Just had my first leadership meeting in prayer and what a blast. Had so many leaders in the congregation tell me that they are glad I prayed for them and that they heartily received my prayer for them. What an encouragement.

I also shared my vision of ministry: A Preaching Institution. My heart is to train people up in the delivery of God's word. Once we have that in place, and more and more people are confident, competent, and effective with the rhetorical delivery of God's word as it would have been communicated to the first century audience just after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that is the key to the multiplication of the ministry on a grandeur scale like we have never seen.

To be honest, it really is the only part of the ministry that can be truly instructed for effectiveness. Lots of people attempt to instruct in prayer, but this falls short as God hears the prayers of the faithful for their relationship with him rather than their effectiveness of delivery. Lots of people try to instruct in evangelism, but this comes with relationship as well, since people only listen and hear from those they are close to mostly.

I see the vision with terrible clarity: a group of people eager to preach the word. I provide the tools needed to effectively read the Scriptures as the author intended them to be heard (as opposed to buffet-snatching random topics out of it). Once they grasp the idea of Scripture as a social discourse between speaker and audience (which is the way they were intended to start with) then they understand how words will impact their audiences for the faith of Jesus Christ. That is the inchoation of their ministry skills as effect preachers of the word and developers of the faith. Christ was a rhetorician.

That was the point of the faith, or should I say, the modus operandi: effective delivery of the Scriptures. Jesus did not intend to create more Scriptures, otherwise he would have appointed a secretary to dictate his delivery, as God did in the OT to Israel. But he did not do this. What he did do was train up preachers and disciplers in the Scriptures that already had been written and send them off to go create assemblies in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The goal has been set, the vision cast, and now . . .
                 
                       Let the Labor Begin.
                        Come Lord Jesus, Come.