TRANSFORMATIONAL MINISTRY OR CONFORMITY

Transformational Ministry or Conformity
by Don Lamb donnetlamb@embarqmail.com

There will always be ongoing differences concerning ministry models and how we go about seeing people revived and kept on track with God. It is a proven fact, that these different models and ministry philosophies can rub each other the wrong way. What I’m about to share is simply my ministry philosophy based on experience and, therefore, it is limited and not perfect. Furthermore, as I address the issue of always looking for the silver-bullet solution in this day of hungering for transformation and breakthrough, I am not offering my views as the silver-bullet only as fuel to provoke others to find the real answers we need. I also realize that those who disagree with my approach can still be powerfully used of God and blessed by His increase without my approval.

Working through different ministry models and expectations is critical to the harmony on any leadership team, especially since many times leadership teams are made up of many individuals that have been on unique and dissimilar journeys.

By the grace of God, in the last ten years, there has begun to emerge leaders who simply are hungry to partner with God in supernatural and practical ways to allow God to bring forth a people who are fully yielded to His purposes and filled with the Spirit to influence their world transformationally. How we get there and how we deal with our individual expectations along the way can be quite challenging. One thing is for sure, we all want vibrant, victorious Jesus-lovers who know their God and know how to work in unison with other believers for the purposes of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Needless to say, we have learned that having a clear vision is not the only factor in producing harmonious leadership and healthy Body life. There is also required an integration of our different expectations and ministry models into one blended work of grace.

One of the things I struggle with, in our present day, is how we try to get results in people’s lives spiritually. Sometimes we can get an end result without true transformation. The end result doesn’t always authenticate the means. I see that leadership in our day is pretty quick to identify the problem, and find a solution, but they are not always good at finding out what the deeper underlying issue is.

For example, how do we see permanent change and sustained victory come to people who are in constant systemic weakness and distraction? Is the sermon content lacking? Is the Sunday morning or Wednesday night format right? Will small groups and accountability help overcome the dragging of spiritual feet for many of our faithful attendees? Some of these issues can contribute to this struggle, but, are these the real answer?

Obviously, because these questions are being asked, there is a lack of motivation and intimacy with God among many of our people. They have a knowledge of the Lord and His Kingdom but they are denying its power and are not being transformed by the renewing of their mind. Life has a grip on them more powerfully than the Word and Spirit of God.

However, inadvertently, through pressure we can unconsciously try to answer this lack of fruit-bearing by trying to conform our people to a higher standard and for a season they may even respond to this pressure. We can get the right result. But are they doing something simply because we are preaching on it? Or are they doing it because they are so in love with God that they listen to him as the ultimate “Authority” and become transformed by full surrender to His Word and Spirit? Are they engaged in the ministries of our church because they see them integrally part of the Kingdom of God or are they just filling a need because leadership makes a desperate plea?

I understand that there is still ignorance within the Body of Christ on certain foundational truths and how the Kingdom of God is expressed through serving in a local congregation. These truths need to be regularly retaught. But this is a smaller percentage of the believers who attend our fellowships than those who already know the foundations and aren’t following through with stepping out and obeying the Kingdom principles they already know, or who are obeying them inconsistently.

The sad reality is that all of our fellowships are mired in some level of immaturity and routine. Even the most visionary and transformationally minded churches have more of a conformity going on inside the Church than transformation. Depending on the size of the body determines how greatly the weight falls on those who are truly committed.

Consequently, leadership teams are tempted to try and address these issues i.e.: lack of tithing, lack of prayer, lack of devotions, lack of commitment and support for the ministries of the local church; lack of personal victory over sin and offenses, by constantly tweaking and introducing practical strategies or focused preaching and format changes (We don’t have many people from such and such age group because we don’t have a program for them, so let’s make this program so we can get them in) and so on.

I’m not saying leadership shouldn’t continue trying to give focus and strategies to overcome these deficiencies and sins in the Church. But there can be a subtle trap of ever changing the system, the sermons, the format, and the venues without coming to the foundational lack in the whole ministry and church, and that is the absence of transformational anointings and mantles on the leadership themselves and the presence of God among us as a whole. We need to look within and see what is yet constricting the full release of the Spirit though leadership.

It is easier to fault the tangible things we do. The sermons are not feeding us. The sanctuary isn’t the best. The lighting and sound system need upgraded. The time we meet is too long or too short. We are too organized. We are too unorganized. As a result, we stay in a continual cycle of finding this or that as the reason why our fellowships don’t break through, when all along is it much deeper and much simpler.

As long as there is a lack of the saturating presence of God in leadership and their level of community together as a team, they will struggle to see the release of the Spirit of breakthrough and obedience in the people. Obviously, there are no excuse for lukewarm living in anyone who comes to our fellowships. We need to hold them to the standard of the Word of God. But part of receiving the glory of God among us is that the leadership team themselves need personal times when they are baptized in their own “upper room” and come away filled with the Spirit declaring the wonders of God to the people.

This will go a long way in helping us harmonize our different ministry callings and teach us to carry our own gifts and anointings with greater wisdom and humility. We need swept up in a flood of inner and outer transformation as leaders and this will set our people up for success in their journey of transformation.

We need to prevail as leadership teams for anointings that will penetrate our own hearts at deeper levels as well as bring our people into transformed lifestyles founded on passionate first-love obedience and not on guilty consciences.

We need to stand together for each other and give grace even as our own journeys for these mantles falters at times through discouragement, busyness, and sin. We cannot give up ourselves until we become those who will “Make level paths for (their) feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.” Hebrews 12:13 (NIV)