Gospel for Life’s Mission Statement (E-4)
Training Ephesians Four Pastors to grow Ephesians Four Churches
By Jay Wegter
We at Gospel for Life are partnering with Christian leaders at home and abroad who want to renew their commitment to obey our Lord’s Great Commission found in Matthew 28:19-20. Our first mission’s trip to Nepal in 2013 was aimed at strengthening churches in the fundamentals of the faith. We titled our conferences, “Guard the Harvest.”
Now in December of 2016 our purpose is to help train pastors in disciple-making. This training is needed because first and foremost, ‘it takes a disciple to make a disciple’— disciples do not spontaneously appear in our churches.
The Christian church in Nepal is relatively young. It has not had time to ‘fossilize’ its practices into deadening rituals and formalism. Therefore, many Christian pastors in Nepal who have been faithfully grounding their members in the essentials of the gospel are asking, “What is next?” Of course, the answer is: in obedience to our Lord, learn to be disciple-makers. Our Lord’s last command, ‘make disciples of all the nations’ starts at home. Christ’s command concerning disciple-making ought to be the controlling mandate of His Church. Therefore, a healthy local church will be an obedient church that equips its members for ministry (Eph 4:11-12). Obedient churches will experience multiplication of disciples, and its members will mobilize themselves to reach the countless souls immersed in ‘this present darkness’. This entire disciple-making mandate flows from the glorious goal that Christ has for His people—that they should ultimately be conformed to their Head in holiness (Rom 8:28-30). Thus, Christ is expressing His great love for His people through disciple-makers who labor to bring each believer of His Body to maturity (Col 1:28-29). The great end is that Christ’s glory in His Church should communicate the perfections of the Godhead (Eph 3:20-21).
Why are we at GFL training pastors to become disciple-makers?
- When Christ’s last command is our first priority, we are demonstrating our allegiance to Christ as our King (Mt 28:19-20).
- By following Christ’s pattern, disciple-making churches become healthy, caring communities that manifest His virtues to the watching world (Jn 17:20-23; Eph 4:12-16).
- Through disciple-making believers experience the privilege of growing the next generation of true worshippers (Jn 4:23-24).
- Disciple-making is how the church is equipped for ministry, and how her members are mobilized to reach a lost and dying world (Mt 28:19-20).
- Christ loves His people so much that He desires each one be brought to maturity through discipleship, so that each member may be conformed to Christ in holiness (Col 1:28-29).
How are we at GFL training pastors to be disciple-makers?
- By providing a clear pathway to spiritual maturity which takes believers from conviction (head—know the truths of God’s Word) to character (heart—love and apply the truths of the Word to all of life) to competency (hands—communicating the truth of God and love of God to others in Christian service and teaching) (Col 1:9-14; 2 Pet 3:18).
- We do this by exercising life-on-life soul care so that our disciples are nurtured and instructed in the core truths of the Word of God (CONVICTION) (Eph 4:12).
- And by training our disciples in righteousness in a relational space of love and accountability so that they learn to observe and obey all that Christ has commanded (CHARACTER) (Mt 28:19-20; 2 Tim 3:16-17; 1 Thess 2:7-13).
- And by entrusting the truths of God’s Word to faithful believers so that they may in turn entrust them to other faithful believers (COMPETENCY) (2 Tim 2:2).
What is the result or goal of training pastors to be disciple-makers?
The result we are seeking to accomplish is the training of Christian leaders who will manifest the following qualities:
- They are faithful expositors of the Word of God (Eph 4:11; 2 Tim 2:15).
- They are examples to the flock of Christian virtue and character and fruit-bearing (Jn 15:8; 1 Thess 1:7; 2:14; 1 Tim 3; Titus 1; 1 Pet 5:3).
- They are equippers of the saints to do the work of the ministry (Eph 4:12).
- They are committed to the Great Commission as Christ’s pattern for His church—they see His last command of disciples-making as their priority and the only way to effectively build with Christ (Mt 28:19-20).
- They understand that spiritual maturity is the Lord’s mandate; meeting the qualifications for eldership ought to be the goal of every believing man.
The default or heretical ecclesiology of the church has always been some form of clericalism; in clericalism there is a pronounced clergy-laity split in which the parishioners are merely spectators or passengers. In an unbiblical ecclesiology, ministry is centralized in the pastor and not conducted by the members of the church. This error, which has been extensive in church history, flies in the face of Christ’s pattern for His church found in Ephesians chapter four.
Christ’s pattern incorporates an every-member ministry or fully ministering laity. That is precisely what the NT sets forth as descriptive of a normal healthy local church. But, so pervasive is the heretical ecclesiology today that many pastors worldwide have never heard of the Ephesians four pattern, nor would they recognize it if they actually saw it. As a result, there is a great need to train pastors globally in what it means to be an Ephesians four pastor.
Thus, our vision for church revitalization involves a return to Christ’s blueprint for His church. This strategy focuses upon training pastors to be Ephesians four pastors so that their churches can become Ephesians four churches.
The following portion is adapted in part from material by Steven Van Horn, of International Training and Equipping Ministries.
There are three essential areas of emphasis in equipping which can help pastors grow into ‘Ephesians chapter four’ pastors. These three areas are: 1) The training needed to be an expositor of Scripture, 2) The training needed to be an example (Christian character). 3) The training needed to be an equipper.
These three areas of training: expositor; example; and equipper form a strategy to move a pastor in the direction of full compliance with Ephesians chapter four. As a pastor develops in his ability to exposit Scripture, he will have a very high regard for inductive Bible study. Faithful exposition means locating the meaning of the text of Scripture—thus, the original scriptural author’s intent will exert a controlling priority in sermon preparation.
The ‘pastor-teacher’ described in Ephesians 4:11 is a faithful steward; he handles the Word of God accurately—He studies the Bible inductively under the eye of the Lord in order to exposit the Word of God (2 Tim 2:15).
The international mentors we raise up to train pastors in this area need to be highly competent at the level of exposition. An effective approach in teaching exposition, when working with national pastors is to assign to them the task of crafting of preaching outlines from the book of Colossians.
The second area of faithfulness in serving as an Ephesians four pastor is Christian character. In order for the pastor to function effectively as a pastor-teacher, he must be an example to the flock as well as an expositor and an equipper (see our material on Christian character: ‘19 Spiritual Qualifications’ Article).
The Great Commission is about training and equipping disciples of Christ in all the nations so that they learn to obey or observe all that Christ has commanded (Mt 28:19-20). Therefore, growth in Christian character involves personal instruction in what it means to obey the Savior. Shepherds encourage their disciples in ongoing repentance so that the disciple’s walk becomes ever more consistent. Shepherds help monitor the disciple’s obedience by providing accountability, feedback, correction, counsel, encouragement, and exhortation, etc.
The third area of competence is that of an equipper. The role of an equipper is that of a shepherd. A shepherd imparts core values from Scripture—he does so within a close relational space that could be accurately described as ‘spiritual parenting’. This form of spiritual nurturing is laid out in detail in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-20 in which the Apostle Paul provides a testimony of how he equipped (mentored), or discipled the Thessalonian converts.
Equipping has a goal—spiritual stability, Christian character, maturity, and fruitful reproduction. As set forth in Ephesians 4:12, shepherds are to equip the members of the body to do the work of the ministry, thus equipping is the preparation of church members to begin ministering effectively.
The work of an equipper is exemplified in the activity set forth by Paul in Colossians 1:28-29: “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me” (Col 1:28-29).
The Great Commission is about training and equipping disciples of Christ in all the nations so that they learn to obey or observe all that Christ has commanded (Mt 28:19-20). The best way to teach pastors the ‘art’ of equipping is to personally equip the pastors themselves until they begin to demonstrate that they are applying what they are learning in their mentoring of others.
It is extremely common for pastors in developing countries to be unable to define what a disciple of Christ is. If they do preach from Ephesians 4, they will tend to address the spiritual gifts, but completely skip over the following key portion on maturity found in verses 12-16. “. . . for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” (Eph 4:12-16).
Therefore, it is evident that training in equipping is a crucial need among pastors both domestically and worldwide. In the Ephesians four passage above the shepherd’s role in ‘equipping’ (v. 12) is the means by which the body is furnished for ministry. The pastor who equips members of his flock makes it his objective to spiritually invest in faithful men—entrusting to them the great truths of the Word of God that they may entrust them to others. This is the very essence of spiritual multiplication) (2 Tim 2:2). This is also how our Lord intends that churches ‘grow their own shepherds’.
As cultures in the world continue to disintegrate morally, the pastor who is a faithful equipper will focus all the more upon the eternal objective of making disciples amidst this world’s present darkness (Eph 6:12). Like the Apostle Paul, equippers are driven by the hope of glory (Col 1:27). Hope is a spiritual barometer—hope affects the way we live today—how we steward our time, talent, and affection. Hope imbues us with heaven’s values. Hope moves us to assist the brethren in working through the implications of the gospel for everyday life. Our role at Gospel for Life in training pastors internationally is to develop trainers who will systematically work with pastors who show the promise of becoming Ephesians four pastors. For, there is no other way to grow an Ephesians four church than to grow Ephesians four pastors.