Equipping the saints, enlarging the sphere of ministry, and ensuring faithfulness for years to come

EQUIPPING THE SAINTS, ENLARGING THE SPHERE OF MINISTRY, AND ENSURING FAITHFULNESS FOR YEARS TO COME

Part 1: by Pastor Brian Wilbur

Part 2: by Doug Wilbur

Date: October 15, 2023

Series: Special Occasions

Note: Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

PART 1 (by Brian Wilbur)

Introduction

I have titled this sermon “Equipping the Saints, Enlarging the Sphere of Ministry, and Ensuring Faithfulness for Years to Come”. That is a rather lengthy title, but it highlights three key ideas that are inter-related with the concept of training leaders. Equipping the saints: we want all of God’s people to be outfitted with God’s words and God’s armor so that they can faithfully fight the battle on their part of the battlefield. Enlarging the sphere of ministry: we want more and more people to competently handle God’s Word and fruitfully use their spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ. Ensuring faithfulness for years to come: we want an increasing number of faithful stewards, from different generations and different stations in life, to together bear responsibility for keeping South Paris Baptist Church on track and setting trajectories that will serve our congregants well in the year 2050 and beyond.

A few days ago, when I was meeting with Grayson, I pulled out an old copy of the Bible and read several quotations from it. Many years ago I had written a number of insightful quotations on the opening pages of that Bible, and here is one of them: “Ministry without a vision is like a glacier: impressive to look at but not going anywhere.” I don’t remember who said it, though there is a good chance that I heard it during a chapel sermon at Cedarville College back in the late 1990s. But the quotation is instructive: it is not enough to simply be busy at ministry, to have a lot of activity, or to have a lot of programming. What is it for? Why are we doing this? Where are we headed?

The last thing we want is to be stagnant. We don’t want to have a stagnant leadership; we don’t want to have a stagnant ministry. How easy it is for a local church to become stagnant: a relatively small number of people are doing the majority of the work, and that small number of people carry the weight of ministry for twenty-five years, and that small number of people begin to get old and tired and discouraged, some of them move away, some of them move on, and sooner or later they die. The church had lost its spark fifteen years earlier, and it went through a slow dwindling process, and now they are struggling to keep the doors open. Did it have to be that way? No, it probably didn’t have to be that way. What could that church have done differently?

Well, there are probably several things that they could have or should have done differently, but I’m here to focus on just a few things this morning: equipping, enlarging, and ensuring. A healthy local church must be characterized by a dynamic growth process in which believers are actually growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are growing, learning, pressing on, maturing, bearing good fruit, making an impact – and they are doing it together. There is always joy and energy and strength in doing it together. I have been convinced of the concept and value of synergy for a very long time. When I was a youngster playing tennis in the 1990s, my racquet was called a Prince CTS Synergy DB 26. The concept of synergy that is that two people working together can accomplish more than the sum of what each person can accomplish working alone. I was just reminded of this concept a few weeks ago when I was watching a children’s Bible lesson with my kids. We learned that a single horse can pull up to 8,000 pounds. This means that two horses working independently and separately could pull up to 16,000 pounds. But here’s the thing: two horses working together to pull the same load can pull up to 24,000 pounds. That is synergy in action! In terms of biblical instruction, the whole congregation is to be actively involved in the growth process:

“… speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:15-16)

So, the whole body of believers is involved in the synergistic activity of spiritual growth and mutual edification. This synergistic teamwork is also supposed to be reflected in how we practice leadership. Jesus sent out the twelve apostles and the seventy-two disciples in pairs, two by two. In the early pages of the Book of Acts, we see Peter and John working together. Later in the Book of Acts, the ministry of Paul is characterized by teamwork. Paul had an extensive team of co-laborers whom he valued, and with whom he worked. In fact, I’m going to jump into the middle of Acts in order to show you a few things related to teamwork and team expansion – in other words, expanding the team or making the team larger.

Teamwork and Team Expansion in Acts 8-16

There is a significant line of thought that runs from the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts 7:54-60 to the addition of Timothy onto Paul’s ministry team in Acts 16:3.

Paul, still an unbeliever at the end of Acts 7/beginning of Acts 8 approved of Stephen’s execution (Acts 8:1). At that time, “a great persecution [arose] against the church in Jerusalem” (Acts 8:1), and believers were scattered throughout the region. Paul spearheaded the persecution, “ravaging the church” and hauling believers off to prison (Acts 8:3).

In Acts 9, the sovereign Lord gloriously interrupted Paul’s life, threw Paul off his sinful course, and drew Paul into the riches of salvation. Paul the violent persecutor became Paul the faithful preacher.

In Acts 11, some of the believers, who were scattered by the persecution that had started back in Acts 8, “traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch”, and there they evangelized the Jews (Acts 8:19). Some of these scattered believers also evangelized the Gentiles (Acts 8:20). We don’t know the names of these scattered believers, and that itself is worth noting. We know the names of the apostles. We know the names of other preachers like Stephen and Philip and Barnabas. But these other unnamed and probably ordinary believers were competent in proclaiming the gospel and they were instrumental in birthing a new local church in Antioch: “And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.” (Acts 8:21) But this raises a practical question: who is going to teach this new group of disciples in Antioch? Well, the church in Jerusalem heard about what happened in Antioch, “and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.” (Acts 8:22) Barnabas rejoiced in God’s work in Antioch and exhorted the new disciples to press on in their walk with the Lord (Acts 8:23). At the same time, more and more people kept coming to know the Lord (Acts 8:24). Now at this point Barnabas realized that he needed help. Barnabas did not desire to be a one-man show. Instead, he desired that the Antioch congregation receive faithful instruction, and he wanted a co-worker to help him in the task: “So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul [=Paul], and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.” (Acts 11:25-26) Barnabas and Paul were basically a missionary pastor team that solidified and strengthened the Antioch believers through faithful instruction.

A little time passes, and by the time we get to Acts 13, something beautiful has happened: there are no longer two leaders watching over the Antioch congregation; now there are five leaders: “Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul [=Paul]. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” (Acts 13:1-3) I would simply like to make an observation about the dynamic and growth we see from Acts 11:23 to Acts 13:3. If Barnabas had remained the sole leader-teacher of the Antioch congregation, and no other leaders had been brought in or raised up or identified or equipped or given space to grow and exercise their gifts, then the Antioch congregation would have been less mature than it ought to have been and overly dependent on Barnabas. Instead what we see is a trajectory that begins with Barnabas, and then Barnabas successfully brings Paul on board, and then somehow – we don’t know the inner workings of how the other three leaders surfaced – but somehow Simeon, Lucius, and Manaen were identified and came to be associated with Barnabas and Paul as “prophets and teachers” (Acts 13:1). The two-man team Barnabas and Paul had a greater ministry capacity than Barnabas alone. The five-man team Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, and Paul had a greater ministry capacity than the Barnabas and Paul twosome. And this sets the stage for the Holy Spirit to call Barnabas and Paul out of Antioch and onto a missionary journey through Asia Minor. Now this five-man team, basically separated into a three-man team in Antioch and a two-man team on the road, is bearing fruit in multiple locations. Actually Barnabas and Paul also went out as a three-man team for a little while, because they took Mark to assist them.

The missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas is recounted for us in Acts 13-14. It was a fruitful journey. They planted local congregations in Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch in Pisidia (different from their sending church, which was Antioch in Syria), and they “appointed elders for [the disciples] in every church” (Acts 14:23). The principle of a pastoral leadership team, consisting of at least two elders in every church, was honored. Eventually Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch in Syria, shared about their missionary journey, and continued their ministry work with the Antioch congregation.

After participating in and resolving a doctrinal dispute in Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas went separate ways. They had taken Mark with them on their previous journey, but Mark had bailed out for one reason or another, and Paul would not take Mark on his second journey. But Barnabas insisted on taking Mark with them. Their disagreement was very sharp and it didn’t resolve, so Barnabas took Mark and went to Cyprus, and Paul took Silas and headed back to Asia Minor. So now you have three teams: you have the threesome at the Antioch Church, you have Barnabas and Mark, and you have Paul and Silas. Three teams, multiple locations – enlarged ministry capacity. But Paul was always thinking about how to multiply his efforts by growing his own team, and this brings us to Acts 16.

Let’s start our reading in Acts 15:40 – “but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him” (Acts 15:40-16:3a).

Paul added Timothy to his team, and Paul faithfully equipped Timothy to be a fruitful minister in the years that followed, and – as time went on – entrusted significant ministry responsibilities to Timothy. Paul did the same thing with Titus.

Whether you are talking about a missionary team that is ministering in multiple places throughout a region, or whether you are simply talking about a leadership team within the context of a single congregation, the fact of the matter is that a growing team facilitates an enlarged capacity for ministry – and this means more effective ministry to more people: more effective teaching, more effective leading, more effective counseling, more effective training.

We Get to Participate in What God is Doing

It is important to say that we are not in charge of these things. We cannot make true and effective ministry training happen. We cannot manufacture true and effective ministry. If the Lord isn’t equipping, then our equipping efforts are in vain. If the Lord isn’t directing and enlarging our sphere of ministry, then our enlargement efforts are in vain. If the Lord isn’t ensuring faithfulness for years to come, then our efforts to ensure faithfulness for years to come are in vain. Therefore, we must be like Barnabas who was “full of the Holy Spirit and of faith” (Acts 11:24). We must be like Paul, who labored with the Lord’s energy and strength, which the Lord mightily worked within him (Colossians 1:29). We must be like Timothy, who was told to “be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1). Elder-in-training, like every other part of our Christian life and ministry, must be pursued by faith, because fruitfulness depends on the Lord’s grace, the Lord’s strength, and empowerment from the Holy Spirit.

But the Lord gives us the opportunity to participate in what He is doing. The Holy Spirit endows believers with various gifts for use in and through the body of Christ. We want to be good stewards of these gifts. More than that, we want to be good stewards of believers who are being graced and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We want to encourage them. We want to give them opportunities to learn, give them opportunities to grow, give them opportunities to serve, give them opportunities to take a crack at it, give them opportunities to discover, give them opportunities to fail. If you want to kill leadership training, make sure nobody does anything until they do it perfectly to your satisfaction. That mentality destroys the possibility of training and discourages people. Even a mature Timothy was told to be diligent “so that all may see your progress” (1 Timothy 4:15). Even a mature Timothy was told to “[pursue] righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, [and] gentleness.” (1 Timothy 6:11) Every disciple, every ministry leader, every elder-in-training, every pastor needs to grow in knowledge, character, and practical skill. Long before I had much of what might be called pastoral wisdom, I had many opportunities to get my feet wet. In my twenties I had opportunities to teach classes, lead studies, direct and develop ministries, and preach sermons. It was a lot of small-scale short-term stuff, but it was really important to my growth process. Other people gave me the opportunity to cut my teeth as a young man, and I want to give others similar opportunities.

Elder-in-Training at South Paris Baptist Church

When it comes to our elder-in-training program, the first thing to understand is that it’s not really a program. If I had a key verse, it might be the first part of Acts 16:3 – “Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him”. That’s my mindset for our elder-in-training – it is very relational, very conversational, very hands-on, lots of time together. Our first step in elder-in-training was when we brought Alan Johnson and Jon Washburn on board. Jon ended up with too much on his plate and stepped away from it, but Alan has remained with us and he’s really become a practical part of our team – we treat him like an elder and we benefit from his input. When we brought Alan and Jon on board, we did so with the mindset that both of them were substantially already qualified to serve as elders, but we needed time to confirm that and to develop a good working relationship with them and to build relational chemistry with them.

But now we’re doing something new – we’re taking a second step – in bringing Adrian and Aaron on board. With them a multi-year process is envisioned from the very beginning. Both are being mentored – I meet regularly with Adrian to mentor him, and one of our mature men and ministry leaders Tom McGarvey is mentoring Aaron. Initially, Adrian and Aaron will meet with the whole elder team quarterly for a special training night. Both Adrian and Aaron are involved in various ministries within our church, and we want to them to remain in those ministries and develop and grow there. Adrian is accompanying Ben and I to the Workshop on Biblical Exposition next month. Aaron is fast becoming an avid and very self-motivated reader of theological books – part of that is his desire to know the Lord, and part of that is his desire to faithfully shepherd his family. Adrian is engaged to be married to Abby in May, and they are meeting monthly with Charlotta and me as part of their preparation for marriage. Both Adrian and Aaron already demonstrate a heart for the Lord, a heart for Scripture, a heart for people, and a heart for ministry – and that’s the way it ought to be. The elder-in-training initiative is not designed to jumpstart a lethargic man into action. Instead, the elder-in-training initiative is designed to give deliberate direction to a man who is already showing vitality, growth, and promise in his walk with God.

All of this is the result of God’s grace at work among us. When Ben Shaw become an Elder back in 2017, do you know what Aaron and Adrian were up to? At that time, Aaron was dead in his trespasses and sins; he wasn’t a Christian yet. And at that time, Adrian was really struggling in his spiritual walk (read from his testimony in an Oxford Hills Christian Academy newsletter). Aaron and Adrian have become faithful men only by the grace of God – the amazing grace that saves wretches like me. Thus our elder-in-training is fundamentally a response to the gracious work of God in our midst.

I hope that the Elders’ example of making room for others to grow and become a part of our Elder work will further cultivate in our church family a relational culture of teamwork and training, in which there is always room for one more. And if there really does become a point where there are too many of us in the same ministry, then at that point the Holy Spirit might call some of us out of here and into something else, just as He called Barnabas and Paul out of Antioch and into regional missionary work. We just never know where the faithful steps that we take will take us, except we know that He will take us somewhere good.

Hand-off to Part 2 of the Message

In just a moment I’m going to turn the pulpit over to my Dad. My Dad has felt the burden of equipping leaders for the last three decades, and he has pursued it in various ways in local churches in Upstate New York and he has also observed it being done in churches in Quebec. My Dad’s passion to see churches take responsibility to train their own leaders is one reason why I have the same passion. Since he has this passion and since he also closely follows the ministry of South Paris Baptist Church, I really wanted him to be here to celebrate with us today, and I also asked him to come and share some thoughts from 2 Timothy 2:2 and from his experience in Quebec.

PART 2 (by Doug Wilbur)

Introduction

I celebrated my 38^th spiritual birthday just 10 days ago – at that time [when I was born again] I was physically 40 years old. About 8 years later, as I was studying the Scriptures, I came to Ephesians 4:11-12 that states, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ”. And I thought to myself  “I don’t see that being done in any churches” (thought I am sure it was somewhere). We were not training up men to do ministry in the local church - to build up the body of believers in the local church, to disciple men to be pastors, elders, deacons, church planters, evangelists and solid followers of Christ – which by the way I see being done here at South Paris Baptist.  We were not doing a good job of the great commission either of “[making] disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). I did encouraged Ephesians 4 to be practiced in my local church, but for various reasons not much progress was being seen, though during the past 10 years I have seen much fruit with one particular man.

SEMBEQ and 2 Timothy 2:2

About 20 years ago the Lord blessed me by bringing me into contact with the Evangelical Baptist Seminary of Quebec, known as SEMBEQ, and as a result I represented them in the English-speaking world. What drew me to them was that they demonstrated that Ephesians 4 actually worked and was strongly practiced in Quebec Baptist churches. Their primary guiding verse was 2 Timothy 2:2, where Paul was telling his protégé Timothy: “and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” The goal was to teach men the truths of Scripture and make disciples who would themselves make disciples and so on.  It is important to note that this process included more than the learning of Scripture; it also included developing ministry abilities and godly character. Additionally, the process included a mentor for each man to come alongside him to guide, exhort, correct and encourage him with the full support of the local church. This is similar to the vision you have had and are advancing here today at South Paris.

Let me share a few comments on 2 Timothy 2:2 and then a couple of examples I experienced with SEMBEQ. At the end of 1 Timothy, Paul exhorts Timothy to guard the good deposit entrusted to him and in the beginning of 2 Timothy Paul again gives the same exhortation. And here in 2 Timothy 2:2, Paul tells Timothy to take what was entrusted to him (that which he had heard from Paul) and entrust these things to other faithful men who will be able to teach others, with the idea that the process continues until the Lord returns. Now very quickly, Paul does not just say what you have heard from me Timothy, but what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses.  In other words, you can be sure that what you have heard is true and can be trusted. Now, look for some faithful men! How do you do that? First, you must have a significant relationship with them that allows you to determine the extent of their Scriptural and doctrinal understanding and if they are able share it and teach it to others. Secondly, you must have this significant relationship so you can observe how they react in different situations and times. This relationship is best determined within the church family from which you can determine if and when he is ready to pass on the deposit they have been entrusted with.

Two Examples from SEMBEQ

Let me now share two examples from my nearly ten years with SEMBEQ. But first let me remind you that the Province of Quebec was and is somewhat different than South Paris, Maine. When the Baptists began to evangelize Quebec in the 1960s, the believers knew little about the Bible and little about leadership, but they were filled with passion and zeal for the church.  We used to describe this zeal by saying: “they were saved on Friday, wanted to be taught on Saturday, so they could be the pastor on Sunday.” They had to be trained on the job, and a decade or so later the need arose for more formal training and SEMBEQ was established. Not the same situation here, but the principles involved are still valuable.

The first example I would like to share is the critical role and involvement that the local church plays in this process. They generally determine that a particular young or older man would be a good candidate to be trained-up by SEMBEQ for ministry – such as pastor, church planter, evangelist, elder, etc. – and in doing so the church commits to supporting him with prayer, ministry opportunities and encouragement. This man would then be mentored during the process that usually included 2-6 years, depending on his background and goal. This mentor is usually from the church, but he might involve other men who have an expertise in a particular area. The development of Scriptural and doctrinal understanding is the first step in this process, but at the same time there would be the development of ministry opportunities, such as helping the pastor or other ministry leader in what they do, such as visitations, funerals, youth group and organization needs. As the process continued, he would progress to teaching, leading the youth group, preaching, funerals, etc. Additionally, at the same time there would be character development (maybe using the book Disciplines of a Godly Man by Kent Hughes). The man may decide he needs to improve his prayer life. He and his mentor would set up a plan to accomplish this and the man would be accountable to his mentor for progressing through this plan. After the completion of that plan, he might develop a plan, with his mentor, on how to make his marriage more honoring to God and his wife. And so it goes as he becomes more godly in various aspects of his character development. This three-prong process of Scriptural, Ministry and Character development continues until the goal is meant. Sometimes, the man or the mentor may determine that this process is not really what he wants, or is not the right time, and the process will stop. However, let me say that this is not a failure; it is just the Lord’s way of developing us.

The second example is one of the best examples of how the good deposit is passed on. There was this church in Quebec whose senior pastor was being mentored by the President of SEMBEQ. They would meet regularly and go over whatever areas needed to be discussed at that time. As this was happening, the senior pastor was mentoring another man who had become the associate pastor. This associate pastor at the same time was mentoring the youth pastor and the youth pastor was mentoring a man desiring to be a youth pastor. All this was being passed on as each was growing in the various abilities being developed. As the process proceeds each man develops a better understanding of the Scriptures and doctrines, develops ministries more in tune with the passions and gifts the Lord provides, and develops the disciplines of a godly man. In the example above, the senior pastor has become the President of SEMBEQ, and the associate pastor has become the senior pastor. I’m not sure about the other two men, but I am confident they are both involved in ministry.

Final Word of Encouragement

The elder-in-training program you have had in place and are now expanding in South Paris, is set to accomplish many of the same goals as seen in SEMBEQ. In addition, you are practicing Ephesians 4:11-12 significantly – 11 men from your congregation have preached at least once for a total of 33 sermons in 6 years; you have men teaching Sunday school; you have couples teaching the young adults; you have men in the church taking boys along to help them in projects; you have a woman showing girls how to sew; and I am sure there are many more examples demonstrating the application of Ephesians 4:11-12 and 2 Timothy 2:2. Be encouraged as each of you grows more and more into the image of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless you abundantly as you faithfully serve him in your own families, in your church family, and in the community.