Video Transcript: The Minister Way

Min 100 Connections - Ministry Basics

The Minister Way Video Transcription

My name is Henry Reyenga, the President of Christian Leaders Ministries. I want to welcome you to take free Ministry training courses at Christian Leaders Institute and possibly receive some Ministry award credentials. Maybe you are here to transfer these free classes to the Christian Leaders College. Maybe you are here because you are interested in the Life Coach Minister program or possibly you are interested in becoming ordained with the Christian Leaders Alliance. Others are here because you're interested in Restorative Justice or the new Life Card. Maybe you just want to take a few discipleship classes. But I have this question for you.

Why are you here?

Are you called to be a Minister? Now you say “Hold on, Hold on. A minister? Isn’t that the person who's up front? Who's the senior pastor?” Ya, Ya, that person is a minister, but the New Testament talks about those who have been changed by Christ, “that it's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” Minister is an attitude. You can be a businessman and a Minister. You can be a factory worker and a Minister, a Farmer and a Minister. You can be in ministry and a Minister. Whatever your calling is, to be a Minister is at your core. There was a famous Philosopher named Descartes who kind of played on this concept of I am, and he put it this way: He said, “I think, therefore I am.” Are you someone who ministers therefore you are? I minister, therefore I am. I am a Minister of the Lord Jesus Christ at the very core of my being.

1 Corinthians 9:16 “Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”

At your core do you relate to this? If you relate to this, then taking classes like this, is going to be something you complete. You know, it is interesting that of the ten people who start these classes only one will have the self-discipline and the motivation to complete online correspondence classes. I want to invite you to get a mentor and you're going to find out about that later. But think about that, only one, and why? Because I believe that calling, the currency of calling to train, to learn, to grow in being a Minister is not that easy to follow up on, so here you are, and does it fit you to say I am a Minister, therefore I am? You're going to learn in the class that every single rank and every situation is called into ministry.

Acts 2:17 “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”

You know Christianity had an appeal to everyone, slave, free, men, women, the rich like Philemon or Zacchaeus, the middle class like the apostle Paul and Barnabus, slaves, that’s right, slaves who were barely given respectable names in the Roman Empire were invited to be

Christians and Ministers. Some of the first leaders of the early Church were from slave backgrounds so every situation God calls us in ministry.

Who is a Minister?

A Minister is saved by grace. A Minister is a sinner.

Philippians 3:7-9 “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

If you think that your sin in the past and the fact that you are a sinner today disqualifies you to be a Minister, you are not correct, that’s right, the fact that we have been bought in Christ we understand the urgency. We understand why to minister to others. You know Christianity to me is one of the most amazing enterprises, a movement like none other.

Jesus said to love your enemies. We Christian leaders, we Ministers, our goal is to reach sinners like ourselves. People who have been enemies and are enemies of Christ and to help them see the gospel and become friends. A lot of people when they start businesses or enterprises, they kind of want to niche to the perfect audience. The people that already want what they’re promoting. In Christianity we promote to people who don’t want to hear about hope, who don’t want to hear about the gospel, who don’t want to hear about Jesus Christ, people that have doubts, people who criticize Christianity, people who have no interest in what you are interested in and somehow you're called to minister to those people and I believe it's because we understand what it means to be saved, sinners saved into a relationship with Jesus Christ. So, I think that is fascinating Ministers saved by grace but there is more. Being saved by grace means that we are works in progress.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Think that through, not only does God call you to minister as a sinner saved by grace but as a work in progress. The Holy Spirit is sanctifying you. You are becoming changed while you minister and those sins that have plagued you, they don’t have to be swept away into some secret place. We are transparent now, we know that we need a savior, we know that he is changing us. In this class you are going to find out how your salvation story, how God saved

you, has a lot to do with how you will be a Minister. We are works in progress and works in progress have a wonderful hope because as a Minister you are empowered by the holy spirit of God.

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

I don’t know where you are in the world. Christian Leaders Institute has trained leaders in English in 180 Nations. You may be on the other side of the world from where I am sitting right now but God has called you to be a Minister. It could be Africa It could be Asia, the United States, Canada, Europe. We have Graduates, Ministers, everywhere around the Globe, but as different as all these places are and as different as we are, there is still one Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit that changes hearts in the middle of the United States is the same Holy Spirit that changes your heart where ever you are. To me that is incredible and that was the promise given by Jesus to the Apostles and you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. You have that power as a Minister you're not alone just to serve Christ and to serve others, no the comforter John 14 the comforter has been poured out unto you. Jesus said it better that I go and that you have this councilor in you. I have often reflected on it. Why is it better? And as I have become older and more senior, I have realized, that’s it, it's about ownership, it's about opportunity, it's about spreading hope and we get to do it. It is truly better for us for sure that we get to be included in ministry.

The power of the Holy Spirit (12:15) has been poured out upon us. We are ministers saved by grace, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and ministry now becomes our manner or mode of existence.

1 Timothy 4:6 “If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.”

Now, what I find fascinating about this is that as you minister you become a good Minister, as a Minister you point out the teachings of the faith and I believe that’s why you're here. If your mode of existence is Minister, therefore I am, then sharing the world of God through the power of the Holy Spirit the teachings from the bible.

In this class you're going to learn about the role of good doctrine, of good teaching, so that your mode or manner of existence it just comes out of you from the power of the Holy Spirit. As you are learning ministry and you are learning through Ministry training there are lots and lots and lots of classes. Over 95 classes at Christian Leaders Institute, classes that will empower your ministry as the Holy Spirit leads you. Wow! Cause it’s a mode, a manner of existence, this is how we live. I like also to think about I minister therefore I am, as a lifestyle. A habitual lifestyle or connection.

Jude 20 “But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.”

So, if you are called to be a Minister. It’s a second by second, moment by moment, it’s a walk, it’s a connection. As you grow in ministry, as you grow in your relationship with God. Out of that relationship, out of that connection people will meet you and they’ll see that you are connected to the God of the universe. You’re Gods warrior, Gods minister, Gods agent. You will face all sorts of trials and everything, but you'll face them connected to God. And whatever your work is or whether you are a volunteer minister, whether you are a part time Minister, a career Minister, people will know it.

In this class we are going to talk about what we call the seven connections which talk about how we’re connected in our personal life, in our marriage, in our family and connected to your community all in a habitual walk with God. So, I minister, therefore I am, but it is a habitual lifestyle, a connection. What I find another thing that is so interesting is that Minister Way, I minister, therefore I am, is a method.

2 Corinthians 3:6 “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant-not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

Now, in thinking about how Christianity as a movement has spread, I have always been baffled that he would use Ministers as the method for proclaiming the gospel. When Jesus came many thought, like Judas was one of them, one of Jesus own disciples, they thought well the method of bringing in the kingdom of God was going to be through the overthrow of the Romans and the new kingdom on this earth was going to bring in the kingdom of God and that’s not what happened it was the opposite. It was Jesus suffered and died and took on himself all of our sin and the sin of the world and he rose again in the victory. It was a victory of forgiveness of sins, resurrection, of life everlasting, solving the problems that went all the way back to the Garden of Eden when humanity fell into sin separating them from God and now the kingdom of God is the kingdom where the love of God has been poured out to save and to rescue and to change lives and Gods rule is to bring this kingdom. That even has implications for this earth, everything, every ounce, every inch of this earth belongs to God, and it is not through political power, it is not through business tycoons, not through technology, it is through a Minister. You’re the ambassador, it is not how well funded you are it is how well connected you are and how you understand that you have a purpose for your existence and your purpose is to serve Christ and to serve others. Wow! That’s the method that God uses? “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:6)

I want to conclude this presentation with a quote from Jesus. It's from Luke 10 Verse 20 “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” I am going to conclude by saying I do not rejoice in the results of ministry. This story comes from Jesus sending out the disciples and even more 2 by 2 in towns and villages and they

came back, and they reported that “Wow, even the demons submit to us.“ “Wow, ministry will change the world.” And you know there is something almost heady or Wow we really got this, almost prideful, and I think about that. And I know how the devil is there when we have an accomplishment and we look at the stuff that we’ve done and we look at it and we go “yes, I'm really needed by God I’m so special and all of those things and I have found over the years that, you know, don’t, that’s fool's gold to look at the accomplishments. Just keep your eyes on Christ he has a plan for your life and my life. Jesus said focus on this, not the results of your ministry that demons submit to you. Focus on your relationship with God, your eternal destiny, and when you do all of a sudden, your sense of value changes. If you are called to martyr, when you martyr, you are like Stephen in the book of acts who it didn’t matter what they did to his body, what he saw was heaven, he saw Christ. You know I have been around a long time, and I know that if we fixate, if we are called to ministry and we fixate on what we have done and how this ministry compares to others or we fixate on the results or if we lose ourselves in ministry itself, or we get a sense of entitlement, what I find is that it hurts us and the evil one is there. Don’t submit to the temptations of the evil one who tries to challenge you away from your core, your core you minister therefore you are. With this hope and assurance, you do not take great rejoicing in what you have done. You take all your boasts, all your joy, all the hope of being a Minister and the future in this that you are connected to the God of the universe, saved through the cross, resurrected to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and connected from now into all eternity. I do welcome you to this ministry training and I pray that God will bless you. Let's close this first session with a prayer.

Oh Lord, for each person here, for each journey, why they're here, for the future, for local communities, for the local church, I pray that each person as they’re beginning ministry training may be inspired by the Holy Spirit, empowered in that you will allow whatever noise or distraction that takes away from this opportunity that people have to study your word, to study ministry, to study subjects in your creation, whatever distractions Lord. Lord I ask that you will take them away and help people who start here at Christian Leaders Institute to become the Ministers that they are called to be. Lord, we know that with you all things are possible, and we ask that in Jesus name. Amen.

So, I want to welcome you. I am excited that you are here, and I look forward to what God is going to do as you are a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.