The Master Plan.

Even Jesus had a plan.

Today I want to go down a slightly different path to the one I normally go on, instead of taking about church leadership and church growth, I am thinking more at the foundational level. I do this because of my experience this last week of seeing with great frustration small churches continuing to struggle in the spiral of irrelevance. If Jesus is the starting point and the church is built on the foundations laid down by the Apostles and Prophets then I need to start at the beginning. I need to think about the Vision, action plan and the non negotiable values that Jesus taught and believed. If I teach that every great church leader needs these things in order to lead their church forward, then the question I ask myself is, did my Lord and Saviour teach practice and lead others in these things? Did the early church follow in His example? Let us ask ourselves four questions: Did Jesus and the Book of Acts church have a vision? Did Jesus and the Book of Acts church have an action plan? What were Jesus’ and the Early churches’ non negotiable values? And are these same questions relevant for today’s leaders? I won’t go into great detail on every point, believe me when I tell you this is an intensive and very exciting study.

The Vision Jesus and the Acts church.

If I had to put the vision for the world that Jesus/God had in today’s language, then I would put it this way;

                “To reach out to a lost and broken world and to restore its relationship with its creator.”

The moment that the world sinned God put into motion His plan for redemption that would result in His son, reaching out and sacrificing his life, so that a lost and broken world could once again through Him, have a restored relationship with their creator.

For the Book of Acts church their vision was to do what Jesus told them to do;

                “Go into the whole world and make disciples (followers of Jesus) of all mankind”

We can see from the opening chapters of the Book of Acts right through to the last verse that this was certainly the vision that the early church followed.

The Action plans.

How did Jesus- in bodily form, plan to put the vision into action? Luke 4: 18-30 tells the story of Jesus laying down what would be his action plan. Preach the good news, proclaim freedom, heal the blind release the oppressed and also take the message to the whole world.

We see throughout His ministry that he did preach the good news of the gospel; he did proclaim freedom from oppressive religious rules and regulations; He healed people of both physical and spiritual blindness and he released those bound by demonic, physical and spiritual imprisonment. In other words he did exactly what he said he would do.

It stands to reason that Luke who was one of those that recorded the events of Jesus’ life show that the early church followed with the same action plan that Jesus had. On the day of Pentecost the preached and thousands were saved. Blind men saw and lame people were healed. Those bound by demons were set free. Those in prison, both literally and spiritually were released. In other words with the help of the Holy Spirit they did what Jesus told them to do.

The non negotiable values of Jesus and the Acts church.

These I think can be found in Matthew chapter 5, 6 and 7. They are commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount but Jesus was teaching his disciples on the things they needed to believe and the things they needed to practice. Here is a list and short explanation of each of them:

1)      Let your life be a demonstration of who you are and what you believe. Jesus was sent by God, his own people rejected him. He always stayed true to his purpose. The Acts church believed in what they were doing, they had a mandate from the messiah.

2)      Get your priorities right, put God first in all that you say and do. It is not about rituals or religious organisations it’s about putting God first.

3)      Make sure your life reflects what you believe and what you practice. If your heart is not right then you are doing it out of wrong motive.

4)      Avoid sexual sin.

5)      Be circumspect in what you say, let your yes be yes and your no be no. If you are decisive and honest with people they will trust and respect you.

6)      Listen and take that extra bit of time with people. Sometimes people just need someone to listen to them and for those who have nothing to be given from your excess.

7)      Be generous with everything you have. Remember your reward is not in this world. Make money work for you, don’t become a slave to it.

8)      Grow spiritually, in prayer and fasting and the word. This builds the spirit and brings us closer to God.

9)      Continue to do what we are asked and God will provide all our needs. When you get your priorities right then God meets us just where we are.

10)   Other people are just as important as you. Treat people in the same way as you would want to be treated. Learn to see people in the same way that God sees them.

11)   Keep persevering. Things will get tough but God will always come through for you.

12)   Stay away from things that could lead you astray. Stay focused on him.

13)   Do everything out of pure motive. What we sew we reap, if we put good things into others we get a great return.

14)   When doing life with people always use the right building materials and build in the right place. Be in God’s purpose and God’s plan.

Above, is what I believe was the vision, action plan and non negotiable values that both Jesus and the Acts church practisced.

I am passionate about “the Church,” it is His bride, His representation here in this sinful world. It is God’s plan A, initiated through the sacrifice of His son Jesus, He doesn’t have a plan B. It is our responsibility to build His Church. I am also passionate about pastors and church leaders getting it right. It is vital that they have a vision to move their churches forward and on which to anchor the churches focus. They need an action plan on how to achieve and outwork the vision- both in the short term and the long term. They also need to have a set of values that they are not prepared to compromise on. I am also passionate about helping pastors and church leaders accomplish these things, because far too often they fall down because they lack the ability to achieve anything but the

 Basics.

WE all fail, we get it wrong and we stuff up from time to time. But when we are sick we call for a doctor. When a student doesn’t know or cannot work out the answer they seek help from the lecturer. Sick people don’t get help from sick people or students from younger less experienced students. When a business is going through hard times the management get help from consultants, consultants who have no axe to grind or ulterior motive, they just want to help and work through the issues and problems and if necessary  help create something new and vibrant. Why is it then when churches get sick small church pastors don’t get church consultants in to help them through the issues and problems that they are facing? They get people who are going through the same sort of stuff to help, or they get someone with a religious or denominational axe to grind. The answer is simple, Pride.