Seth Hedman

Our Rejection of the Five-Fold Gifts of Ephesians 4 Has Created A Crisis in Church Leadership When it comes to the Ephesians 4 model of church leadership I have laid out in previous posts, my understanding is relatively impercise. I am not going so far as to argue for the exact details and systematic structure of a local church, or greater church denomination, ought to implement. In fact, that is actually more of what the spiritual gift of managing described in 1 Corinthians 12 is for. I am arguing that whatever structure is built, it must have different people in high ranking leadership with all of these gifts or else the leadership will suffer tremendously, as history bears out.

Why do we only focus on pastor and teacher? The answer is found in church history, bad theology, and fear. In my last post, I introduced the Ephesians 4 model for church leadership and the 5 spiritual gifts: Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, and Teacher. Clearly these are all Biblical terms and gifts that compliment each other well in church leadership. Clearly, we can see many of these gifts and characteristics in ourselves and others around us. So why is the apostle, prophet, and evangelist so uncommon in the local church? Why do we drive by churches that advertise their "Head Pastor" but not their "Head Evangelist?" I would love to see an ad in the church bulletin looking for a "Youth Prophet." The answer is found in the history and development of the church.

How Ephesians 4 Changes How We See The Church Several weeks ago, I went on all-too-common twitter rant, lamenting the pain and suffering in the world and wondering if I'm not wasting my time leading worship or working on a college campus.  A mentor saw the rant and pointed me in the direction of a sermon series over the Ephesians 4 model for church leadership and, in particular, the role of the prophet. I am not much of one for "personality tests" and whatnot, but I was floored by how well this biblical model described me and, as I have researched and thought about it more, how our ignorance of this model has led so many problems the church is experiencing today.  My research inspired me to write a lot over this topic. I argue that the church's historical disregard for the Ephesians 4 model of leadership has led to a crisis in Church leadership, a systematic injustice which amputates the Body of Christ  and handicaps the Church's ability to fully and properly...

God has something to say. Imagine a righteous man who always does what is right: First, he worships Me exclusively; he doesn't indulge in gluttony or excess, nor does he worship idols like money or success—he doesn't even think about it! He puts God first above everything else; money, sex, success, relationships. Nothing gets in the way of God. Second, he does not sleep with anyone but his wife. He doesn’t have sex before He is committed to His wife.  He doesn’t watch porn. He is in control of His sexual appetite.

After much prayer and reflection, I gave this spoken word poem at Vineyard Community Church on 4/6/14 over the life of Daniel the Prophet. On The Shores of Babylon Daniel's Answer to The King by Briton Riviere (1890) God is my Judge That’s what my name means You may know me as Daniel But they even tried to take that from me I know you live in an age of plenty You think yourselves quite mighty And scoff at the idea of tyranny But take a minute, remove this cultural context which is so blinding And step into my shoes, you’ll see what I mean

Looking Back At An Amazing Month of God's Faithfulness I started off the month of February, despite the cold  and snowy weather, burning with excitement. I had just graduated in December and I was beginning my first semester working with InterVarsity. I could not have been more thrilled to be giving my time to students, fundraising, and seeing God's kingdom come on Drake's campus.  And it's been an amazing month!  I finally had my official interview with intervarsity, gave an unexpected talk at our weekly large group, and have been taking big steps to becoming a fully fundraised, full time campus missionary! Going back into the last week of January, let's look at some of the highlights: Student leader Cara Lutes setting vision at the Back To School Retreat Interview and Placement In the last week of January, I finally had my official interview with InterVarsity.  At a Panera out in West Des Moines, I sat with five (thats right, five!) interviewers from ca...

“To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and [there ascend] to stand before the face of the Lord, ever present, all seeing, within you [and on the throne].” - Theophan the Recluse Growing up, most of us were told to pray before bed and before meals and we saw our preacher do it on Sundays, but we never put much thought into what it actually was.  At times we think of it as a check list and duty. Last Wednesday at InterVarsity, Ann gave a great definition of prayer to shake loose these misconceptions, that "prayer is conversation between two people in love, you and Jesus."  Like any conversation, if you don't know the person very well, it can be awkward.  But as you talk more and get comfortable, great friendships can form.  Many of us never get past small talk with God, having only brief awkward interactions followed by days or weeks of silence.  But if we want to get to know God, our Creator, our Abba Father, we must talk to Him. Without commun...

"The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano" is the autobiography of a man captured as a child and spent most of his life in slavery around the world.  He wrote it to give to the English Parliament and help with the abolition of the slave trade. It is fascinating and I highly recommend reading or listening to the audiobook for free (its in the public domain). Most awesome is the story of him finding Jesus and true joy for the first time in his life, resting in the assurance of his Salvation by the blood of Christ and the hand of Providence through his life. If you go online and scroll down to  read chapter 10 , the description of his final run in with the grace of God is astounding and reminds me a lot about my own story. He describes how in a flood of tears he saw his utter sinfulness before a holy God, he saw the insane loving atonement of Jesus on the cross, and saw the hand of God as He had worked in his life.  All of the pain and sorrow which he carried ...

On Wednesday the 5th I was scheduled to give a talk at InterVarsity about Worship.  As I continued to pray and fast about what I might say, I felt God calling me to not merely tell people about worship, but to show people how to worship. This began taking shape around the idea of getting people out of their comfort zones and routine in order to really engage with God.  I had some ideas but then after the Super Bowl party on the 2nd, I got in my car and begin talking through what I might say... and it started rhyming.  I went home and began writing. Three hours later my entire talk had come out in spoken word poetry.   Before it was all over, that Wednesday took shape by doing an old school Liturgy, the Rite of Eucharist from the Common Book of Prayer, with modern worship songs, communion, and a 12 minute spoken word sermon.  It was an amazing night of pushing through the monotony of routine and entering the Throne Room of God in worshipping with my brother...