ED201 Empowering God’s People for Ministry
Overview
In Empowering God’s People for Ministry (ED201), Greg Ogden considers the concept of the “horizontal priesthood” of believers and their role as ministers to one another in the body of Christ. The course begins by considering what it means for the church to be a living organism and how historic approaches to church leadership have failed to empower believers to minister. Ogden evaluates various models of ministry and proposes a way forward that involves God’s call to all believers, the essential ingredients for life transformation, and the role of all believers to be ministers.
Top Highlights
“The new Reformation seeks nothing less than the radical transformation of the self-perception of all believers so that we see ourselves as vital channels through whom God mediates His life to other members of the body. And by extension we are God’s representatives to the world, a transformation of our self-perception, a new awareness of who we all are as the people of God, and how pastor and people interplay with each other to bring about this reality of a new vision about ourselves.” (source)
“By organism, I mean that the church is an interdependent, life-pulsating people who are indwelled by the presence of the resurrected and reigning Christ.” (source)
“So the Apostolic paradigm covers the first three centuries. When we come back, we will look at the Christendom paradigm and what has been in place for some 1600 years, leading up to our day. Because, remember, we always live with overlaps of paradigms. It’s not that one stops and another starts. There is an overlap of the paradigm, and so we’ll look at the Christendom paradigm when we return.” (source)
“. Part of maturity in Christ is to give your faith away. To walk alongside others as well.” (source)
“Joel Barker. He says, ‘A paradigm is a set of rules and regulations written or unwritten that does two things. It establishes or defines the boundaries, and it tells you how to behave inside those boundaries in order to be successful.’ It establishes boundaries and then determines how you should behave inside those boundaries in order to be successful. Why is this? Because people have certain paradigms of expectations of us, and that defines their boundaries of us. And then if we’re not living within those boundaries, then we’re not successful. If we are living within those boundaries, we will be.” (source)
- Title: ED201 Empowering God’s People for Ministry
- Author: Greg Ogden
- Series: Logos Mobile Education
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Print Publication Date: 2014
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Courseware
- Subjects: Christian life; Discipling (Christianity); Education › Discipling (Christianity)
- Resource ID: LLS:ED201OGDEN
- Resource Type: Courseware Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-05-04T00:29:53Z
Greg Ogden (DMin, Fuller Theological Seminary) lives out his passion of speaking, teaching, and writing about the disciple-making mission of the church after spending twenty-four years in pastoral ministry. Most recently Greg served as executive pastor of discipleship at Christ Church of Oak Brook in the Chicago western suburbs. From 1998-2002, Greg held the position of director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Fuller Theological Seminary and associate professor of lay equipping and discipleship.
Greg is the author of several books such as Unfinished Business, Discipleship Essentials, Transforming Discipleship, Leadership Essentials (with coauthor Daniel Meyer), and The Essential Commandment. He is a partner in the Global Discipleship Initiative (GDI), which trains, coaches, and inspires pastors and Christian leaders to establish indigenous, multiplying, disciplemaking networks, both nationally and internationally. Greg and his wife, Lily, have been married more than forty-five years and have one adult daughter and two grandchildren.