Posted in Godly speech, Life in the Church, Mission, Sermons, Vision
This past Sunday John McLeod preached his first sermon at SGC–though by no means his first sermon. John was lead pastor of a Southern Baptist church for a number of years before he came to us. That experience showed on Sunday. He preached out of Ephesians and exhorted us to practice godly speech and walk in love. The sermon was helpful and effective.
But something to highlight from Sunday is what Walt said as he introduced John. He said that part of the reason we asked John to preach is because of Ephesians 4:11-12:
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
Note that God gives us "teachers" as part of the five-fold gifts of 4:11. While all shepherds (or elders/pastors) are teachers, not all teachers are pastors. This verse provoked us that we need to do a better job in developing teachers in our midst who are not necessarily elders. John is part of that initiative.
Walt called attention to a second idea in verse 12. The point of these gifted men is that they "equip the saints for the work of ministry." The saints in this verse are the ones doing the work of ministry. Pastors and teachers (and others) are doing work as well, but the radical idea in verse 12 is that the ministers in view are all the saints in Christ's church. Thus, we're trying to build a church here that doesn't just have effective pastoral ministry, but one that has an effective "every-member ministry." That is, a place where every member steps into their respective ministry and is equipped to bear great fruit "for building up the body of Christ."
Thus, we are excited for men like John–as well as women and children!–to do the work of ministry at SGC. We believe that we are on the cusp of a great season of fruitfulness as men, women, and children in our church step into the areas of ministry God has gifted them to do.