MISSIONAL VISION: CHURCH LEADERS AS MISSION EQUIPPERS

Rev. Eric R. L. Burrows-Stone

When the Reformation kicked off, one of the elements of reforming the Church which the reformers saw as essential to their work - because they knew it would effect the health of the fledgling movement - was to reform church leadership. We can see this articulated with particular eloquence by John Calvin, when he notes that:

[the] human ministry which God uses to govern the church is the chief sinew by which believers are held together in one body. ...through the ministers to whom he has entrusted this office and has conferred the grace to carry it out, he dispenses and distributes his gifts to the church; and he shows himself as though present by manifesting the power of his Spirit in this his institution, that it be not vain or idle. Thus the renewal of the saints is accomplished [Eph. 4:21-24]; thus the body of Christ is built up [Eph. 4:12]; thus “we grow up in every way into him who is the Head” [Eph. 4:15] and grow together among ourselves; thus are we all brought into the unity of Christ [Eph. 4:13] (Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed., John T. McNeil, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, 1055; emphasis my own).

We should notice here what Calvin emphasizes when he speaks of the church's leadership. And what is immediately apparent is that his vision is first founded upon Scripture. This was the central element in how he sought to reform the church's leadership: it is founded on Scripture, and its vision is determined by Scripture.

And that brings another aspect of what Calvin writes here to our attention. Notice that as he follows the logic of Scripture, we are brought to realize that church leadership has a twofold focus as it relates to the church. First, the goal of the leadership has an inward focus (viz. renewal, maintaining unity, discipleship). However, there is an additional element. As Calvin directs us to Scripture, we find there that the church's leaders must also be focused on building up the body of Christ. And this building up cannot only mean internal spiritual growth, it must also entail numerical growth, for Paul includes the gifts of apostles and evangelists in that work of building up (cf. Eph. 4:11).

So, Calvin pointed his colleagues during the Reformation, and us today, to what the Scriptures say the goal of our leadership ought to be. And Scripture emphasizes that we must not have our eyes only turned inward upon our congregations. That is something those of us in church leadership need to be regularly reminded of. We can so easily get caught up in maintaining the congregations entrusted to our care that we forget one of the central reasons our churches have been called into existence; namely, to be missionally focused by sharing the Good News and making disciples who make disciples (see: Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 13:1-3).

So, the Holy Spirit shows us that mere maintenance ministry is not the way he led the early church. We find elsewhere in Scripture that Paul, under the direct influence of the Spirit, encourages the young pastor Timothy to remember why God gave him and the leadership of his church their various giftings for ministry (cf. 1 Tim. 3:1-16). In particular he writes that the reasons he just laid out the qualifications for pastors, elders, and deacons is: "so that... you will know how they ought to conduct themselves as members of God's household" (v. 15; my own translation).

But does that not seem to imply that Paul's focus is in fact upon the inner life of the church? Not necessarily. Notice what follows in v. 16. There Paul quotes a hymn in use in the early church which summarizes "true godliness" (v. 16; NIV) - a term that Paul uses not to refer to holiness, but rather to the essential contents of the Christian faith (cf. Gordon Fee, "1 Timothy," in 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, NIBC, 92). And what is that content? "[Jesus] appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory" (v. 16; NIV).

Let's put all of that into context. That content, summarized as a hymn, implies the reason why Paul emphasizes these qualifications for church leaders. The whole reason the church's leadership must meet the high standards Paul sets is not simply for the sake of respectability, but rather because "as members of God's household" (v. 15) themselves, they have a calling to be witnesses of the content of the Christian faith and to equip the church's people to also bear that witness before the world.

And how do we arrive at that conclusion? Because the summary Paul offers places mission and evangelism at the very heart of the Christian faith, when it says that Jesus "was preached among the nations" and so "believed on in the world" (v. 16). This should be no surprise to us since Jesus himself entrusted his church with that very charge (cf. Mt. 28:19-20). And that charge was taken very seriously by the early church! Yet, today we too often tend to think of evangelism and mission as something done predominantly by religious professionals (e.g., missionaries, pastors, professional apologists).

That is why what Paul has written here is so important. It reminds those of us in church leadership, of our joyous duty to always seek to equip our congregations for mission!

When we read Paul's first letter to Timothy, in this light it is no surprise that he concludes this section of his letter by exhorting Timothy to: "Be conscientious about how you live and what you teach. Persevere in this, because by doing so you will save both yourself and those who listen to you" (1 Tim. 4:16; NET). The missional implication is clear; both our lives and our teaching have a goal, and it is not only focused on the upbuilding of those who are already Christians, it also leads us to be passionate about bringing those who do not yet believe to the One who saves.

And my fellow church leaders, we cannot do that alone, nor does the Bible lay that expectation on us. The pattern we find in Scripture is of leaders equipping the believers to share the Gospel. As we see in Acts, when persecution led to the scattering of the believers, all of them "preached the word wherever they went" (8:4). And how were they enabled to do so? First and foremost, in the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 4:31)! But also, because they had been nurtured and equipped for this very purpose by the church's leaders (Acts 2:42).

But how can we nurture this missionary sensibility within our leaders and the broader congregation? Fortunately for us, the Bible makes this task rather easy. Even a cursory glance at Scripture (both Old and New Testaments) shows that its whole narrative structure centers mission. So, something as simple as grounding our preaching in the grand narrative of the Bible will go far in instilling that sense of a universal missionary calling. And, when church leadership teams meet, honestly asking ourselves how the Bible's narrative is shaping us and our congregation for mission can help ensure that our leadership is keeping mission at the center.

And how can we go about equipping ourselves and our congregations for this work? Following the Bible's lead, we should begin with prayer (Acts 13:2-3; Col. 4:3; 2 Thess. 3:1) and a deepened sense of dependence upon the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8, 8:29, 9:17, 20; Rom. 15:18-19). However, we can - and should - also take advantage of the wealth of tools that are available to us. Organizations such as the V3 Movement and 3DMovements are helping equip church leaders to lead their congregations into mission. And amazing tools both online (such as: Christianity Explored and Christianity Explained) and in print (such as: The Church as Movement: Starting and Sustaining Missional-Incarnational Communities, by J.R. Woodward, Dan White Jr., Alan Hirsch and the many writings of the late Tim Keller) are helping church leaders form their congregations to become a people who share the gospel.

My fellow co-workers in Christ, nurturing our congregations to grasp their calling to be sharers of the Good News and equipping them to do so is one of the greatest gifts we can offer to our congregations as we lead them. Why? Because we are helping to shape our churches cultures after God's own heart; which he shows from Genesis to Revelation to be set upon bringing in an abundant harvest of people who know and worship him (Is. 45:21-22; Jn. 3:16). And this task is all the more essential as church leaders guide their congregations in the midst our culture's maturing post-Christian drift.