DEACON - CANDIDATE INFORMATION PACKET - Ryan Fields

In your pulpit ministry, how do you apply Scripture to life needs? Applying Scripture to life needs means helping God's people to see how the thrust of the passage preached bears on their lives. Effective preaching doesn't just present information; it seeks to demonstrate how the content of God's Word ought to impact every arena of life. This is ultimately because we can never exhaust the implications of the gospel; the entire Christian life is spent attempting to press deeper and deeper into the import of the gospel for how we should live, with no portion of our lives held back to remain unchanged. Effective preaching can thus be described as "bridge building": the task of the preacher is to build the bridge between the biblical world and the world of his hearers. If Scripture is not ultimately applied to the life needs of the congregation, then that bridge has not been sufficiently built. It is important that the preacher help God's people to envision what impact God's Word might have (by indicating possible avenues of application), but ultimately he must trust the Holy Spirit to drive home the Word in 1,000 particular ways that he could never have fully envisioned. Part of how I do this involves sharing from personal experience, being vulnerable with areas where the Word is both challenging to me (showing me my insufficiency and need) and also comforting to me (meeting that insufficiency and need). Briefly describe the role of the senior pastor as part of the elder board: The senior pastor is "first among equals" on the elder board, in the sense that all of the elders of the church are shepherds, called to keep watch over the flock (Acts 20:28, 1 Peter 5:2). I believe that healthy pastoral leadership recognizes both the significant role of the senior pastor as well as the constraints of what the senior pastor can do by himself. An effective senior pastor will thus work closely with the other shepherds, seeing that they are doing well spiritually and helping them to grow in their shepherding abilities. The senior pastor is called to cultivate a culture of gospel vulnerability among this group of men, leading in this by being transparent with them about areas of struggle and any need of prayer. The elders are the men that the senior pastor has the primary calling to come alongside and mentor, so that the church would have an increase of mature shepherds who can share the shepherding responsibility. This also means being proactive in developing leaders who could potentially serve as elders one day. The senior pastor (in conjunction with the chair of the elder board) is ultimately to provide leadership for this group of men, maintaining the priorities of word and prayer (Acts 6:2) and facilitating their care for the flock and oversight of its life and ministries in accordance with the Word of God. Briefly describe the role and relationship of the associate pastors to the senior pastor: The senior pastor and the associate pastors are, first and foremost, brothers in Christ and colleagues in the vital ministry of being vocational shepherds of the flock. The senior pastor labors alongside of the associate pastors as equals in the sense that they are all pastors, all charged with the high calling of pastoral ministry. The senior pastor is ultimately responsible for overseeing the staff on behalf of the elders, and so he is responsible for seeing that the associate pastors are faithful to their pastoral duties and mentored so that they grow in their capacity to shepherd the flock well. While senior and associate pastors would have distinct areas of responsibility, I would desire that they work extremely closely together, collaborating on various ministry efforts and praying for one another frequently. I would also desire that there would be a sharing of general pastoral duties in a way that is appropriate to their job

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