Total Church chapter 13

Success is too often driven by and influenced by our society instead of established in the satisfaction of God's purpose. I am more and more convinced that the only way to establish healthy congregations, that is, congregations of healthy people is to stay small. Our philosophy is to do all that we can to insure that relationship is the priority. Individuals who have a strong, thriving relationship with Jesus and with each other. We have a strong emphasis on small group ministry but also we want the congregation to remain small enough that at the very least the acquaintances are strong enough that if any individual or couple or family stops attending it is noticed by all. We also strongly believe that the best way to penetrate our city is by establishing small pockets of witness in every little township we can. Closer is always better!
Concerning our model of leadership we see Ephesians 4:11-13 as the standard of ministry vision. We have set as our vision the intention of Jesus in giving ministry to the church. It was not to go into a city with a vision focused on taking that city for Jesus, but rather the focus of ministry is to be more microscopic in that we are called to help each other find our individual vision and help train and encourage one another to be faithful to that calling. If the people of our congregation are not active in works of service for the kingdom then we as God given Word ministry are failing in our mission. If people's lives are not being changed more and more into faithful witnesses of the gospel and it's power then we as Word ministers are failing. Character is the fruit that measures our success. I would also add that if character is the fruit of the Spirit then when Jesus points out the issue of false ministry in Matthew 7 he is telling us that we cannot follow someone whose life we do not know well. The fruit is not that people are healed, delivered etc. or that large numbers are attracted, many of those are strangers to Jesus, but the fruit must speak of their character which cannot be known from a distance.
I would also add that the diversity of Ephesians 4 speaks to me of Jesus intention of bringing health to the congregation through diverse perspectives of His Word. People need to hear any particular portion of scripture taught in the diverse perspective that only comes from teachers who see it from the view of a pastor, teacher, evangelist, prophetic and apostolic and proclaim it from their passion. I also believe this emphasizes the need to have a pulpit that is diverse. One man always doing all the proclaiming is never healthy for a congregation and simply occasionally bringing in an outside speaker cannot give the diverse diet of the Word that Jesus intended. Their should be a plural presentation of the Word and also a plural leadership providing direction for a congregation to experience a healthy diversity of Christ who cannot be truly presented through any one vessel in the Body of Christ.