Leadership for Growing Churches

Paul's Recipe for Prospering the Church in Crete

Bouwman

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781498233897
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Would a book on how to lead a successful business answer the question of how to grow a church? The Apostle Paul would think not. Taking seriously God's instruction in the Scriptures Paul had, the apostle instructed Titus what he had to do to grow the church in Crete well--and it was not to follow a business model. This publication seeks to assist today's reader as he works his way through Paul's letter to Titus. Along the way we'll grapple with such questions as-How do you make a church prosper? -What should leadership in a church look like? -What role are individual members to play in the Lord's church? -How does one handle dissent in a church? -How does the church thrive in a culture of deceit? A fresh look at this letter's answers can only be beneficial as one seeks to grow God's way in today's business-minded world.

Chapter 1

Making the Sermon

Titus received a letter from Paul with specific instructions about what steps he was to take to ensure that the work begun in Crete be completed as the Lord wished it to be. We can imagine that as Titus sought to carry out his mandate, he travelled from town to town to appoint elders (Titus 1:5). More, as he travelled he surely will have made it his business to “teach what is in accord with sound doctrine” (2:1), and have done so with words of encouragement and rebuke (2:15), and all the while flavored his messages with reminders (3:1) and insistence (3:8). But what, we wonder, would Titus’ teaching—his sermons—have sounded like? What resources would he have used to prepare those sermons? We would love to look over his shoulder as he labored in his study, and love also to listen in as he delivered the fruits of his studies. How much we would benefit, we feel, from such an experience!

The Lord has not preserved for our instruction any of the sermons Titus preached. That does not, however, leave us in the dark in answering the question at hand. With but little imagination we can visit Titus in his study as he pores over his books and manuscripts to prepare his sermons. What do we see?

Titus at Work

Spread before Titus is first of all the letter he received from Paul. Elsewhere on his desk is a copy of the Old Testament—likely in Greek (see Gal 2:3). Though Titus lives and preaches in the New Testament dispensation, we notice his Old Testament is well used and worn.

Why do I picture a well-worn Old Testament on Titus’ desk? I do so because Titus is Paul’s “true child in a common faith” (Titus 1:4). That undoubtedly means at a minimum that Titus knows how Paul’s mind works. He knows that as the Apostle busies himself with what needs to be done to grow the fledgling church in Crete, he will be studying God’s earlier revelation diligently to find God’s will. To follow Paul’s thoughts as recorded in the letter he received, Titus obviously needs to study the same material Paul studied.

Paul

What makes me so confident that Paul studied the Old Testament as he prepared his letter to Titus? Consider the following:

• From his childhood Paul (then Saul of Tarsus) had been steeped in the Scriptures God had revealed thus far, namely, the Old Testament. In the course of his studies under Professor Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), he increased in Old Testament knowledge beyond his fellow students (Gal 1:14).

• We may safely assume that as he grew up and continued his studies, Saul read widely not only from the Old Testament and existing works and commentaries on it, but also from the Greek literature available in his day; he could, after all, freely quote from the Greek poet Epimenides in Titus 1:12.

• Saul was a student in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry. We do not know whether he ever met Jesus personally, but it is beyond a doubt that this bright student was as aware of Jesus’ words and works as any other Pharisee in the city. Saul, however, did not accept that Jesus was the promised Messiah and therefore the fulfillment of the Scriptures. So convinced was he that Jesus was a false teacher that he consented to Stephen’s stoning (Acts 8:1) and led the effort to eradicate those who followed the Way (Acts 9:1, 2; see also Acts 26:9–11).

• After his conversion on the road to Damascus, Paul straightaway understood that Jesus was “Lord” (Acts 9:5) and so was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. As a result “immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘he is the Son of God’” (Acts 9:20) and “proving that Jesus was the Christ” (Acts 9:22). Here his extensive training in the Old Testament and his prior intimate knowledge of Jesus’ teaching and work bore instant fruit; at his conversion the penny dropped so that God’s revelation in the Old Testament and its fulfillment in Jesus Christ now made complete sense to him. Of course, as the years went by, his insight into how Jesus fulfilled Old Testament Scripture will have deepened.

Following Paul’s Thought

Titus was an early associate of the Apostle Paul (Gal 2:1), and over the years witnessed Paul at work, heard his preaching, and followed his discussions. In the process Titus learned from this man—steeped as he was in the Old Testament—how to work with those ancient Scriptures in the post-Calvary and post-Pentecost era. As Titus, then, set himself to preparing sermons on the material Paul mentioned in the letter he received, he could follow why his spiritual father told him to teach what he had to teach. He understood that there was a flow-on from any given Old Testament passage through to the audience in Crete. This flow-on had the following stations:

• God’s revelation in a given Old Testament passage came first to a particular audience, in a particular historical context, and was subsequently written into sacred Scripture. For example, the Passover instruction in Exodus 12:1–28 was revealed to the Israelites on a particular night a dozen centuries earlier, and for a specific reason.

• Later Old Testament Scripture expanded on, clarified, and/or fulfilled what God had revealed in an earlier passage. For example, some months after Israel’s arrival at Mt. Sinai, God instructed Moses to elaborate on his revelation about the Passover (Lev 23:4–8; Num 28:16–25). There could potentially be multiple expansions or clarifications as the years went by. So Moses said more about the Passover after the forty-year sojourn in the desert ended (Deut 16:1–8), and Josiah (2 Chron 35), Ezra (6:19–22), and Ezekiel (45:21–24) recorded still more about this sacrament many years later. These expansions as well were addressed to particular audiences and occurred in specific historical contexts.

• Jesus Christ fulfilled all God’s earlier revelation (Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:17 were no secret to Paul or to Titus). His instruction during his three-year public ministry expanded on his Father’s Old Testament revelation, and clarified what was not sufficiently clear to his hearers within their particular setting. On the matter of the Passover, for example, Jesus celebrated it with his disciples and instituted a replacement sacrament (Matt 26:17–30).

• After Jesus’ triumph on Calvary and exaltation into heaven, he gave his servants deep and clear insight into God’s Old Testament revelation through his poured-out Spirit. This insight drew out how the Scriptures were fulfilled in him (John 16:13, 14). Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost serves as a clear example (Acts 2:14–36). The Holy Spirit led the post-Pentecost church to act and speak in a certain way in relation to Lord’s...

Table of contents

• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Making the Sermon
• Chapter 2: The Introduction to the Letter
• Chapter 3: Appoint Elders in Every Town
• Chapter 4: Teach Sound Doctrine
• Chapter 5: Older Men
• Chapter 6: Older Women
• Chapter 7: Young Women
• Chapter 8: Younger Men
• Chapter 9: Slaves
• Chapter 10: Cross-Centered Motive
• Chapter 11: In the Eye of the Public
• Chapter 12: Avoiding Foolish Controversies
• Chapter 13: Pulling the Preacher
• Chapter 14: Closing the Letter