Bulletins - Eagles Nest Church

- - Ephesians 2:1–9ESV
2 Timothy 2:1–2 ESV
1 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
The first time you teach a child to mow the lawn,
how does it usually look?
Not great.
The lines wander all over the yard.
There is a strip of tall grass right down the middle,
a bald patch beside the tree,
and enough clippings left in one pile to feed a small cow.
And the perfectionists amongst us want to say:
“All right, move over. I’ll do it myself.”
Yes, you can certainly do it faster and more efficiently.
But if you take it over,
the lawn may look better today,
but the child never learns to mow it tomorrow.
The point is, our desire to do the work perfectly can become the very thing that keeps someone else from learning to do it faithfully.
Now - let’s apply this to church leadership.
Because church leaders can fall into the same trap.
We know how to teach the lesson,
make the visit,
or handle the problem,
so we keep doing it ourselves.
But Jesus did not call leaders not to merely accomplish ministry.
but to prepare and equip other people to do the work of the ministry.
1. Seek the qualified
In 2 Timothy 2, Paul tells Titus to take what he’s learned from Paul and entrust it to faithful men.
So they can teach others also.
There are four generations in that one verse:
Paul, Timothy, faithful men, and the others those men would teach.
Paul was not only thinking about whether the gospel would be taught faithfully during his lifetime.
He was thinking about whether it would still be taught after he was gone.
That’s why as I a pastor, a bit part of the way I do ministry is trying to prepare this church for their next pastor.
Because the reality is, I’m only going to be the pastor here for a VERY short window of this church’s life.
So if we want to raise up leaders who will serve Christ’s church after we’re gone,
we must raise up leaders,
share real ministry,
and help them grow in learning how to cut straight lines.
When it comes to raising up leaders,
We aren’t looking for merely external or natural qualities.
I’m talking:
charisma,
those who dress or look the sharpest.
speak the boldest,
can command a room’s attention.
Question:
What leadership qualities are we looking for?
Well, let’s start with qualifications for pastors.
In 1 Timothy 3, tells us elders must be:
Above reproach - and what does that mean?
faithful to their spouse.
sober-minded,
self-controlled,
respectable,
hospitable,
gentle,
and able to teach.
And he must manage his home well,
have a good reputation,
and not be a lover of money.
And Titus 1 gives nearly the same kind of list.
There is nothing flashy there.
An elder is not a different kind of Christian.
He is a mature Christian whose life can be placed in front of the church as an example.
That matters because the church is easily impressed by gifting.
A man may be able to explain a passage clearly and still be harsh with his wife.
He may draw people to himself and still be argumentative.
He may look confident behind a pulpit and have no control over his appetites,
And make no mistake,
a pastor who cannot control his appetite for food, drink, sex, or anything else,
is not qualified to shepherd Christ’s church.
Is drunkeness a sin? Yes.
Is gluttony a sin? Yes.
Is an obsession with video games, movies, or TV shows a sin? Yes.
And all of these things disqualify a man for the office of of elder.
Gifting can draw people’s attention,
But only character makes it safe for people to follow him.
Because if they do not display a Christ-like character,
they will abuse the sheep and lead them away from Christ.
Paul tells us that a man must aspire to the work,
and he must be able to teach.
He must be able to think clearly,
explain what he believes,
and hold firmly to the gospel when biblical truth becomes unpopular.
And so with this in mind,
we should keep our eyes open.
Who serves without being asked or demanding attention for it?
Who receives correction without falling apart or fighting back?
Who is serious about God’s Word?
Who cares for people?
Who can explain truth clearly?
Who is already taking responsibility before anyone gives him a title?
Now, these qualifications are required for pastors,
but the whole church should strive to meet these qualifications too.
And when it comes to non-pastoral leadership, we should have some basic qualifications in place as well.
For example, with our worship team,
What are we looking for?
People who can sing or play instruments?
Well, yes, but no.
Yes, you certainly must be able to play an instrument or sing on key,
but at our church, you must also model faithfulness.
Faithfulness to Christ.
Faithfulness to the church.
and faithfulness to your spouse if you’re married and your kids if you’re a parent.
And on one hand that’s an inconvenience,
because we have less of a roster than we could have.
But on the other hand that inconvenience helps us model Christ-likeness to our church in a way that encourages the body to faithfulness.
It not only makes us a stronger church,
but more importantly it increases the purity of our worship and brings Glory to Christ.
So it’s absolutely worth it.
Now, as we pursue being like Christ,
we should expect Christ to raise up leaders from within His church,
and we should praying that He will and will help us recognize them.
And then, we need to do what we can to help encourage them in their growth as leaders.
Any questions?
2. Share Real Ministry
If we want to raise up leaders who will serve Christ’s church after we’re gone, we must seek faithful men.
But after we find them,
we must share real ministry with them.
Leaders are not developed from a distance.
Jesus appointed the twelve.
Mark says, “so that they might be with Him.”
Raising leaders requires time together over lunch, during a visit, while discussing a difficult passage, or talking through what went wrong after a meeting.
A great deal of discipleship is caught while doing ministry together.
Then we have to advance trust.
That sounds risky because it is risky.
A person cannot prove he can handle responsibility until somebody gives him some responsibility to handle.
That does not mean we hand the pulpit to the first young man who says he likes theology podcasts.
Trust should be scaled to character and maturity.
But we can ask them to pray publicly, lead a devotional, help teach a class, or take responsibility for a piece of ministry.
And make no mistake about it - he will make mistakes.
Young leaders sometimes leave crooked rows and scratch the furniture.
The answer is not to pretend the mistake did not matter.
The answer is to graciously help him see it, learn from it, and try again.
Congregations need patience here too.
If we demand that a young teacher sound like someone who has taught for thirty years,
we will never have another good teacher.
Somebody gave the experienced man his very first opportunity,
and we have to allow that as well.
I have a video recording of my very sermon I ever preached…
And if I believed in purgatory… I’m venture to say my purgatory would be me being forced to watch it over and over and over.
Because it was BAAAAAAD.
That’s just how it is with preaching and teaching.
You only get better by reps and training.
And as a pastor, I’ve been able to get reps and training,
and I’ve been able to do that in a congregation who has helped shape me as a pastor.
Do you think anyone has ever come to me and said: “Hey Zach, I think with your preaching you should try this or that?”
Some of you personally know that’s true.
But that’s a good and healthy thing.
Because on one hand, I’m still growing and learning, and feedback helps.
But sometimes there’s a reason I do something or don’t do something the congregation hasn’t considered, and that gives me the opportunity to explain it.
The point is, it’s a mutually beneficial relationship as iron sharpens iron.
But new preachers and teachers haven’t experienced that or the reps of preaching.
So we HAVE to show them A LOT of grace.
Alright,
When it comes to sharing ministry it also means giving up some control.
If every decision has to have 100% approval from the senior pastor,
then other people are not actually leading.
They are just carrying out his instructions without thought or skin-in-the game.
That’s why leaders have to know what hills to die on and what hills not to die on.
This might surprise some of you,
but I don’t get everything my way around here.
And that’s intentional.
Sometimes there are things I could step in and get my way on, but I’ve asked someone to do that ministry and so I let them make decisions as they see best.
Sometimes it’s good,
Sometimes it’s not - but then they get to learn from it.
Still, there are matters where we cannot bend.
Doctrine matters.
Character matters.
The protection of the flock matters.
But not every preference is a doctrine, and not every disagreement is rebellion.
Sometimes another leader will make a decision you would not have made.
Sometimes you will lose a vote.
Sometimes the younger man will do the job differently and discover that his way actually works better.
For example, when William first brought the evangelism booth idea to me,
I didn’t tell him this, but I was pretty skeptical that it would work.
And praise God I was absolutely wrong about that.
And if I had said: “Hey man, I think your heart is in the right place, but I don’t think this is a good idea”
Then we would absolutely be worse off as a church for it.
Some leaders have an idol problem with control.
And all leaders have to fight that idol.
Because if your identity as a leader requires you to have the final word on everything, you will never raise leaders.
You will only collect assistants, and the entire ministry will rise and fall on YOU.
And YOU will eventually hand the reigns on to someone else.
So as leaders, we have to be looking long term to our retirement date,
which means doing ministry to build up leaders to replace you.
One way of building up leaders is to honor other leaders publicly.
We cannot tell the church to respect a man while we interrupt him,
overturn his decisions,
or remind everyone that we are still the real person in charge.
At the same time, we need to train up leaders and tell them what they are doing well and not well.
Tell leaders what was clear,
where people got lost,
what evidence of God’s grace you saw,
and what he should work on next.
Correction helps people grow, but correction without encouragement makes them quit.
Sometimes bad and controlling leaders think leadership means spotting everything that is wrong and scolding everyone about it.
But that is not maturity - It is insecurity.
Good leaders learn to see both weakness and grace.
They correct what needs correction,
but they also recognize what God is already doing.
And if we expect younger leaders to receive correction,
established leaders must model it.
A leader who cannot be corrected is not ready to correct others.
Sometimes when I’m frustrating with a church member who isn’t getting something,
Pastor Dave and Becky reminds of something.
They say: “Zach, do you remember what you were like 15 years ago?”
I say: “Ohhh… Right…”
The point is, growth takes TIME - and if we want to train people up and see them grow we have to have patience with them.
That’s why we are starting a new men’s leadership training ministry at our church,
where we will meet once a month to work on raising up leaders.
We are going to work through how to exposit and preach a text,
and then give guys assignments to preach a 15 minute sermon,
where we will give them feedback on what was good and what needs work.
Because it’s my goal to have men in our church able to fill our pulpit on Sunday mornings in a way that they can feed and bless our church.
If we want to raise up leaders who will serve Christ’s church after we’re gone,
we must seek the qualified,
share real ministry,
and finally, we must:
3. Shape Humble Servants
The goal is not to produce polished platform personalities.
Our world has enough of that…
The goal is to raise leaders who can carry truth and authority without using either one to make themselves important.
And if a leader is constantly photobombing Jesus, they aren’t qualified to lead.
Today, our culture is deeply suspicious of authority, and it has reasons to be.
Fallen people use authority to protect themselves,
enrich themselves,
and control others.
And sadly, churches have sometimes done the same.
But the problem is not authority itself.
The problem is authority twisted by sin.
David said that the man who rules justly in the fear of God is “like the morning light”
and “like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth” (2 Samuel 23:3–4).
Godly authority gives life to the people under it.
Jesus taught His disciples not to lead like Gentile rulers who lord their authority over others.
In Christ’s kingdom, the leader becomes a servant.
Authority is not a prize that lets a man get his way.
It is a heavy weight he carries for the good of someone else.
And nowhere do we see that more clearly than at the cross.
Our King did not use His people to preserve His life.
He laid down His life to save His people.
He did not cling to His rights.
He spent Himself for sheep who had wandered from Him.
That is the authority leaders must see modeled.
Jesus spoke with absolute authority,
but He used His authority for the good of those under His care.
That also means leaders must be clear.
They need to know the gospel,
the basic doctrines of the faith,
the convictions that distinguish their church,
and the biblical truths the world is currently attacking.
Humility does not mean middle-way-ism, where you never stand on anything.
A humble person knows which truths must be held firmly,
which conclusions are inferences,
and which disagreements faithful Christians can survive.
Finally, a leader must not be threatened by other strong leaders.
If a man needs to be the best teacher in every room, he is not raising leaders.
He is raising assistants who must never outgrow him.
Humility lets us rejoice when someone else teaches better,
leads better,
or reaches people we could not reach.
The church belongs to Christ.
He is not diminished when He gives someone else gifts that He did not give us.
That gives us freedom to take wise risks.
Because Christ is the head of the church, not the pastor.
Jesus said, “I will build My church.”
He patiently trained confused disciples,
restored them when they failed,
gave them His Spirit,
and sent them out.
The church continued after the apostles were gone because the risen Christ was not gone.
So let me end with a simple question:
Who are you investing in?
For elders, that may mean training future elders.
For an older woman, it may mean bringing a younger woman into your life.
For a father, it may mean giving your son real responsibility.
For a Sunday school teacher, it may mean letting someone else teach part of the lesson and then helping him grow.
You do not need a title to disciple someone.
Open the Bible with them.
Share your life.
Give them something real to carry.
Encourage what God is doing,
correct what needs to change,
and keep pointing them to Christ.
Yes, they may leave a crooked strip in the yard.
It may be easier to grab the mower and finish the work yourself.
But the goal is not to do everything ourselves.
The goal is that long after we are gone, the people we discipled are still teaching others to follow Jesus Christ.
- - 2 Timothy 2:1–2ESV

Ephesians 2:1–9ESV

1. Seek the qualified

2. Share Real Ministry

3. Shape Humble Servants

2 Timothy 2:1–2ESV