2 Corinthians 8:16-24 – The Gift of Leadership

Right, so we are continuing in Two Corinthians and we're going

to be in chapter 8, verses 16 all the way to 24.

So up there it goes. And so I'm going to read it.

It says thanks be to gods who put into the heart of Titus the

same concern I have for you. For Titus not only welcomed

appeal, but he is coming to you with much enthusiasm and on his

own initiative. And we are sending along with

him the brother who is praised by all the churches for his

service to the gospel. What is more, he was chosen by

the churches to accompany us as we carry the offering which we

administer in order to honour the Lord Himself and to show our

eagerness to help. We want to avoid any criticism

of the way we administer this liberal gift, for we are taking

pains to do what is right not only in the eyes of the law but

also in the eyes of of man. In addition, we are sending with

him our brother who has often proven to us in many ways that

he is zealous and now even more so because of his great

confidence in you. As for Titus, he is my partner

and Co worker among you, for As for our brothers, they are

representatives of the church and an honour to Christ.

Therefore show these men the proof of your love and the

reason for our pride in you so that the churches can see it.

Let's pray Lord Jesus, I pray God that you would continue to

speak to us again today. Lord God, I pray Jesus that you

would that you would challenge us, Lord Jesus, as we talk about

this topic of leadership that you would not only you would

raise up leaders amongst us. Lord Jesus, I pray Lord God that

you would challenge us to lead in whatever situation that we

find ourselves in. Lord God, we pray Lord Jesus for

men and women like Titus to be raised up amongst us, Lord

Jesus, so that the lost can be can be reached, Lord Jesus, so

the the church can be disciples. Lord God, so that we can grow

numerically and spiritually as a body.

Amen. Amen.

So like I said, I'm going to talk about preach, I'm going to

talk about leadership this today.

And whilst I was thinking about the topic, I was reminded of a

piece of writing that I heard many, many years ago.

And this piece of writing came off the back of someone doing a

a survey of church members and asking them what is the most

important thing about your pastor?

What is the most important thing?

What makes the part the pastor good?

And so someone came up with this poem called The Perfect Pastor.

And it goes like this. The perfect pastor preaches for

no more than 10 minutes and teaches I'm not going to preach

10 minutes and teaches all the riches of scripture.

He condemns sin round thee, but never hurts anyone's feelings.

He preaches twice a week, answers the phone, puts out the

bins, cleans the church hall and is always well rested.

He works from 8:00 AM till midnight and never misses time

with his wife or family. The perfect Pastor makes 40 lbs

a week, buys good clothes, drives a nice car, eats well,

and donates 30 of those pounds back to the church.

He is 29 years old and possesses an impressive breadth of

experience in the ministry spanning 40 years.

The perfect Pastor has a burning desire to work with teenagers

and spends most of his time with senior citizens.

He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a

sense of humour that keeps him seriously dedicated to his

flock. He makes 15 home visits and is

always behind his desk to answer anyone's needs.

The perfect pastor spends all his time with the church

actually, and he never misses a meeting and he is always out on

the streets evangelising the unchurched.

Above all, the perfect pastor is handsome.

We laugh because it's full of impossibilities, isn't it?

One person cannot be all these things and actually we can.

We can so often get into the be guilty of that, that we try and

hold up one person to be the all in everything for us.

We can hold up or try and hold up one person and say they need

to be the perfect person. We can also as leaders, we can

think I need to be everything to everyone and that can that can

cause frustration, that can cause struggle also.

That can mean that we fail to raise up leaders because people

feel like I can't do all that. I can't be all that.

Actually, the reality is that none of us can be all those

things. None of us can be everything to

everyone. Actually, the reality is that

none of us possess all the gifts and all the attributes for even

ourselves to grow and thrive. Actually, that's why Jesus has

placed us in a church, because in a church there are other

people around you who possess gifts and attributes to pour

into you so that you can thrive. And you possess not all the

attributes for yourself, but you do possess attributes for others

to grow, for others to thrive. You see, there is no

superheroes. There is, well, sorry, let's

rephrase that. There is one superhero.

There is one Lord and King of Kings.

There is one Saviour and his name is Jesus Christ and one day

he will return and he will make all things right.

I was studying Revelations, revelation at the moment and,

and there's this kind of the revelation pictures kind of

this, this end scene battle coming up and then all of a

sudden Jesus appears and it's over.

Jesus. Jesus just just just was one

word. He will make all things right.

He will make all things well, but until he returns He is

working through his church. Not super Christians, not the

ones and twos, but he is working through you guys, His church,

those who have bowed the knee to him and desire to Co work with

him in bringing his Kingdom to earth.

The church. We need each other.

We lack the abilities. You lack the ability.

I lack the ability to grow and thrive on my own.

Hear that? You lack the ability to grow on

your own and that's OK. And that is OK.

You see, we are called to be part of church and church.

The New Testament word that we get church from is the Greek

word called ecclesia, which literally means a called out

community. You are a called out community.

You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, not

self-sufficient. You are a people.

That is why it's so important for us to be, to engage, to be

part of church. See, even poor needed people,

even Paul. And so we get we get we get it

wrong so often because we so often we think of the Apostle

Paul and we think he was the world's greatest ever teacher,

preacher, church planter, theologian, evangelist, apostle.

He and he alone was able to reach the ends of the earth.

And yeah, he might have been pretty impressive, but he needed

people. And actually the the scriptures,

you read the book of Acts, you read his letters and you see an

army of people behind him who we really lazily in our theology

go, that was Paul. That was Paul.

We've got Barnabas. Barnabas, you know, if it wasn't

for Barnabas, there would be no Apostle Paul.

Barnabas grabbed this guy Saul of Tarsus, who was who just

become a Christian and he saw something in him.

He saw how wonderfully he understood the scriptures and he

brought him. He got him and he brought him

amongst the leadership team of Antioch.

And then he takes him with him on his on as he goes to Cyprus

and Galatia to to plant new churches.

We've got people like Silas who joins him in mission.

We've got people like Timothy who earlier on he calls him the

the his child, but then towards the end of his ministry, Timothy

is is is one who he goes right. Timothy, there's problems in the

Church of Ephesus. You go and sort it out.

You go sort it out. Timothy.

We've got Mark, we've got Luke. Sorry.

We've got Luke, who the beloved physician who would have helped,

would have looked after Paul, but also wrote down Luke and Axe

so that we have we understand what went on in those early

years. We've got Mark who fell out with

Paul or Paul fell out with him, but then later on he comes back

into community with Paul and as a valued member of the team.

We've got Priscilla and Aquila, who hosted a church in their

home to see the church grow and thrive.

They also got hold of a man named Apollos who they taught,

they encouraged, and then Apollos became the one who,

after Paul had gone into an area, had prepared the ground

for a church we planted. Apollos was the one who then was

the one who spoke and taught. That provided the conditions for

that church to grow. We've got Apaphras Apaphroditus,

who were sent by the Philippian church to assist Paul.

We've got Titicus who had the amazing privilege of taking the

the scrolls, the letters from Paul to to to Ephesus and to

Colossi and to read them and to probably answer questions about

them. We've got Phoebe who did the

same thing to the church in Rome.

And then we've got a whole host of other people who I'm not

going to read because I'm going to get their names wrong.

But there was the lot of people who ultimately we just go,

that's Paul. No, no, no, there was an army of

people who God used to grow the 1st century church.

And in addition to all these names is who Paul mentions right

here in this letter to Two Corinthians, Titus, Titus and

the brothers. Now, side note, I'm not really

sure why he says the brothers and no one else does either.

I mean, maybe if he was a bit like me, he's there, he's

writing the letter, he's transcribing it, and he's going,

you know, right, I'm sending you Titus.

And they've been with me for three months now and I still

can't remember their names. And you can do that as a

Christian, can't you? You can just get, you know, you

meet someone for the set for the first time.

You can ask them their name. You ask them.

I mean, the second time you can ask them their name.

Third time you feel a bit embarrassed.

So, brother, how are you doing? I'm sending the brothers.

I'm sending this my sister with you.

I cannot remember her name. You know, we can do this, can't

we? And we just hope that someone

else says their name so you can actually write it down and

remember it properly. But that's, that's what he does.

He, I mean, that's not saying I'm not saying that Paul forgot

his name. But anyway, he, he sends Titus

and the brothers and in our Scripture reading today, he he

outlines, we're talking about leadership and he outlines what

it means to be a good leader. You've got to open.

He says in verse 16 that a good leader, a godly leader is one

who loves the church. He says in verse 17 that a godly

leader is passionate about people.

He's coming with much enthusiasm and zeal, he says in verse 17.

Again, he says that there's good leaders, one that takes

initiative. Verse 18.

He's one who who is a servant who is trustworthy in this case,

especially with money. He says in verse and a 23 that

he is a Co worker, A-Team player, that a good leader, a

godly leader, not only can lead A-Team, but can be part of one

as well. And it doesn't say this in two

Corinthians in this passage I'm reading, but throughout the New

Testament, throughout Acts, throughout the letters, a good

leader, Ephesians 518, Two Timothy 16, Acts 6, three is one

who is filled with the Spirit of Christ.

So good leaders love the church. They're passionate about people,

they take initiative, they're servants, they're trustworthy,

they're team players, and they're filled with the with the

spirit, the church. We need leaders.

We need men and women who are godly leaders who love the

church, who are passionate about people, who take initiative, who

are servers, who are trustworthy, who can work in

team and lead team, and are filled with the Holy Spirit.

See, the church requires us. We need people.

We need you to be committed to one another for us to grow.

And we need leaders for the church to be who God has created

her to be. And whilst we are all called to

step into leadership, the New Testament gives us 2 offices of

leadership. The first being eldership and

the second being Deacon Diaconate.

And eldership is, is something that we stepped into as a church

just over 2 years ago. Jen and I moved to Blackpool to

plant a church. I was an elder in Lancaster.

I laid that down to move here and me and Jen just came to

start a church here. And then two years ago we went

from a church plant that initial phase into a church, which is

when you recognise within the church elders who are amongst

you. And so we recognised, we

recognised certain elders, we recognised.

Oh, sorry, I did put them up there.

Anyway, we recognised these mugs, these lovely friends of

mine. Huh.

Pardon. What's wrong with my selfie?

What's wrong with my picture? Sorry, I I feel like we can't

move on here until it's. So What's wrong with my picture

anyway? I'm not insecure.

I'm not insecure. We moved from a church plant to

a a church, which means that we have developed leadership, which

means that eldership was raised up from amongst us.

And we believe that eldership is a team.

It's not. We don't believe in the vicar

model where you've got one person.

We believe that eldership is a team.

Paul and Barnabas went around planting churches and appointing

elders, not an elder for each individual church.

It was a group, and we believe that it is a team of men.

Controversial, I know, but that's what we believe.

That's because that because that's what we believe Scripture

says that it's a team of men who take responsibility who father

the local church and some will argue against that.

It's not a salvation issue. But actually the reason why we

are one of the reasons why we're convinced about it is because

actually there are many things that people have come against

and said that's not true. We believe the Bible speaks

otherwise and I've got four of the top top arguments against

that and what I want to do is bring these to you quickly.

One day we'll unpack it better. We unpack it better on our on

our on our foundations evening. But I've got 4 points that

people say This is why we should have anyone as an elder or a man

or a woman as an elder. And I'm going to put them out

and try and give them to you with justly and fairly as if

just as if I believed it myself so that I'm not Pooh poohing it.

The first example people say as well, Adam and Eve were given

the task by God to subdue and fill the earth.

And that is true. They were, but when it all went

wrong, God came to not Adam and Eve.

He didn't come to Eve, God came to Adam.

They were both charged with the doing, but Adam was the one who

was responsible to make sure it happened.

People appointed Deborah in the Old Testament and say, well,

Deborah, she was the leader of the nation.

If she could lead a nation, then surely women should be elders.

Well, if you read the story of Deborah in the book of Judges,

you see she didn't lead the nation.

She was a prophet who people came to to ask what does God say

in certain situations? And she was asked to accompany

on this campaign against the enemy.

Now we need men and women who are prophets who can speak

truth. He can speak life into

situations. But I don't think that's a good

argument for male eldership. The third one is, well, Jesus

had male and female disciples in his day.

There was many rabbis and none of them had female disciples.

Well, yes, he did. He had 120 by the end, and there

were men and women in that group, but at that 120 he chose

a small group of 12 to take responsibility.

The whole group of 120 were called to wait, be filled with

the Holy Spirit, and then go to the ends of the earth.

But there were 12 men who were given the responsibility to make

sure it happened. And finally #4 Paul seems to

suggest that in the book of Romans.

That there are female apostles and how I've heard it said, how

can you have a female apostle without having a female elder?

He says in in the book of Romans, he says Junior is

outstanding among the apostles. That's the line that's clinged

to. And now that most likely means

she was well known. She was known by the apostles.

Her works, her deeds were well known by the apostles.

But it could also mean that she was a recognised apostle and

people knew her. Well, OK, let's get go down that

path. If that's what she was, I'm not

convinced. But if that's who she was,

what's the role? What's the primary role of an

apostle? The primary role of an apostle

in the New Testament is to go into new places, to break ground

so that a new church can be planted.

Look at the Apostle Paul. He went into town after town, he

spoke for a while and then he gathered people and then he left

whilst anointing a small group of male elders as a team to

oversee it. Now I have no problem with that.

She could do that. You see, the biggest problem

that people have is they believe that church is like a business,

that to be an apostle, you've got to 1st be a really good

Christian. I mean, you do, you do need to

have some standards, OK. But if and if you're a really

good Christian, you could be a Home group leader.

And if you're a really good Home group leader, you could be a

Deacon. And if you're a really good

Deacon, you'll be an elder. If you're a really good elder,

you get to be an apostle. And maybe if you're a really

good apostle, you could be like a movement overseer and get on

TV and all that kind of stuff. No, that's not how it works.

The, the, the, the Bible says that we are given different

gifts. Some are prophets, some are

apostles, some are teachers, some are preachers, some are

evangelists, some are pastors, some we are given different

gifts. That doesn't mean if you're an

elder, you don't have gifts of evangelism or whatever.

It doesn't mean if you're a Deacon, you have different

gifts. But actually we have different

gifts. The church are given different

gifts. So it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. It's not about you can only be

an apostle if you've been a really good elder.

You see, we need more elders. We need more elders, you know,

and we always say, well, we've got four of them and we're not a

massive church. I know churches that are 203

hundred. You only have one person or more

fool them. We need a lot of elders because

we need, I can't be the perfect pastor, but partnered with

others, I still can't be the perfect pastor.

But actually, that's why we need more leaders.

And that's what brings us to this second group, the second

office of oversea of of oversea in the church, which is called

Deacon. And the Bible mentions deacons

in Philippians, in Timothy, in Romans, and it's even hinted at,

and we'll read it in a second, the book of Acts and Deacon, the

word Deacon means servant. So to say someone is a Deacon

referring to a leader is to say that they are a servant leader.

And unfortunately, due to the history of our charismatic

movement that churches like ours have been planted out of, we

have steered away from using the term Deacon of appointing people

as deacons. Because many of us have come

from churches like New Frontiers, which is the big

overarching group of churches that we come from that

originated from churches like Baptists where the term Deacon

was was was misused, where deacons rather than being a

support and someone to Co labour with the elders, they became

someone who butted with the leaders.

In the worst case scenario, there'd be people who were in

charge of in charging of employing an elder.

And if the elder kept the deacons happy, the elder had a

job. And if the elder said something

they didn't like. I'm not talking about doctrine

here. I'm just saying like they they

didn't like the way he spoke, whatever they would fire him or

they would be people who don't didn't have any will

responsibility at all. It was just a title.

It was the archetypal I'm going to get in trouble for this.

An archetypical school receptionist or, or, or or or

person in the, in the, in the, in the waiting room, who you

know when you ring up to get an, get an appointment with, with

the, with the doctor. And you want to see the doctor

because they're going to help you and they're going to

diagnose you and they're going to tell you what you need to do.

And you get this person on the end of the phone who's a

receptionist who says, why do you need to see the doctor?

Give me all your symptoms. I don't want to give you all my

symptoms. You where, where's your degree?

It's that, that, that was the sort of thing that some deacons

became. So we've steered away from it

and not honoured the role and instead kind of used business

structure by by saying we've got a, we've got a, a leadership

team or we've got heads of departments.

But actually we believe that in this season that God is calling

us to reclaim this word. And we're not the only ones.

There are other churches across our movement who've recently,

over the last coming year or so, have started to do the same.

And as an eldership team, we've been praying and reading and

researching for several months now of what does it mean to have

to be a Deacon? And these are some of the things

that we have come to conclusion of.

Firstly, deacons are not. It's really important.

Deacons are not a precursor to eldership.

Like I said, we do not believe in promotions.

A Deacon is not someone who was a really good Home group leader.

So therefore we think, well, we're going to put make them a

Deacon or someone who we thought, do you know what?

They're not really very good as an elder.

So we'll make them a Deacon. We'll be able to demote them.

No, that's not how it is. They are a separate gifting on

their own. Deacons are also not above any

other members in the church. The scripture Jesus talks about

leadership in the church is about coming under and

supporting. It's an upside down Kingdom.

The more you lead, the more you support.

You know, I mean even the even the analogy of what's the church

built on? The church is built on the

apostles and the prophets. It's built upon them.

It's not built to put them on the top.

It's built so we stand on them. That's the analogy of Scripture.

That it to lead means that you are underneath, that you, you,

you serve people. And they are not outside the

covering of the eldership that they work alongside.

They're not rogue agents who? Oh OK, you've got, you've got a

real passion to do this, to go and see people saved and we

don't really like lost people. So you're going to, you can go

out and do that kind of stuff without and do whatever.

No, no, no, they are still under the covering of the eldership.

What they are is they are recognised servant leaders

within the local church. They are Co labourers with the

elders and other leaders to work out Christ's value for the

church. For now they are fully trusted.

They are fully on board with the vision.

So we, we, we've spoken to, I'm going to announce who these

people who the first group that we're going to announce in a

bit, but we've spoken to them. One of the things we've spoken

to them about is are you baptised?

Because baptism is really important to us.

We believe God has called us to be be baptised.

Do you give? We talk about giving and we pass

the bucket round every Sunday. Not that we expect you to put in

the bucket, but do you give if you if you're not giving, how

can you be a leader and encourage others to?

Are you submitted to the, the, the the values and vision of

this church? You see, they are released.

We're going to look at it a minute that that deacons are

released, that they are leaders in their own right.

They're released to lead over certain areas with full

responsibility for that, and they are gifted men and women

who are filled with the Holy Spirit.

See, the New Testament talks about in Acts 6-7 men, which is

the best example we've got in Scripture of what a Deacon

actually does. But it also talks about people

like Phoebe in the book of Romans, who is a Deacon.

See, we'll need leaders. We need elders, we need leaders,

we need deacons. We need men and women who will

step up and love the church, be passionate about her people who

will take initiative, who will serve, who are trustworthy, who

can not only lead team but can lead teams, who can work

alongside one another, who are filled with the spirit for the

growth and maturity of the church.

So what does it look like? Here's our best example in

Scripture. It says in Acts 618, it says

this. It says in those days when the

number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews

among them complained among the Hebraic Jews because they're

widows, were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

So the 12 gathered all the disciples together and said it

would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the Word

of God in order to wait on tables.

Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are

known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.

We will turn this responsibility over to them, and we will give

our attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word.

This proposal pleased the whole group.

They chose Steven, a man of faith and of the Holy Spirit.

Philip, Procortus, Nick, Nick, Nicole.

See, I don't like reading names Timon, Parmenian and Nicholas

from Antioch, a convert Judaism. They presented these men to the

apostles who prayed and laid hands on them.

So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in

Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became

obedient to the faith. You see, they needed things

doing and they said it's not. They might have said it's not

right for us to wait on tables, but look who they chose.

This isn't to say this is a menial task.

Actually, they chose the best of the best among them to do this.

They needed stuff doing, so they chose people of character and

full of the spirit to do it. Notice that the apostles didn't

actually say, right now we've got you.

This is how you ought to do this.

No, no, they said, you know, we know we have a heart for the

broken. We have a heart for the poor.

How you work that out is up to you.

Go and do that. Go and do it.

Notice how they had full authority.

You know, if, if a, if a, if one of the members of the church

were to go, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm not happy with how much food I'm

getting. Peter, Peter, I'm not happy with

how much food I'm getting. He'd say, go and speak to

Stephen. Go and speak to Stephen.

He's in charge of that. Now.

If 20 people start to come out with Peter and say I'm not

happy, maybe he'd have to pull Stephen aside and go, what's

going on? But actually it was their

responsibility. They had to choose.

They had to work out how they were going to do it.

They had full authority. And here in CCB we may not at

the moment have starving Greek widows, but we do have a great

need. We have a need to care for

people better. We have a need to pass the

people better. We have a need to reach the lost

better. And so we need men and women who

will rise up, take initiative, who will lead, who are filled

with the spirit and have good character.

And today I'm going to, we're going to put forward some names

who we've been speaking to over the last few months.

But before I do, I just want to mention two things.

First of all, we are not promoting anyone.

What we're doing is, is we are going to recognise people who

are already serving and leading. It's what we do.

It's what we do with Elder Ship, it's what we do with with

deacons now. We recognise people and we lay

hands on them to release them into all that God has for them

in that role. And secondly, actually nothing's

going to happen today. It says in Scripture that they

are to be tested. And so this isn't going to be a

knee jerk reaction. In fact, actually what we're

going to do is we are going to going to name these people now

and then we're going to ask you to tell us what you think.

What do you think of these guys? And then come the first week in

February, assuming all things are good, we're going to lay

hands on them and Commission them as leaders.

But Scripture tells us that this is what we are to look for in

our leaders. This is what we're look to look

for in our deacons. It says in one Timothy chapter

3, verse 8, it says in the same way, deacons are to be worthy of

respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine.

You know, if if we put these people forward and you know that

they get drunk every Saturday night, we want to know this, OK,

we want to know that. And not pursuing dishonest gain,

they must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear

conscience. They must first be tested.

That's what we're doing now. And then.

If there is nothing against them, they will let them serve

as deacons. In the same way the women are to

be worthy of respect. Not malicious talkers, but

temperate but and trustworthy in everything.

A Deacon must be faithful to his wife and must and manage his

children and his household well. Those who have served well gain

an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in

Christ Jesus. So this is what you need to be

thinking of. Are these people like that?

And so as I put a mug shut up of us 4, this is who we are

recommending to you as going forward as our first group of

deacons. This is our first group of

deacons. We hope to grow this team.

We hope that this team will grow.

We want more and more leaders. So first Kofu, nice.

Oh, did you get a nice picture? You got a nice picture.

Oh great, right? So Kofu, OK, we're putting

forward Kofu. Kofu is a wonderful worker.

She is a hard worker. She's hiding her face from me

right now. But I, I appreciate so much her

hard work. I mean, I grew up in a

household, you know, where where when dad got saved, he was a

farmer. He would get up, go to work at

2:00 AM on a Sunday, come back at 9, take us to church, have

lunch and then go back to the farm after that.

And you know, Kofu, quite often she's done four or five night

shifts and she's, she could be in bed, many people would be in

bed, but she chooses to sacrifice that time to come and

serve you guys. She overseas, she's taken the

weight of overseeing the tea and coffee off from us and she's

done a brilliant job. And also worship, the way she

contributes in worship, what she brings, it's, it's outstanding.

We've got Jeff in Libby, Libby who is, you know, she's out

there with the kids right now. And Libby overseas, our kids

work. She has, you know, the last

several years we've done a nativity and me and Jen have had

to search the Internet and try and find a nativity to do.

Libby's just done that. You know, she's just taken that

from us, not only being a wonderful person, she loves

working with kids and she is she's come up with curriculum,

which she says, is this all right to teach them?

And she's just run with it. And she's been amazing.

Jeff, Jeff has taken on the the the men's group and as as a

couple, they see and they look after many people within the

church. Tommy, she's she out there now?

Must be Tommy. She does so much Tommy and it's

hard to give her a job role because she does so much.

But so many of you I know, especially ladies, have confided

in her whenever there's someone in need, she is the first to

find out and is messaging us and saying what can we do for this

person. She is a wonderful servant of

gods. And then Jen, which I'm not

really sure I want to give you any praise after your God, who,

who is who is a wonderful, wonderful woman.

And she has done so much since day one.

And actually when we first started talking about deacons

about a year ago, someone said if Jen isn't one of them, I'm

leaving. She is a very gifted and such a

wonderful leader in this church. And I say side note, like I

said, there are more leaders in this church.

This is a starting point. This is a starting point and we

want to be able to grow this team.

We want to be able to grow our eldership team.

But my question that I want to answer to you as we end is why

now? Why do we want to do this now or

this Acts 6-8 after they've laid hands on these men and they've

they've told them to go and do the job.

It says so the Word of God spreads the number of disciples.

What was it? They were looking after the

poor. They were doing a job, they were

serving. But it says so the Word of God

spread the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly

and a large number of priests. That signifies that even those

who are most against the gospel came to Christ and became

obedient to faith. See, we strongly believe that

God is preparing us for growth, that He is preparing us and He

is calling leaders to raise up and take responsibility.

See, we need a team of leaders who can coordinate, care better,

from the youngest to the oldest, from the sick to the vulnerable,

to those who are new to the faith, who need extra guidance.

We need a team of leaders who are able to ensure that the lost

are being reached. We need a team of leaders that

when someone new comes in, they take responsibility and say I'm

going to make sure that that person knits into the community.

I'm going to have them round my house.

We need a team of leaders who are an example, who are a

pillar, not perfect, but who are wonderfully committed to the

mission that we are on, are generous and filled with the

Spirit. See in my prayer is that as we

lay hands on these guys next year that not only will they

grow in their capacity and gifting, but actually we would

benefit greatly from that. But we need more, we need more.

Our vision as a church is to is to reach a lost and broken

world. And there are hundreds of

thousands of people who live up and down the foul coast.

We need you to step forward as leaders, to reach them, to love

them, to care for them, to go to them.

We also need leaders to go to the world, to go to the nations.

There's billions of people in this world and we need to raise

up leaders to send out to the world.

We need Tituses, we need Phoebes, we need Stevens who

will take a lead for Christ and in a few months, God willing, we

will lay hands on these 5. But my prayer is that as they

grow, you will grow as well. We long for more leaders.

Can you be that I am not precious about my role

personally, I long for people to surpass me, people to come into

leadership. My main role is to preach and

teach. Am I long for people to come

into leadership who are better than me?

Who can bring this church on further?

We need you. So will you step up?

You may be recognised, you may not be, but will you step up and

hear the calling that Jesus has on you to lead?

Lord Jesus, I I thank you for this new era in this church.

God, I pray for protection over all of these five people that

we've mentioned this morning. God, the enemy hates nothing

more than men and women who step forward to say, I will lead in

your church, God. So I pray that you protect them.

Lord Jesus, I pray that you'd keep them safe.

Lord God, and I pray that it will not be long before we are

adding more names to that, that we're adding more elders, we're

adding more deacons, That we are releasing more people in this

church as leaders. That men and women would step up

to lead in their homes. That men and women would step up

to lead in their place of work. That they'd step up and lead

where you have put them in your gracious name.

Amen.