Ephesians 4:11-13 reveals God’s “open secret” for elevating the Church in Her authority and testimony. It openly states that the functions of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastors and teachers will build a church that attains to the fullness of Christ – of authority and testimony beyond what we can conjure. But in that bold declaration also embeds a call to grace, forgiveness, and mercy — to maintain teamwork amidst the natural tensions that can arise from these functions’ differing priorities and temperaments. In other words, the authority and testimony of the “fullness of Christ” demands that we embrace grace, forgiveness, and mercy.
Too often, we see tensions flare between apostolic dreamers always driving expansion projects and pastors/teachers who may see greater priority with ministering to people’s needs. How about pitting a motivator evangelist who sees opportunity in every opportunity against the discerning and cautious voice of a prophetic analyst? The orderly and disciplined teacher can easily take offense at a visionary apostle’s scattered ideas, or a charismatic evangelist’s “hand-waving” sales pitch. Even Paul and Barnabas, two of the church’s greatest contributors, had to separate in sharp disagreement from a clash of apostolic/prophetic versus pastoral personalities. God seems to have designed into these functions a condition favorable for spawning “offenses”. But why?
Overcoming the offenses from these “natural tensions” may be Jesus’ way to qualify us as stewards of His powerful authority and testimony. For this reason, MTC 2016 will seek the Holy Spirit’s heart on raising up standard bearers of His fruit. The fruit of the Spirit – an outflow of grace, forgiveness, and mercy – “immunes” us to the negative aspects of offenses. This “immunity” also frees us from the impossible task of trying to eliminate offenses around us, and break us from the non-ending cycle of demanding “fairness” and restitution from each other. That is powerful!
Standard bearers for the fruit of the Spirit play a crucial role in building the body – to help the functions of the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastors and teachers build “immunity” to offenses that arise from their natural tensions. The heart of MTC’s mandate is to raise up these standard bearers who bear the fruit in grace, forgiveness, and mercy – and ultimately see the church “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. “
May the standard bearers of our generation rise to life with that prophetic breath of Ezekiel 37.
Blessings,
pdt
以弗所書4：11-13揭示了一個神如何提升教會之權柄與見證的“公开秘訣”。它明白地指出，當使徒、先知、傳福音的、牧師和教師這幾種不同功能一同運作時，他們將會建立一個滿有基督長成身量的教會——她将會擁有我們意想不到的權柄和見證。但是，在那個大膽的宣告中，同時也深嵌著一個關於恩典、饒恕和憐憫的呼召——即使當這些功能因重心不同、性格差异而產生自然的張力時，他們仍然可以持守團隊的精神。換句話說，我們必須全心全意地接納恩典、饒恕和憐憫，才能擁有“基督長成身量”的權柄和見證。
我們往往看到那些使徒性的夢想家總是傾全力推動擴展性的項目，然而在同時，牧師/教師却認為服事眾人的需要可能更為迫切，兩者因此時常針鋒相對。試想若是一位過度積極樂觀、熱衷傳福音的人，與一位審時度勢、謹言慎行的先知性分析家同台對峙，将會發生什麼狀況呢？一位嚴謹有序的教師可能很容易就會對一位富有遠見的使徒那些零散的主意心懷不滿，他也很可能会對一位有感召力的福音家其“不著邊際”的言辭不以為然。即使是對教會有莫大貢獻的保羅和巴拿巴，也因為他們使徒/先知與牧師的对立個性，二人起了爭論，甚至彼此分開。神竟然特意將有利於造成“冒犯”的這個條件收錄在這些功能裏。這到底是為什麼呢？
耶穌可能要藉著戰勝這些“自然張力”所引起的冒犯來操练我們，成為擁有祂大能權柄和見證的管家。因此，MTC 2016將尋求聖靈的心意，來興起結出聖靈果子的楷模。聖靈的果子——恩典、饒恕和憐憫的流露——可以讓我們對冒犯所帶來的負面影響產生“免疫力”。這種“免疫力”不但會將我們從只求息事寧人這個不可能的任務中釋放出來，並且讓我們從“以眼還眼、以牙還牙”如此永無止境的循環裏掙脫出來。那是大有能力的！
結出聖靈果子的楷模在教會肢體的建立上扮演至關重要的角色——他們幫助使徒、先知、傳福音的、牧師和教師等功能，建立起對抗冒犯的“免疫力”。 MTC大任的核心乃是要來興起這些在恩典、饒恕和憐憫中結出果子的楷模——並最終看到教會“得以長大成人，滿有基督長成的身量。”
願我們這一代的楷模藉著以西結書37章中先知性的氣息再度復活起來。
願神賜福於您，
戴禮德敬上