The Christian Dynamics: The Mysteries Required for Divine Fulfillment in the Christian Ministry

By Dr. Jallah Yelorbah Koiyan

About the Book
The Christian Dynamics discusses the four fundamentals of biblical stewardship the church needs to execute her kingdom’s mandates on the Earth in order to fulfill her divine roles. The Christian Dynamics unveils, delineates, and instructs the church how she lives through obedience, uses her gifts through exercise of her gifts, responds to giving through generosity, and maximizes her times through scheduling in order to do effective ministry. The Christian Dynamics is informative and full of practical ministry experiences the author had experienced during the past thirty years doing ministry; for this reason, The Christian Dynamics has been written for the church’s audience.

About the Author
Dr. Jallah Yelorbah Koiyan lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, the United States of America. He is the pastor by vocation and the teacher by profession. He is the founder of Praise Ministries International, Inc. and the facilitator for Praise Ministries Prayer Forum, an online educational platform for deliberate theological discourse. He holds certifications of interdisciplinary studies in the fields of Applied Science Degree in Education, General Education, and the Specialization for the Foundation in Medical Assisting. Additionally, he holds the Bachelor of Arts Degree in Biblical Studies with concentration in Pastoral Ministry, Master of Divinity with concentrations in Pastoral Counseling and Chaplaincy, and the Doctor of Ministry with concentrations in Leadership and Preaching. For additional resources for the online platform and for ministry, please visit www.praiseministriesprayerbiblestudyforum.com and www.praiseministriesinternational.com.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Company
• Release date: May 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886837100

Book preview

Koiyan_Title_Page.eps

The contents of this work, including, but not limited to, the accuracy of events, people, and places depicted; opinions expressed; permission to use previously published materials included; and any advice given or actions advocated are solely the responsibility of the author, who assumes all liability for said work and indemnifies the publisher against any claims stemming from publication of the work.

All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2023 by Dr. Jallah Yelorbah Koiyan

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted, downloaded, distributed, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented without permission in writing from the publisher.

Dorrance Publishing Co

585 Alpha Drive

Suite 103

Pittsburgh, PA 15238

Visit our website at www.dorrancebookstore.com

eISBN: 979-8-88683-710-0

ABBREVIATIONS

ABSTRACT

The fundamentals of the Christian’s identities, abilities, accountabilities, and times with reference to life plans, talents, treasures, and times cannot be understudied to holistically comprehend the divine economy as institutionalized in the genesis according to the biblical and theological foundations; therefore, this monograph has given detailed overview of this subject with reference to biblical stewardship in the contextualization of the divine economy (Gen 2:1–25). To give the detailed overview of biblical stewardship, the author has used the methodologies of literature review, the use of the Bible, the archival system of research, the Greek tools, and program onsite involving group discussion on deliberate topics that reference biblical stewardship. While these methodologies have been employed, the Parable of the Talents recorded in Matthew 25:14–30 has been be adopted to develop the theology of biblical stewardship using the elements in the parable in conjunction with the development of four theological principles tailored toward the fundamentals of life plans, talents, treasures, and times in biblical stewardship as institutionalized in the divine economy (Gen 2:1–25).

Understanding that life plan is engrained in the Christian’s identities with reference to salvation, this monograph delineates the detailed overview of biblical stewardship in the contexts of regenerative stewardship, stewardship of holiness, and stewardship of glorification in order to establish exegetically the theology of biblical stewardship in the context of the divine economy. These phases of salvation as delineated in this discourse are necessary for the Christian life since biblical stewardship is tied to the Christian’s response to the Gospel message through biblical obedience in order to satisfy the cost of discipleship. The birth of regeneration gives renaissance to holiness that enables the believer to walk in glorification through the cost of discipleship; therefore, glorification that is now in progress via suffering prepares the believer to participate in the final glorification via the resurrected body upon Christ’s return to earth for the Second Advent (Rom 8:18–24; Rev 20:11–15).

The Christian’s abilities that reference talents fundamentally are foundational to the spiritual gifts, the five-fold ministry gifts, and the motivational gifts providentially initiated and established for the edification of the church. These gifts called talents in biblical stewardship are distributed to believers for the edification of the church in order to advance the kingdom of God (1 Cor 12:1–11; Eph 4:8–13; Rom 12:3–8). In this discourse, the classifications, the types, the kinds, and how these talents function in the life of the Christian church are delineated biblically for the contemporary audience of the twenty-first century Christian church.

The Christian’s accountabilities with reference to the centrality of life to money in the contextualization of financial stewardship, tithing, offering, guidelines for biblical giving, and the five keys to establishing the financial stewardship ministry in the local church are delineated to provide the biblical and the theological evidence that biblical stewardship is fundamentally tied to giving in the contextualization of treasures.

The fundamental of times in biblical stewardship is foundational to natural phenomena; therefore, everything that happens, occurs within the time space from the divinity to the humanity stand point; in this light, this discourse discusses the Christian’s times in the contextualization of the nature of times, times management, the principles of time management, and incorporate s the theological principle of the Parable of Talents in order to cement and to conclude the subject on biblical stewardship.

DEDICATION

My life has been characterized with tough expedition; nevertheless, the named family references in this dedicatory section have been sent by God to see me through the journey; therefore, I am pleased to dedicate this piece of works to them based on the contribution they have made to my spiritual, emotional, and physical life. Primarily, I dedicate this work to the Mothers and Father, alive and deceased including Uncles, Aunties, and significant others in the family who have been the antecedents to the process of my bringing up during early childhood experience. The second group includes my children who have kept my days full of association at school and at home. Finally, I dedicate this work to Praise Ministries Interdenominational Prayer Bible Study Forum and Praise Ministries Prayer Forum whose platform onsite has been used to develop this monograph.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The strength of any building at the base originates with the blueprint of the building. In the blueprint, the kind of materials, the quantity of materials, the dimensions of the materials, and the cost estimate of the materials including labor are characteristics of the blueprint to build the house necessary for human habitation; similarly, education with reference to academia requires similar specifications to achieve its goal. The following named persons acknowledged in this section represent the above metaphors; therefore, I am pleased to acknowledge the following architects of my education. I begin with my parents, relatives, and significant others whom God used in my bringing up period of life nurturing and in academia. The second acknowledgment goes to all the professors of Charlotte Christian College and Theological Seminary whom have been used to prepare me for academia. Special thanks go to Dr. Eddie Grigg, the Seminary’s President, who has become like parent to me during my studies at the institution. Finally, many thanks go to Dr. Wesley McCarter, My Advisor, who has guided me during the dissertation script.

INTRODUCTION

Book Overview

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:16–17).¹

This monograph has been written logically in a systematized format to delineate on biblical stewardship in three dimensions; namely, the dimensions comprise of the preparatory, the theoretical, and the applicatory stages; meanwhile, the preliminary phase is the preparatory stage of the monograph that discusses the literature review wherein selected bibliographies have been selected based on the chosen subject to give a review in the annotated fashion with deliberation given based on the syntheses and analyses of the selected literature reviewed. The next phase under the preparatory stage are the research methodologies employed that galvanize the monograph where the use of the Bible as the primary resource, articles and books as the secondary resources, and program as a tertiary resource adopted as supplemental methodology to expose the subject of biblical stewardship to the greater audience.

The secondary phase of the monograph discusses the theoretical basis of biblical stewardship that begins from chapter three through chapter five. These chapters discuss the holisticity, the principles of the talents, and the five fundamentals of biblical stewardship (life plans, talents, treasures, times, and schedules). Additionally, the tertiary phase discusses the application of biblical stewardship from chapter six through chapter eight as biblical stewardship is defined and delineated with reference to the Christian’s identities, abilities, accountabilities , and times. The discourse concludes with the teaching seminar of biblical stewardship coupled with the displaying of the functional webs (diagrams showing the relationships among the fundamentals of biblical stewardship, the adopted principles of the Parable of the Talents, and the servant master relationship in the Parable of the Talents) in appendixes one and two respectively.

Hypothesis and Thesis Statement

Christians live in the era where doctrines across denominational circles have been infused with ideologies and taught from the theological pulpit based on dogmatisms rather than on biblical model; consequently, Christians have become confused and driven astray from the truth; in this regard, this applied research discourse endeavors to delineate on the detailed overview of biblical stewardship in four areas of stewardship fundamentalisms.

The doctrine of biblical stewardship began with God in the beginning with the first entrustment being life plan; then, God eventually gave responsibility to Adam and Eve to take care of His creation giving them dominion to subdue and to replenish the Earth (Gen 1: 1–31; 2:1–25). Meanwhile, the doctrine of biblical stewardship teaches that God owns all; therefore, man is the manager of God’s creations. The word stewardship is an institution God had established in the genesis through divine providence; in this regard, the word steward known as oikonomos² is the manager of God’s economy from the biblical stand point according to the New Testament Greek Bible (1 Tim 6:17–21).

Understanding that biblical stewardship is institutionalized on responsibility that accounts for the steward to report to the giver of the entrustments, the steward is placed on the cross-examination by the Master, God, with the goal to examine his or her faithfulness in the divine economy; therefore, biblical stewardship is tied to life plan, talents, treasures, and times management with the purpose to examine these areas in the life of the steward. In an effort to delineate on the above fundamentals of biblical stewardship, this discourse delineates on biblical stewardship in the contextualization of the Christian’s identities, abilities, accountabilities, and times. While discussing these major facets of biblical stewardship, the Parable of the Talents recorded in Matthew 25:14–30 serves as the scriptural context thesis of this monograph as references will be made to the Parable of the Talents consistently throughout during the deliberation of this discourse in order to substantiate biblical stewardship as defined in the Scripture.

The preview from the Parable of the Talents has been used as the snapshots to develop four guiding principles as dictated in the conceptual frameworks with reference to how the Master in the Parable of the Talents has transacted business with His servants that resonate with the justices of remuneration and retribution (Matt 25:30). The pictorial morphology from the Parable of Talents has been used to give the complete picture of biblical stewardship in symbolisms; in this light, it gives renaissance to responsibility versus accountability in the divine economy. Meanwhile, the discourse also introduces and discusses the five fundamentals of biblical stewardship in order to connect with the elements seen in the pictorial morphology of the Parable of the Talents. Elements such as life plans, talents, treasures, schedules, and times are given credence with respect to the applicability of the parable that resonates with biblical stewardship in the divine economy.

The Synopsis

In biblical stewardship, living the Christian’s identities is equivalent to living the new life received at regeneration cemented by holiness and consummated by glorification through the cost of discipleship. Regeneration, holiness, and glorification that define instantaneous, progressive, and future events are components of salvation (John 3:1–10; Rom 8:18–24; 10:9–15; 2 Cor 5:17–21). It is true that Christians are saved by grace through faith; however, God desires their obedience in order to remain faithful as stewards; therefore, the primal goal of their obedience is to graciously maintain eternal life they had received from God at regeneration when they gave their lives to Christ; in anticipation, they are required by virtue of their placement in the kingdom as holy people to live holy life. This is the reason; salvation is the progressive event because holiness is what they do daily when they refuse to yield to temptations. Instantaneously, they received salvation at regeneration; however, their obedience is required in order to demonstrate biblical stewardship through obedience. Their glorification waits in the future; nevertheless, their glorification begins now during the progressive journey with the Lord while they suffer to be prepared for the eternal holy heavenly glory. Their glorification begins now as steward via the model of suffering. Heaven is prepared for obedient people; therefore, the cost of discipleship is imminent that is designed to cross-examine believers in order to prepare them for heaven; for this reason, Apostle Paul admonished the Christians in Corinth to examine themselves to see whether they were in the faith (2 Cor 13:5). Spiritual examination is necessary in the Christian life for the purpose of re-positioning and re-aligning oneself with the holy God.

As the literature tends to explore biblical stewardship fundamentally, the literature will have explored and delineated on the three divisions of talents. Such divisions include the spiritual gifts (the message wisdom, the message of knowledge, faith, healing, miracle, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in different kinds of tongues, and interpretation of tongues) , the five-fold ministry gifts (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers), and the motivational gifts (prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, ruling, and mercy) (1 Cor 12:1–11; Eph 4:8–13; Rom 12:3–8). Understanding that biblical stewardship is the ability to discern, to recognize, and to exercise spiritual gifts, the literature defines spiritual gifts using the primary and secondary sources to authenticate that the gifts of talents are fundamental elements of biblical stewardship; therefore, stewards are advised to desire spiritual gifts (1Cor 14:1). Apostle Paul admonishes the Christians in Corinth to follow the way of love and to desire spiritual gifts (1 Cor 14:1). He exhorts the Roman Christians prior to his planned visit in Rome to exercise spiritual gifts in order to enable them pave the way for the ministry gifts (Rom 12:3–8). He reminds the Christians of Ephesus to desire spiritual gifts with reference to the offices Jesus gave to the church after his ascension as the instruments to prepare God’s people for the works of the ministry (Eph 4:8–13). The Christian’s usages of these talents in the church is necessary for kingdom’s advancement; therefore, this literature explores and delineates on the three classifications of gifts using biblical explanations, giving scriptural examples of the gifts, and believers whom God had used in these gifts during the formative years of the church. The nine spiritual gifts, the seven motivational gifts, and the five-fold ministry gifts are delineated in the applied research project. It is true that there are denominations in Christendom that do not believe that these gifts do function today; however, evidences from the twenty-first century Christian church indicate that these gifts do function in our time.³MacArthur comments to invalidate cessation theology. He writes, "Cessation theology, so-called, is astonishingly enough, exactly what it denounces: completely non biblical. There is absolutely no clear biblical statement that the gifts of the Spirit have gone anywhere, especially away.⁴ The subject on the Christian’s talents needs to be taught and emphasized in Christendom based on skepticisms religious leaders of churches have developed that undercut the functionality of these gifts in the Christian church and consequently leads to the birth of cessation theologies in Christendom. In his book, Author Keener, argues the validity of the reliability of miracles in today’s modern world from physical evidence in order disapprove cessation theologies.⁵ The applied research monograph points out the importance, the existent functionality, and the use of the gifts in the Christian ministry of the twenty-first century Christianity.

In biblical stewardship, the word account as used in Matthew 25:19 is called logos. Logos references Jesus as used in John 1:1; on the other hand in the context of the parable, it represents the statement made by stewards in the divine court during account’s presentation. Such statement should be valid that influences the judgment of the attendees in God’s court of the divine economy. In the divine economy known as oikonomia, there is always the Master, the servants, and the responsibility entrusted to servants known as the entrustment. The goal of the Master is to examine the integrity of the servants after the transaction has gone on. During cross-examination of the servants, the servants report on investments that had been given them by their Master as seen in the Matthew’s Gospel with reference to the Parable of the Talents. In this junction, account is concerned with money’s issues in the Parable of the Talents that represents the statement (logos) servants made during the preceding in the divine court (Matt 25:14–30). Living our accounts as stewards is related to the resources God has entrusted us in the divine economy. In this applied research monograph, the subject on tithes and offerings including other related giving to support spiritual projects such as mission-evangelism and church’s infrastructures are delineated in the monograph. The biblical and the theological understanding of the tithe and offering is highlighted. The goal is to educate the church on giving in order to re-enforce the church’s traditional biblical view on biblical giving making the church to understand that it is an obligation and not volition to give to kingdom’s works.

Amongst the fundamentals of biblical stewardship, time is biblically defined as the transition between sunrise and sunset (Eph 5:15–16). It is defined in the context of the days known as hemera in Greek.⁶ Between sunrise and sunset lies the choices Christians make; therefore, Apostle Paul admonished the Christians in Ephesus to make use of every opportunity in order to wisely use time because the days are evil. The failure to schedule or budget time can lead to wrong choices the individual might endorse. In any undertaking, time must be scheduled or budgeted against activity for implementation before a set goal can be realized; therefore, time management in Christian stewardship is vital; reasonably, it gives life to undertakings. The Christian life lived must be scheduled against Bible studies, prayer meetings, and among others for the Christian growth processes to be actualized. Jesus said while it is day, it is the time to work, because the night comes when no man can work (John 9:4). In the applied research monograph, time is delineated in the context of the schedule.

The psalmist writes, Teach us to number our days so that we can have the heart of wisdom (Ps 90:12). The fundamentals of talents, treasures, and times are tied to life management significantly according to biblical stewardship.⁷ How well one manages talents (gifts), treasures (monies), and times(schedules) determines how the individual gets closer to God and prospers both physically and spiritually; biblically, true prosperity starts in the spirit; however, it must begin with practice in the physical. It reads in Genesis 2:7 that God breathed into man’s nostril, the breath of life and man became the living soul; then, God eventually entrusted humanity with His creations including humanity’s life. The first responsibility entrusted to man was mankind’s life. Life is the primal object for biblical stewardship of salvation.⁸ Christians’ breath does not belong to them; instead, it belongs to God; therefore, it is required of humanity to live in total obedience according to the precepts God has ordained in the genesis in order to manage this life plan. God, who has given humanity life, can demand it at any time because it is by the reason of God’s approval that humanity exists. Christians own nothing; instead, everything they have belongs to God including their lives, talents, treasures, and times; therefore, they are only stewards of God’s creation. This monograph delineates on life plan in the contextualization of regeneration, holiness, and glorification. The study of these areas as life plan is concerned in the doctrine of salvation opens church’s pastors, lay leaders, and membership understanding on the stewardship of salvation that has been understudied, misunderstood, and misapplied during the previous years in the Christian ministry. This proved indication can be seen through textbooks that have been written on biblical stewardship. Most books written on biblical stewardship have only laid emphasis on money (treasure) instead of life plan, talents, and times.⁹ This applied research project is holistic in dealing with biblical stewardship with reference to these fundamentalisms that have been ignored by authors of textbooks on the subject.

Apostle Paul writes, For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gifts of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands (2 Tim 1:6–7 KJV). Talents in biblical stewardship are abilities believers received from God for kingdom’s advancement. The reason of the entrustment is to examine the steward’s faithfulness when it comes to the exercise and the use of the gift; in this light, Apostle Paul admonished Pastor Timothy of Ephesus to exercise the gifts he received when he laid his hands on him. In this discourse, the author delineates on the three classifications of spiritual gifts and gives implications scripturally where, when, how, and whom did God use in these gifts during the formative years of the church and the present church’s era. From the reading of these texts in the literature, pastors, lay leaders, and membership will have become cognizant of these gifts, teach them, and apply them in their ministry’s settings.

Treasures are valuables such as monies that are used as the medium of exchange; therefore, every scribe who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his treasure new things as well as old (Matt 13:52).¹⁰ Meanwhile, believers are managers of treasures or monies as defined in the Scripture. The author of Ecclesiastes writes, A feast is made for laughter, wine makes life merry, and money is the answer for everything (Eccl 10:19 NIV). The philosophical statement that money answers all things is true because we use money to exchange services we need done in the church. The needs to educate church members about giving are crucial because churches have become voluntary associations. The biblical mandate to teach on tithe and offering has been ignored by the church and has made the church to be beggars during capital campaign. In this monograph, the author delineates on tithing, offering, and the biblical mandate the church is required to adhere to in order to solve the