42 Struggling Together

Copyright © 2021 Rev. Suela Brown

Introduction

It is possible to not only survive as a church, but to thrive.  Through healthy leadership, and a willing church, God can turn things around even when a church has come close to having their lampstand removed.

Being called and appointed by God to serve in a local church, means being trusted with a divine responsibility for which we will give account.  Therefore, we must approach what we do with a great deal of respect, dedication and humility.  This calling is accompanied by a demand for character qualities and gifting that is unique to the task, as well as with a price to pay, a burden to carry and an enemy to overcome.  Although there is an individual aspect of each doing their best and fighting their battle, on the other hand we are called to labour together.  Therefore, we need one another.  The church can only benefit from us if we are working together in unity.  A team will be healthy only if the individuals in it are healthy.  The health of the team has a direct effect on the life of the church.  The church will grow spiritually only if those who lead it continue to grow.  They set the example and the tune.

Therefore, the health of the spiritual life of the servant needs to be a priority.  No matter how talented or gifted a servant/leader may be in other ways, if the love of God is not reflected in their character and conduct, if they have not learned to depend and rely on God and his power, they will struggle on personal, team and church levels.  So, we need to strive towards growing spiritually and in terms of developing godly character.  Although God takes people up intending to use them fruitfully, yet if the servant is not healthy in their character and spiritual life, the consequences can be counterproductive.

Doing church is not simply about running services, it is about being built together into a spiritual house under the headship of Christ and the leadership of those he has chosen and appointed.  Being a pastor, elder or deacon is not simply about carrying a badge or a title.  Yes, there is always a list of things we are appointed to do, but, much more, we are intended to have a spiritual impact.  For example, deacons in the early church, who were chosen to serve and do practical jobs, were not people whose purpose was simply to clean or serve.  They were people full of the Holy Spirit, and they served as an expression of their love for Jesus and his body.  They were people of prayer, fasting and intercession, people who, although in the church they did practical jobs, yet their spiritual life had an impact beyond the practical things they did, it changed people’s lives.  God added to the church, because those whom he had called and appointed in the church were functioning in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, whether in a spiritual ministry or in a practical one.

Being called to serve in a local church means being part of a team, and as such we need to learn to become a team player.  Not only do we need to strive to give our maximum, but also to make sure that we are doing all we can to support the other team members.  We need to realise that we are called to be yoked together.  As such we need to discover the power of unity.  By being united we minimize the potential for Satan to work from within the church.

A team is consolidated and strong if it comes together and prays together.  So, the spiritual health of the team, building healthy relationships within the team, and communication are crucial issues.  Unity is produced when we come together, pray together, and, in sincerity and genuine love, carry one another’s burdens in an atmosphere of trust and accountability.  This is how the early church operated.  Satan hates effective and fruitful teams, and he seeks to hinder or destroy them because one can chase a hundred, but two can chase a thousand.

Pray together

Prayer is the key to spiritual awakening.  Prayer is the key to victory.  Prayer is the key to moving forward.  Prayer is the key to staying fresh in God and strong in his grace.  If there is no prayer, there is no progress.  Satan works hard to prevent meaningful prayer on each of personal, team and church levels.  Prayerlessness keeps us in a position of passivity, and it breeds defeat.  The great war strategist Sun Tzu said, ‘The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.’  When we do not pray, we are easily subdued.

Jesus said, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer.’  Everything we do should be undergirded by prayer, and by seeking God’s will and his power, protection and provision.  Neglecting prayer on individual, leadership and congregational levels can be fatal to a church.

1.      We need to be disciplined in prayer

A leader needs to have a daily prayer life.  A leader who does not pray, cannot lead.  Jesus prayed daily and regularly.  So did the disciples and the early church.  In Acts ch.6, we see that the apostles got back to praying as soon as they realised that, due to busyness, they had neglected prayer.  They made sure that prayer was back on their schedule, setting an example for every leader and church member.  A leader/servant may struggle in many areas (such as criticism, conflict, family problems, health, stress, mental health, burnout, sexual problems, financial problems or time management, for example), but part of the way of deliverance from these is when we give prayer and seeking God their rightful place.  A praying leader who lives a victorious life becomes an effective leader who can lead others to victory.  Alexander the Great said, ‘I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep, I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.’  So strive to become that lion!

2.      Pray as a team

With prayer comes clarity, conviction of sin, unity, divine strategy, vision, empowerment, revelation, confirmation, etc.  Jesus urged his disciples to stay awake, and to watch and pray.  In prison, Paul and Silas prayed.  The leaders were people of prayer, and in this way they kept themselves united, they maintained their love for one another, and they kept themselves in the power of God.

3.      Pray as a church

Praying as a church is vital.  The prayer meeting should be the backbone of every church.  In my opinion, this is so important that the pastor needs to get personally involved in it, rather than delegating it to someone else.  It needs to be led by leaders with burden and vision.  Prayer meetings die off when there is no vision or real anointing.  These meetings need to be organised well and to have a clear structure and vision.  Prayer meetings need to be relevant and should appeal to all ages, not only to certain groups.  They need to be led by the Holy Spirit and to be free, with an atmosphere in which everyone is free to participate and give.  If the prayer meeting in your church has reached a dead-end, then ask yourself the necessary questions and make the necessary changes.  The early church was on fire and their prayer meetings were permeated by the Holy Spirit’s presence and power.  Believers prayed and Peter was released from prison; they prayed and the room where they were gathered shook; they prayed and they were filled with boldness in their witness, …

Fast together

Fasting is a very powerful spiritual weapon.  Jesus used it, the disciples used it, and the early church used it. Jesus said, ‘When you fast…’ and ‘When you pray…,’ assuming that fasting would be a normal practice for believers, not something they did only in times of crisis.  Fasting deals a powerful blow to the devil.  It is something that cancels demonic assignments and makes way for divine intervention.  Observe what happened on the many occasions recorded in the OT and NT when individuals, teams or whole groups of people fasted. Fasting is a supreme weapon against the enemy.  There are countless examples of fasting and its extraordinary impact.  Not only does fasting enable us to become stronger spiritually, it also breaks the power of the devil.  The disciples and the early church fasted on many occasions, and they saw massive breakthroughs.  So, in order to ensure that you stand your ground, and not only maintain past victories but also advance into new ones, then you need to practice fasting.

Engage in spiritual warfare together

Face the enemy together in unity. Success in spiritual warfare requires submission to God, obedience and unity with one another.  For every step forward in church and mission, battles have to be fought and we have to overcome.  In particular, the church eldership, who have been entrusted with various responsibilities by the church’s Head, Jesus Christ, have to learn to struggle together against every kind of opposition and hindrance, both internally and externally to the life of the church.  Satan attempts to attack a church in both of these ways.

Satan knows that if he can get a foothold in the life of a church, then he can hinder, damage, scatter and destroy.  Sun Tzu said, ‘All wars are won or lost before they are ever fought.’  So Satan will take advantage of anyone in the church who is not living in alignment with the will of God, and who is giving in to sin.  He does not mind so much that a church is open, as long as he can make it ineffective and unhealthy, and therefore cause it to bring reproach to the name of Christ.  It matters not to him whether it is through a pastor who has secret sin in his/her life, or through a dominating elder, or through a self-ambitious or unaccountable deacon, or through an unresolved relational issue within the worship team, he will exploit and take advantage of any area of weakness.  So, in order to overcome Satan’s tactics, we need to know our enemy and his strategy, we need to be willing to face our own areas of weakness and sin, and we need to stand together against him in unity and humility.  We need to learn to resist sin and the devil in our personal lives as leaders, to resist as a team, and to resist as a church.

Many ministries start well, but they may fail for lack of consistency and commitment, for lack of vision, or if they are let down by the team players.  We need to be able to advance, but also to guard and defend what we have gained.  The Roman army was very successful in combat, because they developed some good strategies.

1.      Advancing together

In order to advance in battle, the Romans used a strategy called the ‘wedge’ formation.  Each soldier had their shield in front of them and their spear extending forwards, and the lines were formed in such a way that, together, they looked like the tip of an arrow.  In this way, they could make a concentrated attack at one point and more easily break through the enemy lines.  Such a formation provided maximum protection and mutual support.  The person behind protected the back and side of the person in front of them.  The elite soldiers were placed at the front of this formation, at the tip of the arrow.  It was very hard for an enemy to break this formation.

Another strategy was the so-called testudo or ‘tortoise’ formation which gave a group of soldiers the opportunity to slowly advance forward together without individual soldiers being picked off by the enemy.  They had to synchronize together and learn to move in step with one another, and to use their shields correctly.  This is what healthy and successful church leadership needs to look like.  United and equipped, standing together, and thereby avoiding defeat.  A wise person once said, ‘Victory is won not in miles but in inches, win a little now, hold your ground and later win a little more.’

 

Struggle together

Unity is a crucial element of success in ministry and in our mission.  Jesus prayed that his followers would be united ‘so that the world may believe’ (John 17:22).  One of Satan’s main strategies against the church is ‘divide and conquer.’

When the church is united, our work gets done quicker, it’s easier, our relationships are smoother, outsiders are drawn in, the Holy Spirit is able to work, and the Lord is honoured.  The early believers struggled together in the face of persecution; they struggled together in serving the needs of the church; they struggled together in difficulties and they saw breakthrough.  They struggled together against deception and division.  A house divided against itself cannot stand, but a church which struggles together in unity cannot be overcome.

Jesus said, ‘I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’  This is an important declaration for many reasons, but for three in particular:

Firstly, the church belongs to Jesus, not to us.  There is no place for self-ambition in the kingdom of God.

Secondly, it is Jesus who builds his church, not us, and

Thirdly, in order to build the church, our struggle against the forces of darkness is present throughout the process, and so we need to learn how to overcome.  If we walk in obedience, in purity and in power, then we overcome, Satan cannot prevail, and Jesus builds his church.

Pastors, elders and deacons[1] are called to stand their ground together and to confront opposition together; to advance and to win victories together.  The enemy of the church is real.  He roars like a lion seeking whom he may devour, so we need to learn to be vigilant.  We should not allow ourselves to be the one that Satan can use to hinder, divide or even destroy the church.  God’s will for the church is for it to be built up, to make disciples, and to share the good news.  However, this does not come about without opposition from Satan who seeks to prevent the will of God from being realised by hindering, stealing, killing and destroying (John 10:10).  He will seek to infiltrate the life of a local church in any way he can, by finding where its weak points are and taking advantage of these, and to bring the church down if he can.  We always need to be aware of this, and to be awake, in order to discern where he may be working, so that we can ward off his attacks, maintain the victories we have won, and continue to advance. ‘Do not depend on the enemy not coming, depend rather on being ready for him when he comes.’

When Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, he had to resist and overcome all the attempts of the enemy to hinder and discourage him, and to stop or destroy the re-building work.  If Satan cannot manipulate, then he will intimidate.  Each man had to work with his sword nearby.  Where there is godly leadership, a clear strategy, unity among believers, and true surrender to the Holy Spirit, then the church can and will overcome.  God will build his house!

 

 

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[1] Pastors and elders: The Holy Spirit places pastors and elders as overseers of the spiritual life and vision of the church, but they are not independent contractors.  They are responsible and accountable (see Acts 20:28).  Hebrews 13:17 says that believers are to submit to their leaders, but it also says that leaders will give account to God for those under their care.

Deacons: The word means ‘servant’ and nothing more.  Diakonos comes from two Greek words: dia meaning ‘through’ and konos meaning ‘dust.’  Servants would get their feet dirty as they did household chores.  Today, deacons are servants who don’t mind doing the dirty work, getting their feet wet or their hands dirty.  A servant works behind the scenes to make others successful.