Netcast Identity: Responsibility of Leadership

Series: Netcast Identity
Title: Responsibility of Leadership
Text: 1 Peter 5:1-3; Ephesians 4:11-16

Over the past few weeks we have begun to look at "The Church" and how Netcast Church fits into the picture of God's global bride. Thus far we have come to see that the mission of God is to glorify His name through making disciples of Jesus Christ. Because of that, Netcast has concluded that we will bring glory to Jesus by cultivating gospel-centered, worshipful communities. In order to do this, we will have to be very clear about our roles and responsibilities to each other within the body. In other words, what is the role and responsibility of the leadership at Netcast Church, and what is the responsibility that we all have as individuals towards Netcast Church.

In 1st Peter 5, the leaders of a church have a clear call to shepherd the flock that God calls us to and exercise oversight. Therefore at Netcast, the leaderships primary responsibility is to feed, lead, protect and organize the church. We feed through the word of God, we lead through example, we protect from wolves and heresy, and we organize through assimilation in order to see disciples made.

A big philosophical question that we have to ask next is, "What is the relationship between the leadership at Netcast and the people at Netcast?" Author Greg Ogden writes in his book The New Reformation; “A congregation tends to assimilate the personality, stance and approach of its pastor, and reflect that identity as a mirror image.” For example; If the pastor is a scholar. the church will become full of learners and students. If the pastor is a social activist, the church will become justice enforcers. Is the pastor is very fatherly, the church will often times become like dependent children. So, how does that play out at Netcast?

The leadership at Netcast views our relationship to the body as equippers. Leaders at Netcast are determined to equip the body with the tools necessary to take their God given abilities and leverage them for the advancement of the gospel. Ephesians 4 says "equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ" In other words, the role of the pastor is to humbly equip and inspire a body of people to live into what Christ calls you: A missionary.