The Ministry Driven Church

THE MINISTRY DRIVEN CHURCH:

THE BIBLICAL BASIS FOR MINISTRY IN BOTH THE
SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL SPHERES, AND ITS IMPACT
ON THE RAPID MULTIPLICATION OF CHURCHES

- A Biblical Theology of Social Ministry

© Copyright 2006 Dr. Robert D. Hosken

(to Russian version)

The Ministry Driven Church replicates the work of Jesus Christ,
the Apostles and the Early Church,
explaining the rapid growth of the Church in the first few centuries.

What is the purpose of the Church? This book, The Ministry Driven Church, builds on Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Church to forcefully demonstrate that ministry is the purpose, the missing key in the formula for rapid multiplication of churches. The word "ministry" (diakonia in Greek) is explored in all its diverse meanings and contexts. This book ties together the manifold aspects of a living, healthy and growing church. Many modern books on small groups, evangelism, missions, discipleship and church growth rely upon new methods, techniques and technology. This is not entirely mistaken, but they run the risk of ignoring the foundational truths of the New Testament for the sake of novelty. This work tries to adhere very closely to the New Testament teachings on "ministering to the building up of the Body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12-13). It utilizes the inspired Word of God as the primary bibliographical source, and taps into other sources, old and new, only as secondary witnesses to God's unchanging truth in Scripture.

The Ministry Driven Church covers the following twenty-one aspects of ministry as found in the Bible: fellowship (koinonia), making disciples (matheteuo), worship (latreia) and divine service (leitourgia), servanthood (pais) and bondservice (douleuo), practical service (diakonia), sanctification (hagiasmos), evangelizing (euaggelizo), proclamation (kerusso), love (agape), joy (khara) and peace (eirene), moderation (epieikes) and self-control (egkrateia), liberation (eleutheria), wholeness (teleiosis), edification (oikodome), grace (kharis), truth (aletheia) and light (fos), intercession (enteuxia) and unity (henotes).

In doing so, The Ministry Driven Church draws today's minister back to first-century, revolutionary, world-changing practical ministry that shook the Roman Empire to its knees. It looks forward to and prepares for another great shaking: "For so says Jehovah of Hosts: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land. And I will shake all the nations; and the Desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, says Jehovah of Hosts" - Haggai 2:6-7, MKJV.

Robert Duwayne Hosken, dipl. translator, B.A., A.A., M.Min., M.Th.S., D.Min.
March 2006, revised January 2007

Dr. Robert D. Hosken, a missionary to Russia for 17 years, was raised in a Christian home, a "middle child" among an older brother and four sisters. Four of the children have served the Lord in foreign mission work for a combined total of 110+ years and two served in U.S. churches. His mother's family descends from Edward Doty who came to the New World on the Mayflower in 1620. Edward wasn't one of the Pilgrims originally, he was an indentured servant who belonged to Stephen Hopkins, one of the Pilgrims. So you could say that Robert is the descendant of a "white slave." On the way across the ocean, the Pilgrims decided they shouldn't allow slavery in the New World, so they freed all their slaves. Thus Edward Doty became one of the Pilgrims and signed the Mayflower Compact, the first government document in America. But he remained something of a ruffian: he fought the first duel in the New World with another emancipated white slave, and was put in stocks twice for brawling.

Edward Doty finally settled down and married. His descendants include Roger Sherman, the only man who signed all four U.S. founding documents (Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights); Jonathan Edwards, leader of the First Great Awakening and one of the first presidents of Princeton Seminary; Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman who during that war met Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and became close friends - now you know why they were leading the fight against slavery: both men were descendants of the same slave! Doty's descendants also include Presidents Franklin Pierce, Ulysses S. Grant, little-known Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, Supreme Court Justice and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes, Warren Buffett, and Raquel Welch. Through them Robert is also related to Presidents James Madison (on the $5,000 bill), Grover Cleveland (on the $1,000 bill), U.S. Grant (on the $50 bill), Abraham Lincoln (on the $5 bill), Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Theodore Roosevelt, and Gerald Ford.

Robert's great-grandfather, Nicholas Richards, was a circuit riding Methodist preacher in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin who was active in the "underground railroad" before and during the U.S. Civil War, helping slaves escape to Canada. Nicholas married Ann Stephens whose mother Sarah was from the Doty line. Sarah's mother Lucy had married the Quaker Daniel Anthony, so their daughter Susan is Robert's great-great-aunt, Susan B. Anthony, who led the struggle for women's right to vote, and is the first woman whose portrait is on U.S. money. Lucy's cousin and Susan's uncle was James Duane Doty, governor of the Wisconsin Territory and founder of the capital city, Madison, where Robert and his wife Cheryl raised their family. Named after James Duane Doty, Robert's older brother is named James and Robert's middle name is Duwayne - spelled with a "w" and a "y" - as his mother said - "just to be different."

Robert committed his life to Christ as his Savior and Lord in 1957, and about one year later, he received a vision as he stood on the balcony of a U-shaped apartment complex. A voice said to him, "Remember this plan: you will build it many years from now, when you're an old man." He asked, "Why do I have to wait so long?" Then he saw a map or outline of Russia in the sky, and also was given the clear impression that there was something very unusual and special about the stairways, but he didn't understand what it was. Immediately after receiving this vision he began studying about Russia. Over the course of years he drew these plans several times, even built his own house incorporating some of these ideas, but there were always questions about the stairways.

He has been a student of Russian and Central European affairs since 1961 (diploma as a Russian interpreter, B.A. in Central and East European Studies), and has been actively working for freedom of religious confession and for mutual understanding among Christians in this area since 1969. He is fluent in Russian and German, has studied French, Spanish, Greek, Hungarian, Udmurt, Mari and Ukrainian, and also has a 2-year technical college diploma (4.0 GPA) in programming, knows over twenty computer languages and has about thirty-five years of experience developing computer software. Over the years he has written, translated or edited ten books in five languages, among them serving as General Editor of Agape-Biblia, the first hypertext Russian Bible for Windows Operating System, now in its second print version. It is a revision of the standard Russian Synodal Translation. He has earned M.Min., M.Th.S., and D.Min. degrees, and lived in Russia from early 1991 through 2007. In 1996 he became acquainted with a very talented handicapped young man in Russia, and immediately he understood what was wrong with his plans - those "stairways" should be ramps! For more about Dr. Hosken's life, please read this.

Click HERE to read the Introduction and Ch. 1: Ministry as Fellowship/ Community (koinonia) online. You can also read and download Ch. 11 on moderation and self-control: Ministry-Driven-Church-ch11.pdf .

Thanks for your encouraging note and the copy of The Ministry Driven Church. I'm pleased to have it as part of our library, and I'm sure it will be a great resource for us here. I really appreciate your thinking of me.

I'm honored to be serving with you in ministry. Keep up the good work!

God Bless,
(signed)
Rick Warren

We want you to have this book! It will shake up your paradigms about what the purpose of the Church really is! Here's where you can get it: https://agape-biblia.org/literatura/#ministry - thanks!