Becoming a Minister
RELEASING MINISTERS INTO THE VINEYARD
excerpts from a sermon by Rev Bob Alonge
God
is changing our mentality, making us ministers, not mercenaries, not
musicians nor magicians but ministers, servants of God. We are referring
to independent ministers, men and women who are not necessarily under
the control of any church including TCA (The Capital Assembly). If you
look into the scriptures, you will find that every time that god brings
a fresh move, a new move upon the earth, it always happens outside the
church.
NEW MINISTRIES
God had told the
Jerusalem church to preach to the gentiles but they refused and simply
stayed put in Jerusalem. Apostle Peter was forced to preach to the
Gentiles (at Cornelius’ house) who created an opportunity and an open
door for the other apostles to take the gospel to the Gentile world.
But when confronted by them, Peter defended himself and did not go out
as he should have.
The Apostles and other
disciples remained in Jerusalem away from the Gentiles until afflictions
scattered them. The Bible says some disciples, not church leaders, were
scattered as far as Antioch. And by their own initiative, they did what
the church would not do, - preach to the Gentiles! These disciples were
far away from the church, where Pastor could not see, where nobody could
control them and so they began to do things that the church was not in
the habit of doing or in the culture of supporting or agreeing with.
God is going to birth
some ministries that will do things that the church at this moment does
not agree with. The disciples in question preached to the Grecians,
Hellenists and the Gentiles and according to the Bible, great multitudes
of them believed.
When the news of it got
to Jerusalem, we thank God that the Apostles were able to celebrate what
they did not initiate.
They probably said to
themselves, “This thing is of God, if we are wise we will jump into this
boat now because Jesus has determined which boat He wants to enter and
there is nothing we can do about it.
OUT OF CONTROL
The Bible record that
Peter had gone fishing, caught nothing was discouraged, depressed,
stopped fishing and was washing his net when Jesus went passing by.
Jesus saw many boats but chose Peter’s own. On what criteria did He
choose Peter’s own? Was Peter more holy than others? Not at all! Was he
the best of them? Not at all! Was he a more pious man than everyone
else? Not at all, yet God chose his boat! It is not our concern why He
chose Peter’s boat but once Jesus enters a boat, you had better follow
Him.
What we do not control,
we often refuse to celebrate. Because the church would not have
control, she often finds it difficult to push people out as ministers
but prefers to cage them. By so doing, she is merely fishing out of her
own bath tubs and spending much time and energy bringing people to
church than sending them out to affect their world.
More so she is recycling
Christians. Take for instance, you do a handbill and tag it “Holy Ghost
Revival”: who do you think such a handbill will appeal to? We, the
church selfishly believe that it has to be phrased like that otherwise
it is considered too carnal. But if you made a handbill that says you
are having a “Jam”, you can bet that you will be branded as being carnal
and it will become a sermon to many of how carnality has entered the
church. But this is what the fishes can bite.
WHO IS A MINSTER?
Let me tell you, one of
the biggest errors we have been making in church. We have come to a
point where unless you are called a Deacon or pastor, you are not
honoured by the church. In other words, the only ministries that the
church celebrates are ministries within the church.
An evangelist, rather
than being called an Evangelist receives the title Pastor and a prophet
likewise. Nobody feels important or honoured until you are called a
Pastor. No one feels he/she has spiritual relevance until he/she is
called “Pastor” or at worst, “Deacon”. Who is a Deacon or Deaconess? A
Deacon is an internal ministry of the church.
It is time, we open up
our “Ministry of External Affairs” and begin to recognise ministers.
They are not Pastors or Deacons nor Deaconesses but they are ministers
and they are to be honoured in the church. For example, a minister with
a calling to go and set up a bankers’ fellowship, a minister with a
calling to go and set up a youth outreach, a musical outreach, a media
mission or a minister who goes to set up a prostitute outreach like
Daughters of Abraham
is a legitimate minister! In a nutshell, a minister is somebody matured,
trained, groomed and sent forth.
Since January 2003, we
now regularly hold a School of Ministry as instructed by God. God
further instructed us to release, commission, accredit and license
ministers and also celebrate them in Church at the end of each session
of the School of Ministry. They are given honour in this church (TCA-The
Capital Assembly) e.g. “This is Minister John Mission.” The next
minister could be YOU!
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To find out more
about the School of Ministry, you can go to About the Bible School
Section!.
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HOW TO BECOME A MINISTER
WITH THE COVENANT MINISTERIAL ASSOCIATION:if
you would like more information about the Covenant Ministerial Association,
you can request for a free brochure on the Covenant Ministerial Association(CMA)
by sending your request to cma@methuselahproject.org
or info@methuselahproject.org. You
can also call us or write to us with the details provided in the
Contact Us Section.
