“HOW GOD ORGANIZES PEOPLE FOR EFFECTIVE ACTION”
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A Paper
Submitted to
Dr. Clay Anthony
The Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary
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In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Course
Discipleship Ministries
DSMN 500
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By
Jeremiah Hagler
February 15, 2010
When it comes to ministry one of the hardest things to do is organization, by this I mean
organizing people so that they can me the most effective and reach people for Christ. Often we
want to serve in a certain ministry but do not realize that we are not equipped for that ministry. A
good leader is someone that can see the heart of his or her volunteers but also put their people in
place to succeed. God has gifted us all with special gifts and has given us all different lives to
live and it is with those gifts and life experiences that we can most effectively minister to the lost
and to the church as a whole. I have seen how hard it is to organize people for ministry first
hand, when I was an undergrad at Liberty I did an intern ship at a church in the area and one of
the first tasks I was given was organizing the high school students that wanted to help out in the
teen room. I should add that I had been attending this church for a couple years before doing the
internship so I hade a good idea of where the students would fit and who they were as people and
followers of Christ. The tricky part came into effect when I had some students that wanted to
participate in the worship ministry, but they were not that equipped to play instruments. I also
had students that wanted to work with me in the bible study we had for some of the athletes but
they had no real way to relate to theses students. I do not say this to discourage them from
ministering to these people but as Rick Warren puts it in his book Purpose Driven Church; God
has a S.H.A.P.E. for us when it comes to ministry and we must determine it.1 I know that you are
probably asking yourself; what in the world is S.H.A.P.E.? Shape is an acronym, which stands
for: Spiritual Gifts, Discovering The Motivated Direction of Your Heart, Abilities, and
Experience.2 This acronym was something I used when it came to organizing those high school
students. When it comes to organization I think Mitchell put it well in the book when he wrote;
1 Warren, Richard. The purpose driven church: growth without compromising your message & mission. Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Pub., 1995.
2 Ibid.
“the more clubs leaders have in their bags, and the more capable they are of using them, the more
effective the shot, no matter where the ball lies.”3 So how then does God organize people for
effective ministry? To answer this question we shall look at both scripture and historical
evidence.
The first thing I would like to look at is the idea of “Job Design” and how it applies to
ministry. According to the business dictionary “Job Design” is defined as; “Work arrangement
(or rearrangement) aimed at reducing or overcoming job dissatisfaction and employee alienation
arising from repetitive and mechanistic tasks"4 another definition of “Job Design” is; “Job design
involves systematic attempts to organize tasks, duties and responsibilities into a unit of work to
achieve certain objectives. Job design integrates the work content and qualifications required for
each job that meets the needs of employee and the organization.”5 So Job design then is simple
defining job tasks and the work arrangements to accomplish them.6 So then how does the idea of
“Job Design” tie into scripture? How should we apply this within our own ministries?
When it comes to Numbers 1-5, the first thing that was done was there was a census
conducted. The census was conducted to determine how many men there were between the ages
of twenty & sixty. They were doing this to determine how many men were able to go to war. I
believe that this is exactly what Michael Mitchell had in mind when he wrote about the
3 Mitchell, Dr. Michael R. Leading, Teaching, & Making Disciples. Bloomington: CrossBooks, 2010.
4 "Job Design definition." BusinessDictionary.com - Online Business Dictionary.
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/job-design.html (accessed February 18, 2011).
5 "Job Design." HubPages. http://hubpages.com/hub/Job-Design (accessed February 18, 2011).
6 Schermerhorn, John R., Richard Osborn, and James G. Hunt. Organizational behavior. 7th Ed. New York: Wiley,
2000.
frequently used metaphors used for ministry context in the course textbook.7 As we dig into
Numbers 1-5 we must also not fail to forget the context of numbers, the Israelites were
organizing to take Canaan by force. This was God’s command and the Israelites were following
after God’s command so this preparation was needed. The next thing we notice in Numbers is
that the Levites were not included in the census of the men. They were not included in the census
because their purpose was to protect the Tabernacle. The Levites were also to transport the
Tabernacle and the various furnishings from within. This was not all the Levites were called to
do; they were also to set everything up when it was to be pitched. One thing that is very
interesting to me is that fact that the bible refers to the Tabernacle as testimony. The word that is
used denotes the activity of God creating the world.8 It is important to note that scripture tells us
that the very presence of God was in the tabernacle. The fact that the God was in the Tabernacle
is more important than any war. The importance that we see here is the importance of
maintaining the churches purity and we see this as we see that it was important that the
Tabernacle or place of God was not to be defiled. If we are to be effective in our ministry then
we must realize that the presence of God cannot reside where there is impurity and we must
strive to maintain the purity of our ministry just as the Levites did with the purity of the
Tabernacle. So now that we have examined “Job Design” and we have examined Numbers 1-5,
what does the rest of scripture have to say about how God organizes people for effective action?
The next thing we should look at his four different passages in the New Testament as they
pertain to how God organizes people for effective action. The first passage that I would like to
look at is Mark 3:14 which states, “And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so
7 Ibid.
8 Friedrich, Gerhard, and Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Theological Dictionary of The New Testament. Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Eerdmans, 1968.
that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach.” Here we see the twelve and
we see that they were with God and that God planned on sending them out to preach His word.
The twelve had a twofold task at hand, be with Christ and that they were to be sent by God to
preach.9 The next verse we will look at is Acts 4:13 which states, “Now when they saw the
boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were
astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” The first thing we see here is
that Peter and John were bold; boldness is an important word in Acts, which depicts Spirit-
inspired courage and confidence to speak in spite of any danger or threat.10 The second thing we
see is that they were uneducated or common; the two words do not mean that they were illiterate
or unintelligent but rather that they had not gone through the advanced training of the rabbinic
schools. 11 Finally in 1 Thessalonians 1:5 & 2:5 the apostles came to the people full of conviction
and blameless; by doing such they preserved the testimony of God which we previously had seen
was important to maintain. Another thing we see here is that only God can attest to the inner
motives of a human heart.12 As we look at these passages in the New Testament there is clear
evidence that the people of God have been with Him. As His people we should be prepared to
serve Him in ministry and be prepared to witness and share the good news of His word. When it
comes to serving Him we are to be above reproach and guard our testimony so that His work is
9 ESV study Bible: English Standard Version. ESV text ed. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Bibles, 2008.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.
done. So what would this look like today if these principles were taken seriously? How would
my ministry be impacted by these principles and how would I place them into action?
So what would an environment for discipleship ministry "look like" if these principles
were taken seriously? Most churches today would look very different if they were in fact to
adhere to these principles. One big thing that would be different is that learning objectives would
be clearly defined by the minister and people with the appropriate skills, gifts, and life
experiences for discipleship ministry would be serving. I say this not to say that discipleship is
the only important ministry in a local church, far from it! We are the body of Christ and we all
have different gifts and those gifts should be used accordingly within all the ministries of the
local church. Like I said previously it is unlikely that you would want your deacons leading
worship or you musicians doing the churches taxes, God has given us all different skill sets and
an appropriate ministry would use those skill sets to their full potential. If the learning objectives
are spelled out well then it should be understood that an effective discipleship ministry would
require some sharing of faith. As we saw in Mark 3:14 the apostles where called to not only be
with Jesus but they were also called to preach. I refer to this passage not to say that I will expect
all workers and Christians to preach at the pulpit but that we must be able to share our faith with
passion and conviction. The next thing that is of great important is purity; we are called to live a
life that is above reproach when it comes to ministry. There are things that the world may say are
suitable for my age but I must live a life of conviction and desire to please God and the same
must go for those in ministry. I say all this to say this, the model I believe we should follow is
one that includes an environment where true life changing discipleship can take place, one that
determines from the body who is fit for service, equips those that are fit for service to serve the
church, and finally sends them out so that they can make disciples and repeat the cycle.
REFERENCE LIST
ESV study Bible: English Standard Version. ESV text ed. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Bibles, 2008.
Friedrich, Gerhard, and Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Theological Dictionary of The New Testament.
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1968.
"Job Design." HubPages. http://hubpages.com/hub/Job-Design (accessed February 18, 2011).
"Job Design definition." BusinessDictionary.com - Online Business Dictionary.
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/job-design.html (accessed February 18,
2011).
Mitchell, Dr. Michael R. Leading, Teaching, & Making Disciples. Bloomington: CrossBooks,
2010.
Schermerhorn, John R., Richard Osborn, and James G. Hunt. Organizational Behavior. 7th Ed.
New York: Wiley, 2000.
Warren, Richard. The Purpose Driven Church: Growth Without Compromising Your Message &
Mission. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Pub., 1995.
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