This is a series on 11 Leadership Lessons from 12 Disciples, based on the recent sermon Jesus Calls the Twelve, on Luke 6:12-16.

Lesson #8: Big teams need a smaller team within the team

Mars Hill Church is a big team. Ten campuses, a couple dozen services, forty-something elders and growing. I don't know how many hundreds of deacons, hundreds of community group leaders. There are a lot of big teams that need smaller teams within the teams.

Jesus has the seventy. They're mentioned as a number in the Bible. There are twelve that he's appointing as apostles, and within that team he's got Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Peter's the senior leader, but the inner team of leaders is Peter, Andrew, James, and John. They're listed together. They get special access to Jesus. They get special training from Jesus, and they make certain decisions that others don't get to make. So big teams need teams within the teams.

To be continued.

The Prosperity Gospel

Prosperity theology is a marketing scam. Learn about prosperity theology's dirty little secret.

Click through to the Resurgence if you can't see the video.

Adrian Warnock interviews Matt Chandler on the call to ministry in this 9-minute video.

(HT: Ben Terry)

Death By Love

Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears tackle some of the most serious redemptive aspects of Jesus' work in these twelve letters of counsel. Find out more.

Discerning God's Call series: Click | View Series

Pastoral Ministry

Ministry is more than hard. Ministry is impossible. And unless we have Holy Spirit-inspired fire inside our bones compelling us, we simply will not survive. Pastoral ministry is a calling, not a career. It is not a job you pursue to advance a career or a position that is preferable because you like attention. You don’t go into ministry because you liked your youth pastor or because your mom thinks you’d be good at it or to avoid manual labor. I am continually shocked at how many people are trying to do ministry without a clear sense of calling.

So what is a call? What does it look like?

To begin, let’s learn from those who have gone before us.

8 Qualities of a Minister

Martin Luther, the 16th-century church reformer and theologian who helped spark the Protestant Reformation, listed eight qualities that a minister must have:

• Able to teach systematically
• Eloquence
• A good voice
• A good memory
• Knows how to make an end
• Sure of his doctrine
• Willing to venture body and blood, wealth and honor in the work
• Suffers himself to be mocked and jeered by everyone

3 Indications of a Call

John Newton, the 18th-century Anglican clergyman and writer of the famous hymn “Amazing Grace,” noted three indications of a call. First, a call to ministry is accompanied by “a warm and earnest desire to be employed in this service.” Second, a call to ministry is accompanied by “some competent sufficiency as to gifts, knowledge, and utterance.” And third, a call to ministry is accompanied by “a correspondent opening in Providence, by a gradual train of circumstances pointing out the means, the time, the place, of actually entering upon the work.”

Is Ministry Your Calling?

George Whitefield, the 18th-century evangelist, gives this advice for those considering a call: “Ask yourselves again and again whether you would preach for Christ if you were sure to lay down your life for so doing? If you fear the displeasure of a man for doing your duty now, assure yourselves you are not yet thus minded.”

Qualifications

Charles Hodge, the 19th-century Reformed theologian, distinguished between intellectual qualifications, spiritual qualifications, and bodily qualifications, all of which must be present in a genuine call.

Robert L. Dabney, another 19th-century Presbyterian theologian, lists these qualifications:

• A healthy and hearty piety
• A fair reputation for holiness of life
• A respectable force of character
• Some Christian experience
• An aptness to teach

Though these men’s perspectives are culturally conditioned, you get the point: Examination is imperative. Confirmation is required. Calling matters.

As you discern God’s call on your life, consider the advice of those who have gone before. In the next three posts, we will look at three areas that I believe are crucial for discerning God’s call on your life: heart confirmation, head confirmation, and skill confirmation.

To be continued.

Vintage Church

In this book, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears discuss the essentials of what it means to be a biblical church. Find out more.

At the recent AMBITION Boot Camp, I sat down with A29 vice president Darrin Patrick to talk about what wisdom he had for church planters and his tips for preaching. I believe he offers some invaluable counsel. Listen. Learn. Tweet.

Darrin Patrick's book Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission will be out this August from Crossway.

How Jesus Made Disciples

Reflections from the book of John on How Jesus Made Disciples.

This is a series on 11 Leadership Lessons from 12 Disciples, based on the recent sermon Jesus Calls the Twelve, on Luke 6:12-16.

Lesson #4: Train the called; do not call the trained

Jesus called his leaders. He didn't get a committee. They didn't take a congregational vote. They didn't do nominations. Jesus called them. Jesus still calls people into ministry. We believe that. Acts 20 says that the Holy Spirit chooses the leaders in the church, he appoints the overseers. So God still picks leaders. Jesus still picks leaders through the indwelling, empowering, calling of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus trained the called. We don't make leaders, God does. We recognize them, and then train them.

Find your calling

Some of you will have a calling, and sometimes your calling will be like mine. Mine was obvious. God spoke to me, "Marry Grace, plant churches, train men, preach the Bible." Okay, that's what I'm doing. For some of you, you'll be reading the Bible, and you'll see something or somebody, and it's all of a sudden like that just leaps out at you, you're like, "That's it. That's what I want to do. That's what I want to give my life to." Or you meet somebody in the Bible, you're like, "I'm like them. I want to do what they're doing. That's what I need to do." That could be your calling. And sometimes it's trial and error, you're like, "I tried that, I'm no good at it. I tried that, I'm no good at it. I tried that. Hey, that actually works. I'm pretty good at that, and I like that. God seems to bless it when I serve in that area."

Calling also can be just that deep-rooted sense of "have to" in your gut. It could be the Holy Spirit. So you say, "I have to help abuse victims. I have to help the poor. I have to help single moms. I have to help kids. I have to help men learn to be fathers." Right, there's something in your gut, and it's there from God. It's the beginning of a calling, and it starts with a real passion. Maybe there are certain things in life, you kind of ebb and flow, and the enthusiasm is hot and cold, but this is something that's consistent.

Delight in the Lord

See, for me, I see it this way: how do you know you're called to something? Well, part of it is God gives you an innate desire. That's why it says in 1 Peter 5, "Don't lead because people made you lead, lead because you desire to, that you want to." That's why Paul says elsewhere, "If anyone desires the office of overseer, it's a noble thing they desire." It's a good thing to have a desire. So I was talking to a new Christian recently and they were unsure about God's calling on their life. "I don't know what God wants me to do. Got all these new decisions to make in life now that I'm a new Christian." And they were very kind of panicked about it, "What do I do?" I said, "Don't worry about God's calling, first worry about God. The Bible says, 'Delight yourself in the Lord, and he'll give you the desires of your heart.'" I said, "Are you enjoying the Lord?" They said, "Yeah, I'm reading my Bible. I'm praying. I'm in a community group and reading good books, and I'm repenting of sin, and I'm seeing the ways that I'm not like Jesus, and my life is changing and yeah, I feel like there's momentum, and I'm really excited about Jesus, and I'm growing." "Great."

This person looked at me and said, "Well, what do I do?" I said, "Do whatever you want." They're like, "What? Do whatever I want?" "Yeah, because if you delight yourself in the Lord, he'll give you the desires of your heart. He'll put desires on your heart, so that God's desires become your desires." Augustine said it this way, "Love God and do whatever you please." I said, "Well, what do you like?" They're like, "Well, I like serving people, and I'm pretty extroverted and, you know, I like welcoming people." "So you want to be a greeter?" "Yeah, I'd love to be a greeter. And I love hospitality and I love getting people together." "So someday you'd like to be a community group leader?" "That'd be great. I'm not ready yet, but maybe I could apprentice and get ready." "Yeah, that'd be a great idea. How does that sound?" "That sounds really fun. Should I do it?" "Do you want to?" "Yeah, well, how do I know if it's God will or my will?" "Well, if you're enjoying the Lord, his will becomes your will. He's glorified, you're satisfied, other people are helped. Everybody wins, that's ministry." It's more about our heart enjoying the Lord, and then we'll want to do what he wants us do.

You need to know this: I like my job. I love to preach and teach the Bible. There are, quite frankly, a lot of things that I get excited about, that I lose excitement for; studying the Bible, teaching the Bible, my whole life, ever since I got saved at age nineteen I've been pretty fired up about that. People ask me all the time, they're like, "How do you study that much?" I like it. It helps. Alright, unlike some jobs, which you're like, "I don't like it," that's hard, and maybe God's called you to a hard job, but when it comes to ministry, particularly for those of you who are volunteering, it's a great opportunity to say, "I want to do something that I like and I'm good at, and helps people and glorifies God, and I just get to pick something that fits." That's all.

Jesus trained the called

Jesus trained the called. These twelve were already part of his ministry, they're already serving. They're already following him. They're already responding to him. They're already submitting to him, so he starts training them. "All right, we're going to teach you guys, open your Bibles, we're going to have some discussion. We're going to run some classes. You're going to do some experiences. We're going to let you go out and pray, cast out a few demons, help the sick. You kids are going to get your feet wet now. It's going to be busy time."

He doesn't call the trained, and this is where ministry's gone wrong in the modern era. Jesus didn't go to where they trained the scribes, or up to the temple where they trained the priests. He didn't go to the equivalent of the Bible college or the seminary and say, "Alright, who's head of the class? Alright, who's Pharisee of the month? I want that kid, that's who I want." He didn't do that, because you can be trained but not called. You can go to school for something that God hasn't asked you to do, and you've got all the credentials, but you don't have any of the courage.

And I'm not against training. I've got a master's degree in theology, and I'm not against seminary or Bible college. We've got a school, Re:Train, we love to train people, but calling precedes training. Has God burdened you for something? Do you want to do it? Will you do it? Great, we'll help you do it. But see, people can help train, but only God can call. If God hasn't called you, we can't call you. Many of you need to be careful. You'll think, "I'm going to go get a degree for ministry." Do ministry, volunteer, check it out. Let us then help train you, and find a slot to get you developed, but it may not be your thing. There was a controversial report some years ago that said that upwards of three-fourths of those who graduate from Bible college and seminary go into ministry and leave within the first five years, never to return. It means they spent years training for something that they're not going to do, why? Because there's a difference between calling the trained into ministry, and training the called for ministry. It starts with a calling.

To be continued.

R.C. Sproul Interviews

Has R.C. Sproul ever been on the internet? What is the biggest upcoming theological battle? Dr. Sproul answers questions like these in this special interview series.

This is a series on 11 Leadership Lessons from 12 Disciples, based on the recent sermon Jesus Calls the Twelve, on Luke 6:12-16.

Lesson #3: Past results often reveal future performance

Jesus looks out across his ministry, and he picks leaders who are already doing stuff. If you've never done anything, something radical could change, but the odds are tomorrow, you're not going to wake up and start doing a lot. If you're not faithful, you're probably not going to be faithful. There's something to be said for consistency, what Eugene Peterson calls, "long obedience in the same direction."

Some people walk into Mars Hill and say, "Okay, I want to do this." "Okay, have you ever done anything?" "Nope." "Okay, then why in the world would we give you this great opportunity? Shouldn't you first do anything? Humbly serve, find something to do, show us that you can show up two weeks in a row, find your pants, you know, just knock a few things off your to-do list, and then we'll talk about making you a leader." Because people walk, in they're like, "I want to be in charge of something." "All right, you can be in charge of you. We're going to start there, and if you nail that, we'll move on, okay?"

But Jesus doesn't just pick people who have never done anything. Some of these guys have run businesses. They're all following him in ministry. They're serving informally. The ministry's grown, now it's time to officialize the leadership, and he picks those who have already performed, they've already done something. You need to know this at Mars Hill, the best way to rise up in leadership is to be getting things done. Become a member, join a community group, lead a community group, lead a worship team, lead a serving team. Move up through deaconship, move up through eldership. Whatever God has for you, you've got to start by doing something. There are a lot of people who walk in, and they're totally fired up for two weeks, and then it's over, you never see them again. Past performance indicates future performance. We want to see somebody who's been doing something before we unleash them to do something else.

To be continued.

Docent Research

Customized research for pastors. High-level exegesis, theological analysis, and cultural research as well as writing assistance. Learn more.

This is a series on 11 Leadership Lessons from 12 Disciples, based on the recent sermon Jesus Calls the Twelve, on Luke 6:12-16.

Lesson #2: Get the men

You're going to see a lot of principles from Jesus' ministry that we incorporate at Mars Hill very gladly. It's not that we don't get the women, but we want to emphasize getting the men. In Christianity today, 60 percent of those who attend church are women. Eleven to thirteen million more women in church than men. Say, "Praise God," the ladies love Jesus. Where are the men? What are they doing? Bad things, usually. And so what Jesus does, he goes after the men, he gets the men. He gets the men first. He looks across the hundreds, thousands who are following him in ministry, coming to hear him teach, part of the come-and-see ministry, and he chooses twelve, all men.

Why men?

Senior leadership is reserved for men. Let me explain this, many of you will disagree with this. Read your Bible! 1 Timothy 2, 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1; it's in On Church Leadership, it's in the book Vintage Church. I write this stuff down, trying to make it clear, but Jesus is consistent with the Old Testament, where the highest spiritual authority were the priests. They were male descendants of Aaron, that was a requirement.

Jesus comes along, picks senior leaders, twelve apostles, twelve men. Some say, "Oh, well, Jesus really wanted women in leadership, and he had women in his ministry." He did have women in his ministry. He did have women who were friends of his. He did have women that he taught. He did have women that served alongside of him, but he didn't appoint any of them to apostle. If he wanted to revolutionize things, that's all he needed to do and he didn't, and he didn't make a mistake, because he spent the whole night in prayer. He did exactly what the Father wanted him to do, and then that sets up the precedent for the New Testament church where the elders or pastors (those words are used synonymously in places like 1 Peter 5 and Acts 20) are men.

So Old Testament, New Testament, ministry of Jesus, beginning to end, senior leaders only, always men, authors of all books of the Bible, men. It doesn't mean that women aren't gifted in leadership, can't teach and use their gifts, they just cannot do so in that office. The office of deacon, however, is open for men and women.

Why only men should be pastors

Back to the story, Jesus picks twelve men. There are reasons that we have this position, and it's not because we like all the criticism and controversy. It's not like I woke up one day and I was like, "I would like to get whacked like a piñata. I know what will do it, male pastors, that will do it. That will ensure that I get criticized until I die. I'm going to go with that because it's a shortcut to getting beat like a piñata." I didn't pick that position. God wrote that position in the Bible, so we hold to that position, and it's a position that, quite frankly, is the position that Jesus operated by. He wasn't scared of anyone. He didn't mind breaking social taboos. He did increase great liberation for women, but he didn't appoint any of them as apostles.

My daughter recently asked me about this. She's in junior high, smart gal, real sharp, good student, good theologian, good writer. She's a great gal, love her, we're real close. She said, "Dad, I don't believe a woman should be a pastor, but some of the friends that I have in school do, and we were talking about that. And if you had to pick one section of the Bible to explain where it says that a woman can't be a pastor, where would you go?" Good question, we're sitting there I said, "Okay, grab your Bible, babe. Go to 1 Timothy 2. 'I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man.'" She says, "Well, that's pretty clear." "Yeah, I know. Keep reading, next chapter, 1 Timothy 3, what does it say?" "'An elder must be above reproach, the husband of one wife.'" She said, "Well, that's crazy, that's obvious." To some, it is. She said, "Dad, then how could they get that to say something that it's not?" I said, "Honey, they're wrong." She said, "So the churches that have women pastors are wrong?" I said, "Yeah, they're wrong. They're Christians, and they can love Jesus, and we can be friends with them, and we can work with them for evangelism and good things, and we can try to be on good terms, and they're wrong. They would say there's things that we're wrong about, and maybe there are. We need to humbly listen to them, and go back to the Bible, and see if there's anything we need to clean up and work on and fix, because nobody's perfect except for Jesus. Everybody's got something to learn."

Get the men

So our position at Mars Hill is that the Bible's clear on this. Old Testament, New Testament, ministry of Jesus, the appointing of the twelve, all qualified, competent, capable, courageous, Christ-like men. So get the men. We go after the men at Mars Hill, we just do. A little more than half of our attendance is men. The biggest group at Mars Hill is single men, the least likely people on earth to go to church.

To be continued.

Holy Spirit E-Book

This free e-book provides an introduction to the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. Includes discussion questions for each chapter. Get it here.

This is a series on 11 Leadership Lessons from 12 Disciples, based on the recent sermon Jesus Calls the Twelve, on Luke 6:12-16.

Lesson #1: Pray humbly then proceed boldly

Before choosing the twelve, what does Jesus do? Luke 6 tells us, he spent a whole night in prayer (Luke 6:12). Silence and solitude: today this would be shut off the phone, shut down the computer, stop Twittering, Facebooking, blogging. Shut it all down. Don't ask everybody, "What do you think I should do?" Don't post it on your wall, "Everybody, give me your advice."

Just shut it all down, go get with God, silence and solitude. Bring a pen, paper, a Bible, get some time with God, and talk to him. "All right, Lord, I've got an important decision to make. I'm here humbly requesting you help me. Speak to me through Scriptures, the Holy Spirit, conscience. Help me know what to do." This is exceedingly important, because we live in a world where hurry, worry, and busy dominate. No time for solitude, no time for silence. And so rather than going to God, we sometimes even go to technology to ask everybody else, "What should I do? Give me advice. Give me feedback." And that's not always evil or bad, but Jesus' example is: start with prayer. Life, ministry, and major decisions have to be bathed and birthed in prayer. That's the way it works.

And it says previously in Luke that Jesus has done this before, so this is a fairly common occurrence for him. He's got to choose twelve apostles, that's a big deal, so he's going to spend a whole night in prayer, looking across all those who are following him, and coming to hear him preach and teach. "Father, what about this one? What about that guy? What about this person? What about that one? Judas, you sure? We need to talk about that guy, not so sure I want him on the team."

So when you declare, "I'm going to be a member of this church. I want to serve in this ministry, paid or unpaid. I want to marry this person. I want go want to this college. I want to get this degree. I want to do this career. I want to live in this house. I want to take on this responsibility. We're going to birth these children." Before you make those big decisions, "We're going to deploy these leaders," pray, because what happens is most people pray after they've made the decision. Like, "Oh no, Lord, help, fix it. Whoops." God is a gracious God, and he can and does often show up and help, but it's so much better to seek God before making the decision, and the resulting devastation.

Proceed boldly

And once you pray humbly, and you get time with God, okay, "God, this is who I am. This is what you want me to do. This is the decision I need to make," then you could proceed boldly. "No, this is what I need to do. The Bible says, I got time with the Lord, and then I double-checked with spiritual authority and godly people to make sure that I actually heard the Lord, not the voice in my head. And yeah, I have conviction here. I have a sense of calling, and I know what I'm supposed to do, so I'm going to do it."

Those who pray humbly can proceed boldly. Those who do not pray humbly have a hard time proceeding boldly. It gets hard. There's opposition, life, ministry gets difficult. And all of a sudden you're like, "Am I doing the right thing? Should I have even started this? Should I have volunteered for this ministry? Should I be pursuing this life course? I don't know, maybe I made a mistake." Crisis ensues.

Grace and I, before we launched Mars Hill, and before we even announced that we officially would, we felt called to it. God had called us both to it, but we took some time, a week in fasting and prayer just to double-check. "Okay Lord, double-checking, is this it? You want us to start Mars Hill or not? Yes, okay, cool. We're in this together, and we're going to do it." And there's been some hard seasons, tough seasons, but we know this is what God asked us to do. Also, I prayed a lot before I married Grace, and God convicted me, revealed to me, "Yeah, marry that girl." Okay. Every marriage hits hard spots, every life hits hard spots, every career hits hard spots, every ministry, paid or unpaid, hits hard spots, and when you've prayed humbly, you can proceed boldly saying, "I'm going to hang in there, I'm going to keep going because I know this is what I'm supposed to do, and I trust God to get me through it."

To be continued.

Vintage Church Team Study Pack

Designed for church leadership teams. Includes study guides and DVD curriculum. Check it out.

This series is based on the recent sermon Jesus Calls the Twelve, on Luke 6:12-16.

In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor (Luke 6:12–16).

From "Come and See" to "Go and Die"

Thus far in Luke's Gospel, Jesus' ministry has mainly been about come and see. Crowds have come to see him preach, teach, perform miracles, cast out demons, heal, and help those who are suffering and needy. In Luke 6:12–16, Jesus calls his twelve disciples to transition from "come and see" to "go and die." And this is incredibly important. These men's lives will change, and history will change with it.

We praise God for the come-and-see opportunities. We like to give things away online. We like to invite people to church services. We like to invite people to community groups. We like to invite people to events, relationships, formal and informal ministry, and we're all about come and see, come and check it out. Come and hear some Bible, meet some people, see some changed lives, get to know us, and what Jesus is doing.

But at some point, to be a Christian, you've got to transition from "come and see" to "go and die" and that is, you just can't watch other people walk with Jesus; you have to go walk with him. You can't just allow other people to serve you; you need to serve as well. You can't just allow other people to fund ministry, you need to give generously. At some point, the come-and-see season needs to end and the go-and-die season has to begin, and that's exactly what we find at this strategic juncture of Luke's Gospel.

11 Leadership Lessons from 12 Disciples

So we're going to look at Jesus calling the twelve from a come-and-see experience to a go-and-die life. And so from this, we're going to pull out what I'll call "Eleven Leadership Lessons from Twelve Disciples."

We want to have a church that follows the leadership example of Jesus. How did he pick his men? How did he lead his men? How did he train his men? How did he deploy his men? How did Jesus organize his ministry? Because we want to follow in Jesus' example by Jesus' empowerment through the Holy Spirit, and we want to have a church that is patterned after Jesus' ministry. That's what we're all about. We want to see people meet Jesus. We want to see the church grow. We want to start other campuses. We want to start other churches. We want to continue to mature and grow in every way, but most importantly, we want to do that in a way that honors Jesus, obeys Jesus, imitates Jesus. So we'll pull eleven lessons from him selecting his twelve disciples.

In the next series of posts we will see 11 leadership lessons from how Jesus selected his 12 disciples.

Scandalous

In Scandalous, world-renowned theologian D.A. Carson unpacks the meaning of the most scandalous event in history: the death and resurrection of Jesus. Get the book.

9 Leadership Lessons from Baseball: Click | View Series

Lesson 8: Pay for Big-Name, Proven Free Agents As Needed

When all else is said and done, even the best teams have a few holes. To fill them, they have to go outside their current roster and Minor League system to hire a few big-name, proven free agents who are winners. The same is true for any organization and church. Money must be reserved to make a few key hires of this sort. In baseball, it encourages the players that the GM is serious about doing well, and it energizes the fans, who believe great things can happen. In a church, this kind of free agent pickup makes the team better and shows the staff and members that the GM is not settling but rather striving to be as effective as possible.

Lesson 9: Play Ball

The team has to play. They have to take the field, put their agendas and egos aside, show up early, stay late, practice constantly, hustle, work hard, and get the job done. If not, then the organization has to evaluate lessons 1–8 and make changes.

Resurgence RSS Feed

Subscribe to the Resurgence RSS feed and have all our content delivered straight to your feed reader. Find out more.