There once was man of God who was burdened for the land of
Nogos Pel. He prayed for the people of
the land and sought the Lord for help in reaching the lost of the land. One night in a dream the Lord showed the man
of God a vision of twenty five ministers being sent to help him reach the land
of Nogos Pel. It happened that there
were twenty five cities in the land so it seemed easy enough to send a minister
into each city to become the pastor of the respective cities. So he sent them and the man of God was
declared to be the overseer of the work.
As the ministers worked they began reaching the people of
Nogos Pel. A few times a year the
pastors came to gather to vote on who’s who in the land and talk about their
efforts and successes. After a while
some of the churches began to grow larger, but some weren’t growing much at
all. The pastors whose congregations had
grown larger began to build large buildings and move from their rented store
fronts and homes. They drove nice big
cars and were usually the ones elected to the positions of importance.
But the pastors whose congregations had not grown very much,
or in some cases, lost members to the bigger churches began to feel left
out. Some of them stopped going to the
few meetings that were held. They just
stayed in their cities trying to do better, wondering what was wrong with them. Some began to look with envy at the large
churches and bitterness began to rise up, especially among those whose members
had transferred to the nice, big churches.
And of the largest of the churches there began to arise a spirit of completion.
It wasn’t long until many of the pastors were not fellowshipping
with the rest. While the man of God
watched over the land he seemed helpless to stop the break down that was taking
place among the twenty five pastors and their churches. His heart broke as he watched the progress of
evangelism grind to nearly a halt.
Energies of the ministers had become consumed with buildings, the lack
of buildings, envy, bitterness, and maybe most of all the loneliness of trying
to reach a city by (what they increasingly felt like) themselves. Each pastor had come to focus on what other
pastors were doing and how they compared.
If they were faring better than the others they were lifted up in
pride. If they were doing worse than
others they were cast down in discouragement.
While the twenty five pastors had reached some of the people
of Nogos Pel, most of the inhabitants had not yet even heard the message. After a number of years, the increase of
souls stopped… or nearly so. The man of
God who once had a burden for the lost of his land now had a bigger burden for
the pastors and their flocks. It looked
to him as he grew older that instead of a thriving, flourishing work of God the
effort of reaching Nogos Pel had succumbed to dysfunction.
One night he was awakened from a deep sleep by the screams
of people. He raced to the window of his
house to look out into a night sky that was aglow in reddish orange light that
was being reflected by what looked to be billowing clouds. The screams continued and he could hear them
getting louder and closer. He could see
leaping flames reaching into the night as a devastating fire raged through out
the land. With a sadness beyond
imagination he watched as the people of the land perished in the fire and
beyond the sadness of the loss of the people was the sadness at the loss of the
very works of the ministers that were supposed to be there to save the land of
Nogos Pel.
Then, as if in a miraculous transformation, the man of God
awoke out of his horrendous dream. As he
regained his composure the clear and unmistakable voice of God spoke, “Twenty
five ministers are coming, yea and twenty six, and they are called to specific
ministries: two will be prophets, eight will be evangelists, eight will be
pastors, and seven will be teachers.
These will work together for the sake of my kingdom and my kingdom’s
orchestration will be accomplished by the twenty sixth as he hears my voice of
direction… He is the Apostle of Nogos Pel.
You, Man of God, are that Apostle… fulfill my will and reach this land!”
Just a thought: Is it
more effective for twenty five ministers to work individually, or as a team? The five fold ministry is a team effort.
