Video Transcript: Raising Up Leaders of Renewal, Revival, and Restoration

Raising Up Leaders of Renewal, Revival, and Restoration

MIN 100

Transcript

Hi, my name is Henry Reyenga, the president of Christian Leaders Institute and I want to welcome you to this training journey where God is going to raise you up as a leader of renewal, of restoration, of revival. We call this ministry training and when I think about ministry training, I think about my own college experience in Sioux Center Iowa at a Christian college named Dordt College, Dordt College. One of the things that they said that the philosophy of all education was learning to serve, and that was about business, it was about economics, it was about science, it was about history, anything you would do. All the insights were called serviceable insights that was the philosophy that as a Christian I was trained when I was in college and it changed my life back then, and that influence still remains with me today.

As we think about ministry training so when we think about ministry the word means to serve. The word of ministry means to serve. Serve is ministry, serve is minister, so we minister with that verb means we serve someone service is ministry. Now if you think about that in terms of Christian Leaders Institute that's the theme. So, when you come to get ministry training here, you're getting service training on how to serve the Lord and how to serve others.

Now, we have these basic themes that we are working on right now at Christian Leaders Institute and one of them is ministry itself. Where if you're interested in church ministry, local ministry, chaplaincy ministry, ministry to youth, there's so many potential ways that people in the name of Christ being guided and propelled by biblical insights learning to go deep in ministry.

But also, when we think about ministry we think about enterprise. To be able to create resources God has given us this beautiful earth, to business, to create opportunities in and those business leaders and those who work in enterprise are there to serve. It's not about what greedy thing you can get for yourself it's about how you can serve others and the profit motive is that which allows you to expand and make even more of an impact.

We also think of ministry as philosophy and how we think about the world. Now, I put these three words together ministry, enterprise, and philosophy and to me those three areas are embodied in one biblical character.

Who do you think that is? The one biblical character? The apostle Paul. The apostle Paul is called to proclaim Christ. He is a business leader. He makes tents. In fact, some people probably when the first time they met the apostle Paul they would have said Hey the guy is in the tent making industry and his associates with him people like Aquila and Priscilla. But also, if you look at the apostle Paul, he's in the ministry. He is called to be the instrument of God, an apostle to the gentiles to proclaim their resurrection in Christ, but he also we see him as a philosopher walking around and thinking of Mars Hill where he talks about the philosophies of the age and

he says you know let us not eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die, and that's the hedonism philosophy, instead let us proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So, as we think about your ministry training, we think that Christian Leaders Institute, and we pray, has a role in leading you into ministry, leading you into enterprise if that’s your calling, leading you into philosophy. And I don't know who you are, but this could be a godsend to you to get this formal education so let's look at the role of Christian Leaders Institute training.

Well first of all it's for personal and spiritual development including a sense of calling whether in ministry or to minister to other in other fields like business. Secondly, it's the preparation for marketplace as ministry so if you're here at Christian Leaders Institute and maybe you've come into Christian Leaders Institute as a way to give you some formal education, a way to better yourself, so that you can get a job but then serve Christ in the process. It's preparation for active service in your community as ministry. It's also developing and maintaining a broad and advanced knowledge base to minister. In this case to minister to serve the Lord so to us ministry is our theme we are a Christian religious college institute whose goal is to give formal training that you may be prepared for ministry in the church, ministry in the marketplace, ministry in the world of ideas, to us it's all ministry in advance is the cause of Christ.

I want to talk now about our verbs. That's right we actually have verbs that guide the whole philosophy at Christian Leaders Institute. Those verbs are renew, restore and revive. We can give you tuition-free, high-quality ministry training. Let me just explained what we mean by ministry training. This includes online lectures, quizzes, papers, and other interactions. Quizzes are designed to be very friendly to local mentors and mentor centers like Christian Leaders Training Centers that are in the process of being expanded and expanded.

Next, I want to talk about the early church because the early church and how the early church expanded is the inspiration of how Christian Leaders believes that renewal, restoration, revival is going to happen on this earth. So come with me back into the history of the early church. In the early church Christianity enters into history at the time of the Roman Empire. In fact, at that time Caesars are worshipped and the good news Pax Romana was being proclaimed and Caesar Augustus had established the emperor cult that said that Caesar was lord. It is at this time a disruptive thing happened in society. At this time Jesus was born. 847We read and acts 2 sorry Luke chapter 2 how Jesus was born at a time when Caesar Augustus was still the emperor it was almost like that first grade emperor and another king Jesus Lord came into the world and there was going to be two kingdoms the Kingdom of Rome representing human authority and the king our Lord Jesus representing God's reign in this world.

So, what do we see in Jesus?

The son of God, the son of man, the savior of the world, lives a perfect life, ministers on earth and does he come to set up a human Kingdom? Oh no, it is a Kingdom where the salvation of our God comes to humanity so that our sin, that separation from God, our death, the resurrection of the dead, Jesus dies on the cross to take away our sin, he raises again on the

third day, now there is new life, this is not the good news of the Roman Empire this is the heavenly good news that we still proclaim 2000 years later.

There's no getting around the fact that the Christian message then challenged the authority of Caesar and the Roman way of life. Pontius mockingly inscribed on Jesus Christ cross the words king of the Jews. When Jesus rose from the dead he rose as king over life and death and everything in between so Christianity is established. Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is poured out, the disciples become apostles, many different characters are called into ministry, men and women, the early church starts, the seven deacons are sent forth, the seven ministers, the word diakonos means in Latin the word minister. We see in the epistles of the apostle Paul more and more leaders who are being mobilized and in Roman 16 we see a whole list of mobilized leaders. Romans in fact brought to Rome to be read by Phoebe. a minister. a diakonos, a minister, all of these things are occurring in the early church. Now, I want to Fast forward 80 years after the resurrection the apostle Paul, he has been martyred, Peter has been martyred, even John now is no longer with us, the last apostle to die on the island of Patmos and now Fast forward to the day it's 110AD or they call that CE nowadays. 110AD eighty years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ the Christian message was spreading. By the time the Roman government started persecution campaigns because of this disruptive message that Jesus is Lord, not Caesar is Lord. The dead will raise that heavenly Kingdom is coming, it's a disruptive message that threatens the place, that threatens to place Jesus as Lord of life, death and even culture. Christians became in trouble with the law many were thrown in prison, many were martyred, the emperor cult stressed the point that Caesar saved humanity. Christians stress the point that Jesus saved humanity.

What was that world like? That world was a gruesome world. The power of the fittest the power of the Roman Empire of the Caesars few basically enjoyed that power most were enslaved, and most were poor. So, it’s to this world a world in desperate need of a savior that Christianity was launched. In 80 years after the resurrection Christianity is spreading and interestingly Christianity appealed to large numbers of people in the Roman Empire, according to Donald L Wasson, observed that Christianity continued to spread across the empire appealing to women and slaves as well as intellectuals and the illiterate. Now, go to 110, oh let's advance it to 112 CE/AD. Pliny of the younger, a Bithynian Magistrate, complained of this fact to the Emperor Trajan in one of his surviving letters. Pliny sensed that Christianity was a threat to the Roman Empire the Roman way of life and religious thought. He wrote that Christians are everywhere “for there are many of every age’, Pliny writes, “of every rank, of both sexes, who are now and hereafter likely to be called to account.” You see, Emperor Trajan was persecuting Christians now Christianity was clearly a threat beyond the life of the apostles. Another generation of Christians were now threatening Roman control of every age, of every rank, of both sexes who are now and hereafter likely to be called to account and to be in danger for this superstition. Pliny said, “it’s spread like a contagion, not only into cities and towns, but into country villages.”

So, just picture this, 80 years after the resurrection, the first apostles deceased, Christianity is alive, renewal, restoration and revival is happening everywhere and the Roman leaders Pliny the Magistrate, Trajan the Emperor, can do nothing to stop the spread of this, as Pliny called it, “this contagion” that's revival. So, in this revival this disruption of Roman rule persecution begins. While Trajan, Emperor Trajan did not ruthlessly seek out Christians for martyrdom, he did consider their offences against the Emperor worthy of death. Pliny enforced his policies with moderation. Pliny investigated the seriousness of the problem. He found some Christians who had not denied Christ. Some recanted their faith. Some he executed and some he set free. This is what he writes, “these examinations made me think it necessary to inquire by torments what the truth was which I did of two servant maids that is female slaves who were called deacons, Deacon in the Greek is the word diakonos, it's translated in the Latin as ministers so two female slaves called diakonos called ministers but I still discovered no more no more than that they were addicted to a bad in extravagant superstition. So, what's basically happening here is Pliny is now trying to establish whether or not people are against the Emperor cult. He is trying to stop the spread of Christianity.

Now I think about this I often reflect upon the truth of this, and I think why was the emperor, why was Pliny so concerned about slaves? I mean it, specifically Pliny. So, Pliny talks about, Pliny of talks about how he interrogated Christians, but he talks about two female maids, two female slaves were called deacons. Why is this so significant?

Here's why, Christianity was more and more becoming a threat. The message between the lines was: “Sir, these Christians are a threat! Their ministers are also slave women. Sir, they are mobilizing the slave women to be their leaders. Remember Spartacus! Sir, this group should be persecuted, what is your advice? These are criminals against the state.” The disruption of the Roman Empire was being introduced because Christianity did not see the difference between slave and free, man and woman, Greek or Jew, barbarian, all are in Christ. God looks down at humanity and sees image bearers and the resurrection applies to every one of every rank.

Why were the Romans afraid of the spread of Christianity? Because Christianity mobilized everybody. Forty percent of the Roman population were in slavery. The Romans were afraid of their slaves. Even though Christianity had a message of salvation from sin and salvation from death bubbling up between the lines was this key central question. Who is the Lord and savior of your life? Is it Caesar or is it Christ?

Rome was built on the backs and the bosoms of slave labor. Slavery was widespread in ancient Rome. Historian Mark Cartwright comments on this:

-Slavery was an ever-present feature of the Roman Empire. Slaves served in households, agriculture, mines, manufacturing workshops, construction and a wide range of services within the city. As many as one in three of the population in Italy or one in five across the empire were slaves and upon this foundation of forced labor was built the entire edifice of the Roman state and society.

The Romans needed the slaves to stay slaves. Any religion that mobilized slaves to be the leaders was offensive. So that Christianity would make slaves deacons, ministers, leaders, and that Christianity would be amongst the poor, the illiterate, that the hope of the resurrection was a bigger hope than the Roman Empire, all of these things brought disruptive change.

Two female slaves as ministers the role of a female slave was defined in Roman culture a female slave was not a person, reflect on that, not a person she was property. She was not allowed to marry when she bore a child. The child was a slave even if the master was the father of that child, which happened so often in that culture, they did not even have rights over their sexual body the female slave was the lowest on the strata. Even if the father was a master the child was still a slave. The slave child was not considered a son or a daughter of the slave owner. The slave child did not belong to her but to the owner. She raised her child as the owner's property. What happened that Christianity did not pick a certain strata by which it introduced is profound. A truly disruptive worldview. The worldview of the Christian faith was that all people are image bearers of God and had intrinsic value in Christ female slaves included. In fact, the Christians were ordaining Deacon ministers who were women slaves.

Now people talk about Christianity and social change, and I want to point something out here. Even as you are beginning your ministry training that Christianity is not a social gospel where it's going to take specifically the plight of one group and change it. It's because Christianity is about the salvation of souls it's about the resurrection about image bearers having different roles in the Kingdom of God and that different thinking is translated even to this earth overtime. In fact, Christians were seeing the slaves in the Roman Empire as “brothers and sisters”, not property. This was evidenced in recent archaeological digs. Early Christian.org reports, In the Christian cemeteries, there was no difference between the tombs of the slaves and those of the free. The inscription on Pagan cemetery sepulchers -whether the columbarium, again maybe I'm not so good in all these like cemetery names, common to all the servants of one household, or the Bureau plot of the funerary collegium of slaves or freeman, or isolated tombs- always indicated the servile condition. What I am basically saying is this. In Christian cemeteries the masters and the slaves were brothers and sisters.

Now notice at first Christianity did not tear down that institution. That was the economic institution of the day, but they markedly saw a difference in who their slaves were. They were image bearers of God and though the system was the system there was a disruptive change in the understanding of who slaves were. They were image bearers of God “brothers and sisters”. Where the pagans, the Romans, when they buried a slave, even if the slave was well respected and well-loved as a slave, they were not considered brothers or sisters. Their condition of slavery was indicated.

So, Christianity spreads 80 years after the resurrection and what we're seeing is a demographic renewal, restoration, revival of the earth spreading in a place which was so set up for the reign of Caesar, the human rule of humanity, is one of its greatest kingdoms of all time. The Pagan writer Celsus criticized Christianity in the second century, so right around 80... 90..., a hundred

years after the resurrection, for being a cult of the low, women, slaves and children -- “only foolish and low individuals, and persons devoid of perception, and slaves and women and children... Christianity reached the lowest strata. Women and the slaves, the ignorant and the children were given value in the early church. Christianity mobilized ministers including men and women, freeborn or slave born. They were made out to be criminals, and many died for their “crimes”.

In the history of the early church is an incredible reading of people, martyrs, leaders who were raised up to ministry and many of them became martyrs. There are stories of like the slave girl Blandina who gave such a witness for Christ. There were slaves who became believers who became some of the first leaders of the Church of Rome. After they were ordained as diakonos, that is ministers, then they became priests, then they became elders episcopates, then they became the, that's the same word as the word Bishop, how it was used, so some of the early Bishop of bishops of Rome were actually slaves that the Lord raised up. So, the Lord is reaching down into every ring and even the poorest of the poor can be the leaders of churches.

Early Christianity is not a “social gospel,” means that Christianity was not attempted to make the freeing of slaves the purpose of the cause of its existence. Instead, within the confines of the customs and strata of the given culture, Christianity sees a person as God would see them. While on earth, they might be a slave, in the heavenly Kingdom, they were an image bearer of Christ who are even as deacon ministers. Eventually, later Christian leaders wrote against Christians participating in the institute of slavery. Many slaves who were ****, many slaves were Christians, who are Christians would become prominent witnesses or leaders in the early period of Christianity. The story of the slave girl Blandina, I mentioned before, showed the bravery and courage of this young slave woman who suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Romans.

So, what does this all mean? So here you are starting your ministry training. What does this all mean? How does it connect to all of us getting ministry training?

The story of the early spread of Christianity is a case study in the mobilization of local Christian Leaders. This mobilization included every rank: slave or free, low born are high born, every economic status, each gender, each education level. Many were in trouble with the law because of their faith. The spread of early Christianity was potent and irresistible. The participants and leaders were from local stock. The early church raised up effective leaders who quickly reproduced themselves in their communities. Christianity spread to renew, restore, revive individuals, families and communities. The goal was to reach the whole world with the gospel.

So today here we are Christian leaders institute is all over the world, 150 countries, launching in other languages. Somehow you found out about Christian Leaders Institute and you're wondering is this actually real? It is, but what's more real is your calling. What's more real is what the Holy Spirit is doing to stir up in your heart. Revival! And you may say well you know I

come from this family, and I say back to you, look at early Christianity. Maybe you say to yourself you know I've already been to a college; I've already studied, I have my masters degree. You know, the high born, those who are highly educated in the Roman Empire, they became Christians. Maybe you're saying to yourself you know what I was in trouble with the law, I have been a criminal, many early Christians were criminals. Maybe some you are saying it's like I'm a housewife, I just wanna serve in ministry at my church but I want formal training. I'm a single mom does God have a call for you. So, who are you? I don't know but God knows you. The Holy Spirit has placed something on your heart. That is why I believe you are here, and the inspiration of the early church was that the calling for ministry is for every rank, male and female. Maybe you are considered the low of the low; God may be calling you to bring renewal to the world. Maybe you are in the middle class, do you sense his irresistible calling to be bring restoration? Maybe you are well off financially, but you know you're called to bring revival. Still today, like in early days of Christianity. I want Pliny's words to be said again of Christianity.

“For there are many of every age, of every rank, and of both sexes, who are now and hereafter likely to be called to account, and to be in danger; for this “superstition” is spread like a contagion, not only into cities and towns but in the country villages.”

I welcome you to Christian Leaders Institute. God has a plan. As you find out about the curriculum, about the classes, about the philosophy, know this. There is revival, there is renewal, there is restoration in the air, and I believe that you are a part of that, and I believe that it that the coming of Christ is soon. I don't know if it's going to be 100 years or it's going to be next year. I believe our Lord Jesus is coming back, and let's say it's 100 years, which I don't know. I want this to be some of the most wonderful example, that we are some of those wonderful examples, of revival leaders since the early church. That we are mobilized and I'm asking you, do you feel that calling? If you do, we want to serve you by giving you training. We want to help your dreams to reach the World come to fruition. As you find out more about Christian Leaders Institute you will find it is a generosity supported ministry where we all participate to share that more free high quality ministry training can spread throughout the earth. So welcome aboard. Welcome to Christian Leaders Institute. May God truly bless you and I would like to end this session with a prayer.

Oh Lord God, bring revival, bring renewal, bring restoration. Oh Lord God, raise up leaders for serving you, building churches, serving communities. O Lord, Holy Spirit, stir in our hearts a desire to complete this ministry training, that we will be ready, and willing, and capable of proclaiming the gospel until you come. In Jesus name, Amen.