DSMN 500 How God Organizes People for Effective Action.pdf

How God Organizes People for Effective Action

Beverly Manning

Discipleship Ministries – DSMN 500

Dr. Homer Massey

February 28, 2014

Table of Contents

How God Organizes People for Effective Action

Our heavenly Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was not unjust to His people.

Moses and the Israelites had all of the tools and resources that they needed to lead the people to

the land that he had promised them. Today, leaders can use this book of the bible as they form a

plan of action for their ministries or programs of Christian education. In the research, it will

show that God’s original model of family is still present in Christian ministry and education in

the present day church.

God Achieves His Will

Sandra Richter’s book, The Epic of Eden, familiarizes bible scholars to the idea of the

simple household unit found in Israel. The Hebrew word for father’s household is “bêt ’äb”, and

she defines this as an “extended family.” The extended family consists of “the patriarch of the

family, his wife or wives, his unmarried children, and his married sons with their wives and

children.”1 In the extended family, it provided protection from physical, financial and legal harm,

preach.”2 Jesus just didn’t choose a limited number of disciples, but He also chose a

metaphorically momentous number, twelve, to symbolize a continuance of the twelve tribes of

1 Sandra L. Richter, The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry Into the Old Testament (Downers Grove, IL: IVP

Academic, 2008), 26.

2 Mark 3:14, ESV.

Israel. Not only did he choose twelve men to symbolize the twelve tribes of Israel, but He also

gave them a name that separated them from the rest of the followers, “apostles”.

Illustration in Numbers 1-5

The book of Numbers chapters 1-5 shows how God uses his idea of family to arrange the

tribes in His camp, safeguarding that there was safety both within each tribe, and then within the

tribe within each clan. In Numbers 2:2, it shows where God led the Israelites: “The people of

Israel shall camp each by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers’ houses. They shall

camp facing the tent of meeting on every side.”3 The obligation of caring and providing for the

tribe was shared by all the tribal members. Also, the tribal members jointly were in charge of

protecting the tribe as shown by the layout of the camp made by God. The Levites had to be

near the tabernacle, so they erected their tents around the tabernacle. The three tribes encamped

around the Levites on each side. Much like a family, each member of the tribe knew their role.

to be great men of power of the early Christian church after Jesus died this is depicted in Acts

4:13, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were

3 Numbers 2:2, ESV.

4 Acts 4:13, ESV.

the twelve disciples as exceptional men because they were part of the family. Being part of the

family of Christ, the disciples were now partaker of the inheritance. They followed him and took

in all of his teachings and sayings, and it showed a difference between them and the other

followers of Jesus Christ.

In the text by Mitchell, he begins to define the family image as the perfect environment

for learning. According to Mitchell, God created the natural family when he established the

family and thus “formed this trinitarian union” of the bodies, souls and spirits of man and

woman. More revelation of the Word of God states that He made a national family through the

ancestry of Jacob. In the New Testament (some of the Old Testament writings, such as, Jeremiah

31 describes the creation of the new family), God makes a new family called the spiritual family,

which includes all believers.5

Mitchell identifies four elements that he recognizes as important for creating this image

5 Michael R. Mitchell, Leading, Teaching, and Making Disciples: World-Class Education in the Church,

School, and Home (Bloomington, IN: CrossBooks, 2010), 334-35.

Each environment allows students to learn the truths that are associated to an individual’s

life and search important parts. Yount defines this as an environment in which the learners can

advance to a sensitized life and a liberated skill to progress.7 According to Barna, he states that it

is in these private places that “lead people to integrate spiritual growth into their lives in ways

that make the process less intrusive and less overwhelming than might be experienced through a

more overt process”. 8

The “Job Design”

Foss et al. examined the changing aspects of the job design in the business world, and he

found that it is very vital thought to design jobs well if partnership and distribution of knowledge

is to take place between persons working together:

8 George Barna, Growing True Disciples: New Strategies for Producing Genuine Followers of Christ

(Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook Press, 2001), 155.

9 Foss et al., “Encouraging Knowledge Sharing Among Employees: How Job Design Matters,” 871.

Foss et al. named two types of motivation: external and internal. A person can participate

in a task “to attain a positive or to avoid a negative external outcome”.10 The same person,

however, may undertake a task “because it is in accord with the individual’s intrinsic interest and

personal values” and will be happy to perform the particular task. According to Foss et al.,

research can be conducted by a sound and well drafted job design.11

Indartono, Chiou and Chen explored how individual job fit and servant leadership can be

viewed in comparison to job design and performance. They came to the summation that

“worker's belief that harmony on the job and leader's support will influence the different levels of

working performance.”12 It is clear that workers in the secular workplace is motivated by the

same concept of wanting to be inspired not through pressure or threats to learn, but by basic

inspiration that results in an agreement among all of the people involved and the free transfer of

information.

11 Foss et al., Encouraging Knowledge Sharing Among Employees, 875.

12 Setyabudi Indartono, Hawjeng Chiou, and Chun-His Vivian Chen, “The Joint Moderating Impact of

Personal Job Fit and Servant Leadership on the Relationship between the Task Characteristics of Job Design and

Performance,” Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business 2 (December 2010): 44.

Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.

So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of

God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember,

brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of

you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy

and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers.”13

In the Old Testament, God provides an impeccable example of what he taught the

Israelites. He taught them about “belonging”, an idea similar to what Christ showed in His

transactions with His disciples in the New Testament. It is not certain if believers in the New

Testament are empowered by the Holy Spirit, but it is by the power of the Holy Ghost that these

families can be arranged and connected together. We see this in the writings of Paul in 1

Thessalonians 1:5, which states, “our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and

13 I Thessalonians 2:6-10, ESV.

14 I Thessalonians 1:5, ESV.

15 Rod Dempsey, Healthy Church Systems, Word Document handout in DSMN 500.

demonstrates that a lot of people who come to groups at church or discipleship classes are looking

for is the feeling of being connected to the Father’s household.

Adam and Eve to God given concise directions to the national family, the Israelites, and

eventually in the spiritual family found in the New Testament connecting all believers together.

the teacher and the student for real growth.