What It Means to Catch the Spirit of the Ministry

by Dag Heward-Mills

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Copyright 2008 Dag Heward-Mills

Published by Dag Heward-Mills on Smashwords.

E mail Dag Heward-Mills

info@daghewardmillsbooks.org

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Find out more about Dag Heward-Mills at:

http://www.daghewardmills.org

http://www.daghewardmills.org/healingjesuscrusade/

http://www.daghewardmills.org/lci/

Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible

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Contents

Chapter 1 - A Peculiar Anointing

Chapter 2 - How to Catch the Spirit of the Ministry

Chapter 3 - Eight Things You Must Catch

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Chapter 1

A Peculiar Anointing

Your aspiration for church growth will naturally lead you to work with many different people. It is only understandable that in a larger ministry you will need more "hands on deck". The act of recruiting new people often leads to the destruction of the ministry. Be careful that you do not end up destroying what you are trying to build. It is important to recruit people who have what I call the spirit of the ministry.

And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone.

Numbers 11:17

Please notice the revelation that God gave Moses. He said, "I'm going to take of the spirit or anointing that is upon you and that same anointing will be transferred to other people." It is only then that they will be able to work with you. It is only then that they will be able to help you.

God could have simply given these seventy people an anointing for leadership, but He didn't. God did not give them a general anointing for leadership! Neither did He give them a special anointing of management and wise judgement! He simply gave them Moses' anointing. What was the spirit upon Moses? It was the special gift of ministry given to Moses to lead the people. This is what those seventy pastors received.

There is an anointing on every ministry. That is why people can start out in a ministry of their own and have only twenty people after ten years. Were these people to operate under a certain ministry, they would not have only twenty people after ten years. They may have a thousand. This is because different ministries have different anointings. over them. I am not saying that you do not have to start something new, not at all!

I am saying that God gives certain gifts to certain men. Those who find themselves planted under such men find that they are catching the same spirit of ministry. They will find themselves doing great things or even greater things than they are doing.

There Is a Difference!

Catching the spirit of the ministry is a little different from catching the anointing. When you join a new church, you will notice that it is different from any other church. Understand that every church is different and has its own culture. Every minister has a peculiar anointing on his life. This leads to a unique ministry. When you join up with this unique ministry, you must adapt and flow with it. When you join a church, you have to acclimatize and re-learn certain things.

It is the senior pastor's duty to prevent anyone from becoming a minister without adapting fully to the culture of the church.

It is the trainee's duty to learn, imbibe, observe and adapt to the spoken and unspoken philosophies of the church. Study the culture. Flow with it. Do all you can to fit in. When you fit in, that peculiar anointing will also fit into you and operate through you. It is possible and it is necessary if you want to be fruitful in the context of a particular church.

If you do not adapt, the anointing will not be able to fit into you because it was meant for a particular type of vessel. You will run into problems if you choose to ignore the standards accepted and used by the general leadership. When people do not operate under the same Spirit (anointing), they create conflict. The leaders become disunited and each one thinks he is right. The church begins to disintegrate behind the scenes and soon this comes into the open.

Chapter 2

How to Catch the Spirit of the Ministry

To catch the spirit of the ministry, you have to company with the church and its leadership. There is simply no other way. You have to know what they do, and watch them do it! You have to accept it in your mind and believe in it in your heart. The standards and principles in the church must become yours. They must no longer be their principles.

When you think like the leadership, you have caught the spirit of the ministry. The anointing makes you think in a particular way. The anointing makes you act in a particular way.

I learnt long ago that I should not accept people who do not really fit in as sons, into my ministry. Someone may be a well-qualified minister with great credentials, but if he does not have the spirit of the ministry, it is no use taking him on. The few conflicts that I have experienced in the Lighthouse denomination have been through and from people who did not fully catch the spirit of this ministry. It looked as though they fitted in, but in reality, they were not a part of us.

Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us…

Acts 1:21,22

After Jesus ascended into Heaven, a replacement was sought for Judas. They chose someone who had the spirit of Jesus' ministry; someone who knew them through and through. You will observe in the above Scripture that they 7 chose somebody who had been with them long enough to catch the spirit of the ministry. They needed someone who had accepted the standards and philosophies of Christ.

They did not want to introduce somebody who would create confusion within their ranks. They didn't care whether the person had the gift of prophecy or the gift of leadership. It is better to be safe than sorry. Go for those you know and avoid unknown elements!

There are three groups of people I do not often consider for employment. These are not bad people! They are good people but they need to catch the spirit of the ministry.

Three Groups of People I Will Not Employ

a. A Bible school graduate seeking employment in the church.

Graduating from a Bible school means very 8 little to me. All it means is that you have a piece of paper showing that you have studied some courses. Those courses may be different from the courses I teach in my church. Even if they are the same, they may have a completely different orientation.

I ask such people to simply join the church and become a part of the church family. They must then go through the ranks like every other church member. If and when he is able to catch the spirit of the ministry, then can he be part of its leadership.

b. An experienced and seasoned minister.

There is a saying, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks". This saying is not in the Bible but it is often true. When a tree is young, you can bend it. But when a tree is old, you must break it in order to get it to bend!

Usually, people who have been in the ministry for years feel that they know all about the ministry. Such people have problems fitting in.

After being a part of your system for a while, they will say, "I was a pastor before I joined you. I was a minister in my own right before I came here." They will add, "I had a ministry before I came here and I just decided to place it under your ministry." Such people do not fit in because they are not prepared to be trained or retrained.

I have learnt from painful experience to train up my own sons and daughters in ministry. They are to me, like the disciples were to Jesus. I can trust them and I can leave my ministry in their hands wherever they are in the world. Jesus left His ministry to twelve men and they handled it perfectly. When you have people who have caught the spirit of the leadership you can leave things with them and not worry. They will not rebel.

c. A pastor of a small church who wants to join a larger network.

This is even more dangerous! When the church begins to grow under a new name and a new anointing, the pastor will begin to have thoughts of breaking away. He will say, "I had a church with members before I joined up with you. I want to change the name back to what it was before." This often leads to painful splits and breakaways. At this point, no one will know who is really right or wrong.

My policy is to encourage such individuals to continue independently in ministry.

If he insists, the way forward is for him to close down his church and join the bigger network as an ordinary member. With the process of time, such a person may become a minister within the network and start a church again. However, it takes a lot of humility to do something like that.

It is important for senior pastors to know when people have caught the spirit of the ministry. It is important for up-and-coming ministers to understand how to catch the spirit of the ministry.

Chapter 3

Eight Things You Must Catch

In every church, you must endeavour to catch the vision, principles, philosophy, standards, doctrines, procedures, emphasis and the anointing of the house. To illustrate this better, I will just use Lighthouse Chapel International as a model.

1. The vision of the house

Generally speaking, the vision of Lighthouse Chapel International (LCI) is soul winning and church planting. Many pastors do not have a vision for soul winning. We have a strong vision for soul winning.

If you are not oriented towards the harvest, you will be a misfit in such a church. Everyone is taught and motivated to save the lost and to be involved in practical ministry. No one is left out, including professionals and businessmen. We believe that every member can be a minister. It may sound strange, but that is our vision.

Some churches have a vision for prosperity. Others have a vision for dominion over the works of darkness. Others have a vision for deliverance. Whichever church you decide to be a part of, you must learn to catch the vision of that house. No one vision is right or wrong. The vision depends on the call that God has given to the leader. Leave the judgement of that to the Lord.

2. The principles of the house

The principles of LCI are the principles in the Word of God. One of our principles is that everything must be founded on the solid foundation of the Bible.

It is our principle to reject things that are not firmly based on the Word of God.

We have principles of loyalty. People who break these principles cannot fit into our ministry. I am loyal to my pastors and I expect them to be loyal to me. We believe in principled leadership where everyone can climb to the highest position in ministry.

3. The philosophy of the house

The philosophy of the house refers to the general trend of thinking. Our church believes that lay people must do the work of ministry. We believe that the educated can also be in ministry.

We believe that church buildings are very important for the establishment of the church. We believe that church buildings bring stability and permanence. Church building projects allow church members to know that their money is being "put to good use".

We also believe in frugality. There are many ways by which we save money. Ironically, this makes people think that we are rich.

Another important philosophy of LCI is that we are pro-marriage. We encourage people to marry, and to do so at a young age. We feel that it is the biblical pattern for young people to marry and stay pure, rather than to live in sin and hypocrisy. Any leader within our system must have these ideas as his own ideas.

4. The standards of the house

In our church, we expect people to be faithful to their marriage partners. We expect ministers to lead honest lives and to have financial and moral integrity. We do not compromise on these standards! We do not expect people to be perfect, but we do expect them to be honest.

A lowering of the standards of any church will lead to a gradual and complete deviation from the original vision of the church.

It is because of the lowering of standards that gay and lesbian priests and even bishops are now a part of church life.

Some priests are officiating the marriages between two men. They are thereby claiming God's approval on homosexuality. This is Sodom and Gomorrah coming into the Church. How did it get there? It got there by gradually changing the standards of God’s Church.

5. The doctrines of the house

Within every church there are certain beliefs based on the Bible. A doctrine is a trend of teaching. One of our doctrines is the doctrine of loyalty. We teach extensively on this. (For further study see my book, Loyalty & Disloyalty).

Another doctrine we have is what we call, anagkazo. This Greek word means something to every leader in our church. It teaches about compelling souls to come to Christ.

You cannot be a minister in our church if you do not understand and believe in anagkazo.

6. The procedures of the house

The way things are done in every church is different. In our church, a person becomes a pastor by rising through the ranks. One must first be a shepherd before being promoted to a lay pastor. That is just the way things are done here. We have some full-time ministers. We believe that you must first be successful as a lay pastor before becoming a full-time minister. This may be different from the way you do things in your church, but if you want to be in a particular ministry, you must accept the procedures of that house.

You cannot be a leader in the church if you do not pay tithes, or what we call "First and Best Fruits". That is just the way we do things.

Every Lighthouse church takes two offerings on Sundays.

In our church, you must have extensive counselling before getting married. These are just some of the procedures we do not intend to alter. Anyone who is going to be a leader of the church has to accept these procedures and flow with them.

The church has a system of small groups involving fellowships, ministries and chapels. This system has worked for us throughout the world, wherever Lighthouse churches have been established. That is the way we do things. That is our procedure. Welcome to the house.

7. The emphasis of the house

Every ministry has a peculiar emphasis. We emphasize the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God.

Some emphasize prosperity and healing. Some emphasize the anointing. We emphasize the winning of souls and the establishing of the church.

Mind you, we believe in miracles, and we experience great moves of the Spirit, but our emphasis is the Word. If you accept this emphasis, then you can be with us.

8. The anointing of the house

Apart from getting the natural and physical aspects like the procedures and standards, you need to get this spiritual component.

There is nothing like the anointing. Without it, you can do nothing in ministry. Once you have tasted the anointing and the difference it makes to ministry, you will not like to do anything without it. If you are within a particular church, the principal anointing that you should desire is the anointing on your leader. This is because you are working under his ministry.

Dear friend, catch the spirit of the ministry you belong to, and be fruitful.

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Other Best-Selling Books by Dag Heward-Mills:

Loyalty and Disloyalty

Leaders and Loyalty

Transform Your Pastoral Ministry

The Art of Leadership

Model Marriage

Church Planting

The Mega Church

Lay People and the Ministry

These titles are also available in Spanish and/or French. Information about other foreign translations of some of the titles above may be obtained by writing to our email address.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

A Peculiar Anointing

Chapter 2

How to Catch the Spirit of the Ministry

Chapter 3

Eight Things You Must Catch