Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition - Mentor's Guide

M E N T O R N O T E S / 1 5 3

Practicing Christian Leadership Effective Worship Leading – Worship, Word, and Sacrament

L E S S O N 3

Welcome to the Mentor’s Guide for Lesson 3, Practicing Christian Leadership: Effective Worship Leading – Worship, Word, and Sacrament . The overall focus of this lesson is on Christian leadership, the kind of leadership that can establish, equip, and empower disciples in the city for ministry. This lesson seeks to highlight the ways in which Christian leaders provide care for the spiritual well-being and welfare of others, those whom they either formally or informally lead in the body of Christ. Immediately, it would be helpful for you to understand, review, and teach to your students the general outlines of what is involved in Christian leadership as understood formally in the New Testament. There are two designations in the New Testament for leader, generally. The first, “presbyters” or elder (Gk. presbuteros ), which carries the connotation of someone who is both older and a believer, either for an older man or woman (1 Tim. 5.1, 2). It is used also for both Church leaders (Acts 14.23; 15.2, 4, 6) as well as members of the Sanhedrin (Acts 4.5). This term focuses on the dignity, station, and credibility of the role of Christian leadership. It speaks, likewise of authority and responsibility; elders had authority to distribute the funds of the body for the well-being of others (Acts 11.30), determine issues of doctrine and ethical practice (Acts 15.2-6, 22; 16.2), and to receive updates from the evangelists and apostles on the progress of their work (Acts 20.17; 21.18). They were to be entrusted with authority, respected in their service, and charged with prayer for the sick and those requiring care (1 Tim. 5.17; 1 Pet. 5.1-4; James 5.14). The second formal sense of leadership has to do with overseers, or bishops (Gk. episkopos ). This term related to the Christian leader’s responsibility to guard or give watch over the flock of God, in the same way that a shepherd watches over his sheep. In like manner, all of the duties of a shepherd are applied to the role of the bishop, to nurture, feed, guard, and protect the flock of God (cf. Acts 20.28; 1 Tim. 3.2; Titus 1.7). When we compare the Scriptures of Acts 20.17, 28 and Titus 1.5, 7 show that the terms for “elder” and “overseer” are used in a way to show that they refer to the same position in the Church. Some have described that presbuteros stresses the dignity of Christian leadership and episkopos focuses on the work Christian leaders do. This is a helpful

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