testimony of the Book of Acts is that the gospel is spread by the power of God through the sacrifices of his people. People sold their property and gave money for the mission of the church (Acts 4:34). Stephen was stoned to death for courageously proclaiming the gospel (Acts 7. 58). Philip went to the people of Samaria (Acts 8. 5), a people considered impure by the Jews. Peter baptized the family of the gentle Cornelius (Acts 10:47). Paul endured arrest, beating, stoned, and constantly persecuted for preaching the gospel.
The fact is that the church reproduces itself through sacrifice
The sacrifice of creating leaders
One of my favorite books of the Bible is, curiously, Philemuon, I like it because it offers an isolated photograph of Paul’s leadership in a particular situation, Oneesime was a slave who belonged to Philemón, Oneesimo left Philemo and thanks to the wonderful work of Providence, he found himself in paul’s company. Paul said of Onesimus: “It used to be useless to you; Now, however, is this useful to you and me?(v. 11).
But Paul sent him back to Philemo
Now just consider the circumstances surrounding Paul, he was an older man, imprisoned, once converted under his ministry. Paul had him as his son until he became an effective minister under Paul. “Was it useless before?As a non-believer (v. 11), has it become essential to Paul?Did my own heart call you? (V. 12) Onesimus was the right-hand man of Paulo, a key member of the team.
Still, all these incredible points didn’t stop Paul from evaluating whether there might be a priority cry on Oneesime, or whether it might be useful for someone else. Paul was so attached to the gospel that he was willing to sacrifice even his most precious human resource for the mission of the gospel.
One of the main painful/joyful realities of leadership is that the formation of leaders is completely sacrificed, this means that God has called us to pour out on certain men, so that people from another church, city, network or anywhere else in the world can be helped. Dedicate our time and energy to more than ourselves. John Piper once said, “No local church can afford to do without the value and food that will be obtained by sending its best members. “
Onesimus represents sacrifice! Referring oneesime to Philemón, Paul renounced his rights to Onesime. He published one of his most valuable resources for the gospel. For the sake of reconciliation and the spread of the gospel, Paul renounced one of his most precious evangelical partners.
The Great Commission invites us not to ask “what is best for me” but “what is best for the church and the spread of the gospel”. Paulo was even willing to sacrifice his own financial stability for the pleasure of seeing Oneesimo used in it in the most strategic way possible: “And if he’s hurt you or if you owe anything, does this all put on my own?”(v. 18).
Sending the best of us often costs us. This is published on our own, but God has ways to turn our sacrifices into health.
As a pastor, are you willing to make sacrifices to move forward with the Great Commission?Are you ready to abandon your most precious and mature believers so you can see that the gospel is going to difficult places?How we relate to these sacrifices reveals many things about the distance we can look around and God’s greatness to us.
A fascinating twist on this story is that Onesime may have become the bishop of Ephesus, after all. If Paul had never freed Onesime to return to Philemo?What if he’d just called his own department, his needs and his affairs?? But he didn’t do that. Paul saw that God was glorified in what he was willing to sacrifice.
For a church to be healthy, it must exist for something beyond itself. Does your vision of ministry include the kind of sacrifice needed to help the church accomplish this?
By: Dave Harvey, © 2015 Call Me? Original: Creating a culture of sacrifice in your church
Translation: Joel Pedro Cavani. Review :: Yago Martins. © 2016 Faithful Ministério. All rights reserved. Website: MinisterioFiel. com. br Original: The church is reproduced by sacrifice
Authorizations: You are authorized and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format, provided that the author, his ministry and translator are no longer no longer modified and not used for commercial purposes.