THE GLORIOUS CHURCH 2017 - Do you have a plan? | Gary W

The is the fifth in a 9 part series that was preached at the 

Glorious Church, RegionsBeyond Conference 2017 held in Mumbai.

To listen to the audio ( which is in English and Hindi) Please click here

Session 5- Gary Welsh

Acts 17:

“Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”  And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”  And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea”

In the history of the early church, this is the second missionary trip of Paul and his apostolic trip. On the first trip, Paul and Barnabas, finished their work and went back to Antioch. In Acts 16, Paul has a dream and God speaks to him. he sees a man from Macedonia beckoning him to come. So they decide to go there together. They first go to Philippi where they are beaten and imprisoned. From there they came to Thessalonica. The people in Thessalonica speak about Paul and his team as men who have turned the world upside down. I want us to do that too.

I want Regions Beyond to be a partnership that turns the world upside down. That is what we are called to. All that’s gone before is that we might be a people who do this. An Anglican bishop once said, I notice that when I read the New Testament, wherever Paul went, there was a riot. But wherever I go, we have a cup of tea. I want us to be a people who have chai, but I also want us to be a people who have the same impact as Paul did. Wherever we have churches, we should be turning the world upside down.

There are 4 things in this passage that will help us

1.      They make a plan- we are a people of the spirit. We need the power of the spirit. But we also need to make plans. We make plans in this context. When the man from Macedonia appears in the dream, they first go to Philippi, which is the leading cities in the regions. They went to places where people are, where markets are. And the gospel went out through the whole area.

When Paul writes to the church in Rome. He says I am coming to you so you can help me go on to Spain. That’s a crazy thing to say. There were still town villages and cities where churches have not yet been planted. But, his work was done because he planted churches who understand that the reason they are there is to take the gospel to the places around them.

In Acts 20- Paul’s team, whom we don’t hear much about. But there are people from Thessalonica in that team. He knows where to go and what he’s going to do once he gets there. He is pulling together a group of people, who are going to take the good news to the surrounding districts. We need to make some plans. Not just wait for words to fall out of the sky. Every town and city needs the gospel. It needs churches that know to take the gospel around.

What are your plans? If you haven’t got a plan, you’re just waiting for something to happen. Some of your neighbours, are waiting for you to make a plan. Think, who is around me? It starts with praying, but it cannot end in praying.

If someone asks you why you believe in Jesus, can you give them an answer in 2 mins? If you love the Lord Jesus, you should be able to give a short answer. Work on it if you can’t do it. When they ask why, they are not asking how you believe in Jesus. We must plan as churches.

2.      We have a message of Good news: this is why we’re here. We should not need mission agencies. This nation is full of them. Jesus’ mission agency is the local church. If we’ve been doing the job that God has called us to do, there would be no room for mission agencies. We’ve been called to take the message of Jesus Christ. Paul goes to the city, a synagogue and start telling the Jews that the messiah they are waiting for has already come.

That is our job too. If you are breathing, you have to be someone who takes the gospel to people who do not know him. We are doing some remarkable things. There are outreach activities, and it is great. But what we are doing- care for the sick and educate those who know it- others can do it as well if not better than us. They, however, cannot share the gospel.

What are Paul and his team doing? He never reaches out to lepers (he just heals them) and sets up a school, they preach the good news. It is not just for leaders and evangelists. The main role of an evangelist is to spur us to do it. The word of the Lord to everyone is- do the work of an evangelist.

3.      We do it by planting churches. The most effective way of seeing people saved is to plant churches. We send people to different places, we plant churches. We are not going to do anything else. Everything we do should lead us to plant churches.

    

Let’s pray.

To families- Think about people in your family or friends, who do not believe, or believe in other gods. Practice sharing the gospel with them, make plans to do it and trust that God can use you to save them.

To churches- there are 1 Billion people in this nation. It’s a massive task, but praise God we are not being asked to do it on our own. Do not be overwhelmed by the size of the task but there is work to be done.

 I want to speak to you, you need to make some plans. We must plan about how we are going to have impact. We cannot just sit in meetings hoping people will come. We have to train one another.

I’m tired of this world, I want the end to come and Jesus said that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in every nation, every people group, and then the end will come. There are 100s of unreached people groups in this very nation. 

SHARPEN 2016 -TEAMS PART 2 |Gary W

This message was preached at the RegionsBeyond India Leadership conference 2016.

This message was preached by Gary W who leades Urban Voice.

For the audio please click here

1.      All teams need a leader. There are  no specific scripture references. It is more through implication of how teams work. Sometimes when we have just one leader, it’s better than having a bad team.

2.      People who chose to be in this team need to be servants. The people need to understand that we are there to serve the church. We serve the church because we are serving God. We serve with our leadership.

 This is upside down kingdom. Churches are not there to serve us. The team isn’t there to serve the senior guy. The senior guy is the bottom not the top. Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. Remember that he doesn’t discriminate between those who were going to leave him, betray him etc. He washed all their feet. He defines leadership with a bowl and towel.

James and John’s mum comes to Jesus and asks him to make her sons sit at the right hand of God. The kind of people we choose need to be servants. Not those who want to be up front. Giving people positions too quickly is not helping them. They need to know how to lead well by serving. Who are the guys who are serving? Look out for them.

3.      We need to pray – ask God to help us in recognising those who are called for leadership. Paul and Barnabus were sent out in the context of prayer and fasting.

4.      Elder’s wives: as we gather a team wider than elders, it isn’t necessary for every elder’s wife to be in the team. Some should be there because they are gifted, God has called them, they have a leadership gift of their own, etc. But that isn’t a given for every wife who happens to be married to be an elder or who wants to be there.

    We need to avoid two extremes- that since you are an elder’s wife, you have to be there. The other extreme is not involving them because of the questions surrounding it. We have to move between these two extremes. Ask the same questions as you would ask anyone else in the team.

There are male elders in the New Testament if we read it properly. Our churches are lead not just by elders, but also other people. In the letter to the Hebrews, it says obey your leaders, not elders. Paul also writes to overseers, not the elders. The notion of leadership of New Testament churches is broader than we thought. In Romans 16, Paul gives greetings to all. The obvious office is deacons. It’s difficult to see this with all the background we have.

5.      Being deeply relational must be grounded. At Urban Voice- people say, we are very friendly. Being friendly to me is not the same as being my friend. People on the reception can be friendly to me, but they are not my friends. We are not lying when we’re friendly, we are warm and welcoming. But it doesn’t have what friendship has. It might be the beginning of friendship, but not the end. It has to be grounded in friendship. I genuinely don’t have the capacity to be deeply relational with all of you. But in the context of a team, we do have a capacity for that. This is beyond being polite.

Q. Would I spend time with these people if we’re not working. Do they share your dining table with you?

If the answer is no, you’re not friends.

6.      Conflict: it’s inevitable in a team, because we have different personalities, and we are moving towards character changes. These could be differences of opinions etc. Knowing about ourselves is good, but recognising that neither of the responses (to fight it out or to back off) are right, is important. It’s not a helpful reaction to conflict. With mutual respect, it’s possible to navigate conflicts well. 

   Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Sometimes, the ones with whom we are deeply relational wound us. But we are building. Don’t be scared of conflict.

7.      Accountability- when we get some things wrong, the answer is not to not do them, but to do them properly. Some people misuse this. But we do need to make one another accountable. Nathan had to go to David, Paul had to challenge peter. In the context of a team, it’s all aspects of our lives.

Sometimes when someone has a big gift, we are afraid to say something when they have obvious things that need to be challenged. This is a voluntary act. You give permission for people to speak into your life.

8.      Submission: Richard foster defines it as laying down the burden of always getting your own way. If we take that attitude into team meetings, planning context. Many of us have what we have. We invest in the meetings, and when we get challenged, it feels like some sort of a personal attack. We need to humbly present what we have. There is not only one way to do the things we are called to do.

9.      People need to have tasks- the particular activity they are responsible. Know what’s expected of them. What am I responsible to the team for?

10.  Expectations- there might be some personal expectations of what you are called to do. If you have some prophetic words, it’s helpful for the team to be aware of what you’re believing God for.

It is good to discuss your expectations for the future. You don’t want to know that someone is leaving after booking their tickets. You give them a heads up on what God is saying to you. But not to say that this is what God is saying- I know some of you don’t think it’s a good idea, but I’m going anyway.

Trust a team that when you share it with them, to pray and to think, that they will come to the same conclusion- assuming that they are speaking to the same God.

11.   We must reproduce: part of how the team functions together- is always bringing guys in as a training opportunity. Otherwise they’ll never learn. Then all we’ll learn from one pastor, to a few pastors, to a wider leadership and people who still can’t get in.

                             

Q and A session:

Q. How do we raise elders, what is the process?

 A. There is always a lead elder, a team captain etc. In Newfrontiers, I have always been in a plurality of leaders. But there was always a leader of the leaders. There is some leadership there. It’s a wider team than just the elders.

Depending on where you are, you determine the process how to get there. We want to lead this team with more than just one leader. A church lead by a good leader is better than a church lead by a bad team. In our context, they are lead by one pastor. The process will be like this-

·        He (the pastor)’s got to be convinced that he has to change. The worst step to take is to do something you are convinced to do.

·        Start teaching it to the church. It can be hard to admit that we have been doing something wrong for so many years. That I’ve changed the way I think about leadership takes some courage and humility.

·        Start meeting with people, etc.

Start in these particular places. The goal is not a time goal. We might think it’s a good thing, but it’s not helpful in every single church we are in. We would like to see the process begin as soon as possible. There needs to be a wider accountability.

Q. What is the difference in the role of a senior pastor and the other elders or leaders?

Don’t think a lead elder is:

·        The guy who makes all the decisions and comes to team meetings with everything figured for what everyone must do. He’s not the final vote. 

·        All authority in all aspects the church is run. Team members have responsibilities where she also has authority to do what they have to do. We don’t bring every decision back to the team.

Lead elder will positively:

·        Cast vision and will remind where we are heading.

·        Do most of the preaching in the church.

·         Through the preaching the lead elder will influence the whole of the church and move the church forward.

Q. Is the lead elder or Pastor responsible for all the decisions?

He’s not. Elders are responsible before God for their own eldership. Elders do have a responsibility that other leaders don’t have.

Q. How do you balance maturity on a leadership team?

There is leadership wisdom. But it’s unhelpful to say that you listen to me. There has to be succession. Churches are going to grow. If we are going to make this work, then our aim is to make the younger guy the lead elder and older ones supporting them.  

Q. How do we deal with elders’ wives in our cultural context?

We have gifted women with great characters, strange personalities who should be involved in shaping the church. In different cultures, we are getting there. Because it’s a process, we have to go with it and not trip it up. We don’t have enough role models of gifted women and the sooner we get there it’s better for our women to get through.

Indian culture is changing a lot. Indian women are changing in their values as well. There is a lot of change happening in your culture and you need to be aware of this within men-women relationships, authority relationships. We can’t keep tossing the culture card to not do certain things. There are good things in your culture that are helpful for the gospel and some awful things that need changing. Recognise the difference between the two.

Q. How do we function in areas where we do not have the gifting and there is no one who is rising up to it?

Gifts – if you are not enjoying what you are doing you maybe need to stop to need help. Sometimes the call of God you need to do it. How do you marry the two?

I think if God calls you to something he changes your heart to like it. Sometimes we do have things we just have to do. There is no one specially gifted to put out chairs, but you just do it. 

SHARPEN 2016 -TEAMS & VISION | Garry & Nicky W

This message was preached at the RegionsBeyond India Leadership conference 2016.

This message was preached by Pankaj Bhagwanew who  is an Elder at One Nation  Mumbai.

For the audio please click here

Its very important to remember why we do what we do. If you don’t have a clear vision in short words, please make one. We need to be able to repeat them. They are important.

We are still at a point where we need to appoint elders. This doesn’t take away from that requirement. Male elders are an essential part of the leadership team.

The underlying reason for why we need teams is because none of us have everything. We need one another- which will include different gifts, to complement one another and different personalities.

Knowing our gifts and our personalities helps us. Our characters need to change, not our personalities. We need to help one another.

Nicky:

We started the conference with the words like, I called you, I fashioned you, we are going into new flavours, we’ve been commissioned individually, there are new paradigms, new frameworks, we’re being sharpened and God has given us the freedom to be who he made us.

We know that we were formed and known, formed and consecrated in our mother’s womb. God knows us very well because he made us. We are a unique once only creation. Imagine what it must be like for God when he sees our whole lifespan. This reminds me that God knew me from before day one!

This little helpless baby is one day going to become a Sushma or an Edgar. But at that stage no one knows. Because we believe in creation, all the ingredients required for that life are all there. The recipes is already complete.

Fast forward to the time when God intervened in our life. Everyone is empowered with gifts. Each one receives a spirit for the common good. The trajectory of our life changes.

Paul uses the human body to illustrate the diversity of gifting. He sees it as an expectation of what should exist in the church. In Corinthians, he says, placing value on the gifts. He says, even those who seem weaker are important. He wants no division in the church. If one suffers, we all suffer. If one is honoured, we all rejoice. He says it’s good to desire all the gifts.

Paul appeals to us to present these bodies that God made and redeemed back to God as a living Sacrifice. For many years, I thought I was responsible for who I am, which is a very arrogant way of thinking. God brought me to a place of dependence upon him. There are many members of the body, but not all the same. Gifts differ, according to the grace given. Eph 4 which talks about one body one spirit- to encourage the church to be united. He wants to see unity in his churches and extensive use of the gifts in order to equip the saints.

Although fallen, you were a 100% his creation. None of us are a mistake. We were all supposed to be here. But now God can use who you are as a child of his.

Most of us come into the kingdom flawed, but we also bring with us a massive potential for transformation. Even the bad the stuff we have done can be redeemed.

At a training conference, an IT expert from silicon valley was there to teach us on internet security. An internet hacker of banks, had an encounter with God. He spoke to some lawyers and did not go to jail, but ended up working for the internet security. 

Our testimony can impact the places we work in etc. we should be able to quickly and easily tell our story, at any opportunity to share the gospel, we can do so.

We die to self, and our past sins are forgiven and not remembered, so they get buried. But the personality remains. For most of us, there will be character changes and with time we want to change. The closer we stay to God, the less we sin. We must remind ourselves that we are God’s raw material. 

Grace is a gift and often we are not very good at forgiving ourselves. God knows what we are going to do and though he can destroy us, he doesn’t. We pray that our lives will continue to look like Jesus.

Think about what makes you happy, what energizes you and excites you. What dreams do you have?

If we enjoy doing something, it’s likely that we will be good at it. If you are doing something that you dread, we must get help. We must love what we do, in order to display Jesus in our life.

As we take responsibility and become part of teams, it’s good for us to know who we are. Team gives us a challenge because we are all different. We do things differently, to receive and process information, and bring a history. God knows that and he will challenge us. But we need to be open to be challenged by one another. If I don’t trust the other people on my team to speak into my life, team won’t work.

SHARPEN 2016 - TEAMS | Gary W

This message was preached at the RegionsBeyond India Leadership conference 2016.

This message was preached by Gary W who leades Urban Voice.

For the audio please click here

Team building:

I am a passionate practitioner on teams. I am completely convinced that teams are essential for a church. The bible is our ultimate guide. Church leadership teams can be quite different from the ones taught at your workplace. You need to weigh it against scripture.

Q. What is modelled for us in scripture?

Where teams have come together, amazing things have been achieved. I love teams. When you win at golf is not the same as winning in a team sport. Part of the answer to loneliness and disappointment is the lack of teams. You feel like you’re alone because you are alone. The questions we have to deal with are worked out in the context of our environment in teams.

We can be individually doing well, but the team is losing. It’s not enough for us to do well individually. An identifiable (yet flexible) group of gifted leaders fully committed to an agreed cision for the church working together to equip and release the church to that vision.

Heb 13- obey your leaders.

Paul writes to the Philippians- the saints, and the elders and deacons.

1.      In every church there are a known group of people who are leading. If people must follow, they need to know whom they are following. It’s not a fixed group that never changes. It is flexible.

2.      They are gifted leaders. Leaders have people following them. It’s not just me and Jesus. Paul said, follow me as I follow Jesus. Leaders are not afraid to say, follow me. It may not be the leader in the commercial world.

3.      The leadership team needs to be fully committed to one vision. That means we are doing one thing. Everything is worked towards this vision. We don’t give ourselves to fulfilling anything apart from the one vision. Everything is about that.

We make sure from time to time that all the leaders are committed to that vision. get a vision that is easily expressed. The goal of our vision is passionate followers of Jesus.

4.      Working together- using our gifts together to accomplish the goal. The goal of the leadership team is not to do all the work. It is for us to equip. Eph 4- and release into works. Leaders need to resist the demands of the people that you for all the work. If you don’t odo that, you will get tired and worn out.

Our role is to equip and release. It’s not to worry and work. To do this we need to overcome some things- I am asking you to be biblical, and if necessary to be counter culture. Not just the world culture but counter Christian culture.

If you do a traditional Christian pastors role, it is not going to die with you. We are still building churches with that leadership model. It will get killed in our own context.

Q. how many ministers do we have in a church?

As many as the number of members.

We are no more called into the ministry as anyone else. In that ministry, our role is leadership.

5.      We equip and release to the vision. Sometimes, releasing can be a difficult thing. If I am controlling all the strings. If I invite someone to lead, you can’t hold on to all the reins. We give them authority to make decision. They will do two things with certainty.

a.      They won’t do it like you

b.      They will make mistakes

When they make mistakes, it’s not time to pull back the reins because it’s not worked.

Colossians- Mark and Demas- you know your team members are not going to be like you. Don’t be afraid to start over again.

The Christian's call | Gary W

This message was preached  by Gary Welsh at Word of Grace Church on October 2nd, 2016. To listen/download the audio please click here. To listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here

Scripture reference- Colossians 1:1-14

Paul is writing to the churches in now modern Turkey. This is a new church plant and he wants to keep them on track. The summary would be that Jesus is enough. It's all about Jesus. Saved through him, changed through him and glorified through him. Jesus working in will change us.

Paul was in Prison when he wrote this letter. Our circumstances might change but not Jesus. You may look at your own situation and the nation and wonder what's going on, where will it end?

We need to pray for our government, but more than that, we need dynamic storing churches living in the power of Jesus Christ and proclaiming the kingdom. All these things make us wake up to prayer.

Some of us have difficulties in our own personal lives. The answer is still Jesus and that we have to live for Jesus. This is the gospel. The King of glory died for me. It's not philosophy, better laws and justice. It's Jesus.

1.      It’s a call to God’s people:

Paul is praying that they will be filled with the knowledge of his will in our lives.

Verse 13 says- “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves”

Followers of Jesus should know His will in order that we will express the truth of Jesus in our lives. Paul is now writing to people whose lives have been dramatically changed by Jesus and should live as such. It’s not a self help group.

Not everything is broken in the world. See the Taj Mahal! But there is brokenness everywhere.

Romans 1: 21- “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Brokenness is a default setting.

Q. Which kingdom are you in? Light or darkness?

This is a very important question. The world thinks this is a rude question but this is the truth. You may be a nice person but that is not enough. You stand before God and cast yourself on God's mercy. Don't do a ritual. Either this is true for you or not.

2.      It's a call to know the will of God.

Q. How do we know this?

I can know what God is doing on the planet right now. That is amazing! We can know his desires, intentions etc. It's amazing that we could. This is important so that we will produce fruit in our lives. So that we will look like who God's people should look like. And God gets the glory.

3.    What can we do that will help us?

·        It is Jesus plus nothing. Paul is emphasizing this. No man made regulations. No new philosophy. If we want to know the will of God we need to know Jesus fully. As Paul went around churches they did not leave books of instructions. They trusted the work of the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus and show his works. Jesus told the disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit. If you want to know what God is doing you need to be full of the Holy Spirit. This should be our daily prayer.

·        Scripture- This is important to keep wrong things outside the church. We have a record of Jesus’ life. That's why this book is written. That's why we don't sacrifice animals anymore. The Old Testament was all about Jesus. Knowing and understanding Jesus means we should know our Bibles. This generation does not read anymore. We need to get into the scriptures and ask the holy Spirit for understanding. If you want a plumb line about whether you know Jesus and the scriptures it's love. We need to love each other.

·        Community. God is about community. He is gathering a people to himself. Paul expected husband and wives to be in the same place, children to be in the same place and masters and slaves to be in the same place of worship.

Luke 24:27- “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” This is the only context you get both on the same place. We need to learn to follow Jesus together. Otherwise we can just be in on a Sunday meeting and no one shaping you, speaking into your life. Bearing with each other happens as you do life together. We do all this in community.

In Galatians Paul says that all the law is reduced to this: You’d think he will say love God. But he says love your neighbour as yourself.  

Q. Do you know Jesus?

Q. If you are a follower of Jesus are we getting to know him?

If you are stuck, get into community. Where you can belong and not a church you just attend.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that have people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.