Video Transcript: Lesson 34 Body Building

Hello, and welcome. We are down if you can believe it, we're down to our last  three lectures, we're down to our last teaching. And I am so happy for you that  you've made it this far, you've invested a lot of time, listening to me, I thank you  for that. I hope that this has been a helpful process for you that along the way  that the Lord has stirred some things in you that you've got some takeaways  from all the lectures and the readings, that certainly not everything is going to  connect with you. And certainly, even if it did, you couldn't do it all. But I do hope and I pray that as we're, we're nearing the end here, that this has been just a  really positive experience for you. And I'm going to try to end this well for you. As we continue our conversation on leadership. So these last three lectures, we're  going to be talking about making the most of your leadership, and what you can  do kind of very practically, to, you know, get get the most of the opportunities  that you have, as a spiritual leader in your church, your ministry, whatever it is.  So let's pray. Lord, as we head into this last section, we give you thanks and  praise, Lord we acknowledge that all wisdom flows from you. And so we pray for that. We pray, Lord, for our leadership, we pray that we might be effective Lord,  we pray that we might be wise, we pray that we might be helpful to others, and  God give us the greatest joy of knowing that we have been used by you to  accomplish your purposes. We love you. Amen. Okay, so this lecture is called  body building. And we're not going to be talking about, you know, doing bench  presses or curling weights or anything like that, we're going to be talking about  body building in terms of the church, building up the body of Christ as just a real  great opportunity that you have as a leader. And certainly, this is really critical in  terms of revitalization is making the most of your leadership and building up the  church. Okay, this is really kind of the heart of revitalization. Now, in Scripture,  as I'm sure you're, you know, we've even talked about it in these lectures, that  the church is depicted as a as a body as an, as a physical human, the physical  human body, and it takes many parts to make the body work again, you've got a  skeletal system, a muscular system, and nervous system, you know, the eyes  and ears and, you know, you know, breathing and everything. And this is big  system that's all held together and works together. And there's, there's many  parts that make it work. And so what we're going to be talking about. And we'll  get to each of these points in a minute, in Ephesians 4:11-16. And you can open  that up either on a phone or tablet or an old fashioned actual paper Bible, I invite you to do that. It's just a lot of words for us to get up on the screen and kind of  keep flipping back and forth. So I'd invite you to open that up to Ephesians 4  really talks I think about the the essential tasks of a leader. Okay, so we know,  you know, it's about moving and it's about influence, but kind of, you know,  getting on to God's agenda and all that kind of stuff. Really, though, the what,  what exactly am I supposed to do? What exactly does that mean and look like?  And really what it is, is a call to build up as a leader is to build up the body, the  body of Christ, the physical expression of the church in this world, to build up the

body of Christ. So, I'm going to read all of Ephesians 4:11-16. Again, if you have  it open, Please read along with me, and then we're going to go back and we're  going to talk about a few of these things we're going to break, break the verse  down into a few pieces. So Paul writes, Christ Himself, gave the apostles, the  prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers, to equip his people for  works of service. So that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach  unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature,  attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, then, we will no longer  be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by  every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their  deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become  in every respect the mature body of him, who is the head that is Christ. From  him, the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament  grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. So let's break this  down. Again, it'll probably be helpful if you've got the text in front of you in some  capacity. If not, that's alright, we'll do our best. So it says, you know, the Lord  gave apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, it gave all of these  gifts to individuals, to do what God has gifted people, he's he's given spiritual  gifts to people, for what purpose, it says, To equip his people, for works of  service. So whatever gifts I have, whatever gift you have, this ultimate purpose  is to use it to equip others. Okay. And it says until we all reach maturity, so my,  my task is to use my gift to equip other people to be involved in works and in  service. And in doing so, until they reach maturity. And then he says, at the very  end, so that every part does its work. Every part does its work. So we might say, according to Paul, that the real measure of leadership is how many people you  are equipping, to do works of service, how many people are being brought  towards maturity, in their own life, in their own obedience to Christ, and a  measure of a good leader is how well is everyone working towards this? Okay. I  think this is really, really important. Because in churches you know, people are  looking for the pastor, to kind of be the all star to be able to do everything to be  to the be all know all do all Dynamo person who can like transform everything  and is gifted at all things. And we're not. I mean, nobody is I'm certainly not.  There's areas that I'm good at. There's areas I feel equipped and gifted at that,  then there's there's areas I don't. So just in that sense, it's a false idea of what a  pastor or leader in the church should be. But really what Paul says it's about  equipping, and really kind of multiplying the number of leaders and people that  you have in your ministry, right. So if we want to think of this in like a maybe like  a sports analogy, your role as a ministry leader, is not to be like the all star  player who scores all the points and who's the big hero. And, again, that's what  you know, people might be looking at you to do. Your role is far more like a  coach who recruits people onto a team think of like a college football coach or a, like any kind of a college, a sports coach, who they go out and about, and they 

recruit players to join their team. Right? They they're trying to get people they  need to put people out on the field or on the court, and they recruit them and  they see something in them that says, hey, you would be really good to be part  of this team or we're missing this we're missing a good defender or we're  missing a real fast guy or we're missing a girl who can play goalie really well  and, and they go out And they, they recruit, and they, they bring these people on board. And then what they do is then they coach them, they practice together,  they give them, you know, ways that they can develop and, and all along they're  building them up so was when somebody is a first year player versus a fourth  year player they've grown they've matured they become much more effective  and, and they're now operating out there at a very high level and they're your  your older players or your juniors and seniors are now functioning more like  coaches on the field because the they've been under your instruction or the  coaching so much. And that's the idea. So we think about ministry leadership,  like that's really kind of what it's supposed to be it's like a building up a recruiting a pulling in a teaching, all this kind of stuff, and then sending them out and  deploying them out onto the field so that they can do what they were made to  do, right, because that's how it works. I've never seen a sporting event where  the coach just benches, all the players that goes you know what, I'm going to go  out there, and I'm going to do it, or, you know, he pulls some you know, or just  even one person off the field and says, You're doing terrible, I'm going to do it,  you're not playing the way I want you to play. Now, maybe in practice, they might do something like that. But when it actually comes to it, they just they're there on the sidelines and, and what their joy, what their delight is, they have built up a  team that is now functioning well. Through their leadership, through their  guidance, through their, through their instruction, that kind of a thing. And I think  that's just such a really important or, you know, helpful, I should say, a really  helpful analogy for ministry. That's what the role is it says, God, you know, Christ Himself gave people spiritual gifts in order to equip people for works of service.  So your number one role in ministry is equipper. You're you're you're you're  helping people grow and develop where wherever they're at. It's not an it's not  that, again, that will I'm going to step in, because I'm really good at that it's, well, you know, that might be, you know, good for you. But it's not good for anybody  else. Nobody else is growing, nobody else is maturing, okay. So we want to get  people actively involved in actively, like, invested in what, what's going on.  Maybe another example, if you're not a sports person is imagine a dance. And I  remember going to like a middle school dance. And, you know, there was like,  on this wall, there was a line of boys, you know, plastered against the wall. And  then over here, on the other side of the gym, there was a line of girls plaster  there. And, and nobody was dancing. And imagine you're a teacher in that  school and you want the kids you know, you want this dance to be success?  Well, you could either, you know, kind of go out there and show off all your great 

dance moves, but you'd be the only one out there. And maybe you'd be happy,  showing off what you can do. But what if, you know, wouldn't it be much better if  you started, you know, you went over and you talk to the boys and you got some of them out and you got some of the girls out. And then, you know, by the end of the night, you know, everybody's out on the dance floor, they're all having a  great time. They're all smiling, they're all laugh and then you know, you can just  be sitting in the corner, not necessarily out on the dance floor. Or maybe you're  in the midst of it, but your your your delight is just seeing all the kids dancing  and having fun and and knowing like you did that. And again, that's the same  kind of mentality is, you know, equipper bringing in people inviting them all that  kind of stuff. So we're gonna talk about how do you do that? How do you get  people on board? How do you get people off the walls and dancing, whatever  analogy you want to use. Okay, let's talk about how do you build the body. Okay. So I've got four here for you. I'm just going to kind of give them to you all at once and then we'll work through. One is really discerning gifts. As a spiritual leader,  you should really have your eyes open. For what are the gifts of the people in  your congregation? What's obvious, you know, this person has a real gift for  hospitality. This person is a wonderful teacher. This person has a gift for  intercession. This person is a natural leader. And you know, they have real  leadership gifts and, and really being aware of that. Because if you don't know  what anybody's gifts are, how are you ever going to, you know, recruit them.  Again, if we go back to the sports analogy, if I have a basketball team, well, I  want a really tall guy who's going to play this role, and I want a really good  shooter. And then I want to have a guy who's a really good ball handler, and  good at dribbling and passing and, and when coaches go to recruit, they know  exactly who they're recruiting for. They don't say, well, I need I need 10  shooters? Well, no, because we need somebody to play defense, we need  somebody to rebound, we need somebody to dribble we need some, you know,  people who can set up plays, you know, all that kind of stuff. So coaches recruit  very intentionally. Now, we don't, you know, they're there, but they're looking  about, I need a guy who can do this, or I need a girl who can do X, Y, and Z.  Okay, so the analogy breaks down a little bit. I mean, you get the idea. You're  supposed to be looking around. Who are these people? How can I equip them?  Like they already have the spiritual gifts? How can I equip them to for works of  service so that they can grow in faith that they can be obedient to the Lord, and  have the joy of serving Him? And maybe you don't have, you know, it might not  be as obvious and certainly for everybody, it's not going to be that obvious. But  there's some I would say that would be a good place to start. Another tool that  you can use that that I've used quite a bit through our revitalization process is  having people go through spiritual gift assessments, and just helping them to  discern what it is that how God is formed and fashioned and created them, that  they do have a spiritual gift at what is that? And then having them go through 

that sit down with them? And say, Okay, it looks like you're pretty high in this,  what do you think about this, and by the way, their spiritual gifts assessments,  like online, just like we the Church Health inventory stuff, it's all online, it's all  free, you can buy some programs, you can come up with your own whatever.  But helping people get a sense of how God is made them and call them and all  that kind of stuff. So really helping people discern gifts. And then once they do  that, then we start talking about how can you use that? How can you plug that?  In? What way, do we have a ministry here? That would be a good fit for you.  Maybe there's a ministry in a nonprofit in town. And it's like, you've got a great  gift, and it doesn't fit here. But you could serve God by going over here. Or we  can start a new ministry, because you're really gifted in this and maybe that's  why you're here, God put you here. Okay, so that's really kind of, I think the the,  the on ramp for the equipping is really helping people understand their gifts,  how, and how they could possibly be used for that, right. Going along with that,  is this idea of inviting people to do it that, you know, and creating opportunities.  We've kind of touched on this. You know, what are your passions? What are  your gifts? How can we how can we use those? Because how many times have  we said I have, you know, there's a need in the church or something. And it's  like, just easier if I do it myself. It's just easier if I do it myself, right. But if I keep  doing it, then nobody else is growing. They're all stalling. You know, they're all  like stuck in neutral in their faith development. And I think that's part of why  churches stagnate and need revitalization because nobody's growing, nobody's  living out their purpose. So I was just thinking about this recently, one of my  boys is learning to drive right now. And he has to get like 50 hours behind the  wheel before he can get his driver's license. And that's a good thing because he  needs to, you know, practice driving in the rain and in the snow and at night and  traffic in the city and the highway and all that kind of stuff. So we want him to get as as be as good of a driver as he can before he turned 16 And he gets his  driver's license. So every time I'm going somewhere, and he's going there, too, I always give him the keys. It's like okay, you drive. Because at this point, I don't  need the practice. I've been driving for like 30 years. It's not going to help me  like to drive to where we're going. But for my son, it could be really helpful. Like  It, in fact it is. And every time he drives, you know, we'll talk about Oh, you did a  really good, you know, merge onto the highway or, Oh, you didn't put your  blinker on, you gotta remember to do that. Or he'll ask questions. Now, what do I do when I come to this kind of a weird intersection, we'll talk through it and will  process them. So anytime there's an opportunity for him to drive, I always give  him the keys, like, I don't need to drive you do. And I think, you know, there's a  good parallel there with ministries. And there has to be these opportunities that  people can get invited in and just give it a try. Like, are they going to make  mistakes? Yes, of course they are. Did you make mistakes? When you got  started? Yes, my guess is you're still making mistakes. I know I do from time to 

time yet, right. So they need to learn they need to have opportunities now that  doesn't mean they start off as you no head of like, the most important ministry in your church, you know, find a place that is suitable for somebody who's either  getting started out or if somebody's a little more advanced, like what would be  an opportunity for them. We're gonna talk more about that in in our next lecture.  But the idea is giving people an opportunity to kind of do what God made them  to do. And that's part of your role is equipping, it's giving people keys to drive,  and to do, okay, not just you always being like, I'm driving, everybody get in the  back, right? More and more, you want to be on the right side, coaching,  encouraging people giving them the keys so that they can grow and mature in  faith. Right. That's how they do it by by actually getting involved. And if I've seen, I think one pattern over and over again, in churches that need revitalization is  that if the work of the ministry is being done by such a slim kind of section, you  know, 5-10-20% of the people are kind of doing everything, that probably  sounds familiar to you. Well, if that's how things are operating, you're gonna  have a really hard time seeing revitalization across the spectrum. So one of your tasks as leader is this discerning, inviting getting people involved. And you have  to be really intentional about this, right? If you gotta be really intentional about  the teaching, that's kind of self explanatory. You know, you help somebody out,  you show them how it's done, you teach them what to do, you know, just like  teaching my kid how to drive. All right, you know, when, when you're here, you  got to put it in four wheel drive, or when you're going down a dirt road, you got  to, you know, drive a little slower, because the rocks and the stones, whatever it  is, you know, you can teach people, you can teach people how to run meetings,  you can teach people all you know, how to how to do a Bible study, you can  teach people how to teach, you can teach people how to pray, I mean, all this  kind of stuff, but being really intentional, again, about who they are, what their  gifts are creating opportunities, because again, your responsibility is to build the  body, not to do everything for the body. Right? My heart is in a very important  part of my body, right? I can't live without it. But my heart can't do everything.  Like my heart can't do the function of my lungs, my heart can't do the function of my liver or my kidneys. My heart can't do the function of my brain. And  sometimes as pastors or leaders, we try to be that heart that is doing all these  kinds of things. And no, God has put people right there in your ministry context,  who can do these other things? Who have these gifts, and your job is to  cultivate it and equip it and build it. So you're all functioning together as a  working body. Okay. And then, finally, we talked about this at length last time.  How do you do all of this? How do you equip people? Because you model it, you show them what to do? You know, it's like, okay, you invite somebody on, let me  do this. And you watch me do it for a while. And then after, you know, a certain  amount of time, we're gonna flip roles, and you're gonna do it and I'm gonna  watch you, okay? I had a very wise person in ministry, tell me this. They said, if 

you do something by yourself, whenever you do something by yourself, you  have wasted an opportunity to develop another person, whether you know,  another leader or whatever. So, I think about that, like if I'm gonna go do a  hospital visit. I can always do that myself, but I probably get a lot more of that.  Bang out of it. If I call somebody and say, Hey, tomorrow, I gotta go visit so and  so in the hospital, would you mind coming with me? And who am I going to pick  somebody who I think would enjoy that somebody who has maybe a  compassionate heart, somebody who I think might want to actually do that sort  of thing. You invite them into that. And so then when I go to the hospital, I'm not  just visiting this person, but I'm actually doing leadership development I'm  equipping, I'm building up. And so just being really intentional about those sorts  of things, you know, don't waste opportunities, like, I'll just do it myself. Because  every time you say, I'm just gonna do it myself, or this is something I only I do,  you're really robbing your people of an opportunity to grow and to develop. So I  think really the kind of watchword here is intentionality. And the challenge would  be, how much time are you spending, you know, our lives are percentage wise,  in the course of a week, how much of your time is spent body building? You  know, I know you're, you're doing other kinds of things, and you can't spend  100% of your time bodybuilding, I get it. But you do have to spend, I think, a fair  amount of time. And you'll be really, I think, really pleased with what happens as  you do this. Because all of a sudden, you have people functioning, you know, at  a much higher level, you know, they're growing in maturity. They're, they're  enjoying. And, by the way, you've just set the model for them, that as you as you do things, you bring somebody else along with you. And so they start doing that  same thing. And it really just multiplies. And it can be a very powerful way of  expanding not just your leadership, but really expanding the ownership and  investment that people have in your ministry. So with that, I'm going to pray for  just a word of blessing over all of us. Lord, thanks for this time. We thank you for this calling to be equippers. Lord. We know that we have made ministry leaders  and pastoring into so many other things. And God, we confess that we live in an  age of a rockstar persona for mega church pastors, and we place unrealistic  expectations on ourselves and so do our churches, but God, would you just  remind us that it's not about us. It's not about being the star of the show. It's not  about being in the spotlight Lord, it's about running the spotlight, and just shining it on you and inviting others Lord, into ministry. So God thanks for this this time  and I pray that even as I spoken through this lecture Lord, you brought names of people into into the minds and in the thoughts of everyone listening, and they  can begin to Lord, doing some body building to fulfill the purpose you have for  your church. Amen.