Shepherds Conference 2009 – Tom Pennington, Session #2

Tom Pennington spoke out of 1 Cor 3:9 ff urging Pastors to be careful how they build their churches and ministries.

He provided 3 instructions on how to properly build a church:

1. Build on the right foundation. The right foundation is Jesus Christ. But what does that mean? Using Eph 2:20 as a guideline, Pennington maintained that Christ must be the Cornerstone, the foundational block that all other building block fit and align to and the final measure of all elements that build the church (Eph 3:5). He challenged Pastors to build their ministries not on human wisdom but on Divine revelation.
   
2. Use the right materials. This came from 1 Cor 3:12 where he reviewed two groups of materials; gold, silver and stone and wood, hay and straw. Pennington maintained that the first group is more important, valuable and longer lasting than the second group. The first group will not burn (a concept that would have been familiar to the Corinthians having seen their city burned down by the Romans previously). Furthermore, Tom warned that God will evaluate us on one of our major building blocks, our teaching (1 Cor 4:1). We will be evaluated on the character of our teaching (how did we handle the Word of God?). He said we would be evaluated on whether we were faithful and trustworthy in our calling. He went on to say that we will be evaluated on the intent and motivation of our hearts (1 Cor 4:3). On other words; was our desire to magnify the work of God or ourselves? Pennington cautioned that we can build on the right foundation but still use the wrong materials; materials such as weak and inferior teaching and wrong motives.
   
3. Remember the rightful owner (1 Cor 3:16). Tom reminded us who the church belongs to and admonished us not to cause any damage to it (1 Cor 3:17). "How might we damage the church?" He asked. His answer, "By abandoning the original plan for the church through weak teaching, entertainment instead of Scripturally sound sermons, lack of using the Word of God properly and self promotion among other things."
   

Pennington finished up by reminding us that it all belongs to God. Pastors are stewards. If they destroy the church, God will destroy them.