Q3. Quality Construction

[Pastor Ralph]

Q3. (1 Corinthians 3:9-13) In terms of building congregations in our day, how would you assess quality vs. slip-shod building materials and methods? How important is improving your ministry skills through training? Prayer? Practice? Diligence? Faithfulness? Doctrinal accuracy? Devotional life? Openness to spiritual gifts? Etc.

[pickledilly]

When judging what is built for God’s Kingdom, the quality test begins with the foundation. That base can only be Christ Jesus’ death, grave, and resurrection (because they are the evidence that He was anointed and sent by God to establish redemption – Acts 17:31).  Then, the building materials reveal the work that’s done.  Motives and craftsmanship that could not be seen during construction will be openly manifest on the Day of Judgment when tested by fire. 

 

This makes me think of the house I’ve lived in for 17 years.  Within 18 months of putting the house to the test of practical living, we began to seriously realize dozens of ways the contractor and laborers made things look so very nice while hiding the fact that, though we were paying for new construction, we were being cheated with shoddy workmanship and cut rate re-use materials.  And we’ve endured the aggravation, inconvenience, and expense of repairing, replacing, and redoing ever since.  The quality hasn’t held up because it wasn’t authentic.

 

None of us will escape the Day when the Master Builder ultimately reveals and judges what and how we’ve built for His Kingdom.  Have we been motivated by the Spirit’s guidance rather than our own version of wisdom? Have we each properly prepared ourselves for the work?  Have we followed His blueprints for construction?  Have we been careful to set aside personal plans, desires, and preferences with a determination to labor according to His vision and direction?  Have we been faithful to the task, never giving up on our assignment?  Have we been willing to humble and sacrifice self in order to give our very best to whatever task He assigns?  Were we cheapskates who cut corners to make things look good without the expense of quality materials and sacrifice of honest labors?  Have we been careful not to seek personal acclaim for what He builds through us?  I think His concern is more with what kind of worker we have been than with what our work actually looks like to others, because looks can be deceiving to the eye.  He looks within to examine the heart.

 

Pastor Ralph has given us a great list of ways to improve our ministry skills.  Our work on earth will not endure for the Kingdom or be pleasing to God without investing ourselves in proper preparation, training in the Word, and perseverance.  We’ve got to make sure we stay faithful to the plans and foundation of truth He has laid.  We have to stay in conversation and communion with Him through prayer and meditation on His Word.  We must let the Spirit reveal our individual spiritual gifts and show us how to use them righteously.  And our ultimate motivation for faithful obedience must be love.

 

[van]

In building congregations today I feel to assess the quality of worship and service is foremost important to building materials. We have more drugs, and all types of sins in the world today that wasn't heard of in the early church. Today, it is even more important to build your ministry skills, prayer life, practice because of the times we live in. The world has taken a lot of our men, women, and teens to a life of crime, drugs and alcohol. You even see little children smoking. If we are going to build leaders in the leaders today, we must first be leaders ourselves fighting in God's army. We must study and practice what we preach! God wants his people to give their entire mind, soul and body to Him for His use only, and we must be walking . In the Lord if others are going to follow.

[WinstonY]

The building of a church must be upon its foundation . This can only be, as Paul says the foundation of Christ. If churches deviate ftom this than the churc will fail. Many churches in North America are failing. Is it possible that we are working on the wrong foundation.

This list is a great one to expand our skills and make them better.

[IvoryEagle]

In terms of building congregations in our day, how would you assess quality vs. slip-shod building materials and methods?

WE START OFF OK; THEN THE NUMBERS INCREASE, THE FAME EXPANDS, AND THE FOCUS BECOME NUMBERS, REPUTATION, AND THE EMOTIONS WE ARE NOW DISCUSSING....jealousy and quarreling.

 

 

How important is improving your ministry skills through training?  IT IS IMPERATIVE.

 

 

Prayer?  NON-NEGOTIABLE

 

 

Practice? NON-NEGOTIABLE

 

 

Diligence? NON-NEGOTIABLE

 

 

Faithfulness? NON-NEGOTIABLE

 

 

Doctrinal accuracy? NON-NEGOTIABLE

 

 

Devotional life? NON-NEGOTIABLE

 

 

Openness to spiritual gifts? Etc.THIS ONE IS FRAGILE.  SOMETIMES GIFTS ARE MEASURABLE AND SOMETIMES NOT. THE GIFT OF "PRESENCE" IS OFTEN IGNORED; IT BRINGS MUCH ENCOURAGEMENT...

[JanMary]

Q3. (1 Corinthians 3:9-13) In terms of building congregations in our day, how would you assess quality vs. slip-shod building materials and methods?

 

Slip shod methods are usually quick, easy and flashy, and will not hold up for more than the "short haul", resulting in a facade of disappointment. There is no substitute for the excellence the Lord calls us to in every area of life...attainable through His strength, wisdom, leading, and provision. His Kingdom will last forever...because He gave His very best...HIS ALL, HIS LIFE BLOOD. He calls us to lay down our will and to allow Him to build the Kingdom in and through our lives. "Flash" grabs attention, like the Barker outside the circus tent or the sleaze bars seducing  the crowds to come in and taste his wares.  But after the shoddy performance the crowds leave empty and disillusioned. Jesus is longing for the committed, who will walk with Him and worship Him for the long haul...through the hard and lean times of testing, as perseverance and patience are built into the character. There are no short cuts to excellence, and the result is worth the "building" and waiting. "Shooting star" churches, and believers built with shoddiness are here today and burned out or gone tomorrow.

 

How important is improving your ministry skills through training? Prayer? Practice? Diligence? Faithfulness? Doctrinal accuracy? Devotional life? Openness to spiritual gifts? Etc.

 

They are all critical, necessary, desirable...each one of these is a building block upon the foundation of our faith. If life is looked upon as a marathon, it began with baby steps, then walking, running, training in endurance, and perseverance in order to finish strong at the finish line. No short cuts, no flash in the pan, no gimmicks will get us to the long term goal. Equipping  is required, and the Person of the Holy Spirit has been sent to live in us to do just that, with our cooperation. My desire is to allow Him to finish and complete the work He began in me.

[Sank T Monius]

1 Corinthians 3:9-13

Q). In terms of building congregations in our day, how would you assess quality vs. slip-shod building materials and methods?

A). There seems to be a lot of good quality along with an excessive amount of slip-shod building materials and methods.

#

Q). How important is improving your ministry skills through training? Prayer? Practice? Diligence? Faithfulness? Doctrinal accuracy? Devotional life? Openness to spiritual gifts? Etc.

A). It's important for me to improve my ministry skills through training because I will be judged by the work I do: "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." (1 Corinthians 3:13)

[Gerbrand van Schalkwyk]

In terms of building congregations in our day, how would you assess quality vs. slip-shod building materials and methods?

We have a church plant school in Zambia that is training people to become pastors in 6 months. I have often wondered how do you teach somebody to become a pastor in 6 months. I love the missionary who began this school dearly, but often his students becomes other pastor's head aches. It is scary when you hear preachers preach that teaching materials are more important than the Word of God. Many times all of us get hold of a verse that will make our lives much easier if we live in this way, and we never read the rest of the paragraph or chapter to see the context. We have to test all our building to the complete Word of God.

How important is improving your ministry skills through training? The top example says it all. We need proper training from the Word of God, not just some manual somebody put together.

Prayer? It is the only way to talk to God, to ask questions and then to react to His guidance.

Practice? Without following God' guidance we will never experience Him. Without that experience our faith will never grow because the God I believe in will not become real to me, it will stay just a theory I believe in.

Diligence? Faithfulness? Doctrinal accuracy? Devotional life? Openness to spiritual gifts? Etc. And so much more, all are important for their own reasons

[Lion of Grace]

Quality building in the church always has it's foundation on Salvation through Jesus Christ. Personal relationships with Jesus result in changed hearts. There is repentance, surety of grace and lives that are changed! We WANT to follow Jesus, confess our short comings, live in unity, discover more in God's Word and we DESIRE to live it! We live by the Spirit and have life.

Slip shod building materials and methods are cheap imitations. It is dead religion, works, people pleasing, lacking truth and lacking real FOLLOWERS of the truth. No deep growth is ever present because a root system is never developed. No one acknowledges sin in their lives and so sin remains resulting in disunity, fighting, arrogance and hatred. The foundation of slip shod churches is made of man, not God. They are often church "societies" and have little or no spiritual value because they are led by worldly principles.

 

It is very important to improve ministry skills through training with the intent to mature in our faith, but I would caution where the training is coming from. I know people who have come out of "spiritual training" with very worldly view points. The best training we have is from the Bible itself and the leading of the Holy Spirit. We can always trust in the original and the best. I Corinthians 1:18-31. 

We also train to run our race well. We mature in prayer as well as practicing our faith in diligence and faithfulness. We study the Word and develop truth in doctrine and become devoted to the Word as truth through devotionals and studies as well as meditating on them during our alone time with God. We open to the spiritual gifts given to us and use them to further God's kingdom.

"You know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize. So run to win!" That takes training, practice and endurance!

[hanks]

Q3. (1 Corinthians 3:9-13) 

In terms of building congregations in our day, how would you assess quality vs. slip-shod building materials and methods? 

How important is improving your ministry skills through training? 

Prayer? Practice? Diligence? Faithfulness? Doctrinal accuracy? Devotional life? Openness to spiritual gifts? Etc.

We can only build on the foundation, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for any other way is of no use and will always fail. He is our Rock! We can improve our ministry through all the training, prayer, practice, diligence, faithfulness, doctrinal accuracy, devotional life, openness to spiritual gifts as much as we want. But if it is based on human wisdom it will fail. It is ultimately only through the Word that we obtain spiritual insight. Remember we are the temple of God and His Spirit dwells in us (v16). We may think that if we are sincere and hard working in our work for the Lord that this is enough, but we cannot build a congregation by human wisdom only; it must be based on solid sound doctrine – the Word of God. This is what is needed today; not the watered down message that is preached today.  

 

[Highohfaith]

Q3. (1 Corinthians 3:9-13) In terms of building congregations in our day, how would you assess quality vs. slip-shod building materials and methods? How important is improving your ministry skills through training? Prayer? Practice? Diligence? Faithfulness? Doctrinal accuracy? Devotional life? Openness to spiritual gifts? Etc.

 

I feel many of the "mega" churches of today have lost the foundational truth found only through Jesus Christ.They are more concerned about how many people they get in the door in an effort to make more money so they can grow larger and larger congregations. And that's great if in the process they don't lose their main objective which is to teach and BE the body of Christ. The church is the body of Christ. Christ is a humble man, many church leaders today are not humbled but puffed up on power.

[brothered]

For too long church has been run by the clock. Start time-Stop time. Where is the Holy Spirits time?

 

If the congregation goes to the church building for the right reasons, prayed up, everything else will take care of itself. It seems these days they are trying to change worship to make it better. Back to the basics people. Try studying the Bible and preach it in the service. I enjoy singing and listening to other singers but when that is 3/4 of the service I look for another building to worship in.

 

Thank God for our pastor who wants to preach the solid Word of God. I just disagree with the congregation keeping him on the clock. That's my bag. If you wanna leave, leave,but let the preacher preach til he's empty.

[brothered]

For too long church has been run by the clock. Start time-Stop time. Where is the Holy Spirits time?

 

If the congregation goes to the church building for the right reasons, prayed up, everything else will take care of itself. It seems these days they are trying to change worship to make it better. Back to the basics people. Try studying the Bible and preach it in the service. I enjoy singing and listening to other singers but when that is 3/4 of the service I look for another building to worship in.

 

Thank God for our pastor who wants to preach the solid Word of God. I just disagree with the congregation keeping him on the clock. That's my bag. If you wanna leave, leave,but let the preacher preach til he's empty.

[Spen]

Q3. (1 Corinthians 3:9-13) In terms of building congregations in our day, how would you assess quality vs. slip-shod building materials and methods? “We can assess quality vs. slip-shod building materials and methods when the results look like something the world does instead of that abiding blessing that comes from Holy Spirit inspired congregations that spread love, increase faith, hope and joy in God and each other.” How important is improving your ministry skills through training? Prayer? Practice? Diligence? Faithfulness? Doctrinal accuracy? Devotional life? Openness to spiritual gifts? Etc. “Good question, these are all very important and like Paul said we want to “train ourselves in all godliness” because we all are or should be involved in the gospel proclamation and making disciples but people have different methods of doing that and God will make use of them all. However these things can become ends in themselves unless they have as their purpose getting us in a closer relationship with Christ Jesus Who is our Savior and the One who strengthens us and delivers the results God wants from our efforts.” 

[lighthouse2014]

Q3. (1 Corinthians 3:9-13) In terms of building congregations in our day, how would you assess quality vs. slip-shod building materials and methods? How important is improving your ministry skills through training? Prayer? Practice? Diligence? Faithfulness? Doctrinal accuracy? Devotional life? Openness to spiritual gifts? Etc.

When building congregations in our day with quality materials and methods we first start on the foundation of Christ, His teachings, His commands, His Crucifixion, burial and resurrection. Only on Christ can we build a true congregation. With materials that help edify the brothers and sisters in Christ. With the word that sets the congregation on fire and encourages them to spread His message of the Kingdom of God.  

Training helps us to further our knowledge and understanding of the Word. Prayer with doctrinal accuracy and learning new technic's in a way to convey the word. With faith, a devoted life to Christ, we help, perhaps to bring a simpler understanding to those who are with out God.         

[charisbarak]

Assessing quality vs slip shod churches is seeing if there is fruit.  Some denominations operate like a cruise ship--all these special things they do as a church--but have left out the Bible and it's study.  Programs are great--but the Word is greater.  It is the Word, coupled with the Spirit that make special programs really special.

 

It is important to sharpen all your ministry skills while you love and appreciate others and their gifts.

[peddystock]

many so called "church leaders " today are handling the word of God deceitfully are by so doing are not are taking heed how they build on the foundation which is Christ.

There is another gospel ; another Jesus ; another Spirit which is been preach today and many are built upon these false or demonic doctrine. we really need training --that is going back to the Bible reading it daily and asking the Lord to open our hearts so that we understand what God is saying to us.

prayer is very important in our walk with the Lord likewise the gift of the Spirit.

[peddystock]

many so called "church leaders " today are handling the word of God deceitfully are by so doing are not are taking heed how they build on the foundation which is Christ.

There is another gospel ; another Jesus ; another Spirit which is been preach today and many are built upon these false or demonic doctrine. we really need training --that is going back to the Bible reading it daily and asking the Lord to open our hearts so that we understand what God is saying to us.

prayer is very important in our walk with the Lord likewise the gift of the Spirit.

[Guitar Jim]

Q3. (1 Corinthians 3:9-13) In terms of building congregations in our day, how would you assess quality vs. slip-shod building materials and methods? How important is improving your ministry skills through training? Prayer? Practice? Diligence? Faithfulness? Doctrinal accuracy? Devotional life? Openness to spiritual gifts? Etc.

 

When we talk about building congregations we have to remember that it's God's timetable that matters. One church I attended for years split in two over the pastor's constant preaching about the need for revival. He couldn't preach revival into happening. That has to come from God. He arrived after having been called, as much out of desperation as anything else since we hadn't had a full-time senior pastor there for over two years, and set up shop with the notion that no one in the congregation was right with the Lord. If anything, the corollary was true. The membership numbers had fallen and the faithful remnant hung in there. They were strong Christians who were going along in the faith. To assume otherwise was the wrong path to take, but the new pastor took it anyway. The congregation split down the middle along doctrinal lines that weren't there before his arrival. He actually quit mid-sermon one Sunday morning. Turned the page in his sermon notes and just dropped his head and said: What's the use? But the damage had been done. He returned to a teaching ministry, which was where his real gifting lay anyway, and the church was left the task of re-building their whole ministry structure.

 

We need to do all the things Pastor Ralph listed above. We also need to be mindful that God has His agenda and we can't rush him. If we charge ahead we're doing so in our own strength. Quality is indeed the key to building a good congregation. It may take a bit longer to wait on the Lord but that's what we need to do as much as preparing ourselves for His work.

 

[blezed]

In terms of building congregations in our day, how would you assess quality vs. slip-shod building materials and methods?

1. When building on the foundation, which is Jesus Christ, you must build with high quality material that matches God standards. 

 

How important is improving your ministry skills through training? Prayer? Practice? Diligence? Faithfulness? Doctrinal accuracy? Devotional life? Openness to spiritual gifts? Etc.          

2.  It is very important to improve your ministry skills through those things mentioned above.  These are  the right doctrine as taught in the Bible and the right living as taught by Christ.  Will help to make sure that you use the right material to build on the foundation already given. 

[Craig]

A quality life as well as a quality ministry develops from the Word of God, prayer, and fellowship with the Holy Spirit.  These are quality materials that nothing else can replace.

[Old Jerry]

I would assess quality vs. slip-shod building materials and methods by the beliefs of the congregation. For example if they believe that there is only one way to get to heaven, which is Jesus Christ, and some of the other core beliefs then they have a quality congregation.

I think that they only way that we can improve our ministry skills is through prayer, practice, diligence, faithfulness doctrinal accuracy, devotional life and openness to the spiritual gifts.

[haar]

Q3. (1 Corinthians 3:9-13) In terms of building congregations in our day, how would you assess quality vs. slip-shod building materials and methods? How important is improving your ministry skills through training? Prayer? Practice? Diligence? Faithfulness? Doctrinal accuracy? Devotional life? Openness to spiritual gifts? Etc.

 

A congregation built by the power of the Holy Spirit where every builder uses the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to him correctly to build, the result will be a formidable strong structure that will stand the test of fire.

 

Ministry's skills can certainly be improved through training, prayer e.t.c as listed.

[dixonle]

Q3. (1 Corinthians 3:9-13) In terms of building congregations in our day, how would you assess quality vs. slip-shod building materials and methods? How important is improving your ministry skills through training? Prayer? Practice? Diligence? Faithfulness? Doctrinal accuracy? Devotional life? Openness to spiritual gifts? Etc.

 

Each church and each individual Christian within the church is held accountable for quality construction not only of buildings but of souls as well. In fact, Paul stated to the Corinthians that we was skilled, not shoddy, builder who concentrates on the quality of the construction from the inside out…that he was not just a run-of-the-mill builder but a highly skilled contractor.  Likewise today whether constructing buildings or souls, the foundations of such need to be laid in direct relation to faith in the LORD Jesus Christ.

 

In order to maintain those high skills maintained by Paul, we too must remain prayed up and trained up, taking advantage of as many training seminars and Bible studies in order to remain equipped for the work at hand.  Our skills need not be dull but continually sharpened in prayer, diligence, our faith, our knowledge and accuracy of doctrine, as well as remaining involved with our devotional life and being open to the spiritual gifts with which the LORD has blessed us.

[csreeves]

Q3. (1 Corinthians 3:9-13) In terms of building congregations in our day, how would you assess quality vs. slip-shod building materials and methods? How important is improving your ministry skills through training? Prayer? Practice? Diligence? Faithfulness? Doctrinal accuracy? Devotional life? Openness to spiritual gifts? Etc.

We are not in charge of building our church that is God's job. I feel we are the parts and our job is to grow in which we are given and spread the love of God.