1. NDOT – June 3rdSwanRiver, the surface of the river is completely FLAT.
2. JRB at NDOT – pastors lording it over the flock, the ground is level at the foot of the cross.
3. JY recalls word from several years ago to a pastors’ group (Silvoso Conference), “the level playing field of the heart”.
4. Section from Athanasian Creed comes to mind: “And in this Trinity there is nothing before or after, nothing greater or less, but the whole three Persons are coeternal together and coequal.”
5. Comments by a person who has attended (all?) previous summits – disappointed in cancellation last year to fit in with the calendar of some of the pastors in the city (conference) and the move from campsites to Mandurah.
6. What is the starting point and mark for the measure of all ministries? The ascension e.g. Eph 4:8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.” From the height of the ascension, everything on earth is level ground.
7. This (1 – 6 )means: inwardly, i.e. facing one another, PSSLT must operate as a council of equals, no one is given more attention/status/ significance than anyone else. It would not seem that this has been the case when we examine past discussions re location and timing of the Prayer Summit, up to this year.
8. This does not that outwardly i.e. facing the church/world, all will equally prominent.
9. Points 7 and 8 in fact reflect a participation in the trinity. Considered in itself, the trinitarian relationships are completely equal. Considered representatively from outside themselves i.e. in the eyes of the people of God/world this is not the case. Usually, one of the Persons is more prominent e.g. O.T. the Father, Gospels – Jesus, Pentecost – Spirit.
10. As a river always runs flat so it is with the pouring out of the triune heart of God.
11. It is a necessary truth of leadership (Rom 1:11; Eph 4:8ff; 1 Tim 1:18; 4:14), that the capacity of the PSSLT to impart equality in difference to those who come to Prayer Summit will be in direct proportion to have this operates internally within us. The next circle of the necessary outworking of this is the gathered pastors to the sheep. The final sphere, is the sheep to the world.
12. No river runs without a gradient. This gradient for the pouring out of the Spirit in the trinity is the mutual love between the Father and the Son. This love however, at least as it is knowable to us, is distinguished by the preference of each of the Persons of the trinity for the glory of the other, e.g. Phil 2:5- 11, Father glorifies Jesus; John 12:27 -28, Jesus glorifies Father.
13. According to John 17:21- 22, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”, glory precedes unity. The glory of each Person is to glorify the others.
14. Deficiencies in the expression of unity in the church therefore must be attributed to a failure to understand/express glory.
15. I believe there is a basic confusion about recognition of ministries, the best and most biblical way to recognize pastors at this summit is to impart to them an understanding that their primary purpose (gradient) is not to be “successful” but to bring glory to Christ in the church in the world. As such, they are to see themselves as servants of all and never above any. This will free the pastorate from the self – consciousness which is in many ways blocking the flow of the Spirit through their hearts (Rom 5:5 “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”. (Cf. The Father’s consciousness is the welfare of the Son…..)
16. When the above is grasped and practised, we as the church live in the one heart of the trinity constituted by their mutual other – glorifying love.