quinta-feira, 27 de fevereiro de 2014

PASTORAL WORD - A CHURCH OF GIFTS AND MINISTRIES NOW WITH THE PROJECT OF DISCIPLESHIP. (1 Cor. 12:11; Mat. 28: 18-20)


My brothers and my sisters this time we're getting tired with this speech. But I don't feel that everyone is really understanding the way of being Church while Methodists in the last 25 years. In 1985 was implemented the program of gifts and ministries. We were coming out of a church of elective office for a church service and this service would be provided through the gifts of its members without elections and without charges. Each one should choose the Ministry that he felt called by God to serve him. It was very difficult to teach that the Church used to an older model. Many people resisted because we didn't know and we was afraid of the new. But after the years the things were getting clearer. The Methodist people understood that we weren't proposing a church without order, but a democratic Church where each person could produce according to his gifts. It Worked. However worked in churches that really assimilated the idea and put into practice.

The gifts and ministries program is to promote a church to work like this: The ministerial and societal groups work each within their area. One should not invade the area on the other. But at the same time must add up. As: a Ministry has a project that falls within the competence of another Ministry. So this Ministry leads the project for such a Ministry. Engineers should always be in tune to be working together, and at the same time, without hitting each other. We are different from each other and have different gifts. N though belong to the same body, the Church of Christ and that there needs to be in unity. See with certain constancy a coordinator entering the area from another and causing embarrassment and inconveniences in the work of God. Well, that to me is the lack of full design that is a church of the gifts and ministries. But we can't go like this, some understanding and some don't. A working one way and others insisting on the old-fashioned way. We have to move towards the same direction.

Now we have the Church working its growth through Discipleship. What is Discipleship? Nothing more than evangelization through the "make disciples" of Jesus. Making disciples is deeper than just preach. Making disciples is to form the character, help in the spiritual development of a person. Is to follow a person in all his or her steps in the life of faith. Teach. But what about cells? Well. That's name. Only name which is not the most important in this process. We are using the name of cells. These cells should not be large groups. In large groups the masters are lost and the disciples also. Someone said that a pastor starts to have difficulties to guide a group with more than one hundred people. So the ideal rather than a community of 200 people is to have two communities of one hundred each. In cells that is the point. The Group of disciples growing cell divides and forms another and so on. The disciples are always urged to watch for the cults in the temple where there will be a celebration. Those cults become celebrations and evangelization takes place in the cells where people will be much more close to each other and the master much in communion with the disciples. But when cells divide who are the disciples? The idea is create always people to become also disciples. And this: as we we're discipleship forming people ship, empowering people to make the other disciple. When a cell divides and another is formed this new cell will also have a new disciple ship. But our course has already started. You should ask those who are doing what felt and obviously get to the training class. Look at our first class on Face Book. That God help us in this new venture, this new challenge to make the Church grow healthy in every way. Amen.

Rev. Jesué Francisco da Silva.

 

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