Spirituality

An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for
Mission

Pr. Nathaniel S. Contreras

Palawan Adventist Mission March 10-15, 2019
NPUC
 OUR MISSION

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation March 10-15, 2019
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission NPUC
 OUR MISSION

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation March 10-15, 2019
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission NPUC
  7T 138 - Seventh-day Adventists
have been chosen by God as a
peculiar people, separate from
the world…. He has made them
His representatives and has
called them to be ambassadors
for Him in the last work of
salvation.

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
  9T 19 - In a special sense
Seventh-day Adventists have
been set in the world as
watchmen and light bearers.
To them has been entrusted
the last warning for a
perishing world.

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 2 Cor. 5:17-

21
Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, he is a new
creation; the old has gone,
the new has come! All this
is from God, who
reconciled us to himself
through Christ and gave us
the ministry of
reconciliation;

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 PARADIGM
Therefore, if anyone is
Christ, he is a Creation; the
old has gone, the new has
come…”2 Cor. 5:17

Transformation!

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 PARADIGM
…”reconciled us to himself
through Christ and gave us the
ministry of
reconciliation…
2 Cor. 5:18
Entrusted
the
ministry of
reconciliatio
Spirituality
n
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 PARADIGM
…”has committed to us
the message of
reconciliation…”
2 Cor. 5:19
Empowered
as a
messenger
of
reconciliation
Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 Spirituality
 It is the quality of life which
responds to God's initiative in us
 It seeks to listen to the voice of
God through a centering of
ourselves in Him,
 It is a life of maintained openness
to God,
 And it is an absolute submission
to His will.
Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 Spirituality IS...
Not a crisis but a continual process
Not based on knowledge but on obedience

Not external but internal

Not Automatic but cultivated
Not the product of energy but a divine enablement

Not a dream but a discipline

Not an unusual experience but a normal experience

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 Spirituality IS...
Not a list of rules but a life relationship

Not to be endured but enjoyed

Not theoretical but intensely practical

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 Role of Spirituality in the
Service
 “Let those who are in training
for service never forget that the
preparation of the heart is of all the
most important. No amount of
mental culture or theological
training can take the place of this.
The bright beams of the Sun of
Righteousness must shine into the
heart of the worker and purify his
life, before light from the throne of
God can shine through him to those
Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of anin darkness
Empowered .(GW p. 94)
Leaders for Mission
 The Christian worker
is the means or the
agency of divine
reconciliation or
transformation
of man.

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 Spirituality
 It is the quality of life which
responds to God's initiative in us
 It seeks to listen to the voice of
God through a centering of
ourselves in Him,
 It is a life of maintained openness
to God,
 And it is an absolute submission
to His will.
Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 Journey to
Spirituality

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 1. Lead the
Leader to Christ
For the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit and the Spirit,
against the flesh: and these
are contrary the one to the
other: so that ye cannot do
the things that ye would.”
Gal 5:17

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 “When the heart is changed, the
inevitable result
will be a change of behavior…If we
abide in Christ,
if the love of God dwells in us, our
feelings,
our thoughts, our purposes, our
actions, will be in harmony with the
will of God as expressed
in the precepts of His holy law.”
-Steps to Christ, p. 61

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 2. The Leader needs to
be converted to Christ.

“Conversion is the work of the

Holy Spirit, which produces a
change of attitude toward God
and creates a new capacity for
knowing God.”
John 3:3-8

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 The Leader needs to be
converted to Christ.

“This change can be brought

about only by the effectual
working of the Holy Spirit.”
Desire of Ages, p. 172

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 “If you will seek the Lord and be
converted every day …
all your murmurings will be stilled,
all your difficulties will be removed,
all the perplexing problems
that now confront you will be solved.”
-EGWTFMB, p. 101

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 3. Submit to
Christ’s Lordship

Submitting
to God is
yielding our
will to Him, and
it is the most
difficult for a
person.
Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 3. Submit to
Christ’s Lordship
“To submit is to give up on
ourselves, not giving up our
sins. Giving up our sins is the
result of giving up on
ourselves
and seeking God.”

–Morris Venden
Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 Yet as we submit, He
recreates us into a work of fine
art, created to do good works.
Eph. 2: 10

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 4. Leader should
abide in Christ
“If a man remains in me
and I in Him, he will
bear much fruit.” John 15:5
Fruit bearing is the
inevitable result
of abiding in Christ.
The key to victory in Christian
life is found in learning to
abide keeping our connection
to the source of life.

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 Leader should
abide in Christ
As we abide, God is removing the
parts of our life that keep us from
bearing fruit.
“The one who is in an abiding daily
relationship with Christ has the
upward trend in the life, in spite of
the occasional failures.”
-Morris Venden

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 “When the mind dwells upon
self, it
turned away from Christ, the
source of strength and life.
Hence it is Satan’s constant
effort to keep the attention
diverted from the Savior and
thus prevent the union and
communion of the soul with
Christ”.
-SC, p. 71
Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 When we remain abiding in
Christ we become not only
better members of the
church, we become stronger
Christians, not only
followers, but disciples of
Jesus.

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 Christian
Life

Christian Character

Christian dispositions

Christian perceptions

Christian Thoughts

Christian Mind

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 Why spirituality is
needed in Christian
service

1. Pastor accomplish
more.
The reason why our preachers accomplish so little is that they
do not walk with God. He is a day’s journey from most of
them.” Furthermore, she suggests that all those in training
need the quiet hour for communion with their own hearts, with
nature, and with God…They need to have personal
experience in obtaining a knowledge of the will of God, and
individually hear Him speaking to the heart…Be still and know
that I am God,’ Ps. 46:10 (White (1905, Grow in Grace.
Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 59 (22), 337-338.

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 2. Overwhelmed by their work services

Barna (1993) notes that

many pastors are so
frustrated, unsatisfied, and
overwhelmed by their work
that they turn inward for
strength, rather than
upward for God’s guidance
and power.

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 3. For modeling in true service
Roger Dudley (1992) study of 13,000 SDA
youths in NAD found that SDA youths are
looking to pastors to model a life lived in
relationship with God
His advice to pastors:
Consistently model a life lived in
relationship with God
Preach and teach that religion is basically a
matter of relationships with God and
fellowmen, rather than a system of beliefs
or a code of behavior.
Give new emphasis to practices that makes
the devotional life.

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 4. Biblical Mandate
“Now this is life eternal; that they may
know you, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom you have sent
(John 17:3)

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 WEAKENS SPIRITUALITY

1. There is no surer way of

weakening spirituality than by
cherishing Envy, Suspicion,
Faultfinding, and Evil surmising.
AA 594.1

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 WEAKENS SPIRITUALITY

2. To associate with those who

neither fear nor love God – unless
you associate them for the purpose
of winning them to Jesus – will be
detriment to your spirituality.
CSA 49.6

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 WEAKENS SPIRITUALITY

3. The souls ceases to draw nourishment

from Christ, and spirituality dies
out of the heart. COL 51.1

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 WEAKENS SPIRITUALITY

4. Ignorance will not

increase the humility or
spirituality of any professed
follower of Christ CE 23.1

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 WEAKENS SPIRITUALITY
5. But instead of giving their
sharp, clear ideas to advance the
cause, to strengthen and bless
the church, they devote all their
powers to the advancement of
their own interest. ...they
surround their soils with an
atmosphere that is deleterious to
spirituality. CE 136.1

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 WEAKENS SPIRITUALITY

6. The bustle of business, if

continuous, will dry up
spirituality and leave the
soul Christless.
ChL 4.3

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 PASTORS
Let ministers teach the church members
that in order to grow in spirituality,
they must carry the burden that the Lord
has laid upon them, the burden of
leading souls into the truth. Those who
are fulfilling their responsibility should
be visited, prayed with, labored for. Do not
lead people to depend you as ministers;
teach them rather that they are to use
their talents in giving the truth to those
around them. ChS 69.6

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 “My brethren and
sisters, take an
active part in the
work of soul saving.
This work will give
life and vigour to
the mental and
spiritual powers.”
9T 41CC

Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
  E – Enlightened by the Holy
Spirit
 M – Motivated and by God’s love
 P – Persevering in times of
challenges and trials
 O – Obedient to God’s Word and
conscience
 W – Wise unto good works and
decisions
 E – Encompassing in what he do
 R – Resolute in doing God’s cause
 E – Enthusiastic and full of
Spirituality
energy
An Experiential Foundation
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission
 Spirituality
An Experiential Foundation August 2,2017
of an Empowered Leaders for Mission Baguio City