1.Classis Anywhere
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Living our Ephesians 4 Calling
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Transforming Lives and Communities
2.Classis' Vision
Classis is a community of Christian Reformed Churches who live and minister together, in Christ, to transform lives and communities.
Transforming Lives and Communities
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3.Defining transformed Communities by Servant Partners
Build Jesus-following communities
Looking for the civic good
Committed to life-long learning
Economic sufficiency
Focus on spiritual and psychological freedom
Developing strong families
Committed to health for all
Addressing power so all systems work well
Transforming Lives and Communities
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4.From Classis to your congregation
Reflection & Table Talk
- What are the three things that take most of your elders’ time?
-What are the the three things that take most of your deacons’ time?
Transforming Lives and Communities
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5.From Classis to your congregation
Reflection & Table Talk
- What would your elders like to do more of? Why?
- What would your deacons like to do more of? Why?
Transforming Lives and Communities
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6.Leadership Shift
Rethinking our Roles
&
Priorities
as office bearers
Transforming Lives and Communities
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7.Biblical Pattern Ephesians 4:11-16
(see Ephesians 2.8-10)
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…”
(Ephesians 4 esv)
The Christian Reformed Church, confessing its complete subjection to the Word of God and the Reformed creeds as a true interpretation of this Word, acknowledging Christ as the only head of his church, and desiring to honor the apostolic injunction that office bearers are “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Eph. 4:12), and to do so “in a fitting and orderly way”
Article 1 CRCNA Church Order
8.Leadership/Pastor Centric Model
(care)
Leadership/Pastor
Transforming Lives and Communities
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9.Pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16 (see Ephesians 2.8-10)
Justice
Mercy
Care
Evangelism
leadership-pastor
church members
Community
Justice
Mercy
Care
Evangelism
build up body
equip the body
Transforming Lives and Communities
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10.Pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16
(see Ephesians 2.8-10)
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…”
(Ephesians 4 esv)
Each church shall minister to its adult members so as to increase their knowledge of the Lord Jesus, to nurture a mature faith in Christ, to encourage and sustain them in the fellowship of believers, and to equip them to fulfill their calling in the church and in the world.
Article 64 a
11.Thinking and Reflecting on this Leadership Shift
Congregational Level
Transforming Lives and Communities
Reflection & Table Talk
What are three urgent needs in your congregation?
2. What are three urgent needs in your church’s
neighborhood?
3. What are three urgent needs in the
world?
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12.Thinking and Reflecting on this Leadership Shift
Transforming Lives and Communities
Reflection & Table Talk
How much time does your council have to deal with these
needs so that lives and communities are transformed?
What are the limitations that your council would face in taking
on these needs so lives and communities are transformed?
What can you pull off on your own (as a council) in meeting
these needs?
13.Leading Change
Leadership—Why Urgency is First
Transforming Lives and Communities
14.Urgency
Urgent behavior is not driven by a belief that all is is well or that everything is a mess, instead, that the world contains great opportunities and great hazards.
Transforming Lives and Communities
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15.Leadership Shift
Step 2 - Know your Culture
Pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16
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Transforming Lives and Communities
16.Leadership Shift
Pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16
Transforming Lives and Communities
The council shall be responsible to develop a vision and provide training and leadership to equip the church to fulfill her unique evangelistic and diaconal calling. Churches are encouraged to work with neighboring churches, appropriate community resources, classical and denominational resources, and other gifts the Lord has provided to help accomplish her task.
Article 74 b
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17.Leadership Shift
Pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16
Transforming Lives and Communities
- Develop a vision
Provide training
Provide leadership
to equip the church to fulfill her unique
evangelistic &
diaconal calling.
Article 74 b
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18.Thinking and Reflecting on this Leadership Shift - God’s Colossians’ Vision
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19.Leadership Shift
Pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16
Transforming Lives and Communities
Notice: A Shared Journey
Churches are encouraged to work with neighboring churches, appropriate community resources, classical and denominational resources, and other gifts the Lord has provided to help accomplish her task.
—Article 74 b
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20.Leadership Shift
Deacons
Pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16
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Transforming Lives and Communities
Charge to the Deacons
I charge you, deacons, to inspire faithful ministries of service to one another, to the larger community, and to the world. Remind us that the Lord requires us “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with [our] God” (Mic. 6:8). Prompt us to seize new opportunities to love God, our neighbors, and the creation with acts of generous sharing, joyful hospitality, thoughtful care for the poor, and wise stewardship of all of God’s gifts. Weigh our opportunities for giving and service, that we might use the church’s resources discerningly.
21.Leadership Shift
Deacons
Pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16
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Transforming Lives and Communities
Charge to the Deacons
Offer wise care to victims of injustice, and teach us holistic responses that respect their dignity and mend the broken relationships and exploitative structures and systems that contribute to poverty. With respectful compassion for the needy and awareness of the often hidden needs of the wealthy, teach us to minister to rich and poor alike, both within and outside the church.
22.Leadership Shift
Deacons
Pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16
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Transforming Lives and Communities
Charge to the Deacons
Encourage all with words that bring hope to their hearts and with deeds that bring joy into their lives. Show us by your example how to be prophetic critics of the waste, injustice, and selfishness in our society, and to be sensitive counselors to the victims of such evils. Let your lives be above reproach, and live as examples of Christ Jesus, looking to the interests of others. And in all your ministries help us anticipate and participate in the renewal of all things when God’s kingdom comes.
23.Leadership Shift
Deacons
Pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16
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Deacons — Equip by…
Inspire
Remind
Prompt
Weight
Offer
Teach
Teach
Encourage
Show
Help
Transforming Lives and Communities
24.Leadership Shift
Deacons
Pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16
Transforming Lives and Communities
Deacons — Equip by…
— Demonstrating what it looks like to be a Micah 6.8 people
— Reminding us of God’s call to be a Micah 6.8 people
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8 ESV)
Reflection: How should deacons be organized at the church level so that this mandate is accomplished well? What are the critical organizational issues that need to be addressed?
25.Article 40a and Article 45 now delegates deacons to Classis and to Synod.
What important role can deacons play at the Classis level in Southeast US?
What important role can deacons play at the Synod level?
Transforming Lives and Communities
Leadership Shift
Deacons
Pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16
26.Justice
A Key Element of the
Calling
&
Equipping Role for Deacons
Transforming Lives and Communities
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27.Justice Touches All
Justice is the vision of what ought to be
Justice is the vision of what ought to be in every area of life: poverty, marriage, creation etc. Justice is integral to our vision of the godly life, it is not an aside
Justice: render to each person their due. It involves harmony, flourishing, and fairness…it is based on the image of God in Genesis 1.26ff.
Transforming Lives and Communities
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28.Justice or Evangelism?
What are we aiming for?
Ultimately the reason for both the work of evangelism and the work of justice is not simply the relief of suffering, whether present or eternal. It is the restoration of God’s true image in the world, made known in the one true Image…, Jesus Christ, [this imagine shines into the world though his] image bearers set free by his death and resurrection to reclaim their true calling.” Andy Crouch
Transforming Lives and Communities
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29.Equipping from Scripture
A Few Passages for Diaconal Study & Reflection
Psalm 146
Psalm 10
Isaiah 6 (5.16)
Isaiah 24-26
Matthew 23.23
Mark 8.1-9
Transforming Lives and Communities
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30.Justice
Biblical Rootedness
A Place to Start
The Deacons’ Prayer
Transforming Lives and Communities
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31.The Deacons’ Prayer
Matthew 6.7-14
A Pattern for Prayer
A first note: the prayer is plural: our Father, give us this day our daily bread, it is not my prayer, but the prayer of the community, it is not only about my needs but the needs of the community and world.
Transforming Lives and Communities
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32.The Deacons’ Prayer
Matthew 6.7-14
Hallowed by Your Name
Help us to truly know you,to honor, glorify, and praise you
for all your worksand for all that shines forth from them:
your almighty power, wisdom, kindness, justice, mercy, and truth.
Transforming Lives and Communities
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33.The Deacons’ Prayer
Matthew 6.7-14
Your Kingdom Come
Revelation 21.1-7
We are praying for the redemption of the world, that evil is defeated, pulled up and out of this world never to make its way back in, we are praying for a world where love of each other and love of God is the way of things, where the poor are lifted up, where the hungry are fed, where there is no more pain, sorrow, suffering or death
Transforming Lives and Communities
34.The Deacons’ Prayer
Matthew 6.7-14
Give us this Day…
For all to get daily bread, there must be a thriving economy, good employment, and a just society. Therefore, to pray “give us— all the people of our land— daily bread” is to pray against “wanton exploitation” in business, trade, and labor, which “crushes the poor and deprives them of their daily bread.” Those who do injustice will face the power of this petition. “Let them beware of . . . the intercession of the church, and let them take care that this petition of the Lord’s Prayer does not turn against them.” Martin Luther
Transforming Lives and Communities
35.The Deacons’ Prayer
Forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors
The early church saw this prayer as the literal forgiving of debts.
Leviticus 25.10ff
Jubilee
The problem of debt was very serious in Jesus' time. When the revolutionaries took over the Temple at the start of the Jewish war against the Romans, thirty years after Jesus' day, the first thing they did was to burn the records of debt. The early church certainly believed that Jesus was talking about actual debts.
Transforming Lives and Communities
36.The early church saw this prayer as the literal forgiving of debts.
Leviticus 25.10ff
Jubilee
The Lord's Prayer makes sense, not just in terms of individual human beings quieting their own troubled consciences, (which is very important), but also in terms of the new day when justice and peace will embrace, economically and socially for individuals and for societies. This is a prayer for the transformation of lives and communities in the economic realm.
This Prayer is Always Bigger than we Have imaged!
The Deacons’ Prayer
Forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors
37.Leadership Shift
Pattern of Ephesians 4:11-16
What will be different in how you invest your time and energy as a council and deacons if deacons see being People of Micah 6.8 as central to their calling?
Transforming Lives and Communities
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38.Equipped 2 Equip
3: What three things did you learn?
1: What is something that you agree with?
1: What is one thing that is still circling around in your mind about being equipped 2 equip?
Transforming Lives and Communities
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