EFFECTIVE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY

CRUCIAL COMBINATIONS & DECISIONS

Col. 4:17 “See that you fulfil the ministry you have received from the Lord”
Effective Christian Leadership Hinges on 2 Combinations and 3 Decisions
COMBINATIONS
1. Working with the Holy Spirit in the Church
o The Holy Spirit works with the Church (It pleased the Holy Spirit and us). He begins and motivates the gift of God in you according to how God wants to use you. As you begin to exercise the gift, you should submit to the guidance of the Church in accordance with the Word of God
 Cornelius was sent to Peter to hear the Word and be baptised
 Paul was directed to the Church for Holy Spirit baptism
 It was the Church that sent Paul forth after the Holy Spirit had told him what he would do
2. Humility and Power
o The perfect image of God is perfect power and perfect humility. In Jesus, Almighty God demonstrated humility to the extent that he submitted himself to unjust death to complete His mission of saving the world. So must we mature in His image as servants of the same mission.
 He washed the disciples’ feet as a penultimate gesture and asked them to lead by serving/not lording it over the rest. They should never count themselves above any job in the Church- menial and posh.
 Pride goes before a fall, God resists the proud and gives grace (and His power) to the humble
 The fruit of the Spirit is a well-developed character that results from submission to the Holy Spirit; its counterpart, the gift of the Spirit is activated by God. A dirty undergarment reproaches the minister and his God.
DECISIONS
3. Availability vs Convenience
o The Lord wants His servants to be unconditionally available to Him, and abhors those who will serve Him only when it is convenient for them: He specially singles out convenient disciples as those who serve Him as an escape from responsibility and only when they are not held back by any of the following (in Luke 9:57-62; 14:18-20):
 Business
 Funerals
 Marriage Ceremonies
 Family ties
4. Vision vs Ambition
o The servant of God must always keep the entire work of God before Him and work hard on his part in it. Jesus has paid for the peace of every soul and it is our part of the work to let every soul everywhere know about this, while working with the Holy Spirit in the Church to groom those we bring to salvation to carry this on. Although this calls for a complete personal commitment, it is never aimed at improving one’s lot in personal wealth and social standing, which is ambition. Vision brings harmony, since we would all be looking at achieving the same goal, but ambition brings strife.
5. Pressing Forward vs Turning Back
o The danger to turn away from the selfless service to God towards personal gain and comfort is always present, as was in the case of Judas, Peter (for a while) and Demas (2Tim 4:10). This is likely to happen when a person
 fails to count the cost of discipleship right from the onset
 is deceived along the line to think that hardships and persecutions show the insufficiency of God’s shelter (rather than a necessary refining of the faith, and part of the sharing in Christ’s suffering in order to bring many to salvation)