THE TWO KINDS OF WORKERS IN THE LORD’S WORK

   We have seen that God is working with teams of gospel workers for the building up of the church. Now, there is something significant about such teams I want us to discuss in this section. This is the two kinds of workers the Lord joins together to form a team.

   In our previous discussion, it clearly manifests that before a gospel team is formed, the Lord will first lay hold on one person, and will train and build him. After He has imparted Himself into this person to a considerable extent, then He will revive the spirit of a few people and add them to him for the work. This means that in the formation of a gospel team, the spirit of one brother is first ignited by the Lord, and then, the Lord through the fire of this brother will ignite a few other brothers and gather them around him to work with him. In this way, both the first brother plus the other brothers will altogether be set on fire by the Lord.

   These are the two kinds of workers the Lord joins together for His work. First, we have seen a key worker, and then, many subordinate workers. The first brother who got ignited by the Lord among the teamed-up workers I called “the key worker” because of four reasons. 1. He was counted faithful to be entrusted with a work of stewardship (Colossians 1:25; First Timothy 1:12; Second Timothy 1:11). 2. Since he is entrusted with the work of stewardship, he has been given a special grace and capacity to both understand the mystery of God and to stand in the office the Lord has placed him (Ephesians 3:2 to 5). 3. He received the authority to control the affairs of the work entrusted to him for its accomplishment (First Corinthians 9:18b).  And 4, he has the vision and the plan for the work. Moreover, the many workers who the Lord gathers around the key worker I also called “subordinate workers” because they are called to corporate with the key worker for the accomplishment of the Lord’s work.

   When we trace the teams formed in the various eras, from Noah to Paul, we will see that there were always some key workers been surrounded by many subordinate workers. The key workers were entrusted with some works of stewardship and the workers around them (the subordinate workers) were their teams, working with them for the accomplishment of what the Lord has committed to them. In other words, the key workers received assignments from God, and their teams worked with them for their accomplishments.

   The significant differences between key workers and subordinate workers are these. Key workers are entrusted with the work of stewardship, while subordinate workers work in the work of stewardship committed to the key workers. Key workers receive burdens directly from the Lord, while subordinate workers share in their burdens for their accomplishments. Key workers take the lead in God’s work, while subordinate workers work under their leadership. Finally, the Lord gives each key worker a team, while the Lord makes the subordinate workers members of the team of the key workers.