In the course of ascertaining vision for a body of believers it becomes necessary to examine what the Bible has to say about leadership. Leadership is a crucial part of the vision Christ has for His church because leadership is rooted in its opposite – followership. No one person in a church rises above another with respect to the degree of saving grace. So we, as believers, are all followers of Christ, who is our supreme leader. However, human nature is such that we often look for a point of responsibility, perhaps a desk where the “buck stops.” For instance, the nation of Israel asked Samuel to appoint an earthly king, and when he consulted with the Lord, the Lord said, “they have rejected Me from being king over them” (1 Samuel 8:7b). Nevertheless, earthly kings over Israel ruled, sometimes well and sometimes not so well. The thing we, as the New Testament church, must be remember is that leadership in the church lies ultimately in the providence and care of the Sovereign God. Any earthly leaders of the church must become devoted followers of Christ. Leadership is rooted in the followership of Jesus. Jesus lowered Himself to this fallen world in order to be first place in everything.
For the next few months, we will be studying the Old Testament book of Joshua. Joshua gives us a good example of leadership that is rooted in following the Lord. This week we will look at Joshua 1:1-9 and see how leadership should take on the character of our Lord. Specifically, we will examine godly leadership (as it transitioned from Moses to Joshua), God’s sovereign will, God’s gracious protection, and God’s inerrant word.
Come join us this week at Cash Creek Baptist Church as we unfold this part of God’s word together and absorb the life changing lessons that God has planned for us even before we were born. What a great God we serve!
In our quest to lay a theological foundation and eventually a platform from where we can begin to ascertain God’s vision for Cash Creek Baptist Church, it is necessary to initiate a conversation about biblical leadership. To that end, we will be turning our focus back to the Old Testament to study the life (and book) of Joshua. This Sunday we will look at the time of transitional leadership between Moses and Joshua as God is about to lead His people into the long awaited promised land of Canaan. We will begin with Deuteronomy 30 and look at the clarion call to the Israelites to trust in God’s provision and in His grace to persevere through the coming years as they receive the promised land. As a church seeking vision from Christ, Deuteronomy 30, tells us to love the Lord and walk in His ways and keep His commandments. Moses sets before us the decision to make about moving forward: are we going to choose life or death? Are we going to trust in God’s providence or are we going to trust ourselves and turn our hearts away from the Lord. As we seek vision, we need to continually seek the Lord and be united with Him only through His Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible calls us to trust in Christ for our salvation. If we trust Him for our salvation, should we not trust Him to provide vision for His church? Colossians 1:18a says, “He is also head of the body, the church.” Christ is Lord over His church, and when we are near to Christ, we will better discern His vision for His church. Hebrews 1 says that God has revealed Himself fully and finally in His Son. He is our final authority and so when we hear from Christ through His Word, will we have the courage to proceed, trusting in Christ even when by all worldly standards we look foolish? Will we be dangerous and choose life and follow Christ or will be safe and choose death and follow ourselves? God help us.
I will be sharing a report from my recent mission trip with The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to Central Asia at Cash Creek Baptist Church on Sunday, July 25 at 6PM. For directions click here. Email me (pastorclark@cashcreekbaptist.org) if you would like a copy of the presentation in MP3 or DVD format. Come hear how God is working in this part of the “10/40 Window.” It will open your eyes to a place that once was the center of all Christendom and to see how Islam and secularism have permeated the culture. This will challenge traditional thinking about missions and taking seriously what Jesus says when He sends out His disciples in Matthew 10:16, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.” Are we living dangerously for Christ? How important is it to get the Gospel to lost people, and if it is so important, what is the church doing to see the Gospel taken to the nations?
Why is church membership significant? What biblical principles inform us about how believers come together to form a body? Last week we studied what Paul had to say to the church at Corinth about the unity amongst a diversity of gifts that are to be used for the building up of the body. This week we shift our focus toward three biblical principles from Ephesians 4 that drive six membership principles that are useful for seeking out Christ’s vision for the church.
The first biblical principle is unity. Paul exhorts us to maintain the unity that Christ has created in His church through the gospel of peace. It is here that Paul encourages us to remember our calling from the one Lord by one faith demonstrated by one baptism. The theme of unity is crucial as we move forward as a church in seeking out Jesus. A unified body is one that is healthy and purposeful in its actions and inactions. As a church we must learn to move as Christ.
The second biblical principles is edification. In today’s “dog eat dog world,” it is very much counter cultural to take on an attitude of edification. As we were edified by Christ’s work on the cross and resurrection, so we as a church are to be edifying to all despite their shortcomings. For it was Christ who died for our sins despite our shortcomings. The Scriptures teach us that every believer is gifted in some way and that gift is not to be used frivolously but used to edify the body of Christ.
The third biblical principle is truth. Truth is revealed to us completely in God’s inerrant Word. What the bible has to say about church and life matters can be depended upon as good for faith and practice. Therefore, as church members, we are to be contantly discipled with the source of truth – God’s Word. Uncommittedness is a common malady of our day. People have difficulty commiting on several different fronts: marriages, friendships, social organizations, and yes, even church. Church has largely been cast out to the fringes of most people’s calendars and that will prove to be detrimental to society as a whole. The church is God’s plan for missions! If we are going to make a meaningful impact on our culture through missions, then we must look to the one venue that can foster that environment and that is your local body of Christ. A strong committment to the church indicates a strong committment to the Lord Jesus Christ and hopefully a strong committment to reaching the nations for Christ.
Come prepared this Sunday to be dealt with by the Holy Spirit – you will not want to miss this opportunity as we seek the face of God through His Son and His revealed Word to you. Come and be a part!
