Practical Flashcards
What are the qualities of a healthy pastor? A healthy church?
- Morally in good standing within community
- Making a positive impact in community
- Should be bearing fruit (Ga 5:22-23)
How would you assess yourself in light Paul’s qualifications defined in 1 Timothy 3:1-12 and Titus 1:5-9?
I believe that I am in good standing and in progress in these areas… The thing that I would personally be most concerned with at this time would be my ability to teach.
If you met someone today who was open to receiving Christ, how would you explain the gospel?
Biblical narrative: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration
- Chat about what hang ups they have with this narrative, discuss, and then ask if they would like to accept Christ!!
- Chat through Romans if they are still having issues and not ready to accept Christ at this point, encourage them to read the gospel of John
If you were guaranteed 3 years of discipleship with them, how would you equip and encourage them towards spiritual maturity?
- We would read through the entirety of the Bible together, I think this is crucial and I wish that someone would have pushed me to do this sooner in my own walk
- Would discuss topics that were new or challenging from reading the Bible together, or that interest them
- Encourage practicing all the common spiritual disciplines (Sabbath, Biblical study, silence and solitude, fasting…) and adopting those that are helpful for them
- Help them to discover what spiritual gifts they may have, and how they can lean into those gifts to build up the local church and serve their community
When was a time that you prayed for a sick person and they were healed? A time that they weren’t? what did/would you say to them?
- God is more concerned with being our Healer, than with healing every physical issue we might experience in the moment… Most physical healings that took place in the Bible were so that onlookers would come to believe in the God
- Sometimes there are things to be learned and gained in our spirit when we trust God through suffering, then in a physical healing in the moment
- (Luke 18:1-8) is an example of persistent prayer, even when it SEEMS that our prayers our not immediately answered… That we persist in hope of what could.
What steps would you take to bridge the cultural, generational, and socio-economic divisions within the local church?
- Intentionally seek diverse leadership (this will not guarantee diverse congregation, but keeping a narrow leadership will often breed a homogenous following)
- Keep finances separate from programming decisions (Never let the biggest check inform teaching, and do not aim for comfort or likes, aim for truth!)
- Young, attractive, hip speakers are not the only people with a microphone or up front… Make room for seasoned souls to guide. Flip side, board meetings aren’t only for the individuals who have been there the longest… get some youth in meetings to help guide, as well as learn how to manage a church well
What is your position/understanding of women in ministry? What is your response to passages such as 1 Corinthians 14:34, and 1 Timothy 2:12?
- Bible celebrates the God given gifts and talents of women (Miriam, Esther, Deborah), It is inconsistent that the NT would suppress women who’ve been gifted and are lead by the Spirit… So there MUST be something else going on!
- It would seem that Paul was addressing specific pastoral issues in these passages and not necessarily making a blanket statement over all women, of all time, in all churches… This is “descriptive”, not “prescriptive”…
- [Romans 16:1-2] Phoebe was a “deaconess” of the church and Paul acknowledged her as so
- The Bible MUST be consistent on it’s stance of women, and it would seem that a complimentary POV is inconsistent on Women in leadership as the Spirit has empowered and gifted them
How would you explain Foursquare practice on appointing both men and women to leadership positions?
We are egalitarian– So if men and women are believed to be able to hold the same positions of leadership, then our job is to be obedient to wherever and whoever the Spirit is calling, has gifted, and empowered to a position of leadership… whether they are a man or a woman.
What sort of attitudes and behaviors should be disciplined by a church?
- Titus 3:10-11 (Those who are divisive, Jesus is all about unity in the church body)
- Luke 17:3 (Rebuke those who are living in sin, so they might repent and be restored in community)
- Galatians 6:1 (Transgression should be met with gentleness, so that your brother might be restored through discipline)
How would you handle a situation in the church where resolution of a conflict cannot be resolved?
- Titus 3:10 (Have nothing to do with the individual who repeatedly will not listen to rebuke)
- Matthew 18:17 (Once you have attempted to reconcile privately, with small group, and then with the larger church body… the individual who will not listen should be treated as an “outsider”, and be released to their ways)
What Scriptures inform your method of discipline?
- Hebrews 12:10-11 (Discipline is good, though painful it trains us in righteousness when we submit to it)
- Job 5:17-18 (Discipline is difficult, and at times requires breaking down of an individual so that they may be reshaped and restored in fullness to what the Creator intended for them to be!)
How would you counsel someone about getting a divorce?
Matthew 19:3-9
- God’s original plan from Creation was that the material covenant would not be severed, as two became one
- You may be ABLE to divorce, but the question is, SHOULD you? (No… Covenant relationship)
How would you counsel a person who wishes to marry again following a divorce?
Matthew 5:31-32
- Only on the grounds of sexual immorality appears to be grounds for remarriage following a divorce according to Scripture
- There is reasoning that could be drawn according to the character of God to suggest that perhaps abuse would be grounds for divorce, and then perhaps remarriage, but it is not “clearly” laid out in Scripture
How would you counsel a person who confesses to being involved in sexual immorality?
- 1 Corinthians 5 and 6 (STOP, you are walking in sin!)
- 1 Peter 1:14-16 (We are called not to follow after our passions, but rather to be holy as our God is holy)
- Romans 8:13 (Put to death the ways and passions of the flesh, and living in obedience to the Spirit)
How would you counsel someone who received the Lord many years ago, then fell away and lived a bold life of sin, and now wants to be restored to the church?
- Awesome, so glad that you want to repent and return to Christian community!
- What’s your story, and how did you arrive at this conviction of desiring restoration?
- Parable of the prodigal son…
- Romans 6, now cease sinning and walk in the light
