Official Assembly of God Statement of Faith #11-A divinely called and scripturally ordained ministry has been provided by our Lord for the threefold purpose of leading the Church in: 1)Evangelization of the World. 2)Worship of God. 3)Building a body of saints being perfected in the image of His Son.
In class we actually covered this statement of faith on the same day as the church and its ministry. These two statements are so closely related that they kind of blur together. Ultimately, in a nutshell, this statements says that we believe that those in authority in the church have been selected or appointed for duty and called by GOd to be our leaders.
We also believe that the various positions of church leadership were put into place, ordered, established and explained in the scriptures as follows.
Apostle-a person sent by another, a messenger Luke 6:14-15
Deacon-a servant Acts 6:5-6
Disciple-a student, follower of Christ
Elder-a person of authority entitled to respect Eph 4:11, Acts 20:38, Heb 13:7, 1 Thes. 5:12, Numbers 22:7
Evangelist-preacher of the gospel
Overseer-another term for elder
Pastor-another term for elder
Prophet-a spokesman for God and speaks with God's authority
1 Timothy 3:2-13 and Titus 1:5-9 give the requirements for leadership.
The purpose then of the church leadership is to lead and direct the members of he church at large to do the three duties of the church mentioned in Statement of Faith #10. Namely, evangelization of the world, worship of God and Building a body of saints.
It is important for us as church members to be constantly in prayer for the leaders in our churches. Often, it is the church leadership that Satan attacks the hardest. This is because if the leader can be brought down many, many followers will be too.
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