Greeting CCW Leadership Team! I pray you are all having a great week in the Lord! This is another “leadership update” from your pastor!
I have just a few things for you this week:
- A reminder that we have set up several on-line calendars for your convenience – so you can know what is happening, and also to see if church facilities are available for a ministry purpose. Please BOOKMARK these links so you can easily access them:
- Leadership Fellowship: please mark your calendars for Sunday Sept 20, from 2-4 pm. We will be having a Leadership Fellowship and meeting.
- We only get together once per quarter, so please make every effort to attend this meeting.
- We’ll serve lunch, and I have several things to share with you.
- Also, if you have “praise reports” from your ministry, please bring them! We want to hear them!
- Holy Grounds is open! Please pray for this venture! We are not trying to make a profit (although if the Lord blesses, then great!) – but we want this to be an outreach to the community. We do want to be good stewards and the ministry should support itself.
- You can support the ministry by: Bringing your friends, telling your friends and co-workers, using your social networks so promote the venture.
- HG is on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/holygroundswilmington?ref=ts
- HG is on Twitter : https://twitter.com/Holy_Grounds
Lastly, it has been a long time since we have reviewed our Leadership Guide. I am going to send out portions from the guide every week or so, and also post them to the Leadership Blog (ccwleadership.blogspot.com). you can see past updates and also there are links to the CCW calendard, as well as CCW Leadership Forms that you might need from time to time.
Blessings!
Pastor Clay
Unity in the Body of Christ
James 3:13-18
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
One of the most destructive weapons that Satan uses to distract believers and impact the work of the church is division. As leaders we must be especially wise, understanding, and on guard against our enemy.
Matt 10:16 Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
Division can creep in through many forms:
Hurt feelings & Offence
No matter what role we are in, there will always be situations where another person will say or do something to hurt feelings. We are all sinners, and we all sometimes act in the flesh – it is inevitable! It is how we respond to these situations that will determine whether we are a contributor to division, or whether we are being “peacemakers”!
The first and foremost response is prayer – for God to reveal our part in the situation. Many times when we are hurt or offended, it is simply due to pride or insecurity in our own heart. We should simply thank God for allowing a situation that would reveal to us our weakness, and ask God to forgive us and heal us!
Perhaps there was a valid offense, and you feel led, after prayer, that you need to confront the person. We have a biblical guide for this:
Matt 18:15-18
"Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.' And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.
The objective here is reconciliation, not accusation. If your brother (or sister) offends you, discuss it directly with, and only with, that person. We as a church cannot allow a situation where two leaders (or members of the body for that matter!) are divided with each other, or speak negatively about one another. It causes a tear in the body, and in the leadership team. Communication is broken. Ministry is impacted. Bitterness will creep into the heart. It would be as if the finger stopped communicating with the hand, the result is a crippled arm! If the situation cannot be resolved though direct communication, then take the concern to the pastor.
Negative discussions or comments
Evil speaking corrupts! It is like an infectious disease that can spread from one person to the next. This includes gossip, criticism, and negitive insinuations.
James 3:2-12
2 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. 3 Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. 4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. 5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. 8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. 10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring can yield both salt water and fresh.
James is quite clear: When we criticize our brothers and sisters in Christ, we are criticizing God’s work. If what we say about someone does not edify them, we simply should not say it.
Eph 4:31-32
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.
The same principle applies to ministry. Criticizing a ministry or ministry leader will not contribute to solving any problem that may exist. If you have a concern about a ministry, again seek the Lord. Is it a preference? If so, pray and let it go. Everyone will conduct ministry differently, and we should allow those who have committed themselves to the Lord’s work to do the work without criticism.
If there truly is a problem that could negatively affect the church, then go to the ministry leader and share your concern in love, seeking to be a part of the solution. Ask “what can I do to help?” The Lord can work greatly through our simple communication with one another. If there is no resolution, and you feel it is a church or ministry impacting situation, then schedule a meeting with the pastor.
In closing this sensitive chapter, consider what Peter wrote:
1 Peter 4:7-11
7 But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. 8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins." 9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. 10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
… next installment – “Disagreements over Doctrine”
