ministry leadership – summary

Ministry Leadership is the exercise of serving people as Christ served, with humility- doing nothing out of vain conceit but living an ‘other-centered’ life.  Ministry leadership is the exercise of serving people as Christ served, with integrity- expressed in a resurrection life reborn through the recreating work of the Holy Spirit.  Ministry leadership is the exercise of serving people as Christ served, with love- for everyone (including neighbors and enemies) by caring for needs, protecting against injustice and laying down one’s life as demonstrated by Christ.

Ministry leadership is also the exercise of equipping people intentionally as commissioned by Jesus to make disciples of all nations by baptizing and teaching people through out all of the world to obey all of Jesus’ commands.  Ministry leadership is the exercise of equipping people through a process designed to route multiple people from a life characterized by sinful patters to a life clothed with the character of Christ.  This missional formation process moves people who were once disengaged from Christ and compels them towards a life rooted in Christ’s love and impassioned to share his love with the world.

Ministry leadership is also an exercise that happens within a community through a team-based approach which is established in its theology in accordance with Scripture and the timeless truths of the ancient Christian creeds.  Ministry leadership is an exercise which is organic in nature so that growth and nurturing raises people from within to reproduce further generations.  Likewise, ministry leadership is an exercise which is flexible in its structure in order to encourage fresh initiatives of ministry and to be prepared for the unique situations that present themselves in the course of ministry work.  Finally, ministry leadership is an exercise that is cooperative in its orchestration by emphasizing plurality of supervision and mutuality of purpose.

The exercise of ministry leadership serves and equips others within a community in such a way that those people live for Jesus more passionately through spiritual disciplines such as devotion to prayer, experience in serving others and expression of adoration for God.  Those people also live for Jesus sacrificially through Christ-likeness in obedience to God in the embrace of God’s grace.  Those people live for Jesus as Christ’s witnesses empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the life-changing message of the cross.

The exercise of ministry leadership serves and equips others within a community in such a way that those people love others more missionally with God’s heart to enter into and save the world.  Those people love others incarnationally as well, through hands-on practical care for the people of the world and for creation itself.  Those people love others as Christ’s body on earth for the sake of others.

The exercise of ministry leadership serves and equips others within a community in such a way that those people catalyze a movement of Jesus followers in this world known as the church- an alternate community embodying the eternal hope offered by Jesus Christ through his death and resurrection.  The church seeks opportunities to draw others to God through Christ-like action, Christ-like teaching, and Christ-like love.  The church also invites those who hunger spiritually to participate in relationship with Jesus through the initiation rite of baptism and the fellowship of communion in a network of cell groups.

The exercise of ministry leadership serves and equips others within a community in such a way that those people practice the movement together through a worship-immersed identity and a Word-breathed environment that integrates faith and life together as they were created to be and are now restored through Jesus.