Role of the Area Director
STEP 1: Read the following scripture passages.
Read Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12-14, and Ephesians 4.
STEP 2: Read the following excerpt.
One denominational leader lamented, the population of the US is growing faster than our whole church network. That means we aren’t even reaching our own children. We’ve tried everything, but our membership keeps slipping. What are we doing wrong?”
Making Disciples One Conversation at a Time by D. Michael Henderson.
I asked, “How straight can you take it?”
He responded, “I’m desperate to know the truth. Our church is dying.”
Here’s what I told him. “The efforts of your denomination remind me of that story in the reign of King David, when God put it in his heart to bring the ark up to Jerusalem and set it in the Tabernacle (2 Sam. 6; 1 Chron. 13). He placed the ark on a cart, drawn by oxen, and headed for Jerusalem. Along the way the oxen stumbled, and the two sons of Abinadab, Uzzah and Ahio, reached up to steady it. When Uzzah touched the Ark he was struck down dead, and the whole enterprise came to a halt. David became angry with God that his friend had been killed and the project wasn’t going anywhere. So here’s my question: where did David get the idea of carrying the ark on a wagon?”
“From the Philistines,” he answered correctly. “It had caused so much trouble in their country that they loaded it on a wagon and sent it back to Israel.”
“Exactly!” I told him. “David’s bungled project is a perfect picture of your denomination: you are certainly God’s dear people, and you are sincerely trying to accomplish what you believe to be God’s will. But you have borrowed your methods from the Philistines. God gave explicit instructions about how the ark was to be carried (Exod. 25:12-15) so this very thing would not happen. But when you use Philistine methods to do God’s work, people get hurt and the whole enterprise breaks down.”