By Thomas C. Hanson
"We hope to train you, to equip you, to work with you and to help you so that you in turn can help your congregations to preach the gospel to the whole world," Dan Rogers, superintendent of ministers, told 31 lay pastors (not employed by the church) and wives meeting in Pasadena Dec. 26 to 31.
J. Michael Feazell, director of Church Administration, began the conference with a session on The Pastor's Life.
Mr. Feazell told the lay pastors: "God does not force himself on us. He will come into our lives only when we ask him to.
"If you have not yet come to the place where you have actually asked God to come into your life and heart and change you, don't think that he is going to. It doesn't happen by just studying the Bible, praying and serving others every day. Those things are vital, but until you ask Jesus to take your life and transform you, make you a child of God through his shed blood, then he is not going to do it. It's your invitation that he's going to respond to.
"He says he stands at the door and knocks. We have to open the door and invite him in."
Mr. Feazell encouraged the lay pastors to believe and commit to the message of Christ. "If you haven't done that, this is a good time to do it. Make your relationship with Christ what it can be. Invite God to come into your heart and change your life. Give yourself over to him in a way you haven't done before. If you have already done that, today would be a good time to make a recommitment."
Mr. Feazell encouraged the lay pastors to read two books: The Spirit of the Disciplines: How God Changes Lives, by Dallas Willard; and Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster.
Chapter one of The Spirit of the Disciplines is called "The Secret of the Easy Yoke." In it Willard writes that "Christianity has not so much been tried and found wanting as it has been found difficult and left untried.... There is almost universal belief in the immense difficulty of being a real Christian. The vast, grim cost of discipleship is something we hear constantly emphasized."
Mr. Feazell said that "this is something we have wrestled with in our own fellowship. We knew that there are a lot of nominal Christians. We knew that there are a lot of people in the world who call themselves Christians but their lives do not reflect Christianity.
"Then we came to a place in the history of our fellowship when we realized that works don't save us, and that there is such a thing as thinking you earn salvation by the things you do, and we had to change that.
"We had to come to realize the biblical message that we are saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ and not by what we do. But there is a downside if you misunderstand what is going on here. If you stop with the realization that we are saved by the grace of God and that you don't realize that God expects you to do certain things that allow him to help you to grow, then you go to the other extreme and that's idleness, where you just sit there and expect God to do everything.
"God calls us to discipleship--to be taught by Jesus and to follow and obey him. Christians are born so they can grow.
"Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, `Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.'
"Yet in all honesty most Christians probably find both Jesus' statement and its reiteration in 1 John 5:3: `This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,' to be more of an expression of hope or even a mere wish than a statement about the substance of their lives.
"The Christian life is a life of living faith, obedient faith, total allegiance to the holy God."
Mr. Feazell encouraged the lay pastors to expand their concept of prayer. Prayer is something that can go on all day, all the time.
"When you pray, things happen, when you don't pray, things don't happen. That's how the congregation is. If you want something to happen in the congregation you need to get a prayer group going. Prayer makes a church come alive.
"When there is discouragement in the church, prayer can radically transform you and the church."
Thursday afternoon, Dan Rogers, superintendent of ministers, spoke about The Pastor's Ministry.
Mr. Rogers said that there are no benchwarmers in the Worldwide Church of God anymore. Everyone participates.
"Don't sit on the sidelines cheering, get in the game," Mr. Rogers encouraged lay pastors and members.
"We are working toward headquarters being a support facility that takes care of the needs of the pastors, who take care of the needs of the members, who do gospel work," Mr. Rogers said.
"Headquarters equips, trains and develops the pastoral ministry," he said. "This does not mean that church government has changed." He then noted the three types of church government seen in the New Testament: episcopal (government by the hierarchy), presbyterian (government by a board of elders) and congregational (government by the congregation).
"Is there any perfect form of church government?" Mr. Rogers asked. "No. Why? Because we are dealing with human beings." There are advantages to each form of government though, he said.
"We have an episcopal government. The churches that are growing the fastest tend to be those that can make quick decisions in an ever-changing, technologically advancing world.
"In a hierarchical church government, decisions can be made quickly and sometimes reversed if necessary when situations change. We are adaptable to growth.
"The function of the leaders of the church is to serve the church. And that's how Mr. Tkach and all of us at headquarters see our roles.
"This model for church government is given in Ephesians 4:7, 11-15. When Christ ascended into heaven `he gave gifts to his people' (verse 7). `The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry.'
"Some say that the church doesn't seem to have a mission any more," Mr. Rogers said. "Our vision, though, is in Ephesians 4:8, 11-14.
"The implication Jesus gave in John 14:8-11 is that if the disciples should look at him and see the Father, his disciples should be able to say, if you've seen me you've seen Jesus, and if you don't believe me look at the works that I do.
"So the body of Christ, the church, represents the ministry of Jesus Christ.
"Jesus said in verse 12 that `the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.'
"How is that possible?" Mr. Rogers asked. "Jesus as a human was present in one place at one time. When he went to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts, he made it possible to replicate himself many times over in the lives of many people. Therefore greater works can we do than he did."
"How can we encourage greater rapport between headquarters and the field?" asked Bernie Schnippert, church treasurer. "Most other churches are neighborhood churches. However the Worldwide Church of God was built through media and members are spread far apart.
"Membership has declined, but members are still scattered over wide areas. What was an inefficient model (to have full-time pastors serve widely scattered members) from a financial perspective is now more inefficient. The solution is to have lay pastors."
Under the media church model it took $40,000 in the United States to bring someone to become a subscriber and then a member of the church. In Italy it cost $400,000, added evangelist Carn Catherwood.
Randal Dick, superintendent of missions, talked to the lay pastors Friday morning about the lay pastors vision.
Mr. Dick led them through a self-evaluation that included what the lay pastors would like for members in their congregations to look back on and say about their ministry, and as a result of their ministry what would they want their congregations to be known for.
To do this he asked them what they needed further equipping in.
He went on to describe five types of leaders, which he adapted from Home Grown Leaders by Edgar Elliston. Mr. Dick referred to lay pastors as Type I leaders, who serve voluntarily without pay in a local, limited sphere of influence. This type of leader is critically important to the health and growth of the church, he said.
Mr. Dick encouraged the lay pastors to be leaders with vision and equip and mentor others into active service, to try to find and develop leaders better than themselves. "If you can do this," he said, "you will be responsible for a great deal of significant growth in the church. This is the greatest service you can render the church in your role as lay pastor."
Friday afternoon the lay pastors heard from Eddie Gibbs, who spoke on Leading the Church Through Transition and Equipping the People of God.
Dr. Gibbs, former chair of evangelism and church renewal at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, is associate rector of All Saints Parish in Beverly Hills, California. He is the author of In Name Only, which deals with the nominality problem facing most mainline denominations.
To lead the church through transition, Dr. Gibbs encouraged the lay pastors to incorporate these seven points.
1. Come to terms with yourself.
2. Keep close to your people
3. Ensure realistic expectations
4. Develop a clear vision
5. Prevent polarization
6. Monitor performance
7. Evaluate results
Dr. Gibbs said the Worldwide Church of God brings strengths to the Christian movement and that God's timing is perfect in bringing about changes in the Worldwide Church of God.
He said that lay pastors are not second best or an emergency measure until the church can get something else started. He noted that lay pastors are valuable because they understand the local people they are serving.
Dr. Gibbs said that the pastor is not God's answer to everyone's problems in his church, yet he encouraged the ministers to find the answers.
Dr. Gibbs listed nine obstacles to change:
1. Lack of biblical understanding
2. Disobedience
3. Tradition
4. Fear of the new or unknown
5. Bad experience in the past
6. Errors of timing
7. Lack of confidence in the leadership
8. Polarization
9. Inadequate planning
In his talk on Equipping the People of God, Dr. Gibbs encouraged the lay pastors to emphasize the biblical basis for the ministry of all believers; to develop ministries through small groups; and to mentor people for ministry having regard to their personality, experience, passion, gifts and talents.
Dan Rogers addressed the lay pastors Saturday morning, this time on the Theology of Worship. He noted that "there is no New Testament command for any particular form of worship other than that we worship God in spirit and truth." He referred to worship as our loving adoration in response to God's love.
"We have freedom in our forms of worship," Mr. Rogers said. "We need freedom because we are different peoples and cultures. What works in one geographical area may not work in another. It's up to us to find the forms that work for us."
Monday morning the lay pastors heard from S.Y. Tan, a world class psychologist who is director of the doctor of psychology program at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. Dr. Tan spoke about referral counseling, about when and to whom to refer counselees to professional help.
Dr. Tan, a lay pastor at First Evangelical Church in Glendale, California, is the author of several books including Coping With Depression: The Common Cold of the Emotional Life (Grand Rapids: Baker).
Dr. Tan said that the ultimate goal of counseling is to lead people into greater maturity in Christ.
Monday afternoon, Ronald Kelly, director of Pastoral Development, introduced to the lay pastors the new in-service training program (see article page 15).
Next, Ralph Orr spoke to the lay pastors about resources available to them.
Pastor General Joseph Tkach gave an address Monday afternoon titled "Simple but Not Easy."
Mr. Tkach detailed how easy it is to become a Christian, but how difficult the Christian walk can be. He noted that "Mr. Armstrong preached forcefully against nominal Christianity--those who claim the name but don't live Christian lives."
Mr. Tkach gave five points of servant leadership:
1) Character is more important than spiritual gifts. God is changing us from what we were into something better. God does the changing, Mr. Tkach said, referring to Ephesians 2:8-10.
He noted that four times in that passage Paul says that it is God who does the work: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not your own doing; it is the gift of God--not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life."
2) Being godly is more important than being right
3) Love is more important than good works
4) You cannot lose by being a learner
5) There's always room for one more servant.
On Tuesday, Dec. 31, Earl Grant, director of the doctor of ministry program and professor of intercultural studies at Azusa Pacific University, spoke about evangelism.
Dr. Grant defined evangelism as presenting Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit so that men and women, boys and girls, will come to put their trust in God through him, to accept him as their Savior and to serve him as their Lord in the fellowship of the church. He noted that we live in a generation with no historical roots in Christianity.
Dr. Grant said that the Worldwide Church of God has the greatest renewal movement in the history of the church and that the conservative Christian evangelical world believes in the Worldwide Church of God.
Power Through Prayer and Purpose in Prayer by E.M. Bounds
Man of Prayer by Frank Laubach
The Spirit of the Disciplines and Understanding How God Changes Lives, by Dallas Willard
Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster.
The Making of a Christian Leader by Ted Engstrom
The Jesus I Never Knew, by Philip Yancey
Alive in Christ, by Maxie Dunnam
Having just arrived home from the lay pastors training session, I wanted to share with you what went on. I came away with a new sense of hope and a positive attitude toward this program. I think it will be the salvation of many small churches, which otherwise could not survive in the current economic climate.
The zeal of these men and their wives was a source of inspiration to me. They want to be used by God to serve their people. Many of course, have already been functioning in the capacity of pastor for some time.
I felt good for these men when they left Pasadena, that they had the tools to get them started.
They will have to overcome many obstacles. But their faith in Christ was an inspiration to me. In short, I feel better about our future than I have felt in a long time.
Mike Swagerty
Regional Pastor
Sacramento, California
The lay pastor conference was awesome. I know that is an over-used word, but it truly applies in this case. God is doing a work through the WCG like we never imagined he would do. Our future is going to be more exciting than we imagined. Stand back, the people of God are being mobilized by his Spirit.
Thirty-one men (most with their wives) were at the conference, and all were commissioned as lay pastors--full pastors of their congregations.
Please pray that us green pastors will receive an extra measure of discernment and wisdom as we help God's people to do works of ministry.
Your brother in Jesus,
Joe Counsil, Lay Pastor, Rolla, Missouri
Jan. 21, 1997 Worldwide News, pages 10 and 11.
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