| Principles
of Ministry
Principle of Ministry of Calvary Chapel
By Larry Taylor
Table of Contents
- Not By Might
- The Servant of the Lord Must
Not Strive
- Blessed are the Flexible
- Where God Guides, He Provides
- Learn to be the Servant of
All
- Minister to Others
- Sheep Beget Sheep
- Be Submissive and Loyal
- Emphasize what God has Done
for Us, Not What We Can Do for God
- Feed, Don't Beat the Sheep
- Present the Word of God in
a Loving, Relaxed, Relevant Manner
- Worship is Vital
- Be Balanced Theologically
- Get Your People Praying and
Keep Them Praying
- When You're Confronted With
That Which You Do Not Understand, Fall Back on What You
do
- Be a Shepherd not a Hireling
- God is More Interested in
the Minister Than The Ministry
I. It is Not By Might, Nor By Power, but By My
Spirit Says the Lord of Hosts (Zech. 4:6)
It is imperative that we as pastors rely
on the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in our ministries.
Perhaps one reason why the church has turned to secular humanistic
psychology with such enthusiasm is because it lacks the supernatural
power of God.
The church is God's. Jesus said "I will build My church..."
(the personal pronouns are emphatic in the Greek). It is His
work, the problems are His problems, the people are His people.
We are not to be building our personal kingdoms, we are to
be flowing with Him.
To do so, we must seek His will for the ministry daily, confess
our personal inabilities, and rest on His strength. How easy
it is to fall into the trap of relying on self, especially
in areas that are routine.
Christian book stores, seminaries, and denominations are filled
with programs that propose to teach us how to raise money,
how to attract new folks, how to administrate, how to counsel
those in need, how to evangelize, etc., etc. But one key to
the success of Calvary Chapel is that Pastor Chuck and those
who have learned from him ignore all that. We are not interested
in spiritual "how to" books and seminars, instead we seek
the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit. We look to Him each
day in prayer, we search His Word, and there we find direction
for the ministry for today. He gives us ideas and plans, He
instills vision that is breathed by His life.
So many of the programs around us are adopted from the world.
Evangelism programs are based on worldly sales techniques,
administrative courses come from business management principles,
counseling techniques come from secular psychology, the "science
of church growth" is based on demographics and marketing strategy.
And of course, much of it works in the sense that you can
build a church that way. The problem is that it's not the
Lord's church, so if you build it, you'll have to sustain
and maintain it.
Laying all of that aside is hard on the flesh, but in the
long run much easier. Rather than striving to build and sustain,
we can let God do His work. It takes all the worry out of
ministry. It's His work; I can just relax and enjoy watching
what He'll do. My responsibility is simply to seek His face,
rely on His Spirit, and obey Him.
When we do rely on Him, all the glory and honor goes to God.
And, we must be very careful to give Him the credit for what
He does; and, conversely, we must be careful not to blame
Him for what we do. God will not share His glory with any
person, He knows we can't handle it. All praise and glory
must go to the Master Builder, the chief cornerstone, the
Head of the Body, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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