The two prongs to our dispensational mandate or calling are evangelism and discipleship.
A dispensation is the ordering or management of the world by delegated divine authority. Dispensationally, that is, the management principle to which Jesus made us subject was the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20. Jesus said we have been commissioned to preach the gospel to all the world.
How do we do that? Evangelism is the first prong of our dispensational calling. Then He said to go into the highways and the byways and bring them into His house so they could be fed a banquet of God’s Word, grow up, mature, and become a part of the glorious Church (Luke 14:23-24).
Discipleship, the second prong, is preaching the Word to see people saved and grow up spiritually. Everything you do ought to be measured by its effectiveness in achieving one of those two dispensational callings.
If you are going to administrate on an eternal scale for our Lord, if this is reality to you, then it completely restructures your behavior.
Once you realize that everything you do should contribute to one of two things—getting people saved or helping them grow in God’s Word—it completely restructures your use of time and your use of money. Your behavior is completely altered.
Your behavior changes because you have finally grasped the big picture, which keeps you running on the right track.
The reason ministries and people get sidetracked and sometimes even fall into gross deception is that they lose sight of the big picture. The leadership loses the ability to communicate the goals and purposes effectively with the people who are working to bring them about.
Consequently, the workers seldom produce what the leaders desire. Even if the production of tangible goods is maintained, the intangible problems—strife, division, unrest, dissatisfaction—will be present because the leadership is unclear of its objectives.
Your view of the call on your life and how you fit in the plan of God will affect how you behave toward those who work for you and how they respond to your behavior.
This has to be the first focus of a leader’s effort—to develop the vision within himself, and then to develop it in the lives of those for whom he has been given responsibility.
Excerpt permission granted by Harris House Publishers
Mac and Lynne Hammond are senior pastors of Living Word in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, which they started in 1980. Many outreaches and ministries have launched from Living Word since that time, including Maranatha Christian Academy, a Pre-K through grade 12 school with nearly 900 in attendance, and Living Free Recovery Services, a licensed outpatient treatment program.
Most recently, Mac and Lynne have launched a vision to plant fifty churches across the globe in the next five years. As of August 2024, nine churches have been planted in the Dominican Republic, Ireland, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, and Guatemala with construction underway for seven more churches in El Salvador, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Prior to becoming a pastor, Mac was a pilot. He served in the Air Force, served two tours of duty in Southeast Asia, and was honorably discharged in 1970 with the rank of Captain. Between 1970 and 1980, Mac was involved in varying capacities in the general aviation industry, including ownership of a successful air cargo business serving the Midwestern United States. A business acquisition brought the Hammonds to Minneapolis, where they ultimately founded Living Word. Currently, Mac is the host of The Winner’s Way and The Winner’s Minute broadcasts and the author of several internationally distributed books. Mac is broadly acclaimed for his ability to apply the principles of the Bible to practical situations and the challenges of daily living.