9Marks Journal: The Pastor and His Staff (Part 2) (65期：牧者與同工（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.

我們很容易忽略教會生活中智慧治理的重要性。但是請拿起聖經讀列王記上3-5章。神給所羅門智慧，之後發生的事你已經知道了，所羅門學會許多事情，從講論牛膝草，到獲得外國君主的幫助建造聖殿。所有臣民都吃喝快樂，享受和平。重點是什麼?智慧是神所賜的能力，使人可以建立秩序、建造、以及興旺國度。

九標誌事工相信，地方教會的核心任務是先知性的：宣講我們大祭司和君王的話語。但是神會賜人智慧，你也應該期待爲傳講神的話而建造更大的平台，使得教師、輔導者、司琴、教會外展事工以及宣教都得到有力的支撐，盡一切可能使神的話語透過你的教會及其它事工被宣揚。

可以這麼說，要做到這一切，我們也需要像所羅門那樣的智慧。這需要智慧地訓練會眾，有時甚至要聘用一些人來促進教會的事工。

我差點寫成「聘用他們做教會的事工。」但Jamie Dunlop的文章提醒我聘用全職同工的原因，是要促進教會事工，而不是包辦教會事工。他的文章幫助我們知道聘用同工的原因，Matt Schmucker和Phillip Jenson則幫助我們思想何時（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「主任牧師」這一稱謂提供了截然不同的觀點。

我們禱告求神使用這些文章使你在屬神的智慧中成長，這智慧比所羅門的更大。以此使你教會的每個成員在聖潔、愛心和恩典中興旺。