The Kerusso – June | 2023
Kerusso (Greek): “To publish, proclaim openly: something which has been done.”
Five Denominational Priorities (A Continuing Series by International General Superintendent Edwards) Thanks for your time and interest as I’ve been sharing these last months about the focus word for 2023 ... PEACE. As you know by now, “peace” is a mnemonic tool for remembering five denominational priorities that will continue to be foundational targets for us in EMC leadership: P Planting Churches E Educating Ministers A Aspiring to Holiness C Connecting People and Churches E Equipping Leaders The last of the five priorities conveyed through the peace acronym is “Equipping Leaders.” God’s WORD is crystal clear that this is something that we MUST do. In profoundly straightforward terms, the Apostle Paul admonishes us who are in ministry roles to EQUIP GOD’S PEOPLE. “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-13) We must be duplicating ourselves, empowering people to do the work of ministry. And implicit in the word “empower” is the task of giving power to ... which means releasing control. That’s hard, especially when we so badly want to ensure excellence and attention to detail. But if we don’t release power, we will never adequately train. One of the hardest things to do is to give others the freedom to make mistakes. Sure, we want to prevent catastrophic errors that deeply injure people and dishonor Christ, but proper discipleship and training will always involve taking some risk.
“Proper discipleship and training will always involve taking some risk.”
Over the next several years, we hope to find increasingly better ways of empowering pastors, and lay people in our local churches. We welcome your thoughts and ideas as to how best to do so. In all of our District meetings around the country this year, we have been asking for specific feedback on just that subject. As soon as we have time to process the information we have gained from attendees in Tennessee, California, Washington, and North Carolina, we will report back to you about what we hope to see happen in this regard in the coming years in the EMC. Thanks! Max Edwards EMC International General Superintendent