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 Nepotism in the kingdom of men

NEPOTISM IN THE KINGDOMS OF MEN

Anyone who has ever been around the power structures of the kingdoms within Christendom know that powerful men put into place men who will not question them. They typically surround themselves with what the world would call " yes men." It is of course the opposite of the Biblical model but perfectly in line with the world and how it runs itself. It is interesting that we hear and know nothing of the children of the Apostles. Why? Because it was not a dynasty, it was not a family business where sons and daughters are promoted by virtue of who their fathers are. Time and again we see this within Christendom. David Wilkerson managed to avoid so many of the problems of other men with similar sized organisations. He could have easily promoted his own son and groomed him to take over when he retired, but instead he puts an ex-policeman from Canada into that position. Sadly he is a very rare exception. Jesus has to be preeminent in our lives, in our gatherings and in our structures and we have to be but mere bond servants to the cause of Christ and to those who follow Him.............bro Frank

 2017/2/28 8:24
twayneb
Member



Joined: 2009/4/5
Posts: 2256
Joplin, Missouri

 Re: Nepotism in the kingdom of men

Sometimes I am amazed...No, wait, I am always amazed that God uses us to accomplish His purposes given that we are so apt to mess it all up by relying on our flesh instead of listening to and obeying Him when He speaks to us by His Spirit. Salvation does not come from birth, neither does gifting, anointing, and calling. The trick is to learn to subject the flesh to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to tell us what God desires for us to do.


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Travis

 2017/2/28 8:28Profile
StirItUp
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Joined: 2016/6/4
Posts: 949
Johannesburg, South Africa

 Re: Nepotism in the kingdom of men

Oh brother Frank, a hearty amen to that!

Of course no-one would mind if the son had the calling and anointing of the Spirit evident in his life.

In any case, all who desire to be leaders in the kingdom of God must understand it means going down down down...becoming servant of all.

Blessings,


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William

 2017/2/28 8:31Profile
sermonindex
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Joined: 2002/12/11
Posts: 39795
Canada

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 Re:

Quote:
David Wilkerson managed to avoid so many of the problems of other men with similar sized organisations. He could have easily promoted his own son and groomed him to take over when he retired, but instead he puts an ex-policeman from Canada into that position.



Brother, I am not sure if you know that Gary Wilkerson is the senior leader of World Challenge, and is running the conferences that Wilkerson used to run preaching to pastors all over the world. It is good though that he did not put him in charge of the Times Square Church also!

It also has to do with association and time. Meaning that to spend alot of time with a family member you see him as a faithful steward, there would be many other faithful stewards out there but for the founder to see clearly one around him the most makes it a easy choice to choose a family member. Is this always wrong? No. But at times it can lead to great problems as you are trying to highlight.

Men are men and God uses leaders in the body of Christ who are men so there is always failure and lack of good judgement at times involved.

For instance at this point I do not know many others other then my wife would could run sermonindex.net with zero agenda. I know there are other brethren out there that could but because knowing my wife so well I sense in her this strongly.


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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon

 2017/2/28 9:43Profile









 Re:

HI bro Greg,

I was aware that his son held a position in one of his many ministries, in fact I read Gary's biography of his dad and it was excellent. Gary is the pastor of a church in Colorado.

I was talking about men who have their children replace them when they retire or die. We see no biblical evidence of this. If, for instance, your ministry is the Lord's and not yours and you had to be replaced for any reason, dont you think the Lord could bring a replacement for His own work rather that relying on the wisdom and ways of the world? This was how Carter Conlon came to Time Square church, by the will and the actions of the Lord............bro Frank

 2017/2/28 11:39









 Re:

A good example would be Joel Olsteen succeeding his father John Olsteen as pastor of Lakewood Church. If this is not nepotism. I do not know what is.

Bro Blaine

 2017/2/28 11:57
Sree
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Joined: 2011/8/20
Posts: 1953


 Re:

There are some really good points in this post. I agree there is a great danger of assuming that God's anointing passing from one generation to another. It often happens in countries like India where everything by default is assumed to pass from generation to another. So even Christians have the same mentality. The ministries like "Jesus Calls", they boast about anointing passing from generation to generation!

The point to look is, are they opening the doors for others to minister outside their family? All those who believe in generational passing of anointing, they keep certain roles reserved only for their siblings. They do not even project anyone else for those roles. It is same as a political party in which the son becomes the youth party leader and after the father's retirement, becomes the party leader. No one else is even given any title of leader at any level in the party, say at youth level or higher level.

Having said this, we should be legalistic about son taking up the ministry. There can be cases when the son is genuinely chosen by God for continuing the ministry.


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Sreeram

 2017/2/28 12:22Profile









 Re:

I agree Sree, culture plays a major role in how we live our lives and the decisions that we make, but, as new creatures in Christ who now belong to another kingdom, our culture should be the culture of Christ and His Word should be our only guide. In the absence of any teaching or example in the Word that the gifts and the callings of the NT are passed from one generation to another in the capacity of an office, rather they come directly from God, we should follow the Word and not the historical examples or precedents lest we make the mistake of piling one error upon another. The world changes, people change and cultures change but the Word of God, we would all agree, never changes.

One last point. When I write about ministry, I have specific and Biblical ideas in mind. These would be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors (or "shepherds") and teachers, and they remain active and valid offices in the Body of Christ. In general ministry I would also include the giftings of Word of wisdom Word of knowledge, Gifts of healings Miracles,Prophecy Distinguishing between spirits Tongues Interpretation of tongues and so on. Obviously those who operate in an office of the Body would at a very minimum be gifted with one of these gifts.

I believe that the offices of the Body deserve to be supported. That's it for me. The multitudes of so called ministry are legion. I have my own website, more than one actually and I write, that is my calling, but I do not consider this a ministry to be supported. Nor do I consider it a gifting that I would profit from in any way. I understand that I have a high view of the Church and how it operates but that is the way I feel and obviously I consider it to be biblical.............bro Frank

 2017/2/28 12:41





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