In The Holy Spirit in Mission, Gary Tyra writes:
“God’s Spirit has a penchant for using God’s people to accomplish God’s purposes. Furthermore, a primary way the Holy Spirit does this is by prompting Christ’s followers to speak and act toward others on behalf of him, in ways designed to evangelize, edify and equip.”
Vineyard church planters, in all contexts, wisely spend their time sharing the great news about Jesus and the in-breaking of the kingdom, focused on those whom have yet to experience the radical love of God. As these churches develop and begin to grow into communities of Jesus, church planters transition into church leaders and pastors who spend time edifying those whom have come into Jesus’ family. Yet because we believe that God’s people are equally called to God’s mission, church planters/pastors/leaders spend time investing into the lives of Jesus’ disciples so that they too can participate in the continuing work of the Spirit.
At least that’s what should happen!
This triad of missional activity (evangelism, edifying, and equipping), is certainly important to continuing the ministry of king Jesus. Yet I’ve found many new or young pastors and church planters have questions about how much time should be spent on each of these actions. Before I share a few brief thoughts on that question, I want to make a strong statement concerning something I have concern about: if you spend more time printing bulletins or creating Facebook events than you do engaging with God in prayer or interacting with people, please slap yourself.
Okay, now that I’ve got that opinion, extreme as it may be, out of the way, I do want to comment a bit on proportion, or what some might call “time management.” Having spoken to numerous church planters and leaders over the years, what follows are simply some principles to consider. By no means are these suggestions to be viewed as “rules” or “commandments” or “regulations.” Rather, these are simply some observations and opinions on the matter. Church planters and leaders will need to discern whether or not or how these are to be implemented.
(1) Prioritize discipleship. asdfsda
