As all of us know, this local church, is on a journey.
This means that we are constantly moving forward, there is momentum, direction and purpose.
This also means that constant change is at the order of the day – not silly changes for the sake of fashion or fad, but adjustments to facilitate the growth and the seasons which we are experiencing.
Basson Nel – Anticipating the future, remembering the past
Our consistent growth in numbers, makes growth in the leadership team inevitable.
This is exciting, because it creates space and opportunities as people are released into their call – it is of God!
Releasing people brings about an empowering – it empowers the individual, but also the leadership team and most importantly, the church.
Releasing leaders is an integral part of a growing church and as such we find Biblical precedent for this.
In Acts the church in Jerusalem grew rapidly and soon the twelve could no longer see to all the needs, especially regarding life outside of their corporate meetings.
Acts 6:1-7
This portion of scripture describes how the early church in Jerusalem went about to facilitate the numerical growth and the inevitable challenges that came with that, without becoming distracted or derailed from their call in the process.
Note that the reason for increasing the leadership team, was not primarily the practical need, for they could most probably have seen to that themselves, but only to the detriment of their call, and of the believers in the end!
“It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:2-4)
This defines the function of a deacon for me in very broad terms, yet in a nutshell – doing and facilitating whatever is necessary to release the eldership to give their attention to the ministry of the Word of God (which incidentally goes way beyond simply preaching on a Sunday).
However this aspect of the call of deacons is only one side of the coin, and if viewed in isolation, it would distort the deacon’s function, limiting it to merely a ministry of helps, which it most definitely is not!
Many of us sit with a distorted view of the role deacons, because of the way in which mainline churches have in the past focused only on the “waiting on tables” aspect, while ignoring the spiritual call on these men and women.
The reality, however, was that they had to choose men who were known to be filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom – definitely not the first characteristics which one would look for if you are merely appointing “waiters”!
These men were not only filled with the spirit and wisdom, they were front footed, big capacity men.
Nothing in their description seems to be limited, those who have not quite cut it yet – listen to what they get up to between serving the soup!:
Stephen is described as not only full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, but also full of grace and power, doing great wonders and miracles among the people (Acts 6:8).
He is a solid theologian who gives a wonderful synopsis of the history of the faith from Abraham to Jesus in chapter 7, before he becomes the first Christian marter.
But not before he, in his very brief time of ministry, leads such a life of passion for the gospel and for Jesus Christ, that it actually raises Jesus to his feet!
We know that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven (Eph.1:20) and that there is a spiritually significant reason for this, it is because as our new high priest, Jesus has offered the sacrifice of His blood for us once and for all (Heb. 10:1-12) and having done that – His priestly function was completed and He, unlike any Old Covenental High Priest, could sit down!
But Acts 7:55-56 actually says: “But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
Stephen lived a life that brought Jesus to His feet!
In fact, in Acts 6-7 you can identify at least ten aspects where the life of Stephen models exactly after Jesus.
After the stoning of Stephen, a persecution broke out against the church and the believers were scattered.
We then read that Philip, another one of the original deacons, went down to Samaria, preaching the gospel of Jesus and doing miraculous signs.
Here is an evangelists who could break open a new region with the gospel, preaching with displays of God’s supernatural power, seeing paralytics healed and people delivered from demons, to the point where the entire city rejoiced! (Acts 8:5-7)
These deacons were definitely not the type of characters that would be sitting at home thinking: “If only I was an elder, I feel so limited as a deacon!”
When the right people are released into leadership the end result is that: “the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:7)
Therefore, we are excited to be able to release more deacons, and we hope to release even more before year end, we also hope to release more elders before year end.
I would like to briefly mention what deacons are not:
• They are not a team of men and women going from house to house to collect your tithe or offering! (It is not Biblical, the Bible teaches that we bring our tithes and offerings to the storehouse. Mal.3:10)
• They are not a management team or board which set the vision and direction for the eldership.
• Neither are they a maintenance team limited to a ministry of helps.
• They do not exercise government in the form of discipline, direction or doctrine – which are eldership functions.
• They are not a go-between the believers an the eldership, creating some form of hierarchy, although they are required to release the elders.
They do in fact:
• help to administer and facilitate the growth in the local church;
• ensure healthy relationships with no age, cultural, gender, economic or academic barriers within the church.
• They are front-footed, pro-active spirit filled men and women who take ownership of the church (not just of their area of group).
• They bear the burden for the church, but also for the lost and the community.
• They stand alongside the eldership, not behind, co-labouring with us to see this local church move into the fullness of our call as a base church in this city.
With this in mind, we as an eldership, have decided to release the following couples and individuals onto our leadership team as deacons: Natie and Yvette, Waldo and Gloudine, Pauline and Robert.
Not all of them carry the same anointing or calling, and they will therefore operate in different capacities, not every deacon will lead a home group.
We want to lay hands on them and pray for them, trusting for a spiritual impartation; we also ask that you as the body would receive them and delight with them as they step out into a greater measure of their destiny in God, which will no doubt be to all of our benefit: So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in George increased rapidly, and a large number of believers became obedient to the faith!
Two weeks ago, I’ve started sharing on the importance of remembering what God has done for us in the past.
Remembering the past is vital because it equips us for the future – learn from yesterday live in today and hope for tomorrow – we cannot learn from the past, unless we remember the past!
However if God was ever changing then remembering the past would serve no purpose at all – but because God is ever the same, because God does not change, but is the same yesterday, today and for ever, we can actually learn from the past.
*In the sense that God does not change, we can actually use the past as a mirror into our future, knowing that what God has done in the past, He is not only able but also willing to do again!
Remembering what God has done in a specific set of circumstances and giving testimony to that, can actually lift our faith and bring about a prophetic declaration for God to move and to repeat what He has done before, such is the power of not only remembering, but of testifying to those great and wondrous deeds of our God.
The opposite is also true, unless we remember, we forget!
But the tragic truth is that it goes beyond forgetting – forgetting what God has done, does not only create a void in the memory bank, it actually causes an overdraft!
When we do not remember, we are not filled with awe, we are not filled with wonder, or with gratitude, or with faith!
When we do not remember what God has done for us, satan will remind us what He has not done, and we will be filled with questions, with disillusionment, with despair and even with offense.
You have most probably met some Christians who are much better at remembering what God has not done for them, than what He has done.
Possibly someone battling with a long term illness – getting to the place where they feel that they have believed so often, have been prayed for so often, and have been disappointed so often that they rather life with it!
While this attitude of heart is perfectly understandable from a human point if view, the spiritual reality is that when we move our focus from what God has done for us, to what He has not done for us, we are actually building a case against God and His nature.
On the other hand, you may be trusting and praying for a specific breakthrough or healing for years, and the fact that that one situation has not changed, keeps you from believing and praying into anything else.
You might be praying for the salvation of someone specific, or for someone you know to be healed, or for whatever breakthrough and feel that until that happens, you are not trusting for anything else.
Focusing on what God has not done (yet) causes unbelief and offense and these two are the biggest hindrances to seeing breakthrough in the spiritual.
*We dare not hang our faith on a single event while overlooking what God is doing all around us – we have a choice whether to focus on the cancer which is not healed and ends in death or to testify to the hundreds of cases in which people are healed of cancer!
Fact is we do not yet have all the answers, and shockingly enough we may well die not having all the answers, but we cannot allow that to cause us to deny the answers that we do have!
William Marais leads a church in Cape Town, and I’ve heard him tell the tragic story of how his 18 year old son was killed in an accident as he rode out of their driveway on his bicycle.
He said: “I don’t know why that has happened, I do not have that answer. But I choose to remember the things to which I have the answers: God is good, all the time. Jesus has died for me and has forgiven me all of my sins and has restored me to the Father forever.”
When we feed on what God has done, when we remember these things and testify to them, then our gratitude will soften our hearts and we will find the grace to endure those things to which we do not have answers (yet).
Disappointment and disillusionment will suck the faith and with it the courage right out of you.
Disappointment will always set in when we allow our minds to drift to what God is not doing.
This will open the door for the accuser to come in – “Did God really say? Does God really heal? How many times will you still trust God?”
Ever heard this voice? Now according to the Bible there is only one way to silence it:
“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” (Rev.12:10-11)
We overcome the accuser by our focus on the Blood of the Lamb – the completed work of Jesus on the cross, whereby He redeemed us once and for all earning the right to sit down at the right hand of the Father.
And secondly by the word of our testimony – not by focusing on what we do not know, but on what we do know – for this is what we can testify about!
We will never have to testify to that which we do not know or cannot explain, only to what we do know and do understand.
When a man born blind was healed by Jesus, the Pharisees questioned him about the healing he simply answered and testified about what he did know:
“A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” (John 9:24-25)
I might not have all the answers, but I know this – I was blind, but now I see!
Not remembering what God has done for us, will cause us not only to forget what was, but to focus on what is not, causing disappointment and disillusionment.
The attitude of our hearts will always determine who level of anointing that flows through our lives!
Let us create a culture of remembering and testifying about the goodness of God.
Let us choose to focus on what God has done and on what He is doing, rather than focusing on what He has not done (yet).
Let us keep overcoming the accuser by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony!
