Black Churches Pay Attention......These are Issues That are Killing Our Churches

[Mark H. Stevens, Th.D]

1. More emphasis must be placed on soulwinning and outreach
initiatives, evangelism has to be outside the 4 walls of the church,
our understanding of an "evangelist" in many of our churches is
someone that get the saints excited and raise a big offering for the
church and himself. An Evangelist is a SOULWINNER plain and simple.
The Pastor has to disciple the new converts after they are won to
Jesus! The primary purpose of the Holy Ghost is to HELP us in
ministry (Acts 1:8). Ministry isn't just at a PULPIT! It is in
hospitals, Prisons, Nursing homes, and the street. The problem is
when you minister away from the pulpit no one can see you, too
many "preachers" like the spotlight rather than being a light!


2. The Office of Deacon MUST be restored to it's rightful place, we
could take a lesson from the Baptist church on this issue. We would
have more men and stronger men if they were groomed and trained to be
DEACONS! Deacons are not just old men holding the collection plate! I
was a Deacon at the age of 22, I tought Bible Study, Sunday School,
and led the street witnessing team! I did more ministry as a Deacon
than some Elders!


3. EDUCATION is NOT the enemy! We MUST make the requirements for
ordination TOUGHER! We have far too many preachers that are not well
versed in the scriptures, we know who sits on the general board, we
know who the state mother is, and the Clark Sisters latest CD...but
tell some of these ministers to stand toe to toe with a Jehovah's Witness and defend
The Bibles stance on the Trinity
and the deity of Jesus Christ.
Apologetically TOO MANY of our preachers are lacking! And don't tell
me "all I need is the anointing!" A sound Bible education ENHANCES
the anointing, if you can't read well, how can you understand the
Word and preach to others? With all thy getting get an
understanding...isn't that what the BIBLE say's?


4. Women need to be ordained with a stipulation, no woman can rise to
the office of Bishop. Women CAN and are called to PREACH! Nuff said!
Many of our COGIC churches were STARTED by women but woman are not
GOOD enough to sit in OUR pulpits? God forbid!


5. Youth Ministries MUST expand and think outside the box, if we lose
our youth the church will dry up and die! When I was 14 years old my
Baptist church had a "Youth Deacon Board" (I was one), The Older
Deacons mentored us, we delivered food to the sick and shut in,
washed seniors cars and cut thier grass....we need to better train
our boys to be men. True religion is to visit the widow AND the
FATHERLESS!



6. Foriegn Missions has to be MORE of a priority in the COGIC and in
Black churches in general, who better than black people to evangelize
3rd world countries? Our problem is we preach prosperity more than
the Gospel, prosperity doesn't work on the Mission Field. We MUST
fulfill the Great Commission, it was a command NOT an option!



7. Feeding the hungry is also a part of outreach, remember when the Apostles apointed Deacons? The purpose was centered around feeding poor widows, as the feeding ministry flourished the numbers of the church GREW! Acts of kindness draw people to Jesus, because JESUS primary mission was to the POOR and REJECTED!



Chaplain Mark H. Stevens, M.Min .

[Mark H. Stevens, Th.D]

Anna we don't agree often I must say AMEN on this reply

[Anna]

Mark:
You are basically describing in detail

James 1:27-
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
~~~~~~~~~~

Regarding the leadership pattern of the church, you of all ministers with your Hebraic education should know and teach that the leadership patter of the early church was based upon the Jewish Synagogue model. Here is an article explaining my point:

***
#15 (Acts 6:1-7) Providing for the Widows

The growth of the early Jewish church is nothing less than phenomenal. Even many priests are identifying with Jesus. But a new problem arises. It has to do with the care of widows. In this study we will cover how this problem was dealt with. But this will also be a good time to get a glimpse at how the early Church was structured.

This is Acts Study #15 (Acts 6:1-7) Providing for the Widows.

Vs1: "Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food."

Hellenistic Jews were Greek speaking Jews, sometimes referred to as Greek Jews. It doesn't necessarily mean that they were Jews from outside Israel, but in this case it may have been so. Actually there were many Greek speaking Jews in Israel. They had their own synagogues. It should be pointed out that Second Temple Judaism, was not a monolithic religion. It was made up of varied sects. Jewish Christianity became one of them.

As for the term 'Hebrew' this generally spoke of the Jewish Christians who were from Jerusalem, and the land of Israel in general. These were more traditional and conservative in their beliefs. They spoke Hebrew or Aramaic. But even this term tends to break down further. Remember how the apostles were referred to as Galileans.

It is difficult to say if these widows were from the land of Israel. From Pentecost to this point, many of the Jews who gathered from the nations did not want to leave. If you were a Jew who had just found your Messiah, would you want to leave Jerusalem? Probably not. So the company of believers keeps multiplying by the thousands.

As for the Hellenist widows being neglected in the serving of food, that may speak to a problem between the Hebrews and the Hellenists. The Hebrews weren't especially fond of the Hellenists. There may have been other reasons as well.

Special note: The seven men chosen to oversee the task of caring for the widows had Greek names. They could have been from the land, but it is likely that they were part of the Diaspora. Much of the gospel going into the world was done by Hellenist Jews. Paul could be referred to as a Hellenist, but he also called himself a Hebrew. So the terms could be loosely applied depending on the circumstances.

Leadership Pattern of the Early Church

Vss2,3: "So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, 'It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.'"

What we see being formed here is the office of the deacon. This office did not begin with Christians. It comes right out of the synagogues. Keep in mind that all these are Jewish believers. Their form of government would be set on the pattern of the synagogue.

Let's do a little lesson. Early on some of the Jewish believers began their own synagogues. The pattern was much the same as the traditional synagogue.

In fact the Christian Church today is patterned after the synagogue.

According to research here is how the Jewish Christian synagogue was organized. First you had the presiding officer. He was sometimes called the chief ruler, or elder. He was also spoken of as bishop. The chief ruler was the executive officer of the synagogue. This was the office that James the brother of Jesus held in the Jerusalem Church. (Elders were also called 'overseers'.)

If you recall, it was after all the discussion concerning Gentiles coming into the church, that we hear James say, "Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles." Why would James be the one to make the pronouncement? We will cover this more later. (Cf. Acts 15:19)

When James wrote his letter, he is the only writer to use the term 'synagogue' with regard to a Christian gathering. James says, "For if a man comes into your assembly (sunagoge) with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, 'You sit here in a good place,' and you say to the poor man, 'You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,' [you] ... become judges with evil motives?" (James 2:1-4)

But there was a second level of elders in the Christian synagogues, who were simply called elders or rulers. But all the elders would be considered pastoring elders. It is this group that Hebrews 13:17, has in view, where it says, "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you."

Then there was a third level, and this is where we get our term 'deacon.' The deacon was sort of a sub-elder in the local assembly whose duties differed from that of the primary elders (overseers). We will cover more on this later.

What needs to be understood, however, is that while the apostles had primary oversight during the formative years of the Christian faith, they did not serve as elders in local congregations. They were unique in their calling. Their job was to lay the foundations. But when they established a church in any locality, the church was established on the order of the synagogue. This is why when the apostles gathered in Jerusalem to discuss the issue of Gentiles, it says, "When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them."