Editors Note:
This is an excerpt from the Luke 10 Manual. You can find this book here on our site at this link in the resource section:
http://simplechurch.com.ua/en/resursy/knigi- materialy/336-rukovodstvo-luki-10.html

The Luke 10 Manual is an inspiring and practical training manual that looks closely at the mission given to us by Jesus.

Using Luke 10 as the background scripture passage, the book answers very practical questions about finding a man of peace, making disciples, and planting churches. The book will challenge your heart as well as give you practical tools for reaching your family, friends, and neighbors.

INTRODUCTION

It is a privilege to present this material to you . Let me begin by stating that the Bible, in its cultural assumptions, is an eastern book and that Jesus was an eastern man. The cultural background was Hebrew not Greek and the geographic back ground was the Middle East not North America. Thus, you, as easterners, are better able to understand what Jesus was teaching than I am.

However, let me use my authority as a westerner to emphasize one thing, “Do not do church as we have done it in the west for the past hundreds of years. It has not worked very well for us. Why should it work for anybody else?”

Сегодня утром, находясь в общении с Богом, меня затронула очень сильная фраза из гефсиманской молитвы Иисуса Христа за своих учеников:

«Я открыл имя Твое человекам, которых Ты дал Мне от мира; они были Твои, и Ты дал их Мне, и они сохранили слово Твое»
(Иоан.17:6)

Давайте внимательно посмотрим и возьмем для себя несколько уроков у самого Иисуса Христа.

1. Открыл имя Твое

Главная цель свидетельства – открыть людям Бога.
Мы можем много ходить вокруг и около Божьего имени, или упомянуть его всуе где-нибудь в конце встречи, чтобы человек понял, что он общается с христианином. Но это первое, что мы должны делать – открыть Бога человеку.

The New Testament doctrine of ministry rests therefore not on the clergy-laity distinction but on the twin and complementary pillars of the priesthood of all believers and the gifts of the Spirit. Today, four centuries after the Reformation, the full implications of this Protestant affirmation have yet to be worked out. The clergy-laity dichotomy is a direct carry-over from pre-Reformation Roman Catholicism and a throwback to the Old Testament priesthood. It is one of the principal obstacles to the church effectively being God’s agent of the Kingdom today because it creates a false idea that only “holy men,” namely, ordained ministers, are really qualified and responsible for leadership and significant ministry. In the New Testament there are functional distinctions between various kinds of ministries but no hierarchical division between clergy and laity. —Howard Snyder

When we go back to the Word of God and read it afresh, we see that the clergy profession is the result of our human culture and history and not of God’s will for the church. It is simply impossible to construct a defensible biblical justification for the institution of clergy as we know it. —Christian Smith

Dear Friends,

In the last two years, I have had many discussions about simple organic churches. Very often it boils down to the question, “Does this work?” or a criticism that this is just another method.

I confess that, in the last twenty years, I have often been guilty of pushing spiritual results and methods to accomplish those results. I am a very pragmatic person, who longs for the results we experienced in 1990-1998 in Ukraine.