Title Functional Organization (Ephesians 4:15-16)
Contents
There was a couple who lived on the top floor of a 100-story apartment. But one day, the elevator broke down and the couple, unable to wait any longer, decided to just walk up the stairs. I was bored, so I decided to go up by telling scary stories one by one. So I barely made it to the 99th floor. But when I got to the 99th floor, my wife suddenly remembered something and said there was a really scary story. At that time, my husband was really curious and said, "Yes, it must be fun. Let's talk scary stories quickly. Come on~" But as soon as the wife spoke, the husband passed out. What would you say? "I just left my house key in the security room."
Now, even on foot, the couple is going up the stairs to enter the house. But, most importantly, he had left the key to the house in the security room.
Everyone! The church has many institutions and departments. And there are meetings and conferences. But what are those institutions and organizations for? What is the purpose of meetings and conferences? This is to fully establish the body of the Lord, the church, in order to carry out the mission of preaching the gospel, which is the great command that the Lord has given us for the sake of the Lord's gospel. In other words, these things exist and are necessary for the continued development and promotion of the gospel ministry.
Matthew 28:18-20, “Jesus came and spoke and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me; therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and I Teach them to observe all that I commanded them. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” This is the Lord's great command. Every organization of the Church exists to carry out and fulfill this mandate. If the organization avoids or hinders this, then the organization has no value.
Today is a time to share and think about “functional organization”, which is the fourth characteristic of the 8 qualitative characteristics of a healthy church.
Those who value spiritual things say that the church does not need an organization. All you need to do is pray fervently, sing fervently, and be filled with the Holy Spirit. What kind of organization is it? And those who value methods ignore the spiritual and value the organization. If the organization is good, I think everything will be fine. But the spiritual is software, and the organizational is hardware. Again, both are important. That's all you need. They are complementary and complementary to each other.
The church must have a passionate spirituality. We must pray fervently, sing fervently, meditate on the Word fervently, and fervently exercise the Holy Spirit. However, there must be a functional organization to contain and nurture this passionate spirituality. And this functional organization must not kill, ignore, or let the ardent spirituality cool down.
Today's text explains what a functional organization is. “But speaking the truth in love, you may grow up into him in all things, who is the head, the Christ, from whom the whole body is joined and united with the help of every joint, working according to the measure of each part, so that the body may grow and love. I build myself in."
Our body has many cells and body tissues. And these cells and tissues respond appropriately to the environment in which people live, degenerate things that are not needed, and more important functions have been developed and strengthened. Through these actions, the body grows and builds itself up. Look at our bodies. How functionally has God created you to grow in unity with one another? Growth is difficult when there is an abnormality in one part of the body. All parts should be equally healthy.
All organs and tissues of the body seem to move independently, but these cells and body tissues support and maintain our life, all are connected and combined, contributing to the growth of life. However, among cells and body tissues, there are cells and body tissues that eat away at life, and these are cancer cells and cancerous body tissues. Cancer cells become life-threatening as they grow larger. Therefore, the sooner you remove it, the more life will be saved. No one is going to protect cancer cells from being wasted.
A while ago I read a book called "You Owner's Manual" by two famous American doctors. They are doctors named Michael Roisen and Mehmet Oz. Through this book, they say that health is a choice, not a destiny. That's right. Health is not a matter of fate, it is a matter of choice. Happiness is a choice, not destiny. “If you learn about your body properly, pay a little attention, and have the will, you can live a healthy body and a healthy life.” In addition, my body manual contains 10 principles to follow for a healthy life. It is said that the dream of extending life will come true if you follow only five of them.
Those five are 1. Blood pressure control, 2. Smoking cessation, 3. Exercising for 30 minutes every day 4. Stress control, 5. Adequate nutrition that can be easily followed.
If you practice these five things, your chances of dying or getting seriously ill in the next 10 years will be only 10% compared to other people of the same age. Wouldn't this be worth the effort? If you control your blood pressure, quit smoking, exercise for 30 minutes every day, control your stress, and eat an easy-to-follow diet, you can live longer and 90% safer than people of your age.
The head of the church is Christ, and the church is the living body of Christ. Each of us is a member of the body, and each of us is united with one another to "cooperate in making the church, the body of Christ, the church." Developing and maintaining an organization that facilitates the continual advancement of ministry is at the heart of the qualitative characteristics of a functional organization. The organization must be functional for the continual advancement of the church's ministry. Dysfunctional organizations that hinder the church from becoming a church must be improved, changed, and, if not, discarded. Organizations that are immersed in traditional inertia, such as systems that do not create conditions to work, inconvenient worship times, and unmotivated financial practices, need to change.
Most traditional churches have an honorable, formal organization that has nothing to do with function. There is a department, but in fact, except for a few, they do not know which department they belong to. Therefore, the organization of the church must now be structured to perform its functions effectively. And lay leaders who have the necessary gifts for the organization should be established, and they should be able to work to their heart's content through full delegation of leadership. A paradigm shift is needed to transform a complex and diverse church structure into a simple and powerful one. An organization is a system that embodies a vision. Therefore, in order to have a functional organization, the underlying vision must first be clear.
According to Acts 6:1-6, the church in Jerusalem was filled with the Holy Spirit, but the Greek widows fell out of the daily almsgiving, so 7 deacons were set up. Therefore, the apostles ceased to be in prayer and preaching the word, and the early church had a structure and organization in which the seven deacons did the work of almsgiving, care, service and service. One thing to note is that organizations exist for a certain role, in other words a function. An organization should not exist for the sake of the organization itself, or rather an organization that hinders the work of the Holy Spirit. The church is the body of Christ. Just as each member of our body does its own work, all the organs in the church must fulfill their functions to grow and develop together. The early church was a functional organization. It served its pure function. That is why the early church accomplished such an amazing work.
The church that the Lord wanted to establish is the same church as the early church. The church that the Lord wanted to establish was the first church to destroy the powers of Hades. The Lord said, "On this rock I will build the church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." And secondly, it was the church that had the keys of heaven. “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
I believe that it is our job today to make the church, the body of the Lord, equipped with a functional organization and good system to make the church that was in the heart of the Lord, the church that was in the will of the Lord, and the church that the Lord dreamed of.