Video Transcript: The Steward Servant Calling

So I'm often asked, well, what kind of revival leader is Christian leaders Institute trying to raise up? Tell us a little bit more. And I've reflected upon this over the last 10 years thinking about  that question. In the New Testament, there's a term that's utilized. It's called the diakonos. And it's a Greek word, diaconos and the term Deacon, comes from that word. This is an interesting Greek word, and it means steward servant, one who executes the commands of another,  especially of a master. This steward servant is a servant and attendant, a minister in  ambasador. This word diakonos appears 29 times in the New Testament. It's translated as  Deacon, ministers servants are servant. And the context of the passage tells how it's  translated, or how the interpreters, the translators, translated the word, servant diakonos.  What I want to do when I think about this word, I want to go back where it first appears. In the  New Testament, our Lord Jesus used this word first. And he said, Matthew 20:26, it shall not  be so among you during a debate and who's great, who's greatest in the kingdom, who's  going to be the leaders who are going to be the leaders of the movement, who are going to be the revival leaders. And Jesus says, It shall not be so among you. But whoever desires to be  great among you shall be your servant, the word is diakonos. To be great, you've got to be the deacon. To be great, you have to be the minister, to be great, you have to be the servant, the  steward servant, who is not about your own will, but about the one, the will of the one who  sent you, you're called into ministry, you're sent into ministry, the heart of a deacon is the  heart of a called Christian leader. So let's examine this understanding of diakonos. And apply  it to Christian leaders Institute, what you can look forward to walking into as you study at  Christian leaders Institute. So, first of all, how did Jesus use the word Deacon? Well, in John  2:29, Jesus, his mother said to the servants, this is Mary, and this is wedding at Cana. His  mother said to his servants, in the word, there is the word diakonoi. Diakonos is the root word  there. And I love this, whatever he says, To you do it. Very interesting. Here's another one,  John 12:26. If anyone serves, and now it's the verbal form of the word, Deacon, if anyone  serves Me, let him follow me. Where I am, there will be my Deacon. interesting, there will be  my minister. There will be my servant as is translated. But notice, okay, very important. This is not the other Greek word for servant or slave which is doulos. This is the word for the  ambassador, servant, there will be my steward servant, John 12:26. Could be translated this  way, and I'm just gonna use this passage. If anyone serves me as a steward serves me as a  deacon serves me as a minister. Now notice the passages anyone serves me. The verb serve is the verb, the verb that comes from that word diakonos. Diakonos if anyone says serves me  as a steward, servant, as a deacon, servant, as a minister servant. Jesus says, let him follow  me. Wherever I am there, my servant Minister Deacon, will also be, if anyone serves me as a  steward serves me as a minister, serve me as a deacon, the father will honor him, will honor  her. Well, I just think now about the book of Acts. So in the book of Acts, the apostles are  busy. And the whole issue of serving comes up when there's serving in ministry, the tables of  for the widows, or whether it's a whole sort of ministry opportunities, local ministry  opportunities, and the apostles are busy. So what do they do? They started the office? The  leadership office of the deacon, now interesting, they could have called it a lot of things they  could have called it. They could have called it anything from table servers, are they kind of  called? They're very, very specific. Very specific names, Chaplain for the poor? No, they call it the diakonoi. It isn't in the apostles minds. They remember Jesus teaching about those who  would be great in the kingdom, those who had certain leadership, what did our Lord say? I  can just hear them talking in my imagination, and the Holy Spirit prompting them, what did the Lord say, would be the leaders, that would be the ones that would serve in the church that  would expand the organization of this new church. And maybe one of them said, do you  remember that law, our Lord's conversation. He said, If you're going to be great, in the  kingdom, you're not going to be like the princes and the kings and the people who want 

authority and rule things. No, you're going to be the diakonos. Plural the diaconoi. So this new office, became the office of Deacon. Now, in the New Testament, I gotta tell you, some  interesting things occurred. So in I Corinthians 3:5, who then is Apollos, this is a leadership  discussion. And who is Paul, but servants. The word diakonos there. It's in the plural diakonoi  through whom you believed, at each, as the Lord gave you. As I have studied the word  diakonos, I learned that Paul seemed to use this word in talking about himself. And his  ministry friends, I thought also found it interesting that we needed to get a decision about  Gentile participation in the gospel. He took it to the press, but to presbyteral or the  Presbyterian, the presbuteroi, that's it. And those are the elders. So there was the elders and  the elders system seemed to be very much connected to like the Jewish elder at the city gate, the older men in a community who directed the policies, the affairs, the communities, but the  doers, that Deacon doers, the minister doers, when a decision like this came, and sometimes  when you're doing ministry, it's very difficult to come up with a final policy decision, go to the  elders to get help. But the ministers themselves, they knew they didn't have all the answers.  They were in partnership with other leaders of the local church. In this case, we see Paul is  very keen to take matters like about the Gentiles were in the book of Acts to the elders for the  final decision. Acts 12 21:18. The next day Paul and the rest of us, went to see James and In  all the elders who are present. Y'all want to take this even further. The elders of the early  church seemed guided, seemed guided by the policy. The deacons, ministers servants,  diakonos were the doers of ministry. So the elders, it says made policy directed the affairs of  the local church and the ministers, the deacons were out there executing and serving. I  personally believe Paul was made a deacon first. Later in his ministry, he was probably likely  considered an elder. In many cases, maybe an elder is an old deacon or an older Deacon,  and an existing older Christian leader that was appointed to assist in local churches, the  doers in ministry, were the deacons. Now, somebody may say, do you know that all for sure.  You know, I don't know that all for sure. But here's, here's what I want to submit to you. As you begin ministry, become a servant. You're here at Christian leaders Institute, become a  servant. Start at the deacon level. Now, what if you are already ordained an elder in your local church? You're here at Christian leaders Institute getting formal ministry training, I'd say  wonderful, but we want you to see the operating system here. The operating system is that of  a servant leader. So wherever your status is, in terms of ordination, understand that we're  going to come in this whole curriculum is coming from how do we raise up revival leaders who have the heart of a steward servant of our Lord Jesus Christ? You know, I believe I believe  like when I was young, first in the ministry, and this is just me talking. I actually kind of wished, as I look back, that when I finished my ministry training, I would have been just considered a  deacon, clergy member, a deacon leader, and that those who are older or more mature, were  the elder or those who develop policy were the elder leaders. In fact, I would say in my first  church plant as I look back, I had a just a wonderful team of elders. They were older men who guided me I think of Marty Ozinga. He was a guy who was he has wonderful wife named  Ruth. Together, they grasp policy. I was in my 20s. They ordained me as a minister of the  word. But there's so many things that I needed help on. And, and because I was the minister  of the word, I thought I had to be something that really I wasn't in my 20s. If already I would  have had my thinking, You know what? Yes, I've called into ministry. Yes, I'm ordained for  ministry. But the essence of my ministry is ministers, servant Deacon, I believe that would  have helped me. And it would have started me on a road as I progressed in my walk with  God, potentially, for myself personally, as an elder, you know, as I am now in my 50s, and look back and I see, you know, maybe more as sort of an elder would see. I realize that when I  was younger, I really needed that understanding of you started out as a deacon leader. And  we see that really in Scripture, and that's what's so exciting about this. We see in Ephesians 

3:6-7, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers  of his promising Christ Jesus for the gospel, where I was made a diakonos. I was made a  servant. I was made a steward servant. I was made a deacon This is the apostle Paul talking  about when he started in his ministry is calling he was made a servant leader, a deacon,  according to the gift of the of that grace of God, which has given me according to the  workings of his power, to me, the very least of all saints, was the grace given to preach that to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Again, look, to me, I can just imagine this. He  was made a deacon the apostle Paul, and you right away see his servant language for what  to be a minister of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I don't know who you are male or female. But we see in the New Testament, that the order the leadership order of the servant,  leader of the minister, of the act, conosce, includes men and women. For instance, in Romans 16:1, I commend the word commend I recommend is another word for commend. I endorse is another word, you know, to me. The endorse commend recommend is the essence of  ordination. Not use that it's someone else said it. Somebody else sees in you, you're calling  your walk with God, your gift for ministry is not you, someone else sees that. ordination is not  steeped in some hierarchy. That's so difficult that very few can get it. ordination is also not  some online place where you can just sign in, give your money, and someone just gives you a certificate of ordination. ordination is about training and that's why many of you are here,  training, discipleship. But it's also that someone else says that you represent the walk, the  gifts, the calling the life, the leadership to be a leader in the church. So the Apostle Paul says,  I commend to you so he's recommending to the Romans. And by the way, Phoebe is carrying  the letter to the Romans. So she can answer questions for the apostle Paul, because the  Apostle Paul is not specifically there. I commend to you our sister, Phoebe, a deacon. That's  how the TNIV translates it. The NIV says a servant. But it could be translated the word  Deacon diakonos, could be translated I commend to you, Phoebe, a steward servant.  Minister, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. Now notice it's not a deacon of the Apostle  Paul. It's not the envoy of the Apostle Paul. No, this she is an envoy, the apostle Paul but  she's commended as a deacon servant leader, minister in the church of Cenchreae. So to  me, and how, as I have researched this, as we think about it at Christian leaders Institute,  women are included as Deacon leaders, I Timothy 3:8. In the same way deacons are to be  worthy of respect, sincere, non indulgent and much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain.  They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience, they must first be  tested, then if there's nothing against them, let them serve as diakonoi, deacons. Now,  interesting in verse 11, the next verse, and this is a controversial verse. John Christofle, in the early church translated it this way, in the same way, the women, that is women who are in the  order of Deacon women, ministers, women stewards servants, which is often translated as in  the same way, wives are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers, but temporant and  trustworthy in everything. Now, why is the strong case in the early church? Well, why did they  interpret that as in the same way women and not wives as many translations do it today?  Well, because when they're talking about elders a little earlier, the apostles talking about  elders, and he doesn't mention their wives at all. So why would now now all of a sudden, talk  about deacons and then talk about their wives? That could that mean that an elders wife  could be a malicious talker and elders wife could, you know, be someone that needs special  mention? What if there's a parallel he would also talk about the other wives and maybe say  the same thing or he would say this, and the elders and deacons wives should be worthy of  respect not malicious talkers, but temporant and in trustworthy in everything. Instead, it is  pointed specifically to women here, and women who are in the order of the servant leaders,  the leaders of the church, let them also have not only the these qualifications of not indulging  too much wine, sincere respect, so forth in Timothy 1, I Timothy 3:8-10, but also a couple of 

other things worthy of respect not malicious talkers, but temporant and trustworthy in  everything. Not enough people say, Well, is there something a little different for women than  men? And maybe the Apostle Paul precedes each gender in a certain way? And he says in  let, the women who are very relational, not that let that relational that talk and they say that a  woman's brain has more talking neurons than a man's brain, let that not get in the way of  ministry. Well, somebody will say, Okay, what was that how it was in the early church? Well, I  want to refer to a study, I'm going to quote from a book called Ordained Women and Early  Church, just to sort of make the point how prevalent this became in the early church. Almost  immediately, after the New Testament era, the right in the New Testament era had ended this  is from 110. So Pliny the younger an epistle to Trajan. Around 110 CE or 110 AD, a number of  Christians in the Bithynia and Pontus which is an imperial province, south of the Black Sea,  were executed simply as Christians by Imperial Leggett. Plinius Secundus. After the  execution, Pliny proceeded to outlaw by edict all sodalities that is all these like religious  gatherings maybe even call them cults of Christian. Although the publication of the edict that  apparently curtailed some Christian activity, the common meal, especially the crime, as Pliny  put it kept spreading, and there's a beautiful letter and you can read it, look it up on the  internet. And they talked about how Christianity keeps spreading and spreading and  spreading in Pliny is writing the Emperor Trajan who persecute Christian as what to do, soon.  Pliny received an anonymous accusation containing the names of many Christians, in  response, Pliny require the new defendants to pray to the gods, and to make an offering of  incense and wine to the image of the Emperor Trajan. In he served the Roman Empire from  98 to 117. He also required them to anathematize that is to deny Jesus Christ, however, Pliny  wished to find out more about the cult practices of the Forbidden sodality that religion, in his  celebrated letter to Trajan, Pliny provides the following account of how he did so and this is  very instructive. I quote, Pliny now, I believe it was necessary to find out from two female  slaves who were called deacons. What was true, and to find out by torture that Okay, so as I  think about this, just think of how, in a male dominated patriarchal society where slaves meant nothing and women were very lowly considered. He's making it a point to Trajan. Look,  Christianity. Their slaves are leaders Trajan. And more than that, two of these leaders who are called in the Latin ministers, because the translation from Deacon to Latin is diakonos,  becomes minister in Latin, that these slaves are not only slaves, but they're women. This is  the earliest Latin text that appears to refer to female deacons, as a distinct category of  Christian minister, for that reason alone is of great interest. And this, by the way, is done by  Kevin Madigan and Carolyn Osiek, in a book called Ordained Women in the Early Church.  Carolyn is a Catholic nun and Kevin is a scholar from I believe Princeton seminary, and it was a book published by the John Hopkins University Press that that was every single instance of  female Deacons in the early church and it could be tomb inscriptions, which there are a lot of  them like here lies Sophie in the order of Phoebe, a deacon. And you can look at this book if  you want some time, but the Catholic Church ordained women ministers, that is women,  deacons, until just after the five hundreds, in the early church reports, some of the councils,  they were talking about specific regulations for women, ministers, women deacons. Now, my  whole point in saying this is that the order of ministers, as women as ministers, is prevalent in  the early church until about 500. So, having said all these things about servant leader in  Deacon, both men and women, let's talk about the implications for Christian leaders Institute.  And I'm just going to wrap up all this discussion with just some implications. First of all, revival leaders who are servant, who are servant, stewards of Christ, so whether elder Deacon  whether you come to us already an elder or a deacon, or you don't know where your order of  endorsement is, we at Christian leaders Institute are seeking to raise up revival leaders who  have the heart of servants. So that's the first implication of this study, as we apply this to 

Christian leaders Institute. Secondly, we will focus on local leaders who may not get to go to  formal seminary, or Bible school, the online makes formal training convenient. And this means like, you know, if you have a job, and you're in your own enterprise, you're working for a  company of your own business, you're a housewife, you don't have any money. You need a  flexible schedule, but you sense the calling into ministry. The Online allows you to do this,  we're going to ask you to find a mentor, you're gonna hear about this more in the Getting  Started class, we're gonna ask you to get indigenously connected to the local church. But we  know that you may be called into ministry, whether you're a man or whether you're a woman,  and we want to help you take your next step. We understand this as a bi-vocational thing. We  understand that this is going to be training about ministry. And as this training unpacks, we  are more and more talking about enterprise so that you do well to some extent, sustain  yourself in ministry. Now somebody may say, Well, I want a ministry job. Well, praise the Lord, if the Lord calls you to a place where you're training and it will be the same excellent train,  you're gonna get a Bible school. If the Lord opens the door for a vocational place, praise the  Lord. But as servant leaders, we are raising up those and train them well, whether or not they  may ever get paid for the ministry, but the quality is of such that you might get paid for  ministry, okay, the apostle Paul said he had rights to be paid, but he was a tentmaker. So  that's what Bi-vocational means. And we want to make sure that every leader, every servant  leader, gets amazing, excellent high quality ministry training. Number three, this formal  training the implications for CLI this formal training that takes you as far as you need the  training. So at Christian leaders Institute, we have certificates. The certificates include  everything from Bible training, basic Bible knowledge, church and ministry, basic stuff, that a  minister that a deacon leader that a servant leader needs to learn. It goes deeper into the  diploma levels that open up into even a degree program. Right now we offer a divinity degree  because that's one side of the apostle Paul, he's a tentmaker. But as time goes on, we want  to offer someday a enterprise degree so that our leaders not only can thrive in ministry, they  can thrive in enterprise, you know, in some places in the world, we want to get to this place  where not only do we give a fish that's important, or we give a fishing pole, that's important.  No, no, we want to give them the understanding and the means to create a fishing pole,  commerce and let the spiritual leaders called Christian leaders provide the culture of Ministry  of enterprise. And what this does then is it takes away some of that prosperity gospel need  where a minister must somehow get paid. And sometimes in some countries, the ministers  live really high, the reverence live really high, they have a jet even on the backs of people  who are giving their widows mite, we want to see it instead, that the ministers lead in the  refreshing revival of a community, both a ministry and potentially an enterprise, and we will  teach our Deacon leaders both. So what's another implication, another implication are women are included to be ministers. Now, I want to be very strong, very careful to be clear about what I mean here. The case is strong, that elders are bishop must be godly called men. Now, this is a big debate. And we acknowledge that. So a Christian leaders Institute when we ordain and  we do have an ordination path. We are ordaining men and women, as in the deacon ranks,  the deacon order. Now, you may disagree, that women cannot be elders, or you may agree  with us. And how we look at this is that we work with the local church, and we're going to be  true to our voice in your local church can be true to your voice. And as anybody that is  ordained as a deacon leader, would be changed in status to an elder leader. That is the  business of the local church. Our goal is to bring you the best possible ministry training, that  you can thrive as a servant leader. And we know this, a servant leader is the engine that  drives Christian leadership in church leadership. Acts 2:17. In the last days, God says, I will  pour out my spirit on all people, your sons and their daughters will prophesy, prophesy, your  young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. And then it goes on one more 

verse, even on my servants, most both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in the last  days. So I believe that's where we're at. We're at this powerful time of life, where together  men or in women as ministers are serving the Lord together. And we are about raising up that  Deacon rank, that Deacon leader that diakonoi that diakonos. Number five, the training must  be generosity driven, and high quality. Why? Well, because in this thinking, word, we're not a  seminary, where you go eight years to college, eight years in seminary, then you go through,  and you're going to be ordained as a minister of the word serving at, possibly, and in a  professional place. Now that all these things are possible for you to the quality of training is  going to be as great for you. However, we want you to know that we believe the audience of  Christian leaders Institute are ordinary people like Peter and John and people who are called  into ministry. And they're just called they're called to significance. They're not in it because  they need they even want to be paid. If pay comes to them got that, for instance, I am in the  Gospel, and I'm in a Christian ministry, and my salary comes out of that Christian ministry. So  it's wonderful. I think that's all wonderful. Praise the Lord, if that's where the Lord leads you.  But so many are just going to be local indigenous leaders. You might be a leader, who is a  housewife who's called into ministry and you just want top notch training. You might be a  factory worker, you might be an executive in a business and you have evenings free to be  able to study and you could pay for it but you love to high quality and you love the flexibility  and we want to keep it free. We don't want anyone left behind. If you're calling the ministry the of the internet's all you need. Well, how do we keep it that way? Well, I believe that you, as  well as people outside of Christian Leaders Institute, foundations donors, that you will join us  as Vision Partners. I believe that's what you want, you want to give it forward. So what you  have received, if you have the means, and the inclination, to become a vision partner, we're  all in this together to keep this free and available to the world. Here's another implication,  ordination programs specifically for Deacon leaders. Ministers in the order of a deacon,  leaders who can be ordained now we have a process here. And the process basically, first of  all, is local, our nation's in specific roles like officiant. Women in ministry very specific, what  you do is you get the train that Christian leaders Institute, we have 150 hours of training. So  you get this training and in the training is specific to the ordination role that you're called to be  involved with. Then we're asked the we ask you for three endorsements. So let's say you are  called to be a church starter, a house church starter? Well, you take the training that we  recommend, which is the first certificate and the house church class, and then there's an  ordination class, you must come up with three local recommendations, that's to be  commended, like Phoebe was commended. Then after those, all that paperwork is done in  that, then we will send you out an ordination certificate, we will sign that you did the  academic, theological, the formal training, then your local endorsers one of them will sign that  yes, you are commended that you have the calling of the walk for ministry. So it's not an  ordination, that on the one hand is so hard to get that very few can get it. By the other hand,  it's not some phony thing that you just signed for pay $250 and get you get it in the mail. No,  is a combination of calling. Formal training of endorsements is a whole process. And then you get on our international directory as one who is ordained in the ministry. Now if you're already  ordained, maybe you don't need that. But for those of you who say, hey, I want to minister and you know that the endorsements, somebody besides yourself, saying that you are called in  the ministry is very important. And you understand that. So we're the revival leaders that  Christian leaders Institute, and we're in the leadership. So this Christian leaders Institute is  about raising up servant leaders called into ministry giving formal high quality training, so that  you can do well and thrive in your calling. Men and women call by God, walking with God,  being everything you need. So you take your next step in ministry. I am so excited about what

God is doing at Christian leaders Institute, but even more excited about what God is doing in  your life.