BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

That excites me: Hell itself will not prevail against us! We’re in a battle, but as the Church we don’t have to fear it. We are earth warriors and earth conquerors, and we will succeed (Isaiah 54:17). Because of our efforts, people are saved, and the enemy’s work is destroyed. That’s what happens when we fulfill our calling! Fortify the Local Church Last year, the Lord instructed us to begin fortifying the local church. He told several ministers—me, Brother Kenneth Copeland and others—to proclaim this message to the Body of Christ. I didn’t understand His reasoning at first, but over time, it became clear. The local church is the ark of safety in the last days, and it needs to be trained and ready. Judgment, and all that is outlined in the book of Revelation, is coming. When that happens, the Church will say, “I will take care of things.” We have a special assignment and anointing to reach the lost, to grab their souls and take them to heaven with us. To have a strong local church, it requires not only the fivefold ministry, but also the ministry of helps to be in full operation. Without this army of helps, the Church can’t do all it’s called to do. But this army needs training and leadership to fulfill its calling. It reminds me of raising kids. When they were just little squirts, I had to teach them to be honorable. Come Mother’s Day, I’d take them down to the store and buy a little card for them to give to my wife, Vickie. They’d scribble in it at the table, then we’d take it to Mama. She’d make a big deal out of it. She knew the kids hadn’t gone to the store; I had. But after a while, the kids grew up. They didn’t have to be reminded that it was Mother’s Day. I’d already taught them to honor their mom. Church bodies are the same. The members must be taught to be honorable to the pastor and to minister in excellence. I had a pastor say to me once, “Well, it was just Pastor Appreciation Day and my church didn’t do anything.” But that’s because he hadn’t taught his congregation to be honorable. Pastors in young churches often find themselves doing a lot of the work themselves. They end up doing things they don’t want to do, and often, things they shouldn’t do. That’s why it’s so important to train those in the ministry of helps to operate in their supportive roles. It’s not enough to teach and preach the Word; pastors must train the Body of Christ. When Jesus said, “I will build my church,” He didn’t simply mean His Church would grow. He said He would build the Church. That’s going to take a lot of leadership and systems and training. Just as a military general is only as good as his troops in the field, so is a pastor only as good as his ministry of helps. He could be a tremendous leader and strategist, but he will lose if the troops under his authority aren’t trained. When Vickie and I were first starting out in the ministry, our church facility wasn’t anything to write home about. The parking lot was gravel and dirt. It turned into a mud pit when it rained. One time I got out of my car and went into the building and didn’t notice that my shoe was muddy. One of the church ushers did. A couple of minutes before I began preaching, he approached me with a little shoe kit in his hand and bent down to polish my shoe. When I tried to stop him, this sweet brother stood up, looked me in the eye and said, “Well, Reverend, with all due respect, it isn’t fair. How come you get to do your ministry, but I don’t get to do mine?” He was right. So I took my shoe off and gave it to him. (We did, however, set some procedures in place for a situation like that so it was respectful without being awkward for either of us.) Through that experience, I learned how necessary it was to train the Body and give permission for the ministry of helps to function. Without it, they’ll never fulfill their ministry. They’ll have big hearts to serve and no way to release what God has put inside them. To Live, To Obey, To Serve All this is part of what Jesus was telling Peter in John 21:15-18: 22 : BVOV

• Cover