SERVANT LEADERSHIP - The Blue Letter Bible Institute

Servant Leadership – Lesson 22 3
Equipping, Edifying, Protecting by Damian Kyle
know what it is that we can expect biblically from a local church—no more, no less.
What is that organism supposed to be to me? There is a lot of confusion about that today.
I really feel bad for pastors today. I do not necessarily feel bad for myself because I have
a little bit of a heritage. One of the great blessings in my life, in the beginning of my
Christian walk, was to come into contact with the teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith. God
had already taken him through all kinds of things to get these issues squared away and he
saved us the seventeen years of misery that he had to endure while all of that was
happening.
There is so much pressure to make the church this thing or that thing—or people are
going to bolt—they will not come to church. All of this kind of pressure is on the pastor;
and thus, I think it is important for everyone to understand (leaders and non-leaders alike)
that none of us are free to define the church. None of us, no matter who we are, I do not
care how gifted or how talented or how large numerically any group of people might be
in the body of Christ, world-wide or in a local church; we do not have the right to define
what the priorities and the emphases of the local church are to be.
The church belongs to God and He has defined that. Ephesians 4 is one of those passages
where He does that. And notice the first word of verse 12. Paul lists all of these leaders in
verse 11 and here is the purpose, it is found in that first word “for.” Jesus has appointed
leaders in His church and then He gives them, and us, their job description. The church
leaders are not free to define it; neither is anyone else. And notice in verse 12 that it is
“for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ.” And so, the church is to be a place where saints (that is Christians) are
equipped for the work of the ministry. The church is to be an equipping center.
How would you like to run an ad in the paper, in the Modesto Bee, that says: “Calvary
Chapel in Modesto, the Equipping Center” and then wait for the collective yawn? And
how exciting does equipping sound to anyone? You are hardly going to be able to go on
the road and do a church growth seminar on the basis of that. Equipping sounds like
work! It sounds like kind of the gritty work that has to be done before something can be
successful, and that is exactly what it is! But as tedious or as boring as the word
“equipping” may sound, to the Christian who understands that he is gifted by God
Almighty and God has a call upon his life—when one is eager to step out into that call
and to be used by God—then the word “equipping” is a very, very exciting word.
The church is to be a place where people not only get saved, but then they are discipled
and equipped to now do whatever it is that God has called them to do in the world for His
glory. The word “equipping” means equipping, but also it means “training” and
“preparing.” As much as the physician, as much as the police officer, or the fireman or
fire persons, as much as the electrician or the pharmacist or the educator has to be trained
and prepared to be successful in those areas of life, the Christian has to be trained and
prepared also.