[Note:  This is the prepared text for a split sermon given to the United Church of God congregation in Portland, OR on Sabbath, June 27, 2026.]

Part One: “Equipping the Ministry” — The 2026 General Conference of Elders

Brethren, I want to begin this morning not with a text but with a recent gathering of God’s people, because what happened there opens up for us exactly what the Scriptures teach about leadership, calling, and the building up of the whole body of Christ.

Last month, the United Church of God held its annual General Conference of Elders, and the spirit of the meetings carried a single, unifying burden, which we might sum up in the phrase “Equipping the Ministry.” That is, the gathering of elders from across the world was not arranged so that leaders could be honored, nor merely so that business could be transacted, but so that those who serve might be made more capable of serving. The whole orientation of the week pointed outward and downward—toward the brethren these men exist to serve—rather than inward and upward toward the men themselves. And that orientation is precisely the biblical pattern we will examine in the second part of this message.

Let me describe briefly what was actually done, because the efforts themselves preach a sermon. The week opened on the first of May with an International Editorial Summit, where leaders and members from international congregations gathered with United States editorial staff to discuss audience, translating, marketing, and related matters, opening a productive discussion and a list of next steps to unify editorial processes between the United States and international offices. One of those who took part observed that the summit provided a valuable opportunity to connect in person with international representatives from many countries and language groups, including Australia, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Portuguese-speaking regions. What strikes me about that account is the reason given for meeting face to face. Because many international representatives work remotely, they can sometimes feel isolated, and meeting and collaborating in person helped strengthen relationships among team members and better identify areas where support is needed. There it is already, brethren—the recognition that a worker laboring alone needs to be strengthened, connected, and supported so that he can do his work better. That is equipping.

The conference itself carried the same flavor. By one account, the Sabbath during the conference felt like being at the Feast of Tabernacles, both because of the quantity of members gathered and the quality of discussions filling the hall. And beyond the official business that such a conference must conduct, the meetings were described as an important opportunity for focused training and for ministers and their wives to build and renew relationships that enhance their ability to work together on long-distance projects. Notice again the stated purpose: the relationships were not ends in themselves but were cultivated so that the work might go forward.

Then came the training in earnest. Sunday was filled with productive sessions, from department updates to panels with questions and answers, and there were two seminars for the ministry about leadership and how to resolve disagreements. Think about that for a moment. A seminar on resolving disagreements is not glamorous. It does not flatter anyone. But it is the kind of practical equipping that keeps a congregation from splintering, that protects the peace of the brethren, that allows shepherds to handle conflict with wisdom rather than with carnal reflex. Equipping the ministry means, in part, giving men the tools to do the hard and unspectacular work of keeping a flock together.

And then on the following day, the training turned to the very craft of communication. Monday was packed with sessions focused on enhancing speaking skills, with presentations by Gary Petty on expository speaking, Chuck Smith on interactive Bible studies, Scott Ashley on PowerPoint presentations, and Ken Loucks on using artificial intelligence safely. Here we see equipping at the level of skill. A man may love God and love the brethren and still preach a sermon that does not feed the flock because he has never been taught to handle the text or to communicate it clearly. To train a minister in expository speaking is to make him better able to set the bread of the word before hungry people. To train him in conducting a Bible study is to make him better able to draw the brethren into the Scriptures themselves rather than leaving them dependent on his pronouncements. Even the session on using new technologies safely is, at bottom, an act of equipping—helping the ministry use the tools of the present day without being used by them.

The whole gathering, by the testimony of those present, was an encouraging and unifying experience for elders, their wives, and the employees who serve the brethren around the world. And I rehearse all of this not to praise an organization, but because the conference embodied a principle that runs straight through the word of God: that those whom God places in positions of leadership are themselves to be built up, trained, and strengthened—and that they are built up not for their own sakes but so that they may build up everyone else. The leaders were being equipped so that they could equip the saints. Hold that thought, because it is the very architecture of the passage we now turn to.

Part Two: The Biblical Purpose of Leadership Is to Equip the Saints

Let us now go to the Scriptures, and let us let the central passage stand before us in full. Hear the word of God from Ephesians, the fourth chapter, beginning in verse eleven:

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:11–16)

Brethren, I want you to see how completely this passage overturns the common assumption about leadership. In the world, leadership is about the leader. The leader gathers honor, gathers followers, gathers benefit to himself, and the people exist to serve his vision. But the apostle Paul says that Jesus Christ gave leaders to the church for a stated purpose, and the purpose is not the leaders. Read it again: He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, “to equip the saints for the work of ministry.” The ministry of the leaders has as its goal the ministry of the saints. The work of the few is to make possible the work of the many.

Consider the word “equip.” It carries the sense of mending, of setting in order, of furnishing something completely for its purpose, the way a net is mended so that it can catch fish or a bone is set so that the limb can be used again. The leaders are repairmen and outfitters of the saints. They are not the only ones who do the work of ministry; they are the ones who prepare the rest of the body to do it. And so the very gifts that look most exalted—apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, teacher—are described here as gifts given for the benefit of others. The exalted gift is a servant’s tool. Jesus Christ did not give teachers so that teachers might be admired; He gave teachers so that the taught might grow.

And to what end? Paul tells us. The equipping of the saints leads to “building up the body of Christ,” and that building continues “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” There is the goal—a whole body grown up to maturity, unified in faith and knowledge, conformed to the fullness of Christ Himself. Leadership is measured not by the prominence of the leader but by the maturity of the people. If the sheep are not growing, the shepherd has not yet finished his task, no matter how impressive his gifts may appear.

Notice too the protective purpose that follows. The mature, equipped body is no longer made of children “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” An untaught and unequipped people are vulnerable people. They are blown about by every clever error and every persuasive deceiver, because they have no anchor and no discernment of their own. Part of what godly leadership does, then, is to so ground and furnish the saints that they cannot be easily carried off. This is exactly why training in handling the Scriptures matters so deeply—why a seminar on expository speaking or on conducting a Bible study is not a trivial thing. A ministry equipped to open the word rightly produces a people equipped to stand firm in the truth.

And then comes the culminating image, and it is the key to everything: “from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Look carefully at what Paul says. The growth of the body does not come from the leaders alone. It comes when “each part is working properly.” The leaders equip the saints; the equipped saints then do the work of ministry; and it is the whole body, every joint and every part doing its share, that causes the body to grow and build itself up in love. Leadership, in the biblical picture, is the means by which the whole congregation is activated. The goal is not a passive audience served by a few professionals. The goal is a living body in which every member is contributing to the health and growth of every other member.

This brings us to a theme that the Scriptures repeat with remarkable consistency: the gifts God gives are given for the benefit of others, never merely for ourselves. This is not a stray idea found only in Ephesians. It is the steady witness of the whole New Testament. Hear Peter:

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” (1 Peter 4:10)

Could it be stated more plainly? Whatever gift you have received, you have received it not as a private possession to enjoy but as a stewardship to be used in the service of one another. The gift is not yours in the sense that you may keep it to yourself; it is God’s grace placed in your hands for the good of the brethren, and you are accountable as a steward for how you use it on their behalf.

Hear Paul again, in the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians, where he treats the gifts of the Spirit:

“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (1 Corinthians 12:7)

For the common good. That is the divine purpose stamped on every spiritual gift. Paul goes on in that same chapter to compare the church to a body with many members—the eye, the hand, the foot, the ear—and his entire argument is that no member exists for itself. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you.” Every member is given its particular function for the sake of the whole. The gift that is bent inward, hoarded for self, is a gift functioning against its design.

And in his letter to the Romans, Paul draws out the practical meaning:

“Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.” (Romans 12:6–8)

Every gift Paul names is directed toward others. Service serves others. Teaching teaches others. Exhortation encourages others. Generosity supplies others. Leadership leads others. Mercy is shown to others. There is not one gift in the list that terminates on the self. The whole catalog of gifts is a catalog of ways to spend yourself for the good of the brethren. This is the unbroken testimony of Scripture: God distributes His grace through His people so that His people may minister that grace to one another.

Now bring this back to the question of leadership. Why does God ordain, call, and equip leaders at all? Not to create a class of men set above the brethren, but to set in motion the very dynamic Paul describes in Ephesians four. God calls a man, gives him a gift, and equips him, so that he in turn may equip the saints, so that the saints may do the work of ministry, so that the whole body grows up into Christ. The calling of leaders is the first link in a chain whose final purpose is the building of the entire body in love. A leader who understands this will measure his success by the growth of his people, not by his own standing. He will labor, as Paul said elsewhere, to present every man mature in Christ, and he will rejoice when the saints he has equipped surpass him in the work.

This is why the equipping that took place at that recent conference was rightly ordered. The leaders gathered to be trained—in resolving disagreements, in handling the text, in teaching the brethren, in working together across great distances—precisely so that they could go home and serve their congregations better. The training of the few was for the building of the many. And that is the biblical pattern exactly: leaders equipped in order to equip, gifts received in order to be given, grace stewarded for the common good.

Conclusion: Seek to Grow So That You May Serve

So what does the word of God ask of us today?

It asks every one of us, and not the ministry only, to take up the work of being equipped and then of using what we have been given for the good of others. For notice once more what Ephesians four teaches: the body grows when “each part is working properly.” The vision of God is not a handful of trained leaders carrying a passive congregation. It is a whole body in which every joint and every member is contributing. That means you. Whatever measure of grace God has placed in your hands—whether teaching or service, encouragement or generosity, mercy or hospitality, or the simple gift of a faithful and steady presence among the brethren—it was given to you for the others, and God will hold you accountable as a steward of His varied grace.

And so I want to leave you with a call, the same call the Scriptures press upon us and the same call that animated those leaders gathered to be trained. Seek development. Seek growth. Do not be content to remain a spiritual child, tossed about and unable to help anyone, when God intends you to grow up into the fullness of Christ and to strengthen those around you. Study the word more deeply, not so that you may win arguments, but so that you may feed and steady others. Develop whatever skill God has given you, not so that you may be admired, but so that you may serve more capably. Pursue maturity, not as a private achievement, but as a fitness for ministry to the body.

Because here is the heart of the matter, brethren. God did not equip you for your own sake any more than He equips the ministry for the ministry’s sake. He pours out His grace through His people so that His people may serve one another. The gift is for the giving. The training is for the serving. The growth is for the building up of others in love. If we will each take seriously our own equipping, and then spend what we have been given on the good of the brethren, then the promise of Ephesians four will be fulfilled among us: the whole body, joined and held together, with each part working properly, will grow and build itself up in love, until we all attain to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ.

May God grant us the humility to be taught, the diligence to grow, and the love to spend ourselves for one another, that we may be a people thoroughly equipped to do the work He has called us to do.