Lecture 1: Pastoral Leadership - Dr. Alex Montoya

let's open our syllabus to the first page we will begin our lecture now begin a lecture talking about the qualifications for biblical leadership we'll spend the bulk we'll spend the bulk of our discussion on the qualifications from the local leadership and then talk about some essentials of leading and then finish the class with some essentials on disciple discipleship and impacting others so we'll spend we'll begin by talking about the qualifications for biblical leadership and our first first item on the agenda here is just talking about the leaders calling the leaders calling in a sense we think of calling lobby to direction will be going they'll be a a sense where there is a kind of an experiential calling where you sense God personally calling you into the ministry and giving you that sense of the call and there are some there's some that that feel this way and then there is another sense of the calling where it's not so much a personal calling as it is a calling to the a vocation there is a vocation there is an office of ministry of church ministry or pastor etc and therefore it's a calling from that from that perspective so there's not this personal spiritual dimension to it but a sense of God having this office available and then you and I filling that office alright so as we've walked through this you can more or less look at what is there and then we'll have some some observations made toward the end of this lecture in relation to that for first of all when we talk about the the calling we want to talk first of all about the nature of the office nature of the office let me just preface this by saying that at some times when we we come to seminary we say what God I'm here because God has called me to preach the word God has called me to be a preacher well God called me here to study the word so I can preach the word as we walk through this class and also the class on preaching we will eventually find out that it's not necessarily a call to preach you know as it is a call to the office to the office that God has called us to preaching is one dimension of the office okay preaching is just one way that we are able to complete or fulfill the purposes for which God has called us and so we'll we'll talk about that and you'll wrestle with that as you move along in your seminary career so it isn't just preaching but it's more than just preaching as we study the nature of the office you begin to see that the office is really called a three-fold office threefold office where three terms are used to describe the office the Pisgah pass presbyteries and then point men us that is the office of thick that includes the overseer the the office of Elder and the office of pastor which are really one and the same we talk about the the overseer or the bishop we talk about the elder or the presbyter we talk about the Shepherd or the pastor it's really one in the same person but it's good for us to see the different name because it helps us to understand the nature of this office I've given you a whole list of references there we won't turn to all of them today but they're there for your for your information to get to know what they are but let's examine this idea of overseer elder and and pastors good for you to know what it's about before you get into it when I got it to the ministry a clue was going on I mean I went to a good seminary but somehow p.m. wasn't a wasn't there they're there for taste so when I launched into ministry it's you ask you know what in the world did I get myself into was my first reactions when all of a sudden I realized it was more than just spending 40 hours a week in the text and then preparing Bible studies was much more than that a list of issues that we had to deal with and the fact I myself what in the world get myself into so I want you to know what you're getting yourself into okay the idea of episkopos the idea of overseer is the fact that this is this is describing an office this is describing an office that God has established in his church the idea of overseer overseer means to basically observe to examine to visit to care form if there's a word if there's a word that we want to put here is that he is like accountability or responsibility the responsibility for the church needs to rest on the shoulders of somebody and so what the answer is upon whom upon the overseer on the overseer said rest upon the overseer so it's an office and in a sense this this office comes with both a job description and secondly comes also with a a description of the qualifications of the person that fills the office for stim a--they 3:1 and following If any man desires the office of especially the office of overseer is the fine work he desires to do biscuit bas and then he talks about qualifications for the overseer so it's it's an office so it's the idea here's the office called episkopos you and I here training for ministry were training to to fulfil this office you might call it and I hope you don't get offended by this is basically it's it's a CEO it's a spiritual CEO of the ecclesia now we're talking about plurality of leadership okay so it's not just one CEO but a group of men who are called elders we're going to fill this office of overseers and it's their job to be responsible for all the flock you know although there's no such thing as a as a man who says my job is just to preach you know I just preach I just study worried about administration I don't worry about than friend and you are not an Episcopal okay you're not an Episcopal you might be a teacher but you're not a pastor you're not an elder you're not a bishop you're not an overseer you're simply a teacher and that's different than being a pastor and we do need teachers but sometimes the teacher gets into the position of elder and then all of a sudden there's nobody accountable for the work nobody overseen the particular ministry I want you to see that because it's important is you understand what you're studying for and what God is going to call you to do notice number two we have the word elder the word elder and in this particular term were looking at basically qualifications qualifications pres Buderus this term has a lot to do in respect to age or the maturity of the person if you compare Titus 1:5 and following the descriptions in Titus 1:5 have to do with elders I left you in Crete I left you Crete to appoint elders in every Church and then it begins to list the qualifications of elder you put Timothy Timothy 3 and Titus 1 side by side and you realize they're talking about the very same person the bishop the episcopal senda and the elder pursued arras are the same person same office but the emphases with elder is on qualifications maturity age and so the idea here is this fellow has experience experience with God and experience with life he has experience with God and experience with life that's why in Timothy it reminds us that this fellow should not be in the off with us with that don't let him be a novice or knee off with us which is a a newly planted twig or tree a little tender shoot a little sapling that just came off out of the ground he says you can't have an elder be a guy who doesn't have experience underneath his belt okay now as we look around the class this afternoon what do we see what do we see we have saplings okay an occasional gray haired dude here so we have a every now and then a guy or bald balding guy which means you've been around the block a few times but for the most part we have saplings we got a problem don't we because in three or four years we're gonna we're gonna or two years three years we're gonna shove you out and put you in the position of of overseer America does that the American church does that and it can be fatal to us fatal to us as ministers fatal to the church because you're putting these guys out there they tell us that in World War two the Germans took such a beating during the Second World War that by the end of the war they they had captains of submarines that were like sixteen years old they're running submarines at the age of sixty cos they had no one no one else left the kids were running the show well you know with that you know gonna last very long but if you're doing that so what how do we solve the issue how do I solve the problem of being me offered us fellas let me suggest get old fast okay get home fast and how do you get old fast how do you get all fast experienced experienced little fast by getting experienced how do you get experience what's that do it get experienced by doing it get out there and get your feet wet do things everything that you think a minister should do go try it fellows we um we can make a major mistake in seminaries this can become a this can becoming a monastery for us we can we can spend three or four years in this monastery ie way from away from the world away from involvement and they get actually no experience and then we're still in the awful does when we get out we have no experience get yourself and get out and do things you know get out and do things get involved in as many things as possible we could experience some you fellows are married recently married it's great stuff great stuff because you're gonna be experienced at least with wifey with your wifey and out of your husband and with kids right it's it's easy to pontificate when you're a single guy right no wife no kids you're 25 26 years old it's easier to pontificate on on your fetus chapter six but once the wife comes in and the kids come in it's amazing all your big checking a box head you know really gets nice and small when you realize your wife sitting in the front pew and you're talking about husband's love your wives and she's looking at you saying AHA you know I'm calling you up Park it there preacher let's hear you see another word suit so the idea is to get experience make yourself get yourself out we have up we have an ugly city it la isn't as a beautiful city it's also very ugly city you know get out there you're in the suburbs leave it get out and get out here you know go out cruising the boulevard some night get out there walk the streets meet some winos meet some gangbangers you know meet some go out in the street you know meet some prostitutes meet some meet some homosexuals talk to them you know get the experience out there you know what doesn't know what it's like man you know what's you know preach it to prison put you in the jail get out there where they lock the doors behind you and you're they're having a preach to guys if you know and get these kinds of experiences get out there and meet with people that way you can be young and be old at the same time versus being young and then just really being young we've had some guys and I that's why I gave you the the exhortation to move out of you know kids little children's ministries into a dual ministry it's because we have some guys that just insist on being and in in in in first grade for four years and then they then they want to go from first grade to being senior pastor or you know it's major major major difference to go from doing that you need to get out begin to do these kinds of things sir just starting now perhaps some of us in wait longer before we to students about yeah consider myself not being just right what do we do music the best bad scenario or the holdup there the ideal scenario the ideal is to find an internship it's the ideal to graduate from seminary go someplace be an internship and then put some hair on your chest you know get get old a little bit get some gray hair get some experience get some you know get some bruises you might say that's the ideal again partridges are not designed to do that so that's that's so the next best thing is for us to get experienced now because most of us won't have the financial luxury to do that to go out there and just kind of wait four or five years get a secular job you don't need to do that you don't need to do that the church the church is patient with us when we're young they understand understand this concept okay they understand this comp and I'm the American churches like that other some of our ethnic churches are not like that our Hispanic churches are not like that because they respect age some of the Asian churches are not like that they they respect age so if you're like sixty a man of 60 with no seminary degree is worth you know ten times a man of 25 with a PhD in theology just because that's age comes in so the American culture is kind to neophytes okay but the American church is not always you know kind in entreating them so that's why it's good for us to get as much experience as possible and so you can you can't get old okay even though you're young if you just allow yourself to get out there and get some experience force yourself out there so natural tendency is to be reclusive yes that's a natural tendency just not to get out there it's like the old tortoise stick our heads in the shell and just kind of hide and you know hang in there till we graduate but then you don't want to do that so internships is the best may I say because of that because of that as you graduate and start your churches make provisions for interns in your churches knowing that we have this problem where you can actually bring a guy on board and he can be in your church and be maturing there and you can be growing you can be helping the guy and I had I had that privilege when I was in seminary at this I was a an associate pastor and what really helped me a lot now was fantastic to go to this guy's ministry because I'd get some doozies and I was out door-to-door I was going door-to-door evangelism counseling people and they come to with doozies like Alex you know I have this divorce I have this problem with my wife and you know she wants to divorce me help me what do I do now it's a-you know what you need to talk to the pastor about that one go see you know I would say go see cuz you know this thing was really hot but when you're the guy and they come to you and you sit there and you're saying and inside saying God help me Lord do something right now in your and you're going to your pages of your p.m. manual and there was no discussion on you your ins for some doozies you know so again so the idea of elder is the idea of then getting old so get some experience and then number three the idea of pastor this is our job description it's our job description the idea of Shepherd talks about so he has the analogy of a shepherd and sheep right a pastor in his flock and so the Lord helps us by giving us that picture of ministry where the Shepherd is a illustration of the spiritual care of God's people and God's people are the flock and so the great analogies are made between the Shepherd and the pastor of the Church of God and the flock and we do that and so it really helps us to identify you know our job description what God has called us to do I've given you a a B and C there let's revise it a little bit under under a as before B put the actual work is notice B is a to lead the flock to lead the flock we'll start with that to lead the flock put Hebrews 13:7 and Hebrews 13:17 and first Thessalonians 5:12 along with that ad 1st Peter 5 to 4 speed of 5 - God has called us to lead and so you are the basic leader leader in in the in in the church and you're gonna lead by your character you're gonna lead by who you are primarily will also learn principles of leadership okay but you're the leader you provide you provide direction vision you provide modeling example etc but you're the leader number two number two were called to feed to feed the flock John 21 16 acts 20:28 first Peter 5:2 and first Thessalonians 5:12 the whole idea here is nurture nurture that the that the health this is the talk about the health of the flock the health of the flock the Shepherd's exist to produce a healthy flock that's the purpose of it so if after 10 years of ministry your flock is still dysfunctional still messed up and still unhealthy whose fault is it it's our it's our fault it's our fault I say that because this is again this is up to you you have to be be able to take the flock and you may take a flock that is going to be a little bit sick or much as much illness to it but your job is to take this flock and defeat it to nourish it to nourish it and to produce than a a healthy flock and we'll talk more about that under certain 712 you know what it what is a healthy a healthy a healthy flock optimally just helped us a little bit ultimately a healthy flock is for the love of God is being displayed towards one another that's the ultimate description of health yes worthless the flock loves one another it is not measured by knowledge that is not measured by knowledge maturity is never measured by knowledge maturity is always always measured by the love of God pouring out from our lives into the lives of others okay understand that and that's gonna be the ultimate ultimate display you know of if your flock is healthy number three your job is also to protect the flock protect the flock we see that in acts 20:28 acts 20:28 or the apostle paul writes to the Ephesian elders right be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of God he says after my departure savage wolves will come not sparing the flock and so the flock has enemies and your job is to protect the flock so you're a guardian the guardian you're there to protect the flock by the way protect the flock from wolves from the outside those that are trying to destroy the flock from without and then also protect the flock from within because sometimes the worst enemies of the flock are the Sheep themselves sheep do bite and they end up biting each other half the time okay and so part of our job is to make sure that the Sheep are not self-destructing so it's a 24-hour issue 24-hour issue we are we have a young pastor in our church this is the second year we're in a church planting so this is one of our church plants and it's a second year and it's finally done in on him he said to me the other day at last Friday says I is there ever a time where we have no problems you seen it seems like there's always a problem going on is there ever a time when we have no problems I said good morning us as you finally know there never is there never is a day when there are no problems there's always some little fire something going on someplace somewhere it's just the nature of the nature of the animal okay the nature of the beast is that there's always something going on some attack from without some issue from within all these something going on and so that's why it's always a kind of a constant vigilance a constant oversight relation to this but it's your job your job as this is why a pastor is going to be zealous for his flock by zealous I also mean jealous for it for your flock there's a sense of jealousy that comes in relation to that you're gonna be passionate about about ministry about your sheep because this is part of your part of your nature to be always on the lookout for these things and then under D as well the pastor's job Shepherd's job is to equipped equipped the flock regions for 11 through 16 right he gave some apostles some prophets some evangelists some pastors teachers for the equipping of the Saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ so in essence you're a spiritual coach spiritual coach equipping the flock for reproduction for reproduction equipping the flock also for ministry towards one another so that becomes again your your task your job description so this is a something that we are we are called to do so now let's back it up so see it's more than just preaching the word number that well God called me to preach the word wrong wrong if you're gonna put on the cloak of an Episcopal praise Buddha Ross of a shepherd boy do we have news for you your job in the study is just one facet see it's just one part of your ministry may be a very important part but it's only one part of your overall ministry you gotta be involved in a lot of other things that come with the territory so it's good for us to know that because then it realized that this these are humongous for us to fill but these are the people that God has put in charge of his church so number one then consider the nature of the office first of all the threefold nature of the office he's uh he's an overseer he's an elder and he's also a pastor notice I had B I had a now put B underneath that it's not in your notes under the three words that point to one under that put B the divine nature of the office the divine nature of the office but B the divine nature of the office if you'll remember acts 20 acts 20:28 for the Apostle Paul speaking to the elders you find by the way also in in acts 20 the the three terms used interchangeably for the same the same man acts 20:28 be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of God among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to Shepherd the Church of God which he purposed which he purchased with his own blood is look at that text carefully and by the way mr. Richard Baxter will that's his that's his exposition of the book of take that verse and just expound on it for like ten zillion pages okay and but it's it's really a rather strong exhortation reminding us first of all that that the church is the Lord's okay that the church is the Lord's it's the flock of God first Peter five okay five - it's the flock of God it's the church that he purchased with his own what his own blood now fellows fellows look at that very carefully because the church is the Lord's and let me just remind us it isn't just it isn't just first fundamental it's the Lord's it isn't just Grace Community to Lourdes it's also first bath Church okay it's also for Southern Baptist Church down the street its first Eevee free church down the street okay it could be the First Assembly of God Church down the street okay this is that's God's church we get the impression sometimes that we have the right to go around knocking his church hmm just because they don't agree with us and with every every theological jot and tittle that we have the right to just lambaste and criticize and sometimes even destroy the church recognize that it's not your church it is whose church God's church I'm not saying we should not be discerning okay I'm not saying that I'm not saying that every Church that calls himself a Christian Church is God's church there's some that are apostate apostate but there are many churches and that you and I would label as not perfect churches with a lot of problems a lot of lots of difficulties right it would be almost on the verge of crossing a line and you know sometimes even destroying it a discussion with a fella years ago who was a young neophyte neophyte kind of a guy and he got got kind of cocky because he could preach a good sermon every now and then and people thought he could preach and they thought that he should be the pastor of the church gonna do that sometimes they'll they'll butter you up and say man you're a great pastor you should be the pastor of the church you're not brother so-and-so so I went to his head and he called me though he wanted to arrange a meeting and split the church and and and put the guy out you know etc and I said you know I said you better watch what you're doing because you see unless you have a mandate from God unless you got a word like Moses gotta Mount Sinai unless you got a word like John the Baptist God unless you unless you were on the Mount of Transfiguration and God spoke to you along with Moses and Elijah you'd better be careful to be messing with God's church he'll take your carcass and thrash it so don't mess with it it may not be a perfect Church the way you want it to be but unless you've got a menu from God you just better your own business because this church is God's church does that make sense to us when I'm glad you took advice because you know what you don't want to do that and we have sad to say we have sometimes folks from seminary get out of here go out there and take a church and thrash it destroy it and then think they're doing God a favor because they just ruin somebody's church you know friends any fool can destroy a church look as long as look how long it's taking for us to put those fountains out in the front how long has it been you know I thought it would be like two days work it only took two days to wipe the baby out true I mean one one day they came in they blew the whole thing out and look how long it's taking what I'm saying to you is any fool can destroy it takes a long time to build then you're gonna find that out when you go out to start ministry that takes a long time to build it to build even a church of any type let alone to build a great Church so what I'm saying here with with this word is because of a divine divine nature of of the church it belongs to him and always recognize that so when you take the position of a church it's his it's his not yours and you're there to do his bidding not your bidding okay and so number two number two recognize that the charge is from the Holy Spirit among whom the Holy Spirit has made you overseers so it is he will be the one that will prompt you to take on that responsibility here again will be the sense of the call he will call you to a ministry okay and that'll be the ministry God calls you to or it'll be a sense where you will know that this is what God wants you to be the Holy Spirit will move in such a way as you will know that this is where he wants you to be in either case he's the one that placed you there he's the one that placed you there and so we want to recognize that it's a Paul said to the elders listen God has placed you here God has you here and when God places you in the ministry you need to recognize that God has you there that allows you also to have great perseverance and great endurance when it comes to ministry to know that God has placed you there and you can't you can't just leave and secondly you can't have guys just you know throw you out because they don't like you I told our people first fundamental and we had a first one of our first splits we had number of splits you know you learn a lot you know you learn by trial and error some of these are my fault we'll talk about those you know as time goes on others are them we're not my fault they just happen you know people just get in when it's a small Church wolves come in and try to destroy this issue and I told the folks you know I uses Nikita Khrushchev's famous saying I will bury you remember that one and I told mom I'll bury you because I'm young I'm only 26 years old some of you guys at 50 I'm gonna outlive you guys I'm here to stay got prop be here and you can't chase me out of here because I'm here to stay it's only when you know that God has put you there that you can meet that kind of statement ain't going to work I'm here God placed me here until he pulls my number and tells me to go someplace else I'm here to stay so forget about trying to run me out of town it's not gonna happen I see in that that kind of confidence comes when you recognize that God's Spirit has placed you in this position of ministry God brought you to seminary did he not okay then God isn't also moving that direction and placed you in the ministry that he wants you to be in and once you're there that's where it gonna be the number three under that the Nate the Vantage of the office number one the church is the Lord's number two the church's from the Holy Spirit number three our accounting is to the Lord our accountant astute the Lord Hebrews 13:17 Hebrews 13:17 and first Peter 5 verses 4 and 5 verse Peter 5 verses 4 and 5 we have to give an account to God for this ministry so God says to them to the elders are leaders in Hebrews they have to give an account to God for you and so when we realized that that we have to give an account for the ministry God has called us to perform it does something to you we don't enter into this task listen it's not just because you need a job you're gonna take a church okay it's because God is placing you there and you have to give an account to God that means that under this we need to first of all take our work seriously and conscientiously take your work seriously and conscientiously you know I thank the Lord for the caliber of men we have in our seminary because you take your work seriously and conscientiously it's a it's a pre lewd precursor of what's gonna happen out there listen you're sloppy here you'll be sloppy there okay if you're sloppy here and you'll be sloppy there if your conscience is here you'll be there as well he that is faithful than little things okay will be faithful also in much and this is why as we go through this process now of being involved in whatever we're doing it's because we realize we have to give an account account to God number two it also means that we need to do our work joyously and willingly we have to give an account to God which means that now we put our heart into that we give it our all and we do that with joy with joy and if anything among many things I want to want to communicate to you this semester is just the joy of ministry you know the joy minister we've been in ministry now I think 30 35 years 35 years and it's just as exciting today as it was way back then if not more exciting this is uh it's just great my son asked when he says daddy he says dad don't you ever get bored cussedness and I'm never bored never my bored it's always like I'm right I didn't the age of excitement it's like it's like riding a wave you know what I'm saying it's like there's always like something happening and it's just joyous to be involved in ministry other down times oh yeah the heartaches absolutely but man just to know that that I need to serve God with with my with with a heart that is full of joy and then number three under that do you work faithfully faithfully you have to give an account to God so just be faithful you don't just answer to people you answer to whom Nestor to God and that's why it says in first Corinthians chapter four it is required of stewards that a man be found what found faithful or trustworthy the issue is do the job that has called you to do you know finish the task do the job God has called you to do finish the task learn to be faithful you know you uh you can be bright you can be bright you can be intelligent you can be charismatic the gifted or you're a great speaker and never but you know what if you're not faithful you're letting the Lord down and you're letting us down true so it's the whole idea of just being faithful of just showing up and and the key ingredient to ministry is going to be that just you know doing it you know week after week year after year decade after decade and just coming through with whatever God has called you knowing that you have to give an account to God for everything that you do why because we have to answer to him we stop answering to people you know you don't answer to me and answer anybody else is gonna answer to God ultimately so we start now by recognizing that so it's good for us to know then the nature of this office so yeah as I mentioned I'll see what what what what I've just pictured to you there's more than just sitting down and taking the texts and exegesis get up and preaching it sermon with three points and three poems and and you howl a little bit and then you close and go home and get paid you know 100 thousand bucks for that it's more than that I just joking you're gonna get paid Zak for that yeah it's it but realized and realizing that this is what God has called you to do these huge shoes now we're gonna work at filling those shoes by preparing ourselves with his ministry amen well our time is up we'll stop right there

Channel: The Master's Seminary

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Keywords: pastoral leadership, the master’s seminary, dr. alex montoya

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Length: 39min 19sec (2359 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 12 2012