Importance Of Church Discipline

Nor should they ever be considered the official church superior. No laity member should ever strive for power and control. Laity that exhibit this type of behavior only makes matters worse, and spread discord throughout the church. They typically influence to generate opposition against the pastor to force us out. What is tragic is other layperson in the church allow this to go on. Unfortunately, they are aware that pastors come and go, but this church superior stays forever. Therefore, I must enlist the cooperation of other church board/council members when it is necessary to call a church laity to accountability to establish harmony. Without harmony, I cannot faithfully serve God or mission to the world. When this happens, the body of Christ works against itself. Every pastor and laity of the church must be determined to protect and preserve the harmony of the church of the living God. Nothing is more important than this to the great ministry of God's church. Jesus’ offered leadership with integrity. He confronted error and proclaimed truth in love with the authority of the divine. Through His power, brokenness was transformed to wholeness. God has given pastors today the privilege of using His power to improve the world. We see brokenness, and disharmony all around us. We as pastors should be aware of the power in our hands which is useful to restore and renew those things that have become ruined. In this way, power

The issue of opportunity is a major factor in the sex offenses in Churches. In churches, opportunities for abuse are in activities such as taking children home after an activity or youth group, giving individual attention to a child, and being alone with children in summer camps. These opportunities allow priests to be alone with children without other adults being suspicious or concerned. Another factor in explaining the opportunity for abuse is the power and influence that clergy have. Since in the church, priests or ministers are influential in defining what is right and wrong, they may have the power to show abusive behavior as normal. Children are in a position that church workers can use their authority within the church to persuade a child to comply with sexual acts (Farrell & Taylor 2000). When authority is misused in this way it adds trauma to the abuse. The betrayal of trust involved is enormous, and for some victims it causes the difficulty to trust authority again.

Surely humanity suffers when the function of sex corrupts by representing it as a service or commodity and religion corrupts when it is a matter of dry rituals or abstract doctrines; consequently, underscoring the situation with confusing sex scandals. As a result, sexual misconduct is a major issue in the churches today. Child molestation within the churches reeks of priests being caught-up in lust and unmistakably is a real sign that the brotherhood lacks guidance of the profound reality of the LORD’S sexual identity. Notably, in these past several decades, an enormous amount of priests, along with various other ‘proclaimed’ Christians, predominantly waver with uncertainty, puzzled why they have sexual desires and totally unaware of their Divine sexual heritage. Concurrently, just as the Catholic Church, the Protestant Church also suffers from sex scandals worldwide. Figures released to the Associated Press in 2007, reveals that the numbers of these sex abuse cases appear higher in the Protestant Church than in the Catholic Church. At any rate, the process in obtaining Protestant sex abuse statistics evolves as harder to come by and sketchier because the denominations happen to be less centralized than the Catholic Church. Various Protestant congregations occur independently, making reporting even more difficult.

In this assignment, the writer will attempt to discuss scenario 1. Scenario 1 deals with examining the pastors in the managerial, messianic, and spiritual director roles. Explaining how pastors help people redirect their focus toward the new life God has for them through Jesus Christ and seeing the role of the Spirit through the eyes of Jesus.

As missional leader, my task is to help my congregation, synod, and church wide to understand the need for adaptive leadership if we are to be vital and thriving hubs for missional outreach in the world. Additionally, I must motivate parishioners and lay leaders to be agents of change; not to be agents of status quo. Additionally, my goal allow the Spirit to transform my congregations from an inward focus of maintenance to an outward focus of mission and to invite my congregation to be agents of adaptive leadership and transformation beyond their comfort zones of homogeneity in their current community context. In other words, my assignment is to help my congregation to understand that the task of the church is to be the church. I must show them the importance of evangelism and outreach, but our doing is important must be married with our being the church. I must help my

Often, pastors think within the four walls of the church, and rightfully so, when they look at their ministry. However, getting involved in community events, i.e., city commission meetings, business leaders, local stores, and business, etc., are important to change the culture around the church. Trull and Carter

We need to be with people where they are without the need to ‘fix’ them, rather, trusting God to do what He is doing in their lives, hoping that He uses me as part of the process. I know that I will be learning and growing with those whom God sends me.” Pastor Renfro was then asked how has he evolved or grown as a servant leader. He responded, “Each of us follows a circuitous, sometimes difficult pathway in ministry, we learn, we grow, we become more aware of ourselves as people and as ministers. I am a country preacher, and although I have a wealth of formal education and training, I continue to grow and evolve daily, as a person, and as a minister.” Renfro continues, “the most difficult thing to overcome is our own tendency to be ostentatious - a lack of genuineness and openness; you need to go deep in faith and in ministry; my own history, as a country preacher, took a great deal of energy to integrate and allow this to be my greatest strength.” When asked what he believed are the advantages/disadvantages of being a servant leader, Renfro responded, “a strength and advantage would be to possess a non-judgmental presence, to allow people to be the who, what, and where they need to be in our encounters; the disadvantage in that is some people might consider this position as too indeterminate, lacking in absolutes.” Renfro commented on the partnerships he has forged in his life of servant leadership, starting with being a Clinical Pastor Supervisor (certified to teach at the graduate level), a Diplomate of the College of Pastoral Supervision, a nationally certified Professional Chaplain by the Association of Professional Chaplains, and also an Ordained Bishop in the Church of

This paper is the final results of my internship ministry practicum II experiences reflection in my church organization work settings and training. My experiences from different areas of exposure sharpened my skills for my professional role of the Doctor of Ministry Program in the theological field of counseling and teaching. My ministry practicum consists of direct involvements with hands-on, real-life interactions under the supervision of my Supervisor, Chaplain Andrea Fletcher. This Comprehensive Written Review analyzes the full spectrum of my observation and participation in tasks from my Ministry Learning Agreement Form. The opportunity allowed me to view other leaders in ministry exercising their gift and in turns

Pastors being responsible people being called to obedience in exclusive allegiance to God- the responsible man who tries to make

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Mathew 19:14 highlights Jesus’ love of children and His desire that they be able to come to Him unhindered. Unfortunately, with many children attending public schools where there is a general intolerance of all things Christianity, it is becoming more and more important that both families and churches are able to fill this gap. Enter Christ Church at Grove Farm’s Kid’s Ministry. CCGF offers Sunday School, Sunday Morning Childcare and Awana weekly, as well as Summer Day Camp once a year. This ministry is headed up by the family ministry pastor* followed by the director*, associate director*, employee*, child care staff, and volunteers. Every summer CCGF also hires one summer intern to assist in the planning and running of their Summer Day Camp. Although CCGF has been able to accomplish a great deal considering how shortly staffed they are, there are still many problems largely in the inner-workings of leadership that need to be improved in order for the ministry to better succeed. Christ Church’s Kid’s Ministry would improve with better communication, specifically in the areas of conflict and clarity, recognizing employee’s level of competence and placing them in an area where they can best use their abilities, and by focusing more on collaborating with parents. This paper will specifically document the ways in which these changes could be made in hopes of

Christ is the leader of the Church, Paul in Ephesians 1:22 said “God placed everything under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the Church” however, God entrusted the authority to lead to his servant whom he set them aside to lead the community. Pastor as a public Leadership is to lead community. A person who is called by God to lead public has a responsibility to be in the community, with the community and for the community. One of best questions raised in the class during public leadership discussion was “How we can be a community pastor rather than just a church pastor?” This really a kind of question we are to consider as pastor especially as rural congregation pastor. In most cases when pastor are called to

John Jay College Research Team. (2004). The nature and scope of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests and deacons in the United States, 1950-2002. Washington, DC: United States Confer-ence of Catholic Bishops.

The New Testament leaders are an example of how church leaders of today should also behave and work[8]. They ought to be able to teach, guide the believers in the way of God and nurture their spiritual gifts. The New Testament leaders had to boldly defend the word of God in case of any false teaching. Basing on this New Testament leadership, it is important to make sure that any believer appointed to the leadership office has the laid down qualifications[9].

Gilbert Bilezikian gives four areas that need to be addressed when administering the church here on earth, 1. A shared faith, 2. A share purpose, 3. A shared lifestyle and 4. A shared authority (Bilezikian, 1993, p. 195-197). A shared faith is noted in Ephesians 4:5 where God’s people are told to have “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (NIV). Gilbert tells his readers, “every church needs to formuloate clearly its understanding of the Christian faith” ( (Bilezikian, 1993, p. 195). With this written statement everyone within the church will have a common ground from which to govern, with all people knowing what the belief of that church is.

In brief order, the role of a pastor or leader is to be a servant leader. The Bible provides pastors and leaders in a Christian church with the best model of a servant leader in Jesus Christ. According to Thorsten Grahn (2011), “Jesus submitted his own life to sacrificial service under the will of (Luke 22:42), and he sacrificed his life freely out of service for others (John 10:30). He came to serve (Matthew 20:28) although he was God’s son and was thus more powerful than any other leader in the world. He healed the sick (Mark 7:31-37), drove out demons (Mark 5:1-20), was recognized as Teacher and Lord (John 13:13), and had power over the wind and the sea and even over death (Mark 4:35-41; Matthew 9:18-26. In John 13:1-17 Jesus gives … responsibility of the house-servant” (Grahn, 2011, p. 2).