Church Planting... A Great Joy!

As I sit down and begin to think about the journey that the Lord has brought me through over the last few years, it is hard to stay seated. Reflection for me brings about a desire to run around my house like a crazy man screaming the praises of God. There's no doubt that ministry is one of the hardest adventures anybody can ever endeavor themselves in. Interestingly enough, it is also by far the most honorable and rewarding work imaginable.

There's nothing more difficult than trying to deal with the unbalances that come with church planting. The random phone calls, the untimely meetings that are necessary, the family needs, the financial stresses and the burning desire to fulfill what God has called you too. All of those things have the ability to bring upon great amounts of stress. Yet the rewards of seeing just one person having their life absolutely transformed by the grace found in the Gospel of Jesus, trumps any amount of difficulties.

This past weekend I had the privilege of baptizing 11 people in our service, as the rest of Netcast sang loudly their praises to our King. Some of those baptized were very close friends of mine, while others I didn't really know well. Nonetheless, the beauty and power that is found in a life transformed by Jesus continues to fascinate me. When service ended, I rushed into the city of Boston and performed a wedding for two friends of mine, which was beautiful. It was small, intimate and fun. In addition to that, I was able to walk this couple through pre-marital counseling and saw incredible growth in their relationship and walk with Jesus over the past few months.

When I eventually came home that night and laid down in my bed, absolutely exhausted, it occurred to me that in the course 10 hours I witnessed 11 people outwardly demonstrate their identification with Christ in his death burial and resurrection and then I visibly witnessed two people becoming one flesh through the covenant of marriage.

 Honestly, can you think of anything in all of the world that you would rather be doing? I feel like I am literally living a dream.

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.