DINING WITH SINNERS
WITH (prep) function word to indicate manner of action
Job Description
We are getting to the point in the life of Matthew’s Table that we need to create some organisational structures (did I really just type that?). What I mean is that if we are serious about developing leaders to plant churches and engage in God’s global mission, there needs to be some kind of skeleton.
The tomato plant lesson . . .
My wife, Amanda, grew a great garden this summer. We thought the garden would never make it because our backyard flooded right after we planted. We did loose a lot of the plants, but not the tomatoes, cucumbers, and watermelons.
A few weeks back, while mowing the yard, I realized that these plants had probably produced all they would for the season. So I stopped the mower and began pulling up the stakes that the tomato plants were attached to.
In case you didn’t know – the main reason for staking and supporting tomato plants is to keep plants and fruit off the ground. This keeps the tomatoes from rotting because it is lying on the soil and to provide shade from the plant foliage.
As I continued to mow that day, it hit me: If we are going to produce fruit (leaders) that will not rot, then we need to drive some stakes into the ground.
Even this organic tomato needed the support of the stakes. Therefore, even this organic expression of a New Testament church needs “stakes.”
However, I do not want the structure to be so rigid that we are not creating space for leaders to emerge from within and leaders to attach themselves to us on our fringes (like the cucumber vines that began growing up some of the tomato stakes).
Nevertheless, I have begun crafting a “job description” for leadership in our community (see below). I would love and appreciate any feedback you may have.
Job Description
The church must be recreated new in each generation not through procreation, but through baptism. This means, as a ministry leader, you must embrace the missional nature of the church by becoming an abiding presence in the local culture.
The kind of ministry leader that speaks effectively to a postmodern world is the one that emphasizes primary truths and an authentic embodiment of those truths. The emerging culture is more interested in broad strokes than in detail, more attracted to an inclusive view of faith than an exclusive view, more open to a dynamic, growing faith than a static, fixed system. As a ministry leader, you should therefore give life to . . .
- a view that missions is every Christian being a missionary to their local culture.
- holding no position of influence but gaining influence by serving the common good.
- being a radical follower of Jesus who serves His mission in the local culture.
- a faith that is lived publicly and includes all by practicing hospitality.
- creating space for people to belong before they believe.
- serving as a missiologist who equips people as missionaries to the local culture.
In short, ministry leaders today can no longer see themselves as simply “workers” to Christians at their churches. They must become missionaries to a post-Christian culture. The fact that ministers are missionaries has been known for a long time in theory, but in this postmodern world it must become the primary definition. As a leader, you must bleed missionary blood, dream missionary dreams, and pray missionary prayers in order to equip others as missionaries to the local culture.
Michael Carpenter
Michael is an urban church planter in the Argenta Arts District of North Little Rock. He and his wife Amanda have been married since 2003 and have two children – Austin and Max. Michael is an entrepreneur, missiologist, and chef.
Great post this will really help me.