Models for Ministry

Every now and again when I was giving leadership to the church, I would meander off in the realm of trying some experiment.  There were numerous ones which centered on prayer.  One of the ones which worked better than I imagined it would had to do with inviting people to rise on Sunday morning at 5:00 am to pray for the worship service.  Of course, no one went to the sanctuary as each one prayed from their home.  It was not a large group which joined this holy experiment, but it did have far reaching effects. 

 

Another one which did not end so well centered around I Corinthians 12:7.  In this section on spiritual gifts, there is this Word which reads, "To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good."   After reading and figuring on this Word, the conclusion was reached that the Spirit can be trusted to provide for the church individuals with spiritual gifts necessary for that church to do and be faithful to the purpose for which God called it into being.  So, after spending several months on a church wide study about spiritual gifts, we suspended all program committees for the year depending on the Spirit to equip and lead us into whatever ministries He desired.  It sounded better than it worked.  One thing it really did do well was drive all the control people up the wall! 

Maybe the Biblical models are harder for us because we have become so indoctrinated by the way our culture says we should do business, even if it is God's business.  Culture tends to point us toward what is logical, what makes sense, and what is economically feasible and the Biblical models usually point toward exercising faith in God to do what He has promised to do.  As the organized church moves away from this season of people being separated from everything that has been normal in the life of the church, we can only wonder and hope that those giving leadership may point us toward Biblical models where faith is actually a factor for the ongoing life of the church.