Let Jesus Lead: The Church in Unity Following the Leader

By Phil Oakley

Discover how churches that find themselves in discord can allow Jesus, the head of the church, to lead them to unity and empower them to be the church that God wants them to be. One of the greatest problems that the church has today is that we present a picture of division and infighting to the world around us.

Let Jesus Lead shows some reasons why churches have arguments and gives a biblical answer to how we can find unity and strength in moving forward as the unified body of Christ. Learn how culture leads us away from what God desires the church to be. Understand biblical teachings that lead us to know how we can find unity. Take concrete steps to organize the church more like the early church was organized. Read about an example that shows how a church can go from total chaos to being unified. Let Jesus Lead will help you find the courage to make the changes in your life and church so that God can work in a powerful way in your local body of believers to make a difference in the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490824512

Phil Oakley

Phil Oakley has served as a missionary and pastor for nearly thirty-five years allowing him to have insight into many churches. He is presently working with sixty-eight churches as an associational missionary. He and his wife, Beth, have three grown daughters and live in Morganton, North Carolina.

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Copyright © 2014 Phil Oakley.

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-2450-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-2451-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014901669

WestBow Press rev. date: 01/30/2014

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1   Our Present Reality

Chapter 2   Unity in the Body

Chapter 3   The Abomey Story

Chapter 4   Placing the Proper Value on Leadership

Chapter 5   Let Jesus Lead, as the Head

Chapter 6   Every Part of the Body Needs to Function

Chapter 7   Acknowledging Our Need

Chapter 8   Conclusion

Preface

I sit here today as a disciple of Jesus Christ on a journey with Him. The Lord has given me a strong conviction that I should write these words and share them with Christians who will read them. I am neither a theologian nor a scholar. Until now I have never considered writing a book. I only dare do so because I believe these things that I write are important for our times so that we can do a better job at being the church, the body of Christ, in this world in which we live.

I write this book because I believe that the Bible has some very important teachings that we as His church in America are by and large missing. The Holy Spirit has lead the writers of the New Testament to share some amazing principles about how the Church is to function. The book of Acts shows how the early church did function and it was totally amazing. The results were also amazing and for that reason the Gospel message spread far and wide all over the world. There was a mighty power that came from God through the church that allowed it to impact the world. I believe it was because they were putting in practice the principles that God had laid out for His church through the leadership of the apostles and those who were to follow them. It is these principles that I want to lay out before you and I encourage you to reflect on some current conditions that exist that keep us from seeing God’s power unleashed in our churches.

For over fifty years now, I have been a Christian and a member of a local church in various places. During this time, I have studied the Bible and tried to understand what it teaches concerning the church and how it should function as the Body of Christ. I have served in ministry positions as a Youth Director, a Pastor, a Missionary and now as a Director of Missions. I have tried to lead the churches I have been associated with to be more effective and to touch the world around them with the Gospel message.

Over the course of my ministry in the church, I have seen some things that give me great concern in the way that we do church. At the beginning of my ministry as a Pastor, I began to see some of these things. But, it was not until I went to serve on the International Mission field that I really began to understand the things that I share in this book. On our mission field, we wanted to start and develop churches in that culture and context that reflected the biblical model of what the church ought to be. I had to go to the New Testament and really study what it had to say about the church and how it was to operate. It was during those 20 years of service in West Africa that what I share in this book was brought together. In my nearly 10 years back in the United States serving as a Pastor and Director of Missions, my views expressed in these pages have been polished and have grown stronger to the point that I feel the Lord would have me put them into book form and share them with you. As I work with our association of churches, I work toward finding ways that we can improve ourselves so that we can better present the Gospel message to the world in which we live today. If I give a negative example of how I have seen the church function, it is not to judge anyone. It is simply to say, this is what happened and I believe that God has a better way. It is also to suggest that some of the things that worked for us for many years, may not be what works today in our present world. My desire is to help our churches accomplish what God wants so that we can fulfill His Great Commission.

In this book, I deal with the issues of unity, church leadership and how we function together as the body of Christ. In dealing with these issues, I put forth ways that I believe we will need to change so that we function more like the New Testament model. One example of what I share here is that we have far too many disagreements in our churches and so often when there are decisions to be made, we go about making those decisions in ways that divide the church and lead to having disgruntled members.

Here in these pages, I want to endeavor to show what I feel to be a better way. I share what I have gleaned through my study of the New Testament and through my experience in different places and cultures about the body of Christ and how she can function more effectively. My hope is that many local churches will use this model of the New Testament church and that these ideas can be adopted and adapted to fit the context of each local church. It is my belief that if we would take the New Testament image of the church more literally and seek to apply it to the church, we would be much more effective in sharing the gospel message in the world. The people in the world would see Jesus living in His people and be attracted to Him. More of Jesus’ power and presence would be evident as the people of the world look at the church and how its people live together.

As I include passages of Scripture in the text of this book, unless otherwise noted, I will use the New King James Version of the Bible.

So, I invite you to read on and look with me at these principles and issues. My hope is that it will make us all stronger and closer to our Lord Jesus and to one another. I also pray that it will lead to changes in our local churches that will help us to become the "mighty Church