# Ready for Leadership

Sermon transcript from Cross Church Phoenix.
Series: Rooted and Ready
Date: September 7, 2026
Watch: https://crosschurchcares.com/phoenix/episodes/ready-for-leadership

## Summary

Are you ready to embrace your calling? What if leadership isn’t just for a select few? How can we all engage in ministry and make a lasting impact? Discover how being rooted in discipleship prepares us for a life of purpose. Let’s dive in together!

## Transcript

turn me on until I get up here, but we 
 don't get the feedback. 
 All right. Well, good morning. My name 
 is Ken Strowmire and it is a pleasure 
 and a privilege to be with you this 
 morning. Um, Pastor DJ, as you just 
 heard, is in the Philippines. Um, so I 
 get the honor of closing out our series 
 on Rooted and Ready. 
 Um, 
 so it's interesting and I share this um 
 because if you were here for the last 
 time, you see that I wander quite often 
 and um usually I prepare these sermons 
 like you know two weeks in advance um 
 cuz I'm not up here every week. I have 
 the privilege of doing that. And then 
 God decides to change my message. 
 So, you will see me refer to my notes 
 because um as late as last night, he was 
 telling me new things. And so, uh 
 usually when he talks, I listen. 
 Um so, we'll we'll try. But let's uh 
 let's start with a word of prayer. The 
 father, we thank you for allowing us to 
 be here together this morning. We ask 
 that you bless those who couldn't be 
 with us this morning. Um and ask that 
 you guide pastors DJ and Chad as they 
 are in the Philippines. Uh we pray we 
 praise you, Father, for the birth of 
 Adeline Rose Guerrero and that mom and 
 baby are recovering well. Father, we ask 
 now that your words would be spoken 
 through me this morning as we worship 
 you through your word. Amen. 
 Uh so turn in your Bibles to Colossians 
 4 12 and 13. 
 If you didn't bring your Bible, there's 
 one in the seat pocket in front of you. 
 Um, as Pastor DJ says, take it, use it, 
 mark it up, and bring it back the next 
 time you come. 
 If you're using one of those Bibles, 
 Colossians 4:12 is on page 1086. 
 If you're using your own Bible, you're 
 on your own. 
 10:45 
 >> 10:45 
 >> 10:45 in that one. I just found out 
 between services that some of the Bibles 
 are different 
 than the page numbers that I have. But 
 um so I had to watch the last two weeks 
 online 
 because my wife and I were on vacation 
 in Hawaii. 
 Um and we we joined the Wy Ki Beach 
 Chaplain on Wy Ki Beach for Sunday 
 services. It's um it's an amazing 
 experience worshiping 
 God 
 on the beach 
 as you're looking out at what they 
 referred to as the world's largest 
 baptismal, 
 the Pacific Ocean, 
 and just getting to fellowship with with 
 other believers. Um, 
 so now I'm not sure that every church in 
 Hawaii has this same dress code, 
 but where I was where we were at, they 
 all wore Hawaiian shirts. Um, 
 they were barefoot and in shorts. I'm 
 not going to do that to you, but I did 
 wear this shirt in honor of 
 their greetings to you. Um, I spent some 
 time talking to the pastor after this 
 last weekend. He is the uh chaplain for 
 all of the joint arms services there in 
 Hawaii and he comes to the beach and 
 shares once a month and we got the 
 privilege of listening to him. Uh, one 
 of the other things that it seems to be 
 a prerequisite to to 
 be a pastor with this group is the 
 ability to sing. Both weeks that we were 
 there, the pastor broke out in song 
 halfway through his sermon. I will not 
 do that. 
 I will save you that. 
 Anyway, as a review, I'm going to read 
 the scriptures associated with each 
 message in this series, rooted and 
 ready. So, please stand with me while I 
 read these verses and they will show up 
 behind me. Um, week one was word rooted 
 in worship. Colossians 3:16-1 17. Let 
 the message about the Messiah dwell 
 richly among you, teaching and 
 admonishing one another in all wisdom 
 and singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual 
 songs with gratitude in your hearts to 
 God. And whatever you do, in word or in 
 deed, do everything in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the 
 Father through him. 
 Week Week [clears throat] 2 was rooted 
 in community. Colossians 3:12-15. 
 Therefore, God's chosen ones, holy and 
 loved, put on heartfelt compassion, 
 kindness, humility, gentleness, and 
 patience, accepting one another, and 
 forgiving one another. If anyone has a 
 complaint against another, just as the 
 Lord has forgiven you, so you must also 
 forgive. Above all, put on love, the 
 perfect bond of unity, and let the peace 
 of the Messiah to which you were also 
 called in one body control your hearts. 
 Be thankful. 
 Week three, 
 rooted in disciplehip. 
 Colossians 2:6 and 8. Therefore, as you 
 have received Christ Jesus the Lord, 
 walk in him, rooted and built up in him 
 and established in the faith, just as 
 you were taught, overflowing with 
 gratitude. Be careful that no one takes 
 you captive through philosophy and empty 
 deceit based on human tradition, based 
 on the elemental forces of the world, 
 and not based on Christ. 
 Week four, ready for mission. Colossians 
 4 5 and 6. Act wisely toward outsiders, 
 making the most of the time. Your speech 
 should always be gracious, seasoned with 
 salt, so that you may know how you 
 should answer each person. And that 
 brings us to this week, week five, 
 rooted or ready for leadership. 
 Colossians 4 12:13 and 17. Hippaparus 
 who is one of you, a slave of Christ 
 Jesus, greets you. He is always 
 contending for you in his prayers so 
 that you can stand mature and fully 
 assured in everything God wills. For I 
 testify about him that he works hard for 
 you, for those in Leodysia, and for 
 those in Hiereropoulos. Verse 17. and 
 tell Archipus, "Pay attention to the 
 ministry you have received in the Lord 
 so that you can accomplish it." 
 While rooted in leadership 
 gives you a simple out, doesn't it? You 
 can say, "Well, Ken, I'm just not gifted 
 in leadership. 
 So, I don't have to listen to this." 
 Well, I have two responses to that. The 
 first response is, 
 you don't know. God might be calling you 
 to leadership. You just don't know it 
 yet. The second response is, I agree 
 with you. Not all of us. I'm sorry. You 
 guys can can have a seat. 
 I saw my wife sit down and you guys are 
 all standing. I said, "Oh, yeah. I 
 should tell you we can have a seat. I 
 want to see how long you can stand. 
 >> [clears throat] 
 >> The second is I agree 
 not all of us are called to leadership. 
 However, we are all called to ministry. 
 So, I'm going to change the title a 
 little bit. Instead of calling it rooted 
 in leadership, I'm going to say let's be 
 rooted in ministry. And we'll talk about 
 what that means in a little bit. 
 Um, 
 but I want to change the order of these 
 messages 
 on you and there's a slide for that. But 
 we're going to start with rooted in 
 disciplehip. Rooted in disciplehip is 
 where everything really starts. Um, 
 we're going to change that. We're going 
 to start with rooted in disciplehip 
 and we're going to say um we're going to 
 look at a scripture that pastor DJ 
 taught through earlier in I think last 
 year Matthew 28 18 to20 
 says G then Jesus came near and said to 
 them all authority has been given to me 
 in heaven and on earth. Go there 
 therefore and make disciples of all 
 nations, baptizing them in the name of 
 the Father and the Son and the Holy 
 Spirit, teaching them to observe 
 everything I have commanded you and 
 remember I am with you always to the end 
 of the age. 
 Jesus tells us to make disciples, bring 
 them into the family and teach them how 
 to live. 
 Uh, and I think that evangelism is the 
 first part of that disciplehip. 
 How can you teach them how to live, how 
 to believe if they're not part of the 
 family? And that's where evangelism 
 brings those people into the family and 
 starts the disciplehip process. 
 Oh, and it says observe. 
 Observe does not mean look at it and 
 say, "Oo, that's pretty." 
 Observe means see it and do it. Observe 
 those commandments. Keep those 
 commandments. Do what he asks of you. 
 All right. So, just wanted to get that 
 out. 
 Well, let's look at how Paul introduced 
 these ideas. Remember I told you I was 
 going to change the order of things. And 
 in the book of Colossians, um, again, I 
 know that, um, chapters, 
 designations, and those types of stuff 
 are put in there by man, but the letter 
 flows the way the letter flows. And the 
 first thing he does in chapter two is 
 talk about disciplehip. 
 His first topic is disciplehip. And then 
 as he moves along in the letter, it 
 comes up in chapter 3 
 that we're to be in community, part of 
 the family, and then in worship. 
 And then chapter 4 of Colossians talks 
 about the mission and the ministry of 
 the believer. And we're going to talk 
 about a little bit of that. Um 
 but today we we were introduced to 
 Epapris. Chapter 4:12 introduced us to 
 Epapharis. He was actually introduced in 
 chapter 1 
 as the one who brought the gospel to the 
 Colossum Colossian church to the people 
 of Colasse. He's the one that brought 
 the the word of God to Colasse. 
 He probably wasn't a direct disciple of 
 Paul. Um I think Paul met him as he went 
 to Paul who was in prison at this time 
 to tell him about the ministry that was 
 happening in Colossians in Colasse. So 
 he wasn't a direct disciple. Um and I 
 think that also because Timothy and 
 Phileiman were direct disciples and he 
 calls them his children in the faith. So 
 somebody 
 somebody else told Epapaffris 
 about the gospel 
 and then somebody maybe the same person 
 maybe a group of people trained Epaparis 
 on how to live a holy life and how to 
 make other disciples. 
 They made him a disciple and ready to go 
 on mission. And that mission was back to 
 Colasse. 
 So a couple weeks ago, 
 DJ kind of geeked out on grammar. 
 Well, I think that math should have its 
 own time. Okay. So, we're going to talk 
 a little bit about math today. 
 And um I want to tell a little bit about 
 my story to show you how this works. Um 
 I was introduced to the gospel in 
 college through a a group uh called 
 Master Plan Ministries. Now, Master Plan 
 Ministries was at that time just on Fort 
 Lewis College in in Durango. Here's a 
 picture of that group when we first 
 started. Um, it's unfortunate that I'm 
 up on the corner there. If you could see 
 my whole head, you would see that I 
 actually had hair at that time. 
 But these guys brought me to to know 
 Jesus 
 um actually on the basketball court. Um, 
 it's where I met them. That's where I 
 saw they had something different. That's 
 where I developed they developed a 
 friendship with me and told me the 
 difference was Jesus in their life. So 
 once I came to know the Lord, I was 
 plugged into a um new believers Bible 
 study that met once a week for a 2 to 3 
 months. 
 At the same time, I was meeting with the 
 college director and he was talking to 
 me about everything from um scheduling, 
 you know, u time management to theology 
 and how to live a holy life. That was my 
 sophomore year in college. By my junior 
 year in college, I was leading those 
 Bible studies for new believers. I was 
 giving talks at our retreats and I was 
 discipling others to do the same thing. 
 So, master plans ministry their their 
 kind of 
 methodology if you will they called it 
 spiritual multiplication. 
 In other words, you take two discip you 
 take one me or you and I disciple two 
 people 
 and those two people go and disciple two 
 more people. And if you do that over 10 
 iterations, 
 you have over a thousand new disciples 
 ready to make more disciples. 
 Um, 
 which means, by the way, you're involved 
 in the world's most important and 
 multi-level marketing program. 
 God's design to save the world uses you 
 and me in multiplication as we develop 
 other disciples. 
 So, in our little group of master plan 
 ministries, 
 that group there, and oh, by my the way, 
 my um future bride is in that photo, 
 too. She's not standing next to me. I 
 don't know why. I do know why. She she 
 didn't know me at that time. 
 Um, four couples went into missions work 
 directly. 
 A couple of those are still in missions 
 today. In fact, Master Plan Ministries 
 has grown from that one campus in 
 Durango, Colorado to multiple campuses 
 across small campuses. That was their 
 idea. They wanted to go to small 
 campuses across Colorado and New Mexico. 
 They are also 
 um sending [snorts] 
 missionaries overseas to work on 
 campuses overseas. 
 Um and outside of the the college 
 ministry, they have two mountain cabins, 
 mountain resort 
 um retreat areas that are are available 
 to use. Um they have a men's retreat. 
 They have a hunting retreat. It's in 
 Durango. You can't have Durango without 
 a hunting retreat, right? 
 Um 
 but so 
 their idea 
 was disciples making disciples. 
 That's the the idea behind it. Now is 
 that new to them? That's what Apaparus 
 was doing, 
 right? Apaparus after being trained, he 
 returned home and started the mission in 
 Colasse. 
 Colossians 1:4 and 6 tells us what that 
 looked like. Paul wrote, "Since we heard 
 from Apapaffris of your faith in Christ 
 Jesus and the love which you have for 
 all the saints, because of the hope laid 
 up for you in heaven of which you 
 previously heard from Apaparis, in the 
 word of truth, the gospel which has come 
 to you, just as in all the world also it 
 is consistently or constantly bearing 
 fruit and multiplying 
 just as it has been doing in you also 
 since the day you heard and understood 
 the grace of God in truth. Epaparus went 
 home and made disciples who were making 
 disciples. 
 Now, what does that look like? Um, if 
 you look at point three, take heed and 
 fulfill it. In verse 17, we're 
 introduced to one of Epapas's 
 disciples. 
 His name was Archipropus. And he gets a 
 an admonishment to take heed and fulfill 
 it. Take heed to the ministry which you 
 have received in the Lord that you may 
 fulfill it. 
 So I read that and I'm thinking, well, 
 did he 
 did Archipus go on to fulfill the 
 ministry? Well, fortunately there he's 
 mentioned in another letter that was 
 prever preserved for us in the Bible. 
 He's mentioned in Phileiman. 
 And in Phileiman, 
 Paul calls him a fellow soldier. 
 Paul calls him a fellow soldier. Means 
 he's out doing the ministry that he was 
 called to do. Right? 
 So, I like to to look at this and I 
 really like Paul's analogy when he uses 
 the the military terms. Um, 
 I'm not in the military, but my job is 
 kind of military adjacent. We run the 
 same way. We do a lot of the same 
 things. Um, statistically 
 only about 10% of our armed forces are 
 combat related. In other words, they're 
 trained for combat. Only about 10%. 
 Well, sorry, here's math again. That 
 means 90% 
 are not combat related. What are they 
 doing? Well, if you look back in 
 history, most of the time what we call 
 the Department of War here in the United 
 States was called the Ministry of War, 
 was called the Ministry of Defense. The 
 Ministry is the overarching umbrella 
 that helped those on mission, those that 
 are combat ready, that supported those 
 that were on mission. Now, does that 
 mean that um there's not others that 
 aren't considered combat ready on the 
 front lines? Absolutely not. Consider 
 the medics that are out on the front 
 lines. They're not combat related. 
 They're there to support them. So you 
 think about that. 90% 
 the 10% that are out doing missions. The 
 rest of us are in ministry are doing the 
 ministry. 
 Well, now remember I told you in this 
 picture that there's there was four 
 couples that went to to full-time 
 missions. What about the rest of us? Um 
 Laura and I served at the college 
 ministry for a couple years. We were on 
 mission. Felt that wasn't where our 
 calling was. Our calling was in the 
 local church. Um so we 
 we moved away from that. But that tells 
 you what the rest of us are doing. We 
 are doing ministry. We are supporting 
 those couples that are still out doing 
 missions. We're supporting the family, 
 those of us that are here in the local 
 body. We're supporting that group. 
 So what is the ministry? Well, the first 
 ministry obviously is the salvation of 
 the world through the power of the risen 
 savior. 
 1 Corinthians 12 4-7 says, "Now there 
 are a variety of gifts but one spirit. 
 There are varieties of service but the 
 same Lord and there are varieties of 
 activities but it is the same God who 
 empowers them 
 all in everyone. To each is given the 
 manifestation of the spirit for the 
 common good." And I would suggest to you 
 that common good is the salvation of the 
 world. That's the common good. 
 But it's also that ministry is the 
 caring for the family, 
 the caring of God's family. Those of us 
 that that know him. 
 Ephesians 4:11 through13 
 says, "And he Jesus gave some as 
 apostles and some as prophets and some 
 as evangelists and some as pastors and 
 teachers for the equipping of the saints 
 [snorts] for the work of ministry for 
 building up the body of Christ until we 
 all attain to the unity of the faith and 
 of the full knowledge of the Son of God, 
 to the mature man, to the measure of the 
 stature of the fullness of Christ. 
 So here we have obviously Jesus gave 
 some as apostles, prophets, evangelists, 
 pastors and teachers the leaders. Um but 
 why do we have leaders? 
 For the equipping of the saints. That's 
 y'all. 
 um for 
 ministry, 
 for doing the same thing, building up 
 other people, building up the family, 
 supporting the family. 
 So if you're not part of the family, 
 the first step is believing. 
 Believing that you have sinned and fall 
 short of God's holiness. 
 believing that God declared the 
 punishment for sin as death, 
 which is eternal separation from him and 
 an eternity of suffering outside his 
 presence. 
 Believing that God loved you so much 
 that he sent his son Jesus to die on the 
 cross to [snorts] atone for your sins. 
 And believing in this, you put your 
 trust in Jesus and you become part of 
 the family. Um, if you're not part of 
 the family, but you'd like to know more 
 about that, 
 see me or or someone around you after 
 service. We'd be more than happy to talk 
 to you about that. If you already call 
 Jesus your savior and lord, your mission 
 is to tell those around you about him 
 and help them grow. Jesus said, "Make 
 disciples and teach them to observe all 
 that he commanded." 
 Um, as as the pastor on the beach said 
 last week, you are either making 
 disciples or you are making excuses. 
 Which one are you? 
 Now, making disciples, some of us help 
 with the kids at church, right? Some of 
 us have our own children at home. We got 
 a bunch of little disciples running 
 around. That takes a lot of effort to 
 to change those little monsters into 
 disciples, right? 
 And others are children or adults. We 
 still have ministry in their lives, but 
 we're 
 to help the rest of the family, help the 
 rest of God's family grow. 
 Um, some of you may be called to the 
 front line of service to lead the local 
 church or to go plant another one. The 
 next step for you 
 would be the residency program through 
 cross church. 
 For all of us, 
 we are called to be rooted in ministry 
 or making Christ known. We are called to 
 be part of ministry. Our next step is to 
 be rooted in disciplehip. 
 Pastor DJ will be introducing a Tuesday 
 night Bible study which is designed for 
 that. If you've looked at the Bible 
 study, there's not a Tuesday night Bible 
 study because he's going to be 
 introducing that disciplehip class for 
 Tuesday night. So I would suggest that 
 you all take a look at that and let's 
 not be a family of excuse makers. 
 Let's be a family of disciple makers. 
 As I close this message, I'd like to 
 read Paul's prayer for the Colossians 
 from chapter 1 9-14. 
 And it says, 'For this reason also, 
 since the day we heard this, we haven't 
 stopped praying for you. We are asking 
 that you may be filled with the 
 knowledge of his will in all wisdom and 
 spiritual understanding 
 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, 
 fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in 
 every good work, and growing in the 
 knowledge of God. May you be 
 strengthened with all power according to 
 his glorious might for all endurance and 
 patience with joy. Giving thanks to the 
 Father who has enabled you to share in 
 the saints inheritance in the light. He 
 has rescued us from the domain of 
 darkness and transferred us into the 
 kingdom of the son of he loves. We have 
 redemption, the forgiveness of sins in 
 him. 
 So if you go up back up to 
 verse 
 9 
 and 10, it says, 
 "Be filled with all the knowledge of his 
 will and his wisdom so that you may walk 
 worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to 
 him, bearing fruit in every good work, 
 and growing in the knowledge of God." 
 But we don't have to do that on our own. 
 It's not something we can do on our own. 
 Verse 10, verse 11 says, "May you be 
 strengthened with all power according to 
 his glorious might and all endurance and 
 patience with joy 
 who has enabled us to share in the 
 saints. It's God who enables us. We 
 don't have to try to do it on our own. 
 It's God who has called us to ministry. 
 and he hasn't just called us. He said, 
 "I'll give you the strength to do it." 
 So, I'd like to invite the worship team 
 up as we pray and prepare for communion. 
 Father, hear us. Help us. Strengthen us 
 for the ministry you have prepared for 
 us. And now prepare our hearts for a 
 time of communion around the Lord's 
 supper. A time to reflect on all you've 
 done for us and what is still to come. 
 Father, as we prepare ourselves for this 
 time, we take a few moments to reflect 
 on our relationship with you, to seek 
 forgiveness, and to make our hearts more 
 open for communion with you. Let's take 
 a few moments. [snorts] 
 Father, we thank you again for saving us 
 from ourselves and sealing us in your 
 son, Jesus. Sealing us for ministry and 
 a future in your presence. 
 Amen. 
 I'd like to add another rooted to our 
 service um to our to our messages and 
 that is rooted in communion. Rooted in 
 communion with the father through his 
 son Jesus Christ. 
 Communion is a relationship. 
 It means 
 sharing thoughts and feelings in a very 
 close way. 
 So for believers, this is Bible reading 
 and prayer. As you read the Bible, you 
 see God's heart. You hear God's heart, 
 and prayer shares your heart back to 
 him. 
 If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, 
 this time of communion is for you. If 
 not, we ask that you don't participate 
 and ask us about how to resolve this 
 issue. Um the cups with bread and juice 
 are on the table in the back. If you did 
 not get one, um, grab one now. 
 Matthew chapter 26 
 verse 26 says, "Now while they were 
 eating, Jesus took some bread 
 and after a blessing, he broke it and 
 giving it to the disciples, he said, 
 take, eat. This is my body. Please take 
 and eat the wafer as you reflect on who 
 Jesus is. 
 Matthew chapter 6, sorry, Matthew chap 
 26 
 27 and 28. 
 I'm sorry, 26 and 27. 
 And when he had taken the cup and given 
 thanks, he gave it to them, saying, 
 "Drink from it, all of you, for this is 
 my blood of the covenant, which is 
 poured out for many, for the forgiveness 
 of sins." Please drink the juice as we 
 reflect on what Jesus accomplished 
 through his death and resurrection. 
 In that same chapter, verse 29, Jesus 
 continued saying, "But I say to you, I 
 will not drink of this cup. 
 I will not drink of this fruit of the 
 vine from now until the that day which I 
 drink it new with you in my father's 
 kingdom." 
 Father, I thank you for sending your son 
 to die on the cross for our sins, to 
 suffer unwared punishment, to give us 
 unmmerited grace and mercy, to grant us 
 access to you, our creator and God 
 through his sacrifice, 
 and to grant access to your kingdom. 
 Amen. 
 Please stand and join the worship team 
 for a final song.