EFFECTIVE SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP

  1 Thessalonians 2:1-6 Part One verse 1

Overall in Christian ministry there seems to always be a crises of true leadership.  There seems to be always failure in ministry that comes from a failure of spiritual leadership.

My concern is learning to have a genuine lasting effective leadership in this church.

HOW CAN WE MAKE SURE WE HAVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP?

BUT FIRST WHAT MAKES LEADERSHIP SO CHALLENGING?

Those of us who have been called to preach or pastor and called to be Elders of the church have an immense responsibility

1.    Our responsibility is to administer the ordinances in such a way as to lead the people to renew their covenant of obedience and to confess their sin and to purify themselves from all filthiness of the flesh.

2.    Our responsibility is to oversee the church, to govern its life including the rebuke of the disobedient and the strengthening of the faint.

3.    Our responsibility is to train and to appoint teachers and workers so that they reach all of those who are in their care and are able in a diverse way to offer biblical counsel and example for resolving their doubts, their weaknesses, their fears, their difficulties, their sins and their anxieties.

4.    The responsibility of the spiritual leader is also to be the physician who runs the hospital which cares for all their infections, whether vice or heresy and leads them to holy cures or expels them.

5.    And the spiritual leader is responsible to be the tender shepherd who cares to see that all their needs are supplied and all their wounds are healed and all their distresses are resolved.

6.    The spiritual leader is to champion the truth, defending it and its flock.

 And for all of that he must answer to Christ. And in all of it he is to be a model of spiritual virtue and is to live what he wants the people to become.

WHO IS QUALIFIED FOR SUCH A CALLING?

I ask myself how, with all my weaknesses of the flesh, am I able to accomplish such God-given responsibilities. I live in fear of failure, and that is not so uncommon.

Paul even struggled with his flesh, doing things he wanted to do.  He too battled a thorn in the flesh. Yet we can learn from him how to succeed in leadership.

1 For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain: 2 But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. 3 For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile: 4 But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. 5 For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness: 6 Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ. 1 Thess 2:1-6 (KJV)

In these marvelous six verses Paul shares with us the principles for a valuable ministry as God measures usefulness. 

BACKGROUND OF PAUL IN THE CHURCH:

·         One way to destroy the effectiveness of the pastor/teacher is to attack his integrity and sincerity and destroy the confidence of the man who God had to found the church.

·         Frauds (crime of cheating somebody) in Paul’s day was as rampant as they are today.  Paul, Timothy, Silas were accused of wicked motives, intentions, as self-seeking fakers.

PAUL THEREFORE WRITES THIS BOOK TO THE CHURCH.

Paul recalls how he ministered to them, and states out the principles that made his ministry effective.

Vs One:  ¶ For <1063> yourselves <846>, brethren <80>, know <1492> (5758) our <2257> entrance in <1529> unto you  , that   it was   not  in vain <2756>: 

You know our ministry has not become empty, nor has it has been a failure or false.

Preachers watch to see what will be the outcome of the work where he has pastured, to see if it succeeds and is not fruitless or ineffective.  But the preaching was not feeble, void of earnestness, or energy. The impact was dynamic, in the Word of God and not pointless.

This church was a successful church as we have seen in chapter one.

SO HOW WAS PAUL’S MINISTRY FULL OF ENERGY AND EFFECTIVENESS?

WHAT ARE THE PRINCIPLES TO EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP IN THE CHURCH?

  "How you live your life and how you successfully operate your ministry,

is in direct relationship to your view of God.”