9Marks Journal: The Pastor and His Staff (Part 2) (65期：牧者与同工（下）)

There’s more here than you might expect. That was true for me. I’ve been hearing the argument for church revitalization for years, and it has always sounded like a conversation about practical matters. There are practical reasons to sometimes plant a new church. And there are practical reasons to sometimes revitalize an old church. But reading through the articles for this edition of the Journal I discovered something larger, something older, something more basic. Church revitalization, it occurred to me, goes to the very heart of what it means to pastor. And the desire to see churches revitalized, I dare say, should be a constituent part of a Christian’s heart. Could it be that we’ve been missing something as basic as evangelism and discipleship, even if it’s rarer? Church planting is a great thing, and there’s no need to take anything away from it. But there should also be a default setting in a Christian’s heart that always longs to see dying churches revitalized. It’s not like the debate in your head about whether to fork over $2000 to the mechanic to fix your clunker of a car or to just buy a new one. It’s more like a decision about whether to walk away from a dear but difficult relationship. Our hearts should never want to do that, even if once in a great while we must.

我们很容易忽略教会生活中智慧治理的重要性。但是请拿起圣经读列王记上3-5章。神给所罗门智慧，之后发生的事你已经知道了，所罗门学会许多事情，从讲论牛膝草，到获得外国君主的帮助建造圣殿。所有臣民都吃喝快乐，享受和平。重点是什么?智慧是神所赐的能力，使人可以建立秩序、建造、以及兴旺国度。

九标志事工相信，地方教会的核心任务是先知性的：宣讲我们大祭司和君王的话语。但是神会赐人智慧，你也应该期待为传讲神的话而建造更大的平台，使得教师、辅导者、司琴、教会外展事工以及宣教都得到有力的支撑，尽一切可能使神的话语透过你的教会及其它事工被宣扬。

可以这么说，要做到这一切，我们也需要像所罗门那样的智慧。这需要智慧地训练会众，有时甚至要聘用一些人来促进教会的事工。

我差点写成“聘用他们做教会的事工。”但Jamie Dunlop的文章提醒我聘用全职同工的原因，是要促进教会事工，而不是包办教会事工。他的文章帮助我们知道聘用同工的原因，Matt Schmucker和Phillip Jenson则帮助我们思想何时（或是否要）聘用。

Mark Dever、Ryan Townsend和Patrick Traylor提供了管理同工的一些基本要素。而Greg Gilbert和Shawn Wright就是否要有“主任牧师”这一称谓提供了截然不同的观点。

我们祷告求神使用这些文章使你在属神的智慧中成长，这智慧比所罗门的更大。以此使你教会的每个成员在圣洁、爱心和恩典中兴旺。