The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy. (Psalm 65:8 NIV)

I remember when I first walked into a church worship service as an adult. I was 26 years old and the whole experience was very different and foreign to me.  The most foreign aspect was seeing the people singing songs together. I felt awkward and embarrassed as this type of singing was way outside my comfort zone and a long way from what I believed to be "normal" singing.

Normal singing for me was joining in with the crowd and singing my football team’s theme song after a victory, singing along with my radio in the car, belting out my favourite tracks at a concert and watching and listening to gifted musicians and artists on TV shows. Standing in a church and singing songs I had never heard before with a group of amateur singers seemed very strange!

I think many people who don’t have a Christian frame of reference may feel similarly about the singing we do in our church services. Community singing other than organised choirs is now almost counter-cultural in our present day Australian context, so to non church-goers, singing together in church may seem a bit strange. However, this doesn’t mean that we should stop singing in our church services. In fact, my first experience of a worship service, despite it feeling very foreign, blew me away by the authenticity of the people singing around me. These people sang to a God and about a God I did not know. They sang songs about a holy God, a loving God, a merciful, faithful, compassionate and generous God. Not only that, but they sang to a God whom they had a relationship with - there seemed to be an intimacy between the singer and the God they were singing to. As I observed these people singing to their God it totally changed my perception of an impersonal, distant, irrelevant and wrathful God. I found something really attractive about the connection these people had with the God they were singing to. This experience of my first worship service started me on a journey that I am still on today - the journey to discover who this God is and how I can relate with him. My personal experience has taught me that while singing in worship services may seem a bit unusual to outsiders, it can also be something attractive that draws people into relationship with God.

The key of course is to be authentic in our worship gatherings and not simply go through the motions as if the singing we are doing doesn't really matter. Visitors to our churches may not join in our singing but be assured they are watching and listening and are likely to detect any sense of complacency or disconnection.

Some of you may know my Executive Assistant, Lyn Williams. Before coming to the BUV office, Lyn worked as a Music & Worship Pastor at one of our churches, so I asked her for some ideas on this topic. Lyn shared with me the following thought she had heard from the theologian N.T. Wright, that ‘all of creation is designed for the worship of God, but only humanity can articulate creations' praise’. To me this says that we not only have the privilege to connect with God in and through our worship gathering (which includes singing among other elements), but we have an obligation to express worship on behalf of creation! Worship, through singing is not an optional extra for us, it is one of God's gifts to help us connect with him, to honour him and magnify his name.

Here are a few more comments about singing in the worship gathering context (with a little help from Lyn):

• Singing connects our minds with our emotions.

• Singing in church has stood the test of time throughout history.

•  It is a physical expression of our unity as the people of God.

• When we sing to God in our worship services, we also encourage one another in our faith.

• Singing in our worship services has a teaching role through the song lyrics (assuming the lyrics are biblically based). Statement of belief songs are especially helpful for congregations to sing, e.g. ‘In Christ alone’.

• The use of worship songs and hymns helps remind our congregations that Christ is the centre of our personal and church life.

• The combination of melody, rhyme, rhythm and repetition means we remember song lyrics long after we remember sermons!

We can all sing in a way that pleases God. In Psalm 150 the psalmist says “let everything that has breath praise the Lord”. This means, while we appreciate the gifted singers and song leaders we have in our churches, the good news is that the rest of us are not excluded from God's choir. In fact we don't even have to audition…there are not even any ‘blind auditions’ (a la “The Voice”) - we are all in!

Let me finish with a few questions and an invitation for you to reflect on. Do you have breath? Are you alive? Is your body warm? If you are reading this then I assume the answer is yes…so, welcome to God's choir - you are invited to join in with your brothers and sisters in Christ to sing about who  God is. You are invited to sing about the God of love, mercy, faithfulness and justice. Sing about a generous God, a compassionate God and a personal God.  Sing about the mighty works of God in the past. Sing about his faithfulness and love today. Sing about his promises for tomorrow. 

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

 

The concept of hospitality is an important idea in the Bible (Lk 14:6-8; Rom 12:12-14; 1 Tim 5:9-11; Heb 13:1-3; 3 Jn 1:1-8). The Bible often encourages followers of Jesus to practise hospitality by showing kindness to strangers. This is a great challenge to the way we think about and practise hospitality in our society today. Generally the way we think about hospitality in Western culture is to invite someone we know or would like to know for a brief visit. This may be an invitation to share a meal together in our home, catch up at the local café or spend some time at a restaurant. The idea is that we get together for a few hours, enjoy one another’s company then go our separate ways. Etiquette requires that we reciprocate any invitation received. There is nothing wrong with this form of hospitality; in fact I personally enjoy practising this type of hospitality. However, it is not the type of hospitality that is described in the Bible.

Eastern hospitality is different - it is all about honour. In Eastern hospitality the host will go to great lengths to honour their guests. They will offer more food, more drinks and even a bed for the night. In return a guest will try to honour the host by eating and drinking as much as possible and staying as long as possible. Again, there is nothing wrong with this type of hospitality. However, this is also not the type of hospitality the Bible is concerned with.

The Bible is concerned with what I call divine hospitality - God’s hospitality! This is hospitality that pursues strangers: the sick, marginalised, elderly, frail, alien and even enemies with a costly love, a love that is willing to sacrifice in order to welcome the stranger into God’s kingdom, to adopt them as sons and daughters of the King, so that they can come and live in His house forever. That is divine hospitality - the type of hospitality the Bible is concerned with.  

The words hospital and hospitality naturally share the same root word. So in order to understand the concept of divine hospitality it might be helpful to imagine you are visiting the emergency ward at your local hospital. Imagine that you entered the emergency ward, made your way to the reception desk and then asked to see a doctor. Logically the duty nurse will inquire after your ailment. Now, what do you think the nurse would say if you answered her inquiry by saying, “there is nothing wrong with me, I’m in good shape, I just want to see a doctor to affirm this.” If the nurse was kind you would probably be sent home and told to make an appointment with your local GP. But if the nurse was having a bad day, maybe you would be invited to take a seat until the next available doctor was able to see you. You could be waiting for hours, even days if this happened!

Now let’s imagine that while you are waiting patiently for a doctor an ambulance arrived with a car accident victim who had multiple broken bones and severe blood loss. My guess is the car accident victim would get to see a doctor immediately, because this is how hospitals work - the more busted up you are, the more attention you receive and the more of a priority you become. This scenario comes very close to how divine hospitality works. The more busted up you are, the more attention you receive, the more you experience God’s hospitality. “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” (Matt 9:12; Mk 2:17; Lk 5:31).

In fact this is the key principle spelled out in the well-known story of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37). In this story an expert in the law was trying to test Jesus with a question, “what must I do to obtain eternal life?”  The so-called expert knew the answer but he wanted to show his superiority over Jesus and make Jesus look like a fool. But Jesus was no fool, he knew what the lawyer was playing at and he responded “what do you think, you’re an expert, you tell me?” The lawyer gave the orthodox answer, “love God and love your neighbour”. “Great” Jesus said, “Do this and you will live.”

But of course the lawyer wasn’t satisfied so he asked Jesus a follow up question, “Who is my neighbour?” With this question the lawyer was inferring that there is a non-neighbour and in doing so exposed the limits of his understanding of divine hospitality and indeed the law he was supposedly an expert in. Jesus then told the story of the Good Samaritan who rendered assistance to a stranger when godly men such as a priest and Levite refused to do so. At the end of the story Jesus had a question of his own for the lawyer. “Which one was a neighbour to the injured man?” Of course the lawyer knew he was defeated, but his pride didn’t allow him to say the “Samaritan”, he simply said “the one who had mercy”.

The expert in the law came to test Jesus, instead he found himself defeated, embarrassed and convicted. “Go and do likewise” Jesus says. “Don’t worry about who your neighbour is or isn’t, just be a neighbour”. “Go and do likewise” and with this challenge Jesus unmasked the hypocrisy of the lawyer and at the same time all of us who read the story today. It’s easy to generalise about love and compassion, to justify why we can’t live inclusive lives, why we can’t involve ourselves with this group or that person. But every time we refuse to offer hospitality to a stranger we reveal the limits of our understanding of the gospel. You see the challenge of this parable is to put our theology, convictions and ideals into reality. The challenge is to truly embody divine hospitality, through compassion and generosity, and with humility.

At the start of a new year, as Victorian Baptist Churches launch into all that 2013 promises for us as we seek to advance the Kingdom of God, lets for a moment consider how Jesus started his ministry.

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.

He said:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
(Matthew 5:1-12) 

With the words of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ teaching ministry began. Previously, Jesus called the disciples to follow him and he healed the sick. As a result, crowds of people flocked to Jesus in the hope of witnessing a miracle or at least to be encouraged in relation to their expectations about the coming of God’s Kingdom. In his communication Jesus did indeed speak about the Kingdom of God, however, what he had to say would have been shocking to all who heard his message.

Instead of proclaiming that the Kingdom would bring about political freedom and earthly prosperity, Jesus talked about a Kingdom that would bring, at times, trouble and persecution; yet in the midst of the message Jesus promised that his Kingdom would bring hope and joy, independent of outward circumstances. To receive such hope and joy comes with the challenge of following Jesus whatever the cost.

With this announcement of the coming of the Kingdom, the disciples would have wondered who was in or who was out, and how they would qualify to be in God’s Kingdom.  Jesus’ response again was shocking because it was a total reversal of Jewish social, religious, nationalistic and political expectation.

According to Jesus it was the weak, not the strong; the poor, not the rich; the meek not the proud who inherit the Kingdom.  By saying this Jesus wasn’t excluding the powerful and strong – rather, he was extending the boundaries and challenging the limitations of the crowds’ perception of God’s Kingdom.

 As far as Jesus was concerned, the only limitation was with those who refused to share fellowship with the others - those who excluded themselves. In other words, according to Jesus the Kingdom of God is not about us advancing beyond everyone else, or having our personal agendas fulfilled. It is about acceptance and inclusion, love and mercy, grace, peace and hospitality. It is a Kingdom for all – a great reversal of the world’s value system.

The challenge this brought to the disciples, I think is the same challenge we face today. Are we prepared to stop chasing worldly benefits at the expense of others? Are we willing to put aside our prejudice to welcome all people into God’s Kingdom? Are we willing to live humbly and endure hardship as we follow Jesus? How does this understanding of the Kingdom of God inform our approach to current issues such as asylum seekers, reconciliation, sexuality, poverty?

These are tough questions, but they are the questions that confront us in Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God.  This Kingdom is a reversal of the values of this world and it is an inclusive Kingdom. May we have the grace and humility to pursue such a Kingdom, this year, and all the days of our lives.

 

In my household near the end of the year you can usually find a Christmas list or two on our fridge.  My son’s list traditionally appears a couple of months before Christmas and my wife’s appears about a week before Christmas day.  I think lists are fantastic and they certainly make my life a lot easier,  but last year my wife complicated things a little.  She wrote on her list, in big bold letters: NO BOUGHT PRESENTS and nothing else.  This of course created a pretty big dilemma for me!  What do I give my wife for Christmas if I can’t buy her anything?  Fortunately, she gave a few hints.  My son could draw or make something and I could write a poem or reflection.  Basically she wanted a love letter from me.

In my opinion writing a love letter is harder than buying a present – but I did get where my wife was coming from.  I also get that my wife understands the spiritual significance of Christmas.  She understands that Christmas and the story of Jesus’ birth is really God’s love letter to the world, where he tells us that we are loved, accepted and forgiven.  Because of that our lives can be transformed and we can live with the hope for the future.

 

 You Are Loved

God so loved the world, the Bible tells us, that He gave His Son into it. These are the first words that tell of the love that would launch Christmas.  "God so loved the world that He gave…".  Giving is what love does.  Giving is how love expresses itself.  Giving is at the heart of love and therefore, giving is at the heart of God.  Giving is what God is into. One thing people struggle to understand about God is that God is not a taker, but a giver.  This is the good news of the Christmas story, indeed of God’s story in the Bible.

In the ancient world, there were myths and stories about the gods, who created human beings to be slaves, and who demanded human sacrifices, because the gods were takers. Then came this story about the people of Israel and their God who created with beauty and said "Now take it. Now enjoy it." This was a revolutionary story that shook the foundations of the world and captured the essence of the one true God of the Universe.  This God was a God of love and self-sacrifice, who created people for freedom.  The greatest expression of that love was giving His Son Jesus to the world on the first Christmas.

God loved us so much that He gave us Jesus,  Emmanuel,  God with us. That’s the good news of Christmas.  It is God’s love letter that lets us know he understands how we feel.  He is not a distant impersonal God sitting in His ivory tower in heaven, but He is with us  - walking beside us in the midst of life’s trials and struggles,  offering support, encouragement  and strength.  As we journey through life with Him, He leads us into true peace and a better future.

 

 You are Accepted

Christmas is God’s love letter that you are accepted.  What this means is that in the birth of Jesus we celebrate God reaching out to all humanity: none are written off, none despised, none too strange, too bad, or too undeserving to receive his love and forgiveness.  The intent of this love letter is to tell us that we have a Saviour, a deliverer who can handle our problems and deal with our baggage.  A Saviour who is with us always.

 

You are Forgiven

Finally, this Christmas love letter demonstrates you are forgiven.  It is good news that God loves us and sent His Son into the world as an expression of his love.  It is good news that God accepts us no matter the circumstances or mistakes of our lives – but it is great news that God forgives us.  What this means is that God through Jesus, the baby born on Christmas day, invites us into relationship with Himself.

This is awesome news!  It means God doesn’t just put up with us, but he wipes the slate clean and transforms us as he extends his hand of friendship towards us. 

This Christmas, my prayer is that Baptists across Victoria would fully grasp just what this gift of love means. My commitment, not just this Christmas but for 2013 and beyond, is to join with you in sharing the transforming impact of God’s gift of love with the people and communities in which our churches minister. We gift our love to others, recognising that it is God’s amazing gift of love which brings hope and transformation to us and to the whole world.

 

The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;  for he founded it on the seas
and established it on the waters.
(Psalm 24:1-2)

In Psalm 24 the Psalmist proclaims the truth that everything there is and everything we have belongs to the Lord. This includes our time, possessions, money, the creation and our relationships. They all belong to God. God created this world and placed us in it as stewards to care for it. The problem is, in our human nature we are dissatisfied with stewardship and continuously seek to claim ownership.

Next time you find yourself in a room with a couple of two year olds, take the time to observe their interactions with one another. My guess is that before long, a dispute will break out between them  over a toy, lolly or even an empty box and one of them will declare, “it’s mine”! Our tendency is to repeat that phrase the rest of our lives. One of the great challenges we face as we travel the journey of following Jesus is coming to terms with the concept of stewardship over ownership. We need to grapple with the fact that none of it is ours. Everything we have is on loan from our Creator, but more than that, we have been given the privilege and responsibility to manage our Creator’s resources for the glory of His name.

The following parable was written by Sue Kline in a magazine, “ Discipleship Journal” and I think it captures both our calling and challenge beautifully.  Please read it and reflect on how you can be a better steward with all God has entrusted you with.

In the beginning there was a king. He was unlike any other king, for he was a creator king. Everything in his kingdom had been made by him.

                  He had it all; he owned it all.

Among the king’s creations were people. He created these people to be like him in many ways – to bear his image – so that he could enjoy relationship with them. He did not make them kings; there could be only one king. He did not make them owners; there could be only one owner. But his love compelled him to elevate them in some way, to give them a calling worthy of their unique place in his heart.

“All that is precious to me I will entrust to them,” the king declared. “They will become essential to the welfare and expansion of my kingdom. I will honour them by revealing my heart to them: my deepest values, my highest purposes, my innermost character. And they will honour me by using each resource I entrust to them to spread my values and purposes and character to every corner of my kingdom.”

“I will give them the title of Stewards – the highest title one can aspire to in the kingdom of the creator-owner. And great will be the rewards of my faithful stewards. In relinquishing, they will receive. In living for my glory, they will become glorious beyond their imaginations. In forsaking their tiny personal kingdoms, they will receive my kingdom, which, though great now, is destined to become even greater.”

And so the king, as an expression of his great love for his people, gave them the gift of his trust.

(Sue Kline)

The trust and responsibility given to us as stewards of God’s creation and resources is a great privilege.  I am sure it must deeply sadden God when we fall into the trap of forsaking this privilege in order to claim ownership.  As we seek to advance the Kingdom of God through our lives and churches are we willing to give up our tiny kingdoms for the sake of God’s Kingdom?  Are we willing to lay down the mantle of ownership in order to take on the role of steward and servant?  If so, I believe that the Kingdom of God will indeed be advanced through our lives and work.

In 2 Kings chapters 6&7 there is an amazing story where the Aramean King Ben-Hadad, is laying siege on the city of Samaria, which ultimately caused a devastating famine in the city -the people were literally starving to death. Any available food was being sold at exorbitant prices and the desperation was so great that some mothers had even formed a pact to kill and eat each other’s sons! In the meantime there were four men whose plight was even more precarious. They were lepers camping outside the city walls. At any time the lepers would not be welcome in the city, but at least they could rely on the compassion of people throwing scraps of food over the city wall. In the midst of the siege there were no such scraps, and of course they would be first in the firing line if the Arameans decided to storm the city.

Considering their predicament, the lepers figured that it was only a matter of time before they died, so they decided to approach the Aramean campsite in the hope that just maybe the Arameans would have pity on them, give them something to eat and spare their lives. As they made their way towards the campsite, the Lord caused the Arameans to hear the sound of a mighty army descending upon them. The Arameans thought that somehow the Israelite king had formed an alliance with the Hittites or Egyptians and paid them to attack them, so in fear of their lives they ran from the campsite leaving all their food and valuables behind. By time the lepers arrived at the campsite it was completely deserted. Tentatively they snuck into the first tent they came across and couldn’t believe their eyes. Food and riches everywhere! Naturally they gorged themselves and then grabbed as much booty as they could hold and went and hid it. They then went to the next tent to repeat the process.

Then all of a sudden the lepers realised what they were doing and the plight of the people back in the city. Immediately they knew that they had to go back to the city and share the discovery they had made. They had discovered good news and they couldn’t keep it to themselves. So they went back to the city to share what they had discovered. Initially the news was treated with scepticism, but once validated the people streamed out of the city to feast on the food in the Aramean camp and the crisis was over.

I love this story! But I want to suggest to you that this story paints a picture of the world in which we live today. We Christians, just like those lepers have discovered in Jesus a source of food and nourishment that can satisfy our hunger in the present, give us hope for the future and provide for us the key to live a full and abundant life. We Christians live with the privilege of knowing God’s grace. We live with the knowledge that the God of the universe loves us, desires a relationship with us, carries our burdens, forgives us our sins and gives us strength during the challenging times of our lives. In addition, our faith in Jesus gives us automatic entry into God’s church. In the church we have a community where we can come together from different backgrounds, cultures and experiences to enjoy fellowship and worship together. The church gives us a context to encourage one another, care for each other and journey together through life’s ups and downs. What we have through our faith in Jesus is absolutely awesome.

Isn’t it sad though, that you and I can be eating so much, while the world around us is going hungry? What we have in Jesus is good news and frankly it is wrong for us to keep it to ourselves. The mission of the church is to take this good news to the world, to go back to the starving, desperate people and share with them what we have discovered.

How are we seeking to do this as individuals and in our Baptist Churches? Are we burning with the conviction that the Kingdom of God is the greatest cause in the world? Is that passion to advance the Kingdom of God driving us outwards – to connect with our communities and with those who don’t yet know Jesus? How often do we challenge ourselves to consider if the way we ‘do church’ is about us and our own comfort – the walled cities of our own church buildings – or if we are being the church outside the walls – in the communities in which God has placed us?

Like many Melbournians I love going to the footy when I get the chance.  In fact, going to an AFL football match has become an institution in Melbourne and other States throughout Australia. Whilst it seems the rules of the game are constantly changing and at times the game can be a little confusing, most of us who watch AFL footy are well versed on how the game works. We know that a game is played over four quarters and at the end of each quarter the players stop and huddle together. In the huddle the players have a well-earned rest, they receive encouragement from one another, medical attention if necessary, they review tactics and depending on how the team is travelling they might receive a rev-up from the coach. When people go to the footy they don’t mind these breaks and the teams huddling together. In fact, they understand that the huddles are an essential part of the game. However, people do not part with their hard-earned cash to watch the huddle. Rather, they want to see the two teams play the game, they want to see if the coach’s tactics work and if the players have enough discipline to carry out the game plan. Ultimately people go to the footy with the hope of seeing their team overcome the opposition and achieve victory. 

I want to suggest to you the Christian faith has some similarities to a football match. Throughout the week we Christians are busy playing the game – living out our faith, being salt and light in our workplaces, schools and neighbourhoods. We are busy helping the poor, proclaiming the good news of Jesus and using our God-given gifts to advance the kingdom of God. On the weekend we gather or huddle together to catch our breath, be restored, encourage one another, to build each other up, revise our tactics and of course to worship and praise God.  The weekend gathering of Christians is an essential and important aspect of our faith and it needs to be a part of our regular weekly rhythm.  But what can happen to us Christians, if we are not careful, is something that would never happen at a football game.  We can make the mistake of getting high on the huddle - of gathering together on Sunday and going ‘nuts’ over the huddle, saying to each other as we leave, “that was a good huddle” or “the huddle went off today”…“the worship was fantastic” (code for ‘I liked the music’), “the sermon was awesome” (code for ‘I agreed with the Pastor’s theology’), “there was a great sense of community today” (code for ‘ I got to talk to my friends’).  When we do this we make the mistake of thinking that our Christian faith is all about the huddle.

Sometimes we fall into the trap of forgetting the purpose of the huddle. We come together to worship God, to learn from the Bible, to build each other up and celebrate our faith. We do this so that God is honoured in our lives and communities. We do this because God is worthy of our worship. We do this because it is important for us to “not stop meeting together”. Coming together in a worship service is an essential aspect of our faith.  However, we also come together so that we can be in better condition when we leave to play the game, so that we can be in good shape to fulfil our missionary mandate as the people of God.  Our mandate is to be salt and light in the world, to make disciples, to be witnesses and advance Jesus’ vision of a great reversal on this earth.  Our primary calling is to advance the Kingdom of God.  It’s important that we remember the effectiveness of our church is not measured by how well we do on Sunday, but by what we do in the marketplace.  It is measured by how we live out our faith in obedience to God’s call on our lives.  As the people of God we need to be committed to honouring Jesus not only as we gather but also as we scatter, as we leave and take up our positions in life. 

How well are you and your church playing the game? Is our missionary mandate as the people of God being lived out? Remember, the game is still on until the final siren sounds!

 

Healthy churches have values that are lived out in relationship with one another, a clear sense of mission for today and a vision for the future. They also have good constitutions, governance, leadership structures and clear lines of accountability. Most people who belong to a healthy church community will be very aware of where their responsibility and authority lie in the community life of the church. In Baptist churches we operate under a congregational governance system. In my opinion most governance systems are flawed in one way, shape or form. The Baptist system is no exception, however, I believe our system when working well is the best of all. Yet, when it is not working well, sadly I would say it is the worst of all.  

If that is the case, what is needed for us to use our governance system to serve the health of our churches and advance the Kingdom of God? The answer I believe is found in three concepts lived out in relationship through the community life of our churches.

1. Empowerment: to give somebody power or authority
2. Trust:
    a. Reliance - confidence in and reliance on good qualities, especially fairness, truth, honour, or ability.
    b. Position of obligation - the position of somebody who is expected by others to behave responsibly or honourably.
    c. Hope for future - hopeful reliance on what will happen in the future.
    d. Care - responsibility for taking good care of somebody or something.
3. Accountability: responsible to somebody or for something.

I believe that all three concepts need to be present and actively lived out in our church communities and governance system for our churches to thrive and be healthy.

Practically what does this look like in the life of the church? The diagram below is my attempt to display what this looks like.

It means:

1. The congregation will empower the leadership team (whatever name they have) to govern the affairs of the church. The congregation will trust the leadership team.  And the congregation will hold the leadership team to account (through the members meeting).
2. The leadership team will empower the pastor to manage and lead the church in its daily operations, service to mission and pursuit of the vision. The leadership team will trust the pastor and not interfere in operational leadership. The leadership team will hold the pastor to account (usually at regular governance meetings and through annual reviews).
3. The pastor will empower the congregation with the ministry and mission of the church, through an equipping ministry. The pastor will trust the congregation with the task to carry out ministry and mission and the pastor will hold the congregation to account.

The system is a circular system, not hierarchical but functional. The key is this: whenever one of these concepts: empowerment, trust and accountability is withheld, abused or absent, our system breaks down. I believe that at the core of church conflict, frustrated pastor, annoyed leader and disgruntled congregational member, we will find the absence or abuse of empowerment, trust or accountability.

Let’s do all we can to build healthy churches and advance the Kingdom of God.