Training Spirit-Filled Local Church Leaders for the Twenty-First Century

Ray Miller

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781666715682, 9781666715699
• eBook ISBN: 9781666715705
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

Who decides what your church (local or denominational) will look like twenty-five or thirty years from now?How can you ensure that your church will continue to fulfill its God-given purpose in the next generation?What can be done now to reverse negative trends in ministry such as pastoral burnout?Much of the answer to these questions about pastors and other local church leaders is tied to the training they receive. Training Spirit-Filled Local Church Leaders for the Twenty-First Century encourages all stakeholders in ministry training--educators, pastors and other local church leaders, church members, and those who sense God is calling them to ministry--to prayerfully consider the foundational issues that determine the effectiveness and relevance of a ministry training program.These foundational issues are: -What is the local church, really?-What is spiritual leadership?-What is ministry training?-What is the role of the Holy Spirit in all this?-What did effective training look like in the past, and what might it look like in the twenty-first century?

Unit 1: The Church

Chapter 1

The Church and the Holy Spirit

Introduction

If we desire to understand how to train leaders for the local church, it is necessary to first understand the universal church. The overarching topic of this book addresses the training of Spirit-filled leaders for the local church, so the emphasis in this chapter will be the local congregation, with special stress on the pneumatological aspects of the universal church.

There are contrasts between the local church, the universal church, and the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is more encompassing than the church locally or universally and refers essentially to the settings throughout history where God’s rule or reign is embraced, along with the accompanying blessings.1 The church is the gathering together of God’s people either in a local setting or universally (chronologically and geographically), although in practical terms, the New Testament (NT) seems to emphasize the local assembly of believers.2

The Spirit provides the dynamic power for the advancement of God’s mission throughout the world and guides the process as the church crosses cultural, geographic, ethnic, and linguistic borders to carry out God’s mission in the world.3 The Spirit also continues to work within established churches as they serve within their immediate communities.

The Purpose of the Church

God’s mission in the world can be summed up as the reconciliation of humans to God.4 The essence of the Great Commission in the Gospels and Acts is holistic in the sense that the church is to proclaim the gospel and form disciples. This task—consisting of proclamation, establishing local congregations into which believers are to be assimilated, and transformational teaching (making disciples)—is to be done through the empowerment and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

In fulfilling this mission, the church can be understood as having a fourfold means to accomplish it.5 Rather than being a social entity that exists for itself, it is created by Christ and empowered by the Spirit for the benefit of the world around it. The four aspects of its purpose are evangelism, worship, edification, and social responsibility. Each of these aspects is interrelated to the other three, and all are essential to the ultimate purpose of the local church in fulfilling the Great Commission.

Spirit Ecclesiology

Keith Warrington describes the local Pentecostal church as existing and functioning with a “Spirit ecclesiology.”6 One area that reveals to what extent Spirit ecclesiology is a reality is the practical interaction between the universal church and God’s mission. The church should properly be seen as a direct participant in God’s mission, rather than existing apart from it or in a way that is not organically integrated into God’s mission in the world.7 Miguel Alvarez explains that

mission is not one among many functions of the Church, instead the Church is a function of God’s mission. If the Church is the instrument and expression of the kingdom, then the goal of theological education is to form people in congregations so that they can participate in God’s local and global mission.8

The Spirit works in and through the church to motivate, empower, and guide God’s mission in the world. Although the mission may in some ways proceed independently from the church through parachurch organizations or other means, a local church’s reason for being must not be separated from its direct involvement in fulfilling God’s mission.

The Spirit’s Work in the Church

The work of the Spirit is Christocentric.9 In his farewell discourse to the disciples, Jesus promised that the Spirit would abide with them and represent him (John 14:16–17), be sent to them in Jesus’s name to teach them (John 14:26), testify to them and through them about Jesus (John 15:26–27), and convict the unbelieving world of the truth and guide the disciples into the truth (John 16:8–15).

Jesus promised that the Spirit would come and empower the disciples specifically to be witnesses to him (Acts 1:8). The Spirit began to be poured out on the Day of Pentecost by the resurrected and ascended Jesus (Acts 2:32–33). The Spirit emboldened Peter to proclaim Jesus as the one and only way of salvation (Acts 4:8–12).

Only through the influence of the Holy Spirit can one confess Jesus as Lord (1 Cor 12:3). The Spirit is intimately involved in the salvation experience as the new ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Introduction
• Unit 1: The Church
• Unit 2: Spiritual Leadership
• Unit 3: Training
• Unit 4: The Twenty-First Century
• Conclusion
• Bibliography